newsdesk.org: News You Might Have Missed Archives

Ain't no Other Fish in the Sea?

Tuna may be the signature fish of Japan, the world's foremost consumer of fish, but last week Japan's largest organization...

Dreaming of a Zero-Carbon Economy

Several nations around the world have launched national programs to increase energy efficiency, cut carbon emissions and build environmentally friendly...

Climate Change, as the Crow Flies

A group of new studies find that the patterns of bird migration literally change with the weather -- or more...

Chile: Dammed if They Do

Critics of a hydroelectric dam just approved in Chile say building it in a national park is illegal and paves...

California may Sue Nestle over Water Plan

Nestle's plans to build a water-bottling plant in northern California may uncork a lawsuit against the whole operation. State Attorney...

Did U.S. Taxpayers pay for Burma Junta's Satellite?

A U.S. government-backed satellite company tested its products in Burma, despite longstanding U.S. sanctions against doing business with that nation's...

China sets up protests during Olympics

In a bid to placate rights activists, China will set aside three protest zones in Beijing during the Olympics in...

Low-caste Indian woman rising up through politics

Kumari Mayawati, a low-caste Indian woman and chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, led an electoral charge in late July to...

Real Estate Slump Good for Conservationists

The mortgage crisis and real estate slump are affecting just about everyone these days, but some conservationists are not complaining....

Racial Profiling in the Great White North?

Racial minorities in Canada are more likely to have a police record than their white counterparts even if they don't...

Court Dates and Coup Attempts for Turkey Secularists

Political unrest and terrorism is causing problems for Turkey's ruling party, which has staved off coup attempts as well as...

Pinochet's Ghost Still Haunts Chile

General Augusto Pinochet is dead, but Chile continues to wrestle with the legacy of his 17 years of brutal military...

A Toilet for Thai Transsexuals

A secondary school in northeast Thailand recently built a toilet solely for its transsexual student population. According to the Telegraph,...

Argentina: Saving the Family Farm

A coalition of farm worker organizations, small farmers and native communities has rallied together in Argentina to focus attention on...

It Takes a Tree to Save a Village

A plan to replenish the forests of the West African nation of Burkina Faso is at odds with the development...

On the Run: Accused Balkan War Criminals Remain at Large

A former Serbian leader accused of the massacre of thousands of Muslims in the mid-1990s has been apprehended, but several...

Newspaper Guild Alleges Retaliatory Layoffs

Recent staff cuts at a group of San Francisco Bay Area newspapers are retaliatory against union organizers, critics allege. The...

Car Crash Data Must go Public, Court Rules

The public will have access to previously secret government data about serious car accidents, a court ruled this week. The...

Europe: Birthrate Down, Maternity Wards Packed

While much has been made in recent years over declining birthrates in Europe and other parts of the industrialized world,...

A Grassroots Water Grab in California

The debate about water privatization is global, but many of the battles are local. One such struggle ended recently, when...

30 Floors of Farmland, Coming to New York City?

A plan to build a skyscraper in New York City -- one that contains 30 stories of farmland -- might...

Memories of Old Japan Stir Island Dispute

A new school curriculum in Japan is opening old wounds for its neighbors. South Korea has recalled its ambassador to...

Bioplastics: Friend or Foe?

Biodegradable plastics are raising hopes for a potential solution to overstuffed landfills, climate change and diminished fossil fuel resources. Yet...

Monsanto Loses Canadian GMO Dispute

In late March, Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser won a small victory against Monsanto Corporation after a decade-long legal engagement. His...

U.S. Fourth Fleet Returns, Heads South

Some Latin American nations are wondering if the return of the U.S. Navy's Fourth Fleet to their coastlines signals the...

Fly the Cellulosic Skies: Will Second-Generation Biofuels Take Off?

Japan Airlines recently announced plans to test fly one of its aircraft using a form of "second generation" biofuel in...

Zimbabwe Troubles May Bust Borders

Zimbabwe's controversial re-election of President Robert Mugabe is bringing new pressure on South Africa to resolve the conflict, and raising...

The Other Kind of Green Beer

From the Rocky Mountains to Japan and Australia, beer-brewing companies are adopting practices that aim to reduce waste, as well...

Immigration: Filipinos in EU Spotlight

A new European Union mandate to expel illegal Filipino immigrants does not mean a crackdown is imminent, an EU delegate...

Colombia's Disappeared Return to View

Thousands of Colombians who have "disappeared" over the decades were commemorated in prose and pictures at a June conference in...

Canada In Heated Debate over Global Warming Tax

Environmentalists have long proposed taxing carbon emissions as a way of combating global warming -- but if a new Canadian...

China: A Million Mutinies Now

After years of brutally suppressing dissent, China has in recent months faced violent public unrest in a number of different...

For Forests Under Fire, a Slight Return

Forests are disappearing from the Amazon to Afghanistan, but the rate has slowed, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reports. A new...

Pumped up for Public Water

The tide may be turning for water privatization. Water supplies have already fallen out of private hands in developing nations...

Medical Bills Spur India Suicide Plan

A woman stricken with kidney disease and her husband have petitioned a municipal official in Kolkart, India, to allow them...

Somali Refugees: Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Fire

Several new reports reveal that Somali and Ethiopian refugees, fleeing drought and violence at home, often face renewed danger crossing...

Who Resurrected the Electric Car?

With gasoline prices climbing ever higher, private companies and government agencies are giving the electric car another look. Even Republican...

Australia's Billion-Dollar Land Grab

Never mind the aboriginal land battles that followed the colonial era -- turf wars in today's Australia are for billionaires....

U.K. Journalist Gets Some Source Protection

A freelance journalist in Manchester, England, may reveal some, but not necessarily all, of his source material on a book...

A Big Year for (Democratic) Drug Deals

The pharmaceutical industry spent $168 million lobbying Congress in 2007 -- a record sum that helped influence legislation and prevented...

Philly Police Raid Raises Hackles

After four residents of a North Philadelphia home passed out petitions criticizing surveillance cameras in the neighborhood, police raided their...

Africa's Double Dip of Global Warming

Africa is already the continent hardest hit by the worldwide food crisis, but according to a new report it's also...

Doctors Resign as Life-Support Lawsuit Drags On

A Canadian hospital is facing a shortage of doctors, who are resigning rather than continue to care for an elderly...

Pa. Militia Allegedly Threatens Blacks, Candidates

A self-professed militia member in Pennsylvania has allegedly threatened to shoot African Americans and public officials, and said that if...

Philippines: Activist Deaths Persist

A human rights activist warned that the extrajudicial killing and disappearance of activists in the Philippines could spike again in...

German Zeppelins Target London, San Francisco

More than 70 years after the fiery crash of the Hindenburg, that once-mighty invention -- the airship -- has been...

When is 'Voter Fraud' a Fraud?

Willie Ray, a Texas grandmother and Democrat, says had been helping elderly shut-ins to vote for years when she was...

U.K. Faces Diabetes "Explosion"

A new report predicts a 46 percent increase in diabetes in the United Kingdom by 2025, driven primarily by eating...

