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Friday, June 19, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
U.S.: Groups Denounce Obama Rejection of Landmine Treaty
Human rights and disarmament activists reacted bitterly Wednesday to the decision by the administration of President Barack Obama, who will receive the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize next month, not to sign the 10-year-old treaty banning anti-personnel landmines.YEMEN: U.S. Urged to Increase Aid and Involvement
As President Barack Obama ponders escalating Washington's military and political investment in Afghanistan, a think tank close to his administration is urging Washington to ramp up U.S. aid and involvement in strife-torn Yemen, as well.U.S.: Obama Returns to Greater Middle East Mess
As Barack Obama arrives home from his weeklong tour of East Asia, he confronts a growing list of ever more urgent problems in the Greater Middle East that he inherited from George W. Bush's "global war on terror".CUBA: Dissidents’ Plight Unchanged Under Raul, Charges HRW
While Cuban President Raul Castro has implemented some economic and administrative reforms, his three-year-old government has continued to isolate and persecute political dissidents, according to a major new report released here Wednesday by Human Rights Watch (HRW).CORRUPTION: Afghanistan, Iraq Near Bottom of Transparency Index
Despite billions of dollars spent by the U.S. and other countries to improve governance in Afghanistan and Iraq, the two countries remain among the world's most corrupt nations, according to the latest edition of Transparency International's (TI) Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI).U.S.: Nearly One in Six Citizens Went Hungry in 2008
As the World Food Security Summit got under way in Rome Monday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) disclosed that nearly one in six U.S. households went hungry at some time during 2008, the highest level since it began monitoring food security levels in 1995.U.S.-HONDURAS: Washington Stresses Urgency of Unity Govt
In a renewed effort to save a U.S.-sponsored accord to resolve the five-month-old political crisis in Honduras, the U.S. State Department Friday called on both sides to create a government of national unity "without delay" and on the Honduran Congress to "swiftly" consider the restoration of ousted President Manuel Zelaya.U.S.: Increasingly Isolated in Key Regions
More than a year after his election, President Barack Obama appears to be dashing hopes both in the Arab world and in Latin America that he would bring major changes in U.S. policy toward their respective regions.DEVELOPMENT: Scandinavia, Ireland Tops in Humanitarian Aid
Of the 22 major western donor nations, Norway, Sweden, Ireland and Denmark responded most effectively to humanitarian emergencies around the world in 2008, according to the latest of three annual assessments of humanitarian aid released here Tuesday by Development Assistance Research Associates (DARA).U.S.: Obama’s Outreach to Muslim World Teetering
U.S. President Barack Obama's extraordinary efforts since his first days in office to reassure Muslims in the Greater Middle East about U.S. intentions in the region have suffered a series of setbacks that threaten to reverse whatever gains he has made over the past 10 months in restoring Washington's badly battered image and influence there.RIGHTS-US: NGOs Praise End to HIV Travel Ban
Global health and U.S. AIDS activists are hailing President Barack Obama's announcement Friday that the government will end a 22-year-old ban on the entry into the United States of HIV-positive visitors.DEVELOPMENT: Scandinavia Leads World in Pro-Poor Policies
Scandinavian countries pursue policies that are most effective in promoting development in poor nations, according to the latest edition of the annual "Commitment to Development Index" released by the Washington-based Centre for Global Development (CGD).US-AFGHANISTAN: Kerry Argues for Counterinsurgency Lite
Amid growing speculation and partisan bickering over what President Barack Obama will do about the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, an influential Democratic senator Monday warned against deploying tens of thousands more U.S. troops there.U.S.: Public More Complacent About Climate Change
Less than two months before a key international conference on curbing climate change, a major U.S. poll has found a sharp drop in public concern about global warming.U.S.: Clinton Calls for Strengthened IAEA Powers
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Wednesday called for strengthening the authority of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to inspect suspected nuclear-related facilities and ruled out lifting sanctions against North Korea until it took "verifiable and irreversible" steps toward denuclearisation.US-SUDAN: Activist Groups Cautiously Praise New Policy
Activist groups that have long urged a tougher U.S. policy toward Khartoum praised the new "comprehensive approach" toward Sudan announced here Monday by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, even as they expressed concern that it will not be fully implemented.US-IRAN: Congress Begins Pressing Sanctions Legislation
As the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama prepares for a critical series of talks about the fate of Iran's nuclear programme, Congress has begun moving long-pending legislation to impose new unilateral sanctions against the Islamic Republic.US-PAKISTAN: Obama Signs Controversial Aid Bill
After 10 days of raging controversy centred in Islamabad, U.S. President Barack Obama Thursday signed a major aid bill for Pakistan authorising some 7.5 billion dollars in non-military assistance for the increasingly beleaguered country over the next five years.U.S.: Foreign Policy Hawks Launch New Campaign Against Obama
Just days after the Nobel Committee in Oslo awarded Barack Obama its coveted peace prize, two of Washington's most prominent foreign policy hawks launched a new group and ad campaign designed to depict the president as weak and defend the more aggressive policies of his predecessor, George W. Bush.LATIN AMERICA: Big Gender, Ethnic Gaps in Wages Found
Indigenous people, descendants of Africans, and women in Latin America earn significantly less money than their predominantly white male peers of similar age and education levels, according to a new study released here Monday by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).POLITICS-US: Obama Weighs Options as Afghan War Enters Ninth Year
On the eighth anniversary of the launch of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, President Barack Obama spent a good part of Wednesday deliberating with his top advisers on what is likely to be one of the most momentous decisions of his tenure: the future of U.S. involvement in that war.« Previous Page — Next Page »
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