By Steve Connor
The destructive intensity of the winds caused by tropical storms and hurricanes has increased significantly in the past 30 years, in line with the theory that cyclones are becoming stronger because of global warming

By Bill Quigley
Hurricane Gustav killed 18 people in Louisiana and displaced 1.9 million. Over 800,000 homes are without electricity, nearly half the state, and some will not see power for up to a month. In Haiti, Gustav killed 77 with another 8 missing and damaged nearly 15,000 homes. Tropical storm Hanna, which closely followed Gustav, killed at least another 60 people. Tens of thousands of people have sought safety on rooftops and temporary shelters. Rotting cows drift in the flood waters

By Peter Symonds
A ground assault by US Special Forces troops on a Pakistani village on Wednesday threatens to expand the escalating Afghanistan war into its neighbour

By Tom Engelhardt
How the U.S. garrisons the planet and doesnt even notice

By Ramzy Baroud
The series of unfortunate and costly decisions made during the two terms of the Bush administration, combined with economic decline at home, might devastate the USs world standing much sooner than most analysts predict. What was difficult to foresee was that the weakening of US global dominance, spurred by erratic and unwise foreign policy under Bush, would re-ignite the Cold War, to a degree, over a largely distant and seemingly ethnically-based conflict -- that of Georgia and Russia. Who could have predicted a possible association between Baghdad, Kabul and Tbilisi?