Stories written by Zoha Arshad

New Study Claims Popular Herbicide Causes Tumours in Rats

Researchers are warning that RoundUp, a popular herbicide produced by the U.S. agro-giant Monsanto and which is used heavily on U.S. corn and soybeans, cause tumours, liver and kidney failure in rodents.

Rio Summit’s Legacy Still a Question Mark

Academics gathered in Washington on Wednesday suggested that the mixed experience at the U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development, held in Rio de Janeiro in June, has increased the importance of citizen engagement and consumer accountability in issues of environment, renewable energy and sustainability.

U.S. Guns Bring Mexican Casualties

Mexican activists winding down a month-long U.S. tour warned Tuesday that guns licensed in the United States were playing a massive part in gang- and drug cartel-related violence in Mexico.

U.S. Declares Haqqani Network a Terrorist Organisation

The U.S. State Department on Friday declared the Haqqani network, a militant group based in Pakistan, a “terrorist organisation”.

Report Details Rising Police Brutality in the Maldives

A human rights crisis has engulfed the Indian Ocean nation of the Maldives since the ousting of the former president, Mohamed Nasheed, on Feb. 7, activists warned here Tuesday.

U.S.: Political Leadership Critical to Fighting Rising Islamophobia

The attack on a Sikh temple in Wisconsin in early August on the heels of the shooting at a movie theatre in Aurora, Colorado signals the rise of right-wing domestic terrorism in the United States, experts say.

The oil drilling ship Noble Discoverer on April 5, 2012 in the Port of Seattle before its trip to Alaska for the summer Arctic drilling season. Credit: James Brooks/CC by 2.0

Activists Protest Shell’s Arctic Oil-Drilling Plans

By mid-September, the Royal Dutch Shell Oil (Shell) group hopes to begin exploratory oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean off the coast of northern Alaska, provided it can secure federal permission from the U.S. government and overcome other logistical obstacles. But a prominent environmental group warns that drilling will do "irreparable damage" to the area.

Many in the Latino community are disappointed by U.S. President Barack Obama

Immigration Policies Wreak Unseen Havoc on U.S. Communities

Deportation is a devastating experience for a family, breaking it apart and leading to emotional and mental stress for its members. But a new report from the Centre for American Progress shows that such duress extends beyond families and into the larger community as a whole.

U.S. Breaks Silence on Bahrain Crackdown

The U.S. State Department released a statement Friday urging the Bahraini government to reconsider a ruling that sentenced the director of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, Nabeel Rajab, to a three-year jail term for organising opposition rallies.

U.S.: Police Treat Condoms as Contraband, Rights Group Says

How many condoms is it legal to carry around in your pocket? That’s the question sex workers in the United States are asking after being routinely targeted by police for having prophylactics – not in itself a crime.

Report Claims No Pakistani Civilian Deaths from Drones in 2012

Civilian deaths due to drone strikes in Pakistan are falling rapidly, and the death rate is now close to zero - or so asserts a New America Foundation (NAF) report.

Women’s Inequality Linked to Soaring Population

The world’s population now stands at about seven billion, and by 2050, this figure will hit a whopping nine billion.

Like these newly born twins, more children are born daily into families who can barely afford to raise a child. Credit: Zofeen Ebrahim/IPS

Women’s Inequality Linked to Soaring Population

The world’s population now stands at about seven billion, and by 2050, this figure will hit a whopping nine billion.

New U.S.-Pakistani Supply Accord Seen as Tenuous

As NATO supply convoys began crossing from Pakistan into Afghanistan for the first time in more than seven months Thursday, analysts here warned that the reopening of the key route does not necessarily signal a new dawn in the fraught relations between Washington and Islamabad.

Activists to Appeal U.S. Court’s Bhopal Verdict

After a controversial ruling Friday in favour of Union Carbide, NGOs and activists associated with the 1984 Bhopal, India industrial disaster are appealing the decision in the U.S. second circuit court of appeals.