A Russian Bear is Bullish for Big Oil

Climbing energy prices are a natural reaction to limited oil supplies, and are in fact necessary to "choke off demand,"...

Food Crisis Renews Biotech Farming Debate

As global food prices climb, the debate over genetically modified agriculture is once again heating up. The Christian Science Monitor...

News You Might Have Missed * Vol. 7, No. 24

Important but overlooked news from around the world. QUOTED: "This agreement in no way limits our ability to prosecute anyone...

Will Pond Scum Save the Planet?

With corn-based fuels being blamed for the global food crisis, biofuel supporters are looking for non-food crops to be the...

Less than Virginal, a French-Muslim Marriage Goes Awry

France has been rocked in the past week by news that a court allowed a Muslim groom to annul his...

Local Music Thrills to New Community Radio

A new, noncommercial FM radio station -- one of the first to be approved nationwide in 15 years -- is...

Earthquake Parents Protest China Schools Collapse

About 100 parents of children killed in schools by China's recent earthquake have been turned back from a protest at...

A Merrie Olde Credit Crisis

Aftershocks from the mortgage and credit crises are rattling nerves around the world -- particularly in England's banking and lending...

Where'd All the Dead Bodies Go?

You might think that if there's one product that will never be in short supply, it's dead bodies. Though there's...

Olympic Stadium Mobile Home

The Olympic Torch makes a world tour, why not an Olympic stadium? The Guardian is reporting that organizers of the...

Muslims Down Under: Bias, Sketch Comedy

A fight over a proposed Islamic school in a small Australian town has turned nasty, with locals accusing Muslims of...

A Gathering Around Cluster Bombs

Activists and diplomats from around the world are in Dublin, Ireland, this week to try to establish a treaty banning...

Australian Press Points to Children of Burmese Junta

Since Cyclone Nargis ravaged Burma earlier this month, the military junta that rules the nation has been roundly condemned for...

Household-Name Republican Fighting for Her Political Life

With congressional elections coming up this fall, many Republican incumbents are looking vulnerable even in states where their party previously...

New Execution Inquiries

The United States resumed executions last week after a brief moratorium, but several other nations that still carry out the...

Japan's Military Dilemma

Japanese activists turned out in the thousands last week to oppose changes to the nation's pacifist constitution. At issue is...

For Cold War Brits, the Day After was a Tea-Time Nightmare

A wry old anti-nuclear slogan used to say "One nuclear bomb can ruin your whole day." If you're British, and...

New Wind-Power Projects Becalmed

With oil prices setting new highs nearly every day, wind power is getting another look. But, like most weather reports,...

Drought Persists Down Under

Australians had high hopes for the Pacific weather pattern known as La Nina. That periodic cooling of the eastern Pacific...

More Deaths Alleged at Myanmar Pipeline

Alleged human rights abuses by soldiers guarding a Burmese pipeline have revived old questions about pipeline co-owner Chevron's relationship with...

Where Have all the Songbirds Gone?

Songbirds fly thousands of miles to return to the northern hemisphere every spring, just as regularly as the sun comes...

Look, up in the Sky! Urban Farming Puts Down Roots

UPDATE: According to the Las Vegas Sun, the NextEnergryNews story about a proposed agricultural skyscraper in Las Vegas is not...

Virtual water and real thirst

The recent hike in the price of food worldwide is usually blamed on the price of oil or the conversion...

Callbacks on the Cell Phone Cancer Story

The long running debate over whether cell phones cause cancer is heating up again. The latest round of press came...

Broadband: BBC calls for Market 'Intervention'

Citing inclusion and civic participation as trumping private profit, the British Broadcasting Corporation is making a case for government "intervention"...

Ghana's Oil -- Blessing or Curse?

With the discovery that Ghana is sitting atop an estimated three billion barrels of oil, the impoverished West African nation...

A Political Resurrection in Malaysia

Almost 10 years after he was driven out of office by a bizarre series of corruption and sodomy charges, Malaysia’s...

Not Your Father's Hate Groups

A national survey has found the number of active hate groups in the United States has increased by 48 percent...

Israel: Homelessness Spikes for Girls

The percentage of homeless teenage girls in Israel jumped from 15 to 25 percent last year, driven by the social...

Cultivating Change in Lebanon

Caught between warring militias and Israeli reprisal, Lebanon's farmers have a hardscrabble life that is only exacerbated by the threat...

King Tobacco, Balkan Crime Lord

Cigarette counterfeiting and smuggling in the Balkans is one of the primary drivers of crime and corruption in the region,...

Global Warming: Something to Sneeze at

As if deadlier storms, new diseases, compromised agriculture, rising sea levels and endangered polar bears weren't enough to worry about,...

Uneasy France Steps up NATO Role

Playing for a larger role in NATO, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said his country will send 700 or more...

The Ends of the Internet?

How shall the Internet come to an end? Let us count the ways. GigaOm.com, an online media service focusing on...

Rhode Island: Secrecy Affirmed for Cable TV

Rhode Island's lead cable TV regulator has agreed to keep secret previously open data about the business operations of the...

An Investor's Guide to Presidential Candidates

Pondering a donation to a presidential candidate? Looking for the right choice given the needs of your special-interest group? Friends...

Windmills and Foul Air in the Navajo Nation

To much environmentalist acclaim, the Navajo Nation has announced plans to create a new wind-power plant on a reservation in...

'The Great Firewall' Lets Down its Guard

While China, confronted with violence in Tibet, was shutting down some parts of the Internet, it opened access to one...

Rwandan President Disputes Spanish Indictments

A Spanish judge has issued indictments against 40 Rwandan Army officers -- and the nation's president, Paul Kagame -- over...

"Avoidable" Gaza Deaths Follow Medical Travel Bans

The World Health Organization said preventable deaths almost doubled in the Gaza Strip between 2006 and 2007, following the Hamas...

Australian Labor's Nuclear Powers

Firmly established in power, Australia's Labor Party has opted to reinvigorate a plan from the previous government to expand uranium...

Witch Hunting in the 21st Century

"Do We Need to Uproot Witchcraft in Africa?" demands a headline in Rwanda's New Times newspaper. The answer, according to...

U.S. Guest Workers Kept Like "Pigs in a Cage"

Almost 100 Indian guest workers at a Mississippi shipyard stormed off from their jobs one day earlier this month, claiming...

Debt Waived for India Farmers

Small and marginal farmers in India will get almost $15 billion in debt relief, thanks to legislation orchestrated by the...

Cancer in the Air, and in Your Hair

Two new reports identify byproducts of everyday life as culprits behind an increase in avoidable cancers and other health issues....

Who Wants to Buy a President?

Bucking the trend of "horse race" campaign coverage, the Center for Public Integrity's latest edition of "The Buying of the...

Hunting Animals Who Hunt Humans

With mountain lion attacks are on the rise in rural Washington, and many residents feel the answer is more hunting....

Gay Muslims Seek Political Asylum in Britain

The United Kingdom has been gripped in recent weeks by the stories of two gay teenagers who say they face...

Communist Chic in the Former Eastern Bloc

There's nothing unusual about people returning to the fashions, products and social spots of their youth, but when that youth...

