Q&A: Military Losing GI Hearts and Minds

The continuing occupation or Iraq and the growing war in Afghanistan are leaving permanent physical and emotional scars on a whole generation of U.S. soldiers. Not since Vietnam have so many GIs objected to a war, and never have military families spoken out so strongly for withdrawal.

POLITICS-US: Obama’s Right Turn

Human rights and open government advocates were heartened by President Barack Obama's pledge during his first week in office to create "an unprecedented level of openness in government" and "establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration".

POLITICS-US: White Nationalists Find a Home in the Military

A recent report issued - and later withdrawn - by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Office of Intelligence and Analysis warned of the possibility of an up-tick in violent activities by right-wing extremist groups.

U.S.: Govt Report Calls for Swift Action to Avoid Climate Chaos

Fiercer heat waves and wildfires in the U.S. western states, bigger storm surges along the country’s coasts, and disruptions to energy, water and transportation systems are just some of the expected impacts of climate change, according to a new White House report that marks the first scientific statement from the Barack Obama administration acknowledging that the problem is already directly impacting U.S. citizens.

SCIENCE: Hybrid Chestnut Trees Hold Promise as Carbon Sponges

Reducing carbon levels in the atmosphere may be as simple as planting a new breed of hybridised chestnut trees, according to a new study by Purdue University Associate Professor Douglass Jacobs.

Q&A: “Helping the Most Vulnerable Benefits All Workers”

After decades at sea, organised labour has limped into port. Last fall, they helped to elect a sympathetic U.S. president and Congress. Now trade unions are gearing up to push for a major overhaul of labour law. They are also welding an alliance with immigrant and human rights groups to win comprehensive immigration reform.

US-PAKISTAN: CIA Secrecy on Drone Attacks Data Hides Abuses

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s refusal to share with other agencies even the most basic data on the bombing attacks by remote-controlled unmanned predator drones in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal region, combined with recent revelations that CIA operatives have been paying Pakistanis to identify the targets, suggests that managers of the drone attacks programmes have been using the total secrecy surrounding the programme to hide abuses and high civilian casualties.

U.S.: Museum Attack Seen as Home-Grown Terrorism

Wednesday’s killing of a guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum by an elderly white supremacist is the latest incident in what many see as a potential new wave of right-wing violence triggered, at least in part, by the election of President Barack Obama and the economic downturn.

RIGHTS-US: Death Row Case Embodies Systemic Flaws, Critics Say

Since his conviction on Aug. 21, 1991, Troy Davis has been engaged in an exhaustive legal battle for his exoneration and release from death row. His efforts have garnered international support from organisations and figureheads such as Amnesty International, the European parliament, Desmond Tutu, and Pope Benedict XVI.

RIGHTS-COLOMBIA: Trafficking Victims’ Ordeal Never Over

A mixture of rage, impotence and terror is evident behind the sadness in María’s* eyes. It’s been five months since she escaped from her captors in the United States, where she was taken under a false job contract, and she still can’t shake off her fear.

U.S.: GM Gets Billions, Says No Money for Crash Victims

U.S. taxpayers have given 50 billion to rescue General Motors, but the company says it should not have to pay a penny to people harmed by known defects in its vehicles.

Q&A: “Indigenous Women Are Growing in Numbers and Influence”

The Canadian province of British Columbia is home to more than 200 native communities, or First Nations, ranging from about 20 people to over 3,000. As their size and level of remoteness varies, so does their economic development.

ECONOMY-US: One in Five Children Sinking Into Poverty

U.S. children’s quality of life is expected to decline through 2010 due to the impacts of the financial crisis, said a new report by the Foundation for Child Development (FDC), released on Wednesday.

POLITICS-US: Eavesdropping Case Tests Obama Vows on Secrecy

Despite President Barack Obama’s formation of a new task force to review government secrecy, and an ongoing investigation into use of the so-called "state secrets doctrine", lawyers for the new administration refused last week to disclose information on the government’s use of warrantless wiretaps and backed legislation to block the release of photos of prisoner abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan.

ENERGY: Oil Economy Driving Growth of Controversial Tar Sands

A report from one of the world’s top energy consultancies says oil production in Canada’s tar sands could see a five-fold increase by 2035.

US-CANADA: Shared Border, Unilateral Policy?

Canada and the United States are on different wavelengths when it comes to a shared and increasingly hardening of what had been a sleepy border within North America.

CLIMATE CHANGE: More Subsidies for Fossil Fuels in Recovery Plans

Despite the economic slow down, growing numbers of world leaders are calling for urgent action on climate change while many governments used their economic stimulus packages to increase subsidies to the fossil fuel industry.

BOOKS: Canada’s Agent Orange Victims Still Seeking Justice

Bruce Brown died of cancer at age 18. Some of Marilyn Kissinger’s other friends lived into their early and late twenties, dying in the late 1960s. Most had died by the late 1980s.

POLITICS-US: Anti-Abortion Movement Has New Poster Child

She's a politically savvy history student at the University of California, Los Angeles who is appearing on countless conservative talk radio programmes and cable television news shows.

POLITICS: U.S. Public Most Liberal in Decades

Despite the overwhelming electoral approval of now-U.S. President Barack Obama’s progressive campaign platform, many in the media continue to portray the U.S. as a "centre-right" country, says a new report from a media watchdog and left-wing political organisation.

POLITICS-US: Same-Sex Marriage May Return to the Ballot Box

In the wake of the California Supreme Court’s decision Tuesday to uphold Proposition 8, which eliminated the right of same-sex couples to marry, a surprising scapegoat and potential savior for opponents of the proposition has emerged in the California ballot initiative process.