CORRECTION*/ENVIRONMENT: Shareholder Pressure Gets Results on Global Warming

Despite the George W. Bush administration's continued opposition to the Kyoto Protocol and other schemes for mandatory cuts on emissions of greenhouse gases, climate activists who deal with several major U.S. oil and gas companies say they are making good progress.

POLITICS: Artificial Intelligence?

Private military contractors like the Virginia-based Anteon, which has grown tenfold in the last decade, are becoming ever more integral to the nation's programmes for intelligence sharing, intelligence training and video game warfare simulators.

RIGHTS: Tom Ridge’s October Surprise

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) is trying once again to discover who was rounded up by the Department of Homeland Security in the weeks preceding the November 2004 presidential election "to assure the Arab-American and Muslim communities that they are not being impacted on a disproportionate basis."

POLITICS-US: Interrogators for Hire

Just an hour north of the Mexican border, at the base of the cloud-capped Huachuca Mountains, sits a military base with a long history of covert military action.

POLITICS: Uncle Sam Really, Really Wants You…

A couple of months ago, Kim Rosario found an improbable e-mail message in her Monster.com inbox.

LABOUR: Muslim Workers in Fight With Dell Over Prayer Break

U.S. computer maker Dell Inc. is disputing allegations by 30 Muslim workers who say they were fired for demanding break time to perform a 15-minute prayer at sunset.

RIGHTS: Rendition, or Outsourcing Torture?

The Centre for Constitutional Rights (CCR), a major advocacy group, has filed the first challenge to "rendition", known by critics as "outsourcing torture", a practice used by U.S. intelligence agencies to deliver detainees to prisons in countries known to practice abuse.

POLITICS-US: Unipolarity Re-Affirmed

Just one week ago, conventional wisdom both here and in European capitals was that President George W. Bush's second term would see a modest turn toward multilateralism and a new readiness to compromise on key issues with traditional U.S. allies.

POLITICS: Distrust Festers Between U.S. Muslims, Intel Agencies

An institutional climate of "Islamophobia" and wariness among many U.S. Arabs and Muslims of the federal government are proving to be substantial barriers to recruiting Arabic speakers into the United States' counter-terrorism agencies, observers say.

POLITICS-CANADA: "Democratic Renewal" Gets Mixed Reviews

Looking back on the announcement one year ago by Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin that elected members of Parliament in the House of Commons can vote freely on selected government measures and proposed laws, critics are taking a jaundiced look at what has been hailed as an advance in "democratic renewal" by the governing Liberal federal government.

LABOUR-US: Tomato-Pickers, Taco Bell Strike Accord Ending Boycott

In a major victory for immigrant farm workers and boycotting consumers, fast-food giant Taco Bell Corp. has agreed to work with a Florida-based labour organisation to increase the wages and improve the working conditions of thousands of workers in the state's huge tomato industry.

POLITICS: Patriot Act, Immigration Top Gonzalez Agenda

Any doubts about whether new Attorney-General Alberto Gonzales would build on the aggressive legacy of his predecessor, John Ashcroft, were dispelled with the recent declaration of his top priorities.

RIGHTS: "Cure" for Immigration System Could Kill the Patient

As the U.S. House of Representatives was passing a controversial immigration bill last month - with 96 percent of Republicans supporting it and 78 percent of Democrats opposing - a large coalition of civil liberties, immigration, religious and other advocacy groups were setting their jaws for a major fight to defeat the legislation in the Senate.

RIGHTS-US: Broad Coalition Opposes "Faith-Based Hiring"

The Job Training Improvement Act sounds like legislation designed to increase employment and improve economic wellbeing - and most of it is.

RIGHTS-US: Bail Denied in "Rendition" Terror Case

Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, a U.S. citizen accused of plotting with al-Qaeda to assassinate Pres. George W. Bush, will remain in jail pending trial.

ENVIRONMENT: U.S. Cod Stocks Down 96 Percent

Historical records reveal that scientifically managed cod stocks off the northeast coast of the United States have been nearly fished to extinction.

RIGHTS-US: Supreme Court Throws Out Death Penalty For Minors

In a major and but razor-thin victory for children's rights advocates, five of the nine justices on the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday declared that executing convicted murderers for crimes committed before their 18th birthday constituted "cruel and unusual punishment" and was therefore banned under the U.S. constitution.

POLITICS: Exposing Corruption Doesn’t Pay, Gov’t Watchdog Warns

Amid charges that hundreds of whistleblower cases may have been arbitrarily dismissed, the U.S. Justice Department has admitted that it retroactively classified information that posed no threat to national security.

CLIMATE CHANGE-U.S.: Car Industry Challenges California Law

A battle between car manufacturers and the government of the U.S. state of California, which is trying to sharply cut so-called greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles, could have national and even international repercussions, activists say.

RIGHTS-CANADA: Anti-Terror Laws Sow Fear in Muslim Communities

Passed in the aftermath of the Sep. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, Canada's Anti-Terrorism Act is being used to intimidate citizens and immigrants of Muslim origin through racial profiling conducted by federal police, activists charge.

POLITICS: Canada Rejects U.S. Missile Shield

Bowing to pressure from the public and his own parliamentary colleagues, Canada's prime minister has risked the ire of the George W. Bush administration by rejecting Canadian participation in Washington's ballistic missile defence (BMD) system.