South Africans March as Crime Wave Peaks

A planned march against crime in South Africa is highlighting how racial and economic relations have changed in the nation...

New Reparations Call for Philippine "Comfort Women"

The Philippine legislature is considering a new resolution to ask for apologies from Japan, as well as financial reparations, for...

From Bike Lanes to "Wildlife Highways"

The town of Cambourne in the United Kingdom is notable not just for its abundance of bike lanes and pedestrians,...

Pesticide Politics and the Light Brown Apple Moth

[UPDATED 3/15/08] The nine-county San Francisco Bay Area is now on a federal quarantine list -- to which Mexico has...

From Sweatshops to Cotton Fields: Child Labor Goes Rural

Far from the urban industrial sweatshops, child labor remains widespread in rural parts of the developing world. In the Philippines,...

News Outlet Seeks Reader Donations to Fund Iraq Trip

An Oregon news service has come up with an unusual way to help pay for a reporter's trip to Iraq:...

Koran in Hand, She Wins Over Mullahs

Fiery and not yet out of her 20s, Wazhma Frogh has been making waves in Afghanistan by using the Koran...

Short-Changed by the Labels? Musicians Dispute Napster Settlement

The recording industry may have netted hundreds of millions of dollars in settlement money from lawsuits targeting Napster, Kazaa and...

"Enviropig": Less Pollution, More Questions

A little bit of genetic editing is all that's required to slash the environmental damage caused by sewage from industrial...

Radiation on the Reservation

As the market booms for uranium mining in the American West, a Seattle newspaper took a new look at what...

Beijing Olympics: It's the Water

A senior Chinese official has sharply criticized a multi- billion-dollar government plan to divert water from the Hubei and Shaanxi...

London Shifts Gears to Favor Bicycles

Armed with a proposal to develop 12 major "superhighways" for bicyclists throughout the city, along with a daily "congestion charge"...

A "Complicated Truth" About Obama Donations

Although Barack Obama has publicly disavowed campaign donations from lobbyists, the candidate, along with his rival Hillary Clinton, has received...

Friend of Hostages, or Friend of Hostage-Takers?

Venezuela's firebrand President Hugo Chavez has been deeply involved in recent months in trying to resolve the long-running standoff over...

Much Puffery About Air-Powered Car

An automobile that runs on compressed air got a boost this week with an investment from India's Tata Motors. MDI...

Wikileaks Shutdown Thwarted

Infoworld technology guru Robert X. Cringley said the attempted shutdown of the Wikileaks Web site by a U.S. judge at...

Wealth Gap Widens in Silicon Valley

The information economy may be firing on all cylinders, but in Silicon Valley more than 60,000 "midwage" jobs -- defined...

"Dodgy Collateral" Fuels New Bank Borrowing

U.S. banks have borrowed almost $50 billion in the last month from the Federal Reserve, using an expanded government program...

Great Lakes Toxics Data Suppressed?

Millions of people in the Great Lakes region may face health problems from toxic pollution, but a study on the...

New York Targets Nonprofit Fraud

New York City investigators are looking into more than 30 cases of potential nonprofit fraud, the New York Post reports....

Housing Crash Takes Down Renters, Too

Among the 11,000 San Francisco Bay Area homes repossessed in 2007 are hidden statistics -- the number of renters quickly...

Shoemakers Walking Away from South China

More than 1,000 shoe factories in southern China have closed in the past year -- half of them just in...

Black and White and Read All Over ... in Asia, Anyway

Newspapers in the United States may be shrinking, losing circulation and laying off employees at an alarming rate, but times...

Russia Sends Opposition To Psych Wards

A Russian opposition activist was forced into a mental hospital in one of many signs of the Russian government's crackdown...

The Melting Mountains

The Arctic ice caps and Antarctic glaciers are well-known barometers of global warming, but melting masses of ice in the...

Specter of Fraud Haunts Pakistan Election

The majority of Pakistan's voters expect the upcoming February 18 election to be rigged, reports McClatchy Newspapers. Doubts are widespread,...

Sea Cow Stymies Navy's Okinawa Plan

The endangered dugong, a type of "sea cow" similar to Florida's manatee, threatens to put the brakes on a huge...

Death After Pepper Spray Raises Questions

A mentally ill man died not long after being pepper sprayed, the New Zealand Herald reported, prompting criticism of a...

Erosion Takes a Toxic Toll in Alaska

It has been widely reported that global warming threatens to sweep scores of coastal Alaskan towns into the sea. Now,...

Uzbek Strongman Has Powerful Friends Again

Western nations are once again making diplomatic overtures to Uzbekistan, despite the former Soviet republic's dismal human rights record. Admiral...

Canada Acknowledges Afghan Torture

Canada's defense minister acknowledged that the military knew prisoners they transferred to Afghan jails were being tortured. Although the military...

California Marijuana Law Takes a Hit

The California State Supreme Court found that employers can fire workers for using doctor-approved marijuana, despite a voter-approved state law...

War Crimes Trial Spurs Threat Claim

A witness in the war crimes trial of Charles Taylor, the former president of Liberia, said a group of men...

The Biodiesel Road Proves Bumpy in Southeast Asia

It's heralded as the clean-burning alternative to petroleum, but biodiesel's baggage has made a smooth roll-out seem unlikely. The challenges...

Malaysia Ban on "Muslim" Words Sparks Furor

Long simmering religious tensions are heating up as Malaysia prepares for national elections. In recent weeks, the Muslim-led government of...

The Dutch Ponder a Free-Speech Powder Keg

Geert Wilders, one the Netherland's most notorious right-wing politicians, seeks to make headlines around the world with the debut of...

Genetically Engineered Trees Cut Down

An electric fence wasn't up to the task of protecting a field of genetically engineered trees in New Zealand. Twenty...

Indigenous Rights Wend a Legal Labyrinth

Armed with a U.N. declaration on indigenous rights, an activist coalition is working to stake out new legal protections for...

Smells Like Team Spirit

In what may be a first for political branding, a Spanish political party has begun marketing its own perfume. The...

Iran Grapples with Discrimination, Division

Despite an ongoing crackdown on dissent, women's rights and ethnic separatism remain a thorn in the side of Iran's fundamentalist...

Transplant Shortage Hits Minorities

Doctors all over the world are having difficulty finding matching donors for bone marrow transplants - a lifesaving operation for...

Nigeria's Smoke Out

Claims that international tobacco companies are targeting young people in Nigeria have spurred a $43 billion government lawsuit against Phillip...

Japan's Health Care Crisis

It is a leader of the industrialized world, a scientific and technological powerhouse with a robust economy, a vigorous democracy...

Are Boycotts Cutting into Myanmar's Gem Trade?

[Updated Jan. 17, 2008] The Myanmar junta's repression of democracy protests last summer have calmed the streets, but its harsh...

Free After 20 Years on Death Row

A Scottish man who spent 20 years on Ohio's death row has been freed following a new plea. Kenny Richey...

Pesticide Fears Along California's Central Coast

Activists claim that hundreds of people became sick after officials sprayed a type of pesticide along parts of California's Central...

