POLITICS-US: Generals for Jesus Ignore Academy Flap

A retired Army major general has thrown fuel on the burning issue of religious discrimination at the U.S. Air Force Academy by urging commanders there to back a Christian evangelical rally for military personnel sponsored by Rev. Billy Graham's ministry - and signing his letters "Your Partner in the Gospel".

RIGHTS: The Miseducation of Canada’s First Nations

In the small island community of Alert Bay near northern Vancouver Island, hundreds of survivors of St. Michael's Residential School stood on the idyllic shoreline near the U'mista Cultural Centre around ten in the morning. It was misty as the fog rolled in and perched on the calm water.

POLITICS-US: "State Secrets" Privilege Not So Rare

As whistleblower Sibel Edmonds asks the U.S. Supreme Court to review her dismissed case against the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the mainstream media continues to refer to the government's defence - the so-called state secrets privilege - as "rarely used".

RELIGION-US: Pizza Magnate Flees the Pagan Hordes

They may not become as ubiquitous as the Domino's Pizza outlets that dot the U.S. landscape, but Tom Monaghan, the man who founded that fast food giant, is hoping that the town he is building for orthodox Catholics in Florida will one day replicate itself across the country.

RIGHTS-US: The DNA Crusaders

The work of the Innocence Project is a "good news, bad news" story.

TRADE: NAFTA Tribunal Backs MTBE Ban

A three-member trade tribunal has dismissed a 970-million dollar claim filed by a Canadian company that challenged U.S. regulations banning the use of the gasoline additive MTBE.

POLITICS-US: Top Court Nominee Backed Guantanamo Trials

With less than a month left before U.S. Supreme Court Justice nominee John Roberts appears for confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, groups on the political right and left are busily loading their heavy artillery - and the Republican chairman of the committee surprised Washington by firing the first shot.

POLITICS-US: Two Key Rights Acts Set to Expire

Powerful advocacy groups are mobilising their resources to ensure that key provisions of two of the United States' landmark civil liberties laws are not allowed to expire because of congressional failure to renew them.

POLITICS-US: Congress Balks at Bush’s Weird Science

U.S. Pres. George W. Bush's endorsement of the teaching of "intelligent design" as a theory of how the universe began, coupled with Sen. Bill Frist's backing of federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, points to an almost certain trainwreck between Congress and the White House - as well as open warfare between the scientific community and members of the conservative religious right.

POLITICS-US: After 10-Year Hiatus, Pentagon Eyes New Landmine

The George W. Bush administration may soon resume production of antipersonnel land mines in a move that is at odds with both the international community and previous U.S. policy on the weapons, says a leading human rights organisation.

RIGHTS-US: Unearthing One City’s Day of Infamy

"The committee say they want truth and reconciliation, then forget it and move on, it'd have been forgotten 20 years ago if it didn't keep it in the news..."

POLITICS-US: Reviving the "Radical Centre"

As U.S. President George W. Bush announced the unprecedented "recess appointment" of ultra-nationalist John Bolton as his next ambassador to the United Nations, a group of diplomatic heavyweights was preparing to launch a bipartisan coalition to promote a return to a more moderate and multilateral foreign policy.

LABOUR-US: Union Rift Leaves Rank-and-File in the Dark

The worst schism in the U.S. labour movement since the 1930s has come largely from the top down, with little input from the millions of workers who make up the rank-and-file membership, say sources both inside and outside the debate.

POLITICS-US: Bush’s Wooing of Black Vote Gains Critical Mass

In mid-July, Ken Mehlman, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, showed up at the annual convention of the NAACP (the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People) - the oldest and one of the largest civil rights organisations in the United States.

LABOUR-US: What Would Pope Leo Do?

It's a church-state conflict of a different kind, pitting one of the more militant labour unions in the United States against the Catholic Church hierarchy.

TERRORISM: Washington Cuts Security Funds for Public Transport

Despite London's recent terrorist bombings, security for U.S. public transit systems remains woefully under-funded.

POLITICS-US: Top Court Nomination Triggers Intense Scrutiny

Pres. George W. Bush's political skills became increasingly evident today, on the morning after he nominated Judge John G. Roberts Jr. to be the next associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

ENVIRONMENT-US: Blue Skies, Green Cities

Ignoring inaction at the highest levels of the U.S. government, 145 mayors across the country have formed a coalition to combat global warming and begun to reshape their cities using innovative programmes and technologies.

POLITICS-US: Spy Agency Targets Bush Critics

Those who remember recent history will not be surprised to learn that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has been amassing files on the American Civil Liberties Union, Greenpeace and other critics of the George W. Bush administration.

POLITICS-US: Weighing Washington’s Whistle-Blowers

It's not much of a stretch to argue that the toughest - and perhaps the most thankless - job in the U.S. government is carried out by a group of people very few citizens have ever heard of.

/ARTS WEEKLY/US: Film Exposes Plight of 9/11 Rescuers

While Washington continues to spend billions of dollars on its global "war on terror," thousands of ordinary people who took part in cleaning up the World Trade Centre site after the Sep. 11, 2001 attacks are left wondering if they will ever receive a single penny from the government for medical treatment.