ENVIRONMENT: Climate Change Hits African Americans Harder

The impact of climate change in the United States is felt disproportionately by African American communities, so that measures to mitigate the trend would also benefit that group more than others, says a groundbreaking new report.

RIGHTS: U.S. Stalls Payments to Black Farmers for Racist Treatment

Black farmers whose livelihoods were ruined by racist U.S. government farm aid practices are asking Congress to intervene after a legal settlement failed to bring desperately needed compensation to the vast majority of those who filed suit.

ENVIRONMENT-US: Bush Lays Path to Development of Wild Forests

U.S. politicians and environmental groups are outraged at the Bush administration's attempts to undermine a policy that is protecting wild forests in the lower 48 states and Alaska - which, combined, would be the size of the United Kingdom - from logging, road building and other forms of development.

RIGHTS-US: Activists Win Billboard Battle, Not Free Expression War

Anti-war messages are going up in Manhattan's Times Square in time for the Republican Party convention in August after the company that owns the billboards, media giant Clear Channel, backed down from its refusal to carry them.

RIGHTS: ‘Homeland Security’ Beyond U.S. Borders

In the novel '1984' George Orwell depicts a world where powerful and secretive authorities - "Big Brother" - scrutinise the intimate details of citizens' personal lives. That fiction may be closer to reality than most people think.

RIGHTS: U.S. Giving Immigrants Green Light But Not Green Card

Flora Carolina Rodriguez Santillan was dismissed from her job at a retail chain after five years because the papers that prove she has been approved as a Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR) of the United States are caught up in a government document logjam.

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES: U.S. Apology First Step Only – Tribal Leaders

Chief Brian Buchanan boarded a plane Tuesday in search of international advice on how to end a century-old dispute between his Indian tribe and the U.S. government, but he says he would still welcome an apology from Washington for the way it has treated indigenous people.

SCIENCE-U.S.: Money, Politics Increasingly Influence Research

Scientific integrity, specifically in public health, is being sacrificed by political and commercial interests, according to participants in a major conference here.

MEDIA: Newsrooms Pale in Contrast to Diverse U.S. Society

The world of journalism is much whiter than the world it represents, according to two media industry studies.

FINANCE: Only Bravest Whistleblowers Pucker Up at Development Banks

Insiders at the World Bank and other multilateral development banks (MDBs) who want to blow the whistle on corruption or other forms of mismanagement are insufficiently protected against retaliation, says a major study released Thursday by a group that specialises in protecting whistleblowers.

TRADE: Mexico ‘Political’ in Approach to South American Bloc

Mexican President Vicente Fox mad a splash in the South American media Wednesday when he announced his country's intention to join the Mercosur trade bloc as an associate member as ''a first step'', but his objective could have more to do with politics than trade, say experts.

POLITICS-U.S.: Cheney In the Balance?

Now that Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has chosen Senator John Edwards as his vice-presidential running-mate, the capital's attention has shifted to the fate of Vice President Dick Cheney.

POLITICS-U.S.: Inequality Stalks the Polling Station

Inequality will shape November's U.S. general elections, but few voters will voice concern about disparity in the industrialised world's most lopsided society.

/ARTS WEEKLY/FILM-U.S.: ‘Docs’ Become Surprise Election Year Weapons

Millions of Americans are seeing something at movie theatres they have never witnessed in an election year.

POLITICS-U.S.: Presidential Race Looks to Be Dead Heat

Exactly four months before the Nov. 2 presidential elections, the race between the Republican incumbent, George W. Bush, and his Democratic challenger, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, is a statistical dead heat, according to several polls released during the past week.

RIGHTS-US: Supreme Court Sets Bush, Corporations Back on Key Law

In a new rebuff to the administration of Pres. George W. Bush, a 6-3 majority of the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a 215-year-old anti-piracy law can continue to be used by foreign victims of serious human rights abuses access to U.S. courts for redress.

POLITICS-US: Report Shows Revolving Doors Between Gov’t, Business

Hundreds of U.S. military and government officials routinely leave their posts for jobs with private contractors who deal with the government, a process that has eroded the lines between government and the private sector, according to report released by a watchdog group on Tuesday.

MEDIA-U.S.: Activists Remain Vigilant After Major Court Win

Public interest groups scored an almost total victory in a lawsuit to overturn changes by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that had loosened media ownership rules, but they say the fight against market consolidation is far from over.

POLITICS-CANADA: Liberals Score Narrow Victory in Federal Poll

Canada's neo-conservative federal politicians were hit with a crippling setback in Monday's election, just days after polls showed them on the verge of forming a coalition propped up by Quebec separatists.

RIGHTS-US: Gay Marriage Looms Large at Annual "Pride" Marches

In four major parades across the country marking Gay Pride Day this year, winning the right to legally marry was the central issue for gay and lesbian men and women - some of whom have been living as couples for decades.

RIGHTS-US: Challenge to Felon Voting Ban Fails, But Fight Goes On

A civil rights coalition is considering its options after a federal court dismissed a suit seeking voting rights for thousands of disenfranchised Black and Latino prisoners and parolees.