Thailand's New Democracy as Fractious as the Old

Thailand returned to democracy last month, with its first national elections after 15 months of military rule. But the transition...

Muslim Extremists Target Historic Buddha Statue

A huge, centuries-old Buddhist statue in northern Pakistan has been badly damaged after it was attacked by Muslim militants, Asia...

Trouble at the Roof of the World

Water rights and free speech are the latest sparks that have inflamed protests in Tibet against the Chinese government. Hundreds...

Judge SeeksTerror Trial Jury Blackout

A federal judge in Miami ordered jurors to be selected anonymously in the upcoming retrial of an alleged terrorist cell,...

Fur Flies in Tiger Photo Fight

When Chinese officials declared this fall that a rare South China tiger had been photographed in the wild, it appeared...

Muslim Teen's Slaying Sparks Canada Debate

The slaying of a 16-year-old Muslim girl, allegedly by her father, has sparked a furor in the Canadian press and...

Afghan Reconstruction Faces U.S. Budget Cuts

An innovative reconstruction program in Afghanistan has been praised for giving decision-making power to small villages and communities, but may...

Protestors say Israel will Exclude Ethiopian Jews

Hundreds of Ethiopian Jews demonstrated in Jerusalem on Monday, alleging that as many as 8,500 of their family and community...

Iraqi Officers AWOL in U.S.

At least five and as many as a dozen Iraqi officials have deserted U.S.-based military training, and are at large...

The Stirrings of Islamo-Liberalism

Plenty of media attention has been given to fundamentalist Islam and Taliban-style "Islamo-fascism." But three recent articles bring to light...

Things Looking Up for the Poor Down Under

When Australia's conservative government was voted out of office last month, much of the world's media emphasized the possible ramifications...

Corruption Roils Alaska Politics

With two oil executives headed to jail for giving hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal payments and "benefits" to...

A Man, a Dam and a Salmon Plan

A federal judge has rebuked the government for its latest plan to restore salmon runs along the Columbia and Snake...

Oil Industry's Amazon Frontier

Economic development and ecological conservation are once again at odds in the Amazon, where a remote region thick with rare...

Here Comes the Flood

Heavy weather the world over is raising concerns about the potential of a flood-prone future, and what that means for...

Data Snooping and its Discontents

The limits of data privacy are being tested in Western democracies, as governments and corporations push for greater access with...

The Plagues of Uganda

Concurrent outbreaks of several diseases in Uganda have health officials there on the defensive, reports The Monitor in Kampala. Even...

Dollar's Drop a Drag for Americans Abroad

The good fortune of the Euro -- not to mention the Czech Crown -- makes for dismal tidings for American...

Whither Cuba's Green Thumb?

Floods, storms, drought and heat, plus an array of economic concerns, are taking their toll on Cuban agriculture. Inter Press...

Sex on the Beach and Birds in Hand? Kenya's Tourist Trap

Miles of shoreline, coastal forests, mountains, plains and the continent-spanning Great Rift Valley all make Kenya a world-class tourist destination....

Cracks at the Seams? China Bolsters Three Gorges

Everything about the Three Gorges Dam seems larger than life. It was built at a cost of $15.6 billion, caused...

Tear Gas for Ethnic Protest in Malaysia

Riot police greeted thousands of minority protesters in Malaysia's capital of Kuala Lumpur, turning back their calls for increased social...

Kosovo Threatens Unilateral Independence

Ethnic Albanian negotiators rejected a proposal for increased autonomy for their home province of Kosovo, and threatened a unilateral declaration...

Japan to Expand Atomic Bomb Victim Definition

More than 50 years after the nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a string of court losses has forced Japan's...

Hizb-ut-Tahrir: Winning Hearts and Minds

The Islamic group Hizb-ut-Tahrir is gaining a foothold across Central Asia and is making its presence felt in Britain and...

Outsourcing Motherhood

Scores of impoverished Indian women are selling their services as childbearers to foreign couples who either cannot, or don't want...

Canadian Officials Knew of Afghan Torture, Records Show

Secret documents obtained by court order show Canadian ministers were well aware of torture, rape and other abuse occurring at...

Rendition Inquiry Looks to Ukraine

An Italian European Union minister wants human rights officials to investigate "strong and specific" evidence that the Ukrainian government was...

$40 Million Stolen from Nigerian Aid Plan, Ex-Official Probed

British and Nigerian officials are investigating possibly illict payments from Shell and Chevron into the bank account of former Nigerian...

Families Asunder over International Adoption Woes

Several countries are tightening their adoption laws to avoid kidnapping scandals, such as the recent confrontation in Chad over a...

No Safe Haven: Oklahoma Shuts out Illegal Immigrants

A new Oklahoma law targeting undocumented workers is among the most punitive in the nation, making it illegal to "hire,...

Land Struggles Sour India Economic Zones

Controversy follows the violent deaths of 21 protesters who opposed the creation of a "special economic zone" in India's West...

Tribal Loyalty May Bridge Iraq's Sectarian Divide

Iraqi tribal chiefs from the Sunni-dominated Anbar province held talks last week with counterparts in Shia-dominated Qadissiya Province. Their goal...

FCC Tries to Sneak Through Looser Media Rules, Protesters Say

Among the 200 people who signed up to speak at an FCC hearing on media consolidation in Seattle last week...

Anti-Gay Russian Churches Growing in U.S.

The beating death of a gay man by a group of Russian-speaking men in Sacramento this summer highlighted the growing...

Thailand's Muslim Conflict

Violent conflicts between Thai armed forces and a rebel separatist group in the three Muslim-dominated southern provinces of Thailand flared...

Israeli Arabs say Home is not so Sweet

Even as Israel prepares for peace talks with Palestinians in Maryland next year, its relations with native Israeli-Arab citizens have...

The Persistence of Rendition

When President Bush publicly acknowledged the existence of secret CIA jails, he also said they would be vacated -- temporarily....

Whistle-Blowers Muted by Bureaucracy

Whether speaking out about violations of national security or tainted meat, precious few government employees receive protection for their whistle-blowing...

The Twin Horns of a Co-Epidemic: AIDS and TB

Tuberculosis rates in South Africa's Western Cape villages are among the highest in the world, due to a burgeoning co-epidemic...

The Taliban's Volatile Mix ... of Foreign Fighters

Foreign jihadists from Pakistan and Iran are infiltrating the ranks of the ruling Afghanis Taliban in Helmand Province, according to...

Old Wounds Deepen for Government Critics

A snapshot of anti-government and protest movements in Bolivia and the Philippines reveals little progress towards healing old wounds --...

Uranium Wealth Ignites Niger Strife

Africa's struggle with mineral wealth and regional poverty has a new poster child, as Tuareg nomads in Niger take up...

Blood Diamonds Sullied, But Still Glitter

Delegates from 70 countries and international groups will meet in Brussels next week to discuss progress in stamping out trade...

New Hope and Hurdles for Uganda Peace

Overshadowed by the Darfur conflict, one of Africa's most bloody and intractable rebellions inches closer to resolution. Reconciliation is on...

A Taste of Old Russia

European authorities are decrying a move by Russia to cut the number of international observers at its upcoming December 2...

