POLITICS-US: Congress Sends Mixed Signals on Detainee Rights

As U.S. President George W. Bush's poll numbers plummet, questions about how his administration "sold" the invasion of Iraq to the public and its treatment of prisoners seized in the "war on terror" continue to dog the beleaguered president, stalling his second-term agenda.

EDUCATION-US: Slowly Reversing the 9-11 Slump

The plunge in the number of foreign students enrolling in U.S. colleges and universities after the Sep. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks appears to have leveled off over the past year, according to the latest edition of "Open Doors", the annual survey of the Institute of International Education (IIE) released here Monday.

POLITICS-US: Left, Right and Centre Dissect Bush Court Nominee

Despite the enormous challenges facing the United States - education, health care, poverty, church and state, race relations, terrorism, Iraq, prisoner abuse, budget deficits, to name but a few - the nomination of Judge Sam Alito to the Supreme Court appears to have come down to a single issue: abortion.

ENVIRONMENT-US: Debate Rages Over Nuke Power Revival

It is sometimes a hero, and more often a villain, but there is little doubt that nuclear power has become a star of the global warming debate.

MEDIA-US: Controversial WMD Reporter and NY Times Divorce

Was she an innocent dupe who was played mercilessly by exile chieftain Ahmed Chalabi and his neo-conservative and Pentagon backers who led the march to war with Iraq in March 2003?

CORRUPTION: “Big Oil” Gets Grilled on Capitol Hill

Some of the world's top oil executives denied accusations Wednesday that they were engaged in "price gouging" in the United States, and even called for more incentives for the industry.

POLITICS-US: State Elections Add to Republican Gloom

In a new setback to U.S. President George W. Bush's political standing that is certain to fuel the growing disarray within the ruling Republican Party, voters in two politically important states - Virginia and New Jersey - elected Democrats as governors in Tuesday's off-year elections.

RIGHTS-US: Her Defiance Roused a Nation

Ask someone outside the United States to name three leaders of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and '60s, and chances are they'll stop after one: Martin Luther King.

POLITICS-US: Cheney Under Siege

Has U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney become so much of an albatross around his boss' neck that he will have to go?

CANADA: Filthy Water Sickens Native Communities

Canada's image as a nation with a pristine environment and bountiful fresh water, as well as a champion of the rights of minorities and indigenous peoples, has taken a hit with the revelation of squalid living conditions among its native communities.

POLITICS-US: Bush Hopes to Save Face with New Court Pick

By swiftly nominating Judge Samuel Alito to the decisive "swing" seat on the nine-justice Supreme Court, U.S. President George W. Bush Monday appeared determined to accomplish two urgent tasks.

POLITICS-US: A Formidable Hawk Goes Down

Losing I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, perhaps the most influential national security official without a formal cabinet rank, marks a serious blow to the George W. Bush administration and particularly to the hawks who led the drive to war in Iraq.

POLITICS-US: Cheney’s Top Aide Indicted in CIA Leak Case

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff and top national security aide resigned Friday, hours before a grand jury formally indicted him on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice following a 22-month probe into the public disclosure of the identity of a covert Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operative.

DEVELOPMENT-US: Katrina Survivors Refuse to Be Forgotten

When Tanya Harris returned to what was left of her home in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans earlier this month, she feared that her few remaining belongings would end up buried in the rubble being carted out of the city devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

CANADA: MPs Call for Tougher Rules on Overseas Mines

A call by members of Canada's parliament for legally binding measures to govern the behaviour of Canadian mining companies around the world, and specifically to investigate the activities of a Calgary-based operation in the Philippines, has been turned down flat by the Canadian government's foreign affairs minister Pierre Pettigrew.

FINANCE: Wal-Marting Philanthropy

Upon the death of Helen Walton, the frail and aging widow of Sam Walton - founder of the Wal-Mart empire - the Walton Family Foundation could receive as much as 20 billion dollars, making it the largest and potentially most powerful foundation in the world.

POLITICS-US: Powell Aide Blasts Rice, Cheney- Rumsfeld ‘Cabal’

As top officials in the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney’s office await possible criminal indictments for their efforts to discredit a whistleblower, a top aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell, Wednesday, accused a ''cabal'' led by Cheney and Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld of hijacking U.S. foreign policy by circumventing or ignoring formal decision-making channels.

POLITICS-US: Washington on Tenterhooks Over Leak Case

Wrapping up a two-year investigation that a growing number of legal analysts expect to yield indictments of at least one, and possibly two, of the George W. Bush administration's most powerful men as early as this week, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has Washington on pins and needles.

/CORRECTION**/AGRICULTURE-U.S.: The Organic Crops of Farmer John

The eccentric life of farmer John Peterson, from the central U.S. state of Illinois, is the centrepiece of an award-winning documentary film that tracks the decline of family farms in the United States, and - in a surprise twist - a new resurrection.

RIGHTS-US: Halt Demanded to Life Prison Sentences for Kids

Two of the world's most prominent human rights groups are calling on the United States to immediately halt the practice of sentencing children convicted of serious crimes to life imprisonment without parole.

/ARTS WEEKLY/FILM: Documentaries Portray an Ailing Planet

Global warming is a life and death issue for the people of Tuvalu, as rising sea levels slowly drown their low- lying island nation in the South Pacific.