Resistance Deepens to Afghan Poppy Spraying

A secretive test-spraying of "harmless plastic granules" over Afghan poppy crops has revealed deepening opposition to drug- eradication efforts backed...

Iran's Other Little Problem -- Inflation

Nary a word about Iranian President Ahmadinejad's nuclear ambitions or headline-grabbing trip to the United States appeared in a recent...

Activists Seek Labels for Biotech Foods

Environmental groups in the U.S. and abroad continue to argue that food products containing genetically modified ingredients ought to be...

Offshoring Meets "Onshoring" in the Quest for Cheap Labor

Some major American companies like Northrop Grumman and IBM are finding they can save money by keeping their IT and...

Wildfires in Context: Why California Must Burn (reprise)

As the flames spread through San Diego County, Newsdesk.org looks back at our 2004 article on California wildfire ecology, why...

Fakin' It: Officials Forge a Future in Iraq

More than 900 officials in the Iraqi government, including parliamentarians, are obtaining forged degrees to continue to serve in the...

Cancer is the Latest Chechen Scourge

Chechnya is experiencing a "cancer epidemic" never before seen in its history, according to the Institute for War & Peace...

The Child Brides of Kandahar

Human rights activists in Afghanistan say arranged marriages involving young girls under 16 still account for half of all marriages...

Iran: Dissent Crackdown Deepens

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government is in the midst of an unprecedented crackdown on civilians, criminals and dissenters. Experts suggest...

U.S. Water Pollution Laws Routinely Flouted: Report

For years, U.S. municipal governments, corporations, and even the EPA have circumvented Clean Water Act safeguards against industrial pollution. More...

Girls, Pollution, Poverty: The Other Mining Disasters

Recent stories about workers trapped in mines often overlook an array of related labor, ecological and human rights issues. Most...

AIDS Bias Targets 11-Year-Old Boy

An 11-year-old who received "regular blood transfusions" for years was diagnosed as HIV-positive, and later kicked out of a school...

New Testimony in Indonesia Activist Death

A "massive" dose of arsenic in an airline meal took the life of a prominent critic of the Indonesian government,...

Families a Casualty of Kashmir Split

As many as 50,000 Indian-Pakistani families have been divided by the disputed Kashmir province since 1989. Among them are several...

The World's Prison Crisis

Overcrowding, poor hygiene and drug addiction aren't just issues that affect U.S. prisons, but extend to those of other regimes...

U.S. Leads in Weapons Trade -- For Now

The United States still dominates the global arms trade, but its modus operandi has come under increased scrutiny, even as...

Political Asylum Becomes Private Detention

"Untouchable" refugees -- including the elderly, certain ethnic groups, large families, single men and poorly educated individuals -- remain unwelcome...

French DNA Bill Stirs Anti-Immigrant Fears

If a French bill becomes law, any immigrant seeking to join relatives in France will have the option of taking...

Genocide Resolution a Threat to Turkey's Jews?

Turkey's Foreign Minister issued a cryptically threatening remark in response to a non-binding resolution before the U.S. Congress that would...

Inter-Agency Spying a U.S. "Intelligence Nightmare"

A Marine at San Diego's Camp Pendleton pleaded guilty to passing top secret documents along to L.A. police and counterterrorism...

Refugees: A Risky Route to Yemen

Thousands of Somali and Ethiopian refugees attempting to flee to Yemen are risking their lives in covert smuggling voyages across...

Russia and the Muslims

A series of unprovoked attacks on native Russian families living in Ingushetia, a Muslim Republic in Southern Russia, have brought...

The Death Sentence on Trial?

Support for capital punishment may be on the wane, as the Supreme Court ponders a Kentucky case that pivots on...

A Nuclear "Renaissance"

Although it is a long way from becoming a reality, pundits are already predicting a "nuclear renaissance" in America for...

Bhutto Promises Nuclear Access

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto said that if she were to return to power, she would permit the United...

Kurdish Vote Puts Pressure on Arabs

Kurdish officials are beginning the process of sending Arab residents back to their cities of origin ahead of a referendum...

UPDATED: Egypt Gripped by Textile Strike

While the world focuses on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's repression of journalists and the Muslim Brotherhood party, a different sort...

Day Labor Camp Divides in Texas

A Christian church in Houston is part of an interfaith coalition that has drawn the ire of anti-immigration activists by...

Billboards No More for Brazil's Megalopolis

More than 70 percent of residents of Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest city and the nation's economic powerhouse, remain fully committed...

Agribusiness Gets Another Record Harvest -- of Subsidies

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the latest federal farm bill would spend $280 billion on traditional subsidies for corn,...

The Burma Backstory: How Fossil Fuels Keep the Junta in Business

Although most of the world's political powers, including the United States, have condemned the Myanmar junta's crackdown on reformist protesters,...

Canada Ponders an Afghan Quagmire

Canada faces renewed uncertainty in Afghanistan, with the death of more than 60 Canadian troops and new pressures on its...

Smuggler's Paradise for Iraqi Oil Runners

After a revenue-sharing bill that would have opened Iraq's oil fields to foreign investment failed in parliament, Iraq's domestic oil...

The Chemical Legacy Today

A host of chemicals created for use in industrial and commercial processes are having unintended effects on populations. The Guardian...

Swiss Citizenship Hurdles Called Racist

An official report released by Switzerland's Federal Commission on Racial Discrimination says the Swiss citizenship system is racist because it...

Experts Fear 'Another Darfur' in Ethiopia

Fleeing refugees say that soldiers of the U.S.-backed Ethiopian government are suppressing a widely supported separatist movement with rape, beatings...

Taliban Weapons Traced to Iran and China

A weapons cache found in Afghanistan's Herat province was traced back to Iran and China, prompting U.S. and British concerns...

Labor Day Highlights Immigrant Dilemma

This Labor Day, different corners of America were confronted with fallout from the debate over illegal immigration and the jobs...

Slavery (and Emancipation) for the New Millennium

Children and adults alike throughout the world are kidnapped and trafficked out of their home countries, or leave home in...

Rwanda: Genocide Inquiry Stumbles on French Connection

With the U.N. International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda due to wrap up early next year with many genocide suspects still...

In Iraq, School is Out

Iraq's school system, reportedly once one of the finest in the Middle East, is wracked with violence and disrepair following...

The FBI's Just a Mouseclick Away

New details on the FBI's domestic wiretapping program reveal it to be far more technologically sophisticated than experts believed. FBI...

Thousands Still Sick from Cold War Radiation

Government records show 36,500 Americans were sickened from exposure to uranium, plutonium and beryllium since 1945, most from building or...

Afghanistan: A Fundamentalist Surge Gains Ground

The Taliban is making political as well as military headway in many parts of Afghanistan, and using opium production to...

A House Divided: Palestinians Trapped by Warring Factions

There seems to be little hope for any sort of resolution in the ongoing civil war between the Palestinian Fatah...

Biodiesel's Mixed Blessings

Biodiesel shows promise as an alternative fuel, but it presents substantial challenges to produce locally, efficiently, and in quantities to...

Zimbabwe: The Toll of Fake AIDS Drugs

A growing number of Zimbabweans infected with HIV are being sold counterfeit or contaminated anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) at non-approved dispensaries...

Hungarian Militia Casts a Fascist Shadow

Hungary's Jewish community sees frightening precedent in the recent creation of the Magyar Garda (Hungarian Guard) by the far-right party...

Pakistan: Unregulated Donations Fund Terror

Black-market money transfers in Pakistan, known as Hawala, are done verbally, leave no paper trail, and fund much of the...

Mexico's Drug War Crosses Borders

Driven by America's insatiable appetite for cocaine, marijuana and other narcotics, Mexican drug cartels have increasingly transformed U.S. border towns...

A Neo-Nazi Resurgence Tests Speech Limits

From a grisly "execution" video to clashes over protest rallies, officials and ideologues tread dangerous ground as neo-Nazi activists seek...

The Gospel of Intolerance

Whether it's Jews against Christian, Christians against Muslims, or Iraqi sects against each other, religious intolerance is thriving, sometimes with...

Hate Crimes and the Homeless

Violent street attacks on the homeless have multiplied across America in recent years, prompting lawmakers in six states, including California,...

The Atrocity Illustrations

An advocacy group called Waging Peace wants to submit "evidence" of crimes against humanity witnessed by Sudanese children who say...

Ten Chapters to Jihad

A military manual put together by Taliban militants and clerics shows how organized the group really is, and underlines its...

Iraq's Oil Fields Open for Business (Soon)

Iraq is cautiously opening its oil fields to foreign and domestic investment, but is trying to do it on their...

Domestic Workers Abused Worldwide

Hundreds of domestic workers commit suicide in Bahrain every year rather than return to their families in debt, according to...

Security State's Brave New Tech

The U.S. and Britain have been developing elaborate new tools to identify and subdue would-be terrorists at home and abroad....

Your Words Betray You

Marc Shultz couldn't quite recall what he brought into the coffeeshop that Saturday morning, the day the last Harry Potter...

For a Soldier's Father, Deportation

When Pfc. Armando Soriano was killed in Iraq, his mother benefited from a loophole on immigration law that allows soldiers'...

Khatami's Losing Hand

Former Iranian President Mohammed Khatami announced he will not run for president in the 2009 election, despite his popularity as...

Hezbollah: Talkin' War and Peace in Lebanon

Lebanon's conflict-driven internal politics and Hezbollah's relationship with its neighbor, Israel, are having an effect on the entire region. Hezbollah...

Buy Me a River: Water Privatization Pushes Forward

Efforts to privatize water services throughout the world are facing determined grassroots opposition on several fronts, while other countries are...

Back to the Beach, With Feces

With the heat of summer comes dangerous and often unexplained contamination of U.S. beaches by E.coli and fecal coliform. In...

Green Mandate Sparks E.U. Lawsuit

Latvia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Estonia are suing the European Union after it tightened carbon quotas in...

Cargo Security Plan Comes Under Fire

European shipping experts questioned a new U.S. security bill requiring all incoming shipping containers to be screened for explosives and...

Young Immigrants Take a Hard Road North

A growing number of youth and children throughout Central America are migrating on their own to Mexico and the United...

DARFUR: You Can't Go Home Again

Driven by environmental pressures and ethnic divisions, the violence in Darfur is reaching across borders to affect black African and...

Zimbabwe: Crises In Climax

With inflation at over 4,500 percent and hospitals, water, power and food access close to collapse, Zimbabwe faces its worst...

Officials Praise Cabbie's Plan for China's Water

Chinese officials say a Beijing cab driver's proposal on how to increase natural rainfall in north China is on the...

Pentagon Delayed Bomb-Proof Cars

Roadside bombs are the No. 1 killer of U.S. troops in Iraq, but the No. 1 security solution -- obtaining...

Iraqi Politicians Fear U.S. Pullout

While Congress debates (or refuses to debate) a withdrawal timeline for Iraq, most Sunni and Shia Arab parties in the...

Green Hopes Pale as Energy Appetites Grow

As humanity's energy needs only grow, world powers are plumbing the depths of the Arctic Ocean for fossil fuels and...

Mommy, I Got the Safe-Sex Merit Badge!

The U.K.-based Girl Guides are raising a few eyebrows, and acknowledging the realities of modern life, by initiating a new...

Copyright Expires on British Invasion

The United Kingdom has denied efforts by Paul McCartney and other figures from music history to extend the copyright from...

A Farewell to Arms

Gun sales and stockpiles may be booming worldwide, but in Colombia an unusual ceremony saw the destruction of 13,778 handguns,...

Democratic Congress: A High Pork Diet

A report from the Center for Investigative Reporting exposes the hypocrisy of Democratic claims that the $463.5-billion spending bill they...

Abu Ghraib: The Tip of the Iceberg?

An exhaustive series of interviews with 50 Iraq war veterans by two reporters with the liberal weekly The Nation reveals...

Bottled Water Revolt Gathers Steam

Green-minded cities are working to encourage residents to trade in their bottled water for tap water, which is often the...

Joseph Kony: Wanted for War Crimes, Betting on a Settlement

It was Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni who triggered the indictment of Joseph Kony and other former leaders of the Lord's...

Iraqi Fatalities on the Rise Amid Checkpoints, Eye Scans

American checkpoints and database ID programs seek to stem the tide of insurgent attacks ripping through Iraqi society. But the...

Mexican Drug Sting Bites Back

A drug bust that netted $205 million gave Mexican President Felipe Calderon bragging rights back in March, but has since...

Asia's Plague of Cars

In spite of Asia's renown for producing the most advanced, gas-efficient cars on the planet, the growing popularity of car...

It's Not Easy Being Green

If some aspects of "green" marketing and technology sometimes sound too good to be true, that's because they are. Kansas...

Azerbaijan and Armenia: War Without End

The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan that killed 30,000 people and created one million refugees supposedly ended 13 years ago...

Big Boom in Baghdad Home Shares

Sunnis in the south of Baghdad, and Shias in the north, have been forced out of their homes as their...

Schwarzenegger: on the Wings of Charity

Government watchdogs are concerned that a shadowy nonprofit that finances Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's lavish international trips may also allow special...

The Two Burials of Kamal Jalil Uthman

U.S. military officials took credit for killing a top al Qaeda leader -- twice. After a recent announcement that Kamal...

Al Qaeda Spreads

Even as Al Qaeda sympathizers in the United Kingdom make headlines, the terrorist group has seen affiliates taking root in...

Russia's Thirst for Oil

Russia has been single-minded in ensuring its hegemony over oil rights and delivery throughout Eastern Europe, and now seeks to...

Minimum Wage An Elusive Promise

South Africa introduced its first-ever minimum wage July 1 in a bid to improve the state of its hospitality industry,...

Poverty is a Plague for Africa's Children

A gangrenous affliction of the face called noma is surging among impoverished, malnourished children in West Africa, and now appears...

Backlash Brewing in Mogadishu

Mogadishu's transitional government, backed by Ethiopian troops, is credited with pushing out the hard-line Union of Islamic Courts. But residents...

A Photo-Free NYC

A post-9/11 requirement that tourists and other casual photographers get a permit before taking pictures in New York City has...

Doubts Assail NATO in Afghanistan and Beyond

NATO commanders insist that their mission in Afghanistan is one of reconstruction, but that combat is an inevitable byproduct. Now,...

Polygamy Bans Proliferate Everywhere But ...

Utah reckons it's home to thousands of polygamists, all following their interpretation of Mormon religious teachings, but in contravention of...

Net Neutrality Tempers Flare, and Cross Borders

Tensions and voices are rising over a push by Internet carriers such as AT&T to charge content providers -- such...

Trade Bolsters Myanmar Junta

Another birthday of imprisoned dissident Daw Aung Sung Suu Kyi has come and gone, and the plight of Burma slips...

The Promises and Pitfalls of Darfur's Salvation

An international charity is pulling out even as Sudan grudgingly accepts a bolstered peacekeeping force in the Darfur region, home...

Natural Resources Spur Pollution, Indigenous Rights Disputes

From fossil fuels to "blue gold," from uranium to offshore biodiversity, natural resources around the world promise riches but often...

Homophobia, as a Policy, Gets Personal

Intolerance of gays and lesbians worldwide seems to be digging in, as the public and private lives of homosexuals come...

Democracy, Too, Slides in Bangladesh

Even as Bangladesh reels from lethal mudslides, the nation's political establishment is in chaos following the suspension of the legislature,...

The Slums: A Boom in Urban Poor Defies Solutions

Experts predict that by 2030 two billion people will live in urban squatter and slum communities with no services, sanitation...

Carbon Trading Beset by Fraud and Doubt

A new report finds the most common system for trading carbon emissions, which allows rich European countries to continue polluting...

EGYPT: When is an Islamist Not an Islamist?

Neither the United States nor Egypt are square on how to treat the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamic group with terrorist...

Migrants Face Dangerous Waters and a Cold Shoulder

If they survive the voyage, Africans fleeing to Europe on wooden boats do not always get a warm welcome. Malta...

Civil Rights, Security, and One Man's Solution

Even as President George W. Bush authorized a controversial plan to centralize government powers in the White House following any...

In Nigeria, an Election Gives and Takes

UPDATED 5.30.07 Labor unions across Nigeria went on a two-day strike in protest of the recent presidential election, which was...

Pakistan: Taliban Follows Democracy's Retreat

Even as President Pervez Musharraf's dismissal of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry continues to shake up Pakistan, Islamists along the...

Lupus Linked to Petroleum Exposure

Scientists in Boston and New Mexico have shown that exposure to petroleum is linked to the deadly auto-immune disease lupus....

Newspapers Sell the Farm, Give up the Goat

Across the country, falling newspaper circulation and the flight of ad dollars to the Web have caused publishers to fire...

Iran: Vice Squad Targets Women on Bicycles

Thousands of women have been cited and hundreds will stand trial for not complying with the Iranian government's new rules...

From Iraq to Nepal, Child Militants Swell the Ranks

Thousands of Iraqi children earn $3 to $7 a day making bombs, cleaning guns and transporting weapons for Shiite and...

Little Progress for Gun Opponents

Lawmakers raced to propose tougher gun control laws following the Virginia Tech and Montreal school shootings, but each has drawn...

Domestic Spying Expansion Would Exonerate AT&T

The Justice Department wants to further loosen domestic spying laws under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to permit the monitoring...

For Palestinians, There's No Place Like Home

Underfunded, living in illegal camps and turned away from Arab and Israeli borders -- the lot of the Palestinian grows...

Biotech Plants, and Controversy, Take Root

The United States, Canada and Europe are grappling with standards for genetically modified plants, which promise economic and health benefits...

Packed Into Prisons, With No Relief in Sight

Crowded jails from the Mexican border to North Carolina have prisoners packed into cells, sleeping in day rooms and struggling...

Affirmative Action Foe Has New Targets

The man who led a successful 1996 ballot-initiative campaign to ban affirmative action in California is turning his attention to...

Between America and Mexico, a Broken Border

A heavy crackdown in immigration along the U.S.-Mexico border has resulted in more arrests, but has not deterred Mexicans from...

The EPA Under Pressure

The Environmental Protection Agency has come under fire from activists and state officials for not enforcing laws to protect the...

DISSENT: Critics Quickly Jailed in Cuba, China, Turkey

A renowned Chinese clean-water campaigner in the industrialized Shanghai watershed was taken from his home last week by undercover police...

Mines, Factories and the Cost of Asian Growth

Investors breathed a sigh of relief when Indonesia dismissed charges against Newmont Mining, a U.S. firm accused of dumping mercury...

Conscience is the Question at a Time of War

Writing in the Guardian, columnist Henry Porter says Western forces may have triggered the violence in Iraq, but that "the...

Le Pen Gains Ground Over (And Among) Arabs

Polls suggest that far-right candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen could do even better in the first round of presidential voting this...

The Disappearing Honeybee

A widespread honeybee die-off, known as "colony collapse disorder," has seen bees disappear from hundreds of thousands of hives around...

Unions, Schools Tackle Outsourcing Boom

Enrollment is down at computer engineering schools because of a perception that IT jobs can all be outsourced to India....

Cost-Cutting Hits Fund for Nuclear and Chemical Workers

Two federal programs for nuclear workers with cancer and other diseases are under fire for cutting costs without regard for...

Labor Groups Tackle Child Exploitation

Cheap labor from children working in slavelike conditions is booming worldwide. But in India, Africa and Turkey, activists are taking...

Conflict of Interest Claims Follow Feinstein

Senator Dianne Feinstein has resigned as chair of the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee, where she served from 2001 to 2005....

IRAN: Rumors of Missiles Fly in April

Newspaper Web sites around the world are rife with rumors of new aggression in the Persian Gulf. Russia's national news...

Mexico Corruption, U.S. Weapons Deepen Drug War Toll

President Felipe Calderon's war on drugs will fail unless the United States cracks down on arms sales to drug smugglers,...

PAKISTAN: Talibanization Strides and Stumbles

Fundamentalists blew up six music and video shops in the past month in northwestern Pakistan, an area bordering Afghanistan that...

THE ELECTRIC CAR: GM, Ford Pay the Price for Hype

GM is trying to lower expectations that their much-anticipated plug-in electric car, the Volt, will reach consumers soon. A prototype...

RWANDA: Legacy of a Genocide

Rwanda's genocide ended 13 years ago, but some Hutus still target Tutsi survivors with "arson, stone throwing, uprooting of crops...

INDIA: Gender Bias Drives Abortion Boom

Up to a million Indian mothers illegally abort their female fetuses every year in India, and police are discovering the...

Who Is Rafsanjani?

Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's landslide election to Iran's powerful Council of Experts was widely considered a rebuke to President Ahmadinejad,...

"Democracy": Easy to Say, Difficult to Do

Riots flared up and victims traded sides in Nepal, as young Maoists were first set upon by minority separatists, then...

LAW & JUSTICE: Doubts Follow Hewlett Packard, Marijuana Verdicts

Former HP chair Patricia Dunn had spying charges against her dismissed, in part to ease her battle with ovarian cancer....

FARMING FUTURES: Food Crops Struggle With Climate Change, "Green" Cred

Climate change over the past 20 years has already impacted production of staple grain crops, a new report finds. Wheat,...

Immigration Officials in the Spotlight

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency's "Operation Return to Sender" has arrested 18,000 undocumented immigrants since June, provoking an inquiry...

Muslim Discrimination, From Massachusetts to Mindanao

Four Muslim truck drivers for FedEx in Massachusetts are suing over claims that upper management ignored racist verbal abuse and...

Mining in South Africa: Apartheid's Legacy

Two Italian companies are suing South Africa over a law that requires firms to sell to black investors to redress...

Outnumbered, But United, in Germany and Pakistan

The more than three million Muslims living in Germany are on the brink of overcoming ethnic and religious differences to...

Intolerance Seeks, and Gains, New Footholds

Extremists worldwide are harnessing unemployment, social unrest, gender conflict and simple bigotry to advance their crusades. In France, Jean-Marie Le...

Putin: A Good Time to be President, but Not a Critic

Russian President Vladimir Putin's approval ratings top 70 percent, and most citizens say that they'll vote for whomever he chooses...

On Poverty's Coattails, Slavery Thrives

Impoverished girls from Eastern Europe and Africa are prime targets for pimps and smugglers. As many as 5,000 youth have...

Uganda: A Rebellion on the Run, Crossing Borders

Decades of conflict with the Lord's Resistance Army have taken thousands of lives in Uganda. More than two million people...

Hussein's Ghost Haunts Afghan Parliament

A bill that would grant amnesty to warlords and militants, including government officials accused by human rights groups of war...

HATE SPEECH: Talkin' Crimes of Old Europe

Germany's push for new hate-crime laws across Europe is creating fissures in the growing European Union. Some former Soviet bloc...

A Brownfield Grows in Queens

Neighbors of an old lot targeted for a $50 million low-income housing and commercial complex were never told of the...

Pollution, Race Linked in SF Bay Area

A new report finds that most people living within a mile of power plants, refineries and other pollution sources in...

U.K. Plant Fined For Radiation Leaks

A Scottish nuclear plant operator was fined $273,000 last week for dumping solid nuclear waste in a public landfill, and...

The Broken Homes of Baghdad

Observers say Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's plan to return every Baghdad home to their original owner within 15 days, or...

IRAQ: "Soldiers of Heaven" Scare Wagged the Dog?

When the governor of Najaf called on U.S. air support for an Iraqi Army attack on a heavily fortified compound,...

Zimbabwe: Inflation, Dissent Converge

With inflation at 1,600 percent, Zimbabwe is removing subsidies on flour, maize and fuel, causing prices to as much as...

No Longer Illegal, Gays Are Still a Target in Chile

Although homosexuality was legalized in 1998, gays in Chile still suffer public harassment and, in one case, beatings and sexual...

Iraq: Militants Target Infrastructure to Exploit Oil

Attacks on Iraq's electrical grid are causing blackouts around the country and affecting oil production, forcing the country to import...

As Bombings Surge, Pakistan Tracks Funerals Without Bodies

A series of suicide attacks have killed or injured dozens of Pakistani police officers and civilians since September 2006. Residents...

Autism's Spread Brings a Mystery and a Lawsuit

A new report finds that one in every 60 boys in New Jersey has autism -- nearly twice the national...

News You Might Have Missed * Vol. 6, No. 7

Important but overlooked news from around the world. THIS WEEK: Venezuela trade unions are locked in a mafia-style bloodletting, an...

News Perspectives: Zimbabwe's Deadly Medical Strike

With medical workers on strike over wages so low that a junior doctor's monthly salary won't cover a single tank...

Free Speech, Gay Marriage Clash in California and Canada

A Yolo County, Calif., clerk says she will exercise her free speech rights by giving a symbolic "certificate of inequality"...

Illegal Organ Trade:
India Kidney Scam Revealed

Police are investigating 10 private hospitals in Tamil Nadu for illegally removing kidneys from tsunami victims and impoverished textile workers,...

Climate Change: The Global Warming Growth Industry

The worst weather may be a century away, but consumers and energy companies in coal-dependent Kentucky and Indiana may see...

World Headlines: January 25-31

Africa's Urbanization Struggle In Lagos, Nigeria, waste produced by 13 million residents fills up canals and spreads disease and contaminants...

Contraception & Abortion: A Morning After for Chile, North Dakota

Chile's President Michelle Bachelet has issued an executive order legalizing free "morning after" contraception to teens without parental consent. The...

Immigrant Labor: California's Undocumented Economy

The coastside town of Pescadero worries that new immigrant restrictions will stifle the economy, and cost its schools as much...

Hate Speech, Hindus and the Holocaust

Germany hopes to use its E.U. presidency to push through a controversial law criminalizing Holocaust denial and incitement to hate...

L.A. Targets Gangs for Hate Crimes

The Southern Poverty Law Center says a Latino gang based in the California prison system has widened its feud with...

The Loyal Opposition in Iraq, Lebanon

A new organization of 500 Sunni scholars and clerics have vowed to stand with Iraqi officials and Shiites to "close...

Nation: Jan. 18-24

Redwood Protections Run Deep Protections woven into the deeds on 200,000 acres of old-growth redwood trees in Northern California may...

Commentary: Lawyers Bashed for Representing Guantanamo Detainees

A Pentagon official apologized for what two Atlanta law firms called a "crass attempt at economic blackmail." But a columnist...

ALLEGATION & PERSPECTIVE

Claims of Counterfeit Cover-Up A German newspaper alleges the United States is secretly printing the counterfeit bank notes the Bush...

IRAQ: MOVING FORWARD

A Peace Plan's Ambition A "blueprint" for stability in Iraq, proposed by former defense minister Ali Allawi, would replace American...

Women: Rights & Welfare

Progress in Yemen, Zimbabwe A Western-educated Yemeni woman said she would break a law against women in politics by forming...

GLOBAL GIVING

Questions for Gates Foundation, Nigeria Funds Although the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation spends millions on health and anti-poverty campaigns...

RELIGIOUS EXTREMISM

Hate Speech in England British officials want a preacher "closed down" for using a false name to post calls for...

News & Commentary: "Declassified" Documents Withheld

Numerous exemptions built into the Bush Administration's historic declassification of government files at least 25 years old means very little...

Migrant Workers Abused, Praised in Different Countries

Rebels in India's impoverished Northeast are targeting migrant workers to stir anger over high unemployment there. According to the Associated...

CENSORSHIP: Student Magazine, Venezuelan TV Shut Down

The Art Institute of California-San Francisco has fired a part-time professor who claimed the school's confiscation of a student magazine...

Rape Victims' Voices Unheard

Although up to 500,000 women in Rwanda alone were estimated to have been raped, U.N. tribunals prosecuting genocide there and...

Kalahari Homeland Denied ... Again

A group of Basarwa Bushmen returning to their ancestral homeland were turned away at the border of the Central Kalahari...