POLITICS-US: Bush, Congress Wrangle Over Domestic Spying

Former senior intelligence officials are disputing claims by the George W. Bush administration that the failure of Congress to pass a new foreign surveillance law is jeopardising the country's national security.

ECONOMY: More U.S. Banks Agree to Stall Home Repossessions

A coalition of U.S. mortgage banks said Tuesday that they would join a nationwide effort to stem a rising tide of home repossessions.

POLITICS-US: Bush’s Budget Sidelines Transparency

President George W. Bush’s critics are charging that he is attempting to use a "backdoor signing statement" to thwart Congress’ desire to lift the veil of secrecy that has shrouded the U.S. Government for the past seven years.

SCIENCE-US: Top Scientists Want Research Free From Politics

Leading U.S. scientists called on Congress Thursday to make sure the next president does not do what they say the George W. Bush Administration has done: censor, suppress and falsify important environmental and health research.

RIGHTS-US: Journalist on Death Row

Mumia Abu-Jamal, a journalist and black activist who exposed corruption in the Philadelphia police department, is among the best known of America's 3,500 death row inmates. For years, lawyers have been fighting to overturn his 1982 murder conviction. They argue that Abu-Jamal was condemned due to his skin colour and undue influence from the powerful Fraternal Order of Police.

ECONOMY: U.S. Banks Offer "Lifeline" as Mortgage Crisis Spreads

U.S. borrowers in the throes of foreclosure won a temporary reprieve Tuesday under an initiative cobbled together by the Bush administration and six leading mortgage lenders.

CANADA: High Housing Prices Swell Ranks of Homeless

Canada is continuing to see increases in homelessness and precarious housing situations across the country as rents increase and incomes stay level, but intergovernmental bickering over housing policy is overshadowing the need to take leadership on the issue, according to critics.

DEATH PENALTY-US: Georgia Activists Fight Fast-Track Efforts

Activists in the U.S. southern state of Georgia are fighting to defend and advance the rights of those who could face capital punishment trials, looking ahead to the days when the current country-wide moratorium on lethal injections will be lifted.

POLITICS-US: The King Is Dead. Long Live McCain?

At the end of last summer, Sen. John McCain's bid for the Republican nomination for president was running on fumes. Broke and dejected, McCain was polling below New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and senator-turned-actor-turned-candidate Fred Thompson.

ENERGY: Canada's Oil Sands a Political Hot Potato

Alberta's Parkland Institute and the Polaris Institute have a released a report calling for an emergency strategic petroleum reserve for Canada, as well as for tougher policies to cut fossil fuel consumption and revise the country's oil export regime.

RIGHTS-US: Execution Moratorium May Outlive High Court Ruling

The U.S. Supreme Court is unlikely to outlaw lethal injection, the United States' main form of execution, when it rules on a test case this spring, but many states may continue their de facto moratoriums well into the future, amid ongoing legal battles about the issue in their own state courts.

POLITICS-US: Super Tuesday Leaves Bruising Battles Ahead

On a night when storms dotted with tornadoes wrought massive damage, injury and even death in the middle of the United States, storms of a different kind were sweeping the political landscape. And though the tornadoes eventually passed - giving way to damage assessments and rescue workers - the electoral turmoil shows no sign of letting up any time soon.

POLITICS-US: Pushing Buttons and Raising Millions

Over the past couple of years, a number of right wing groups have been contending for the unofficial designation of the conservative version of MoveOn.org, the liberal grassroots lobbying organisation. These days, Freedom's Watch appears to have a leg up on them all.

POLITICS-US: He’s a Uniter, Decider, and Now, Interpreter

When George W. Bush signed the 2008 National Defence Authorisation Act into law last week, he again thumbed his nose at Congress by taking a second now-familiar step: he issued a "signing statement" - a declaration that effectively asserts his authority to ignore parts of the law he disagrees with.

POLITICS-US: Democrats Cagey on Immigration Reforms

As voters in 24 U.S. states go to the polls for the "Super Tuesday" caucuses and primaries that will help determine the formal presidential nominations for each party, Democratic contenders Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have been actively courting support from Latino voters across the country.

ENERGY: Wall Street Majors Seek Cleaner Coal Portfolios

Fear of regulation and financial loss related to climate change has spurred three leading U.S. banks to adopt environmental standards to tighten support for the coal industry.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Wars Dwarf Warming in U.S. Budget

Despite growing recognition in the Pentagon and the intelligence community that global warming poses serious national security threats to the United States, Washington is spending 88 dollars on the military for every dollar it spends this year on climate-related programmes, according to a new study released here Thursday by the Institute for Policy Studies.

POLITICS-US: Congress Seeks to Limit “State Secrets” Privilege

Alarmed by the George W. Bush administration's increasing use of the so-called "state secrets privilege" to keep politically embarrassing lawsuits against the government from ever coming before a judge, Congress is stepping in to help ensure that people with grievances can have their cases heard.

Q&A: "There Is Such a Thing as Technology Overkill"

Millions of votes will be counted by computers this U.S. election season, and it seems that the chasm between security gurus who argue that the existing systems are fatally flawed and the manufacturers who claim that e-voting is both efficient and airtight has never been wider.

POLITICS-US: Obama Anointed by Kennedy Dynasty

"Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike," said John F. Kennedy on the day of his presidential inauguration in January 1961, "that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans..."

POLITICS-US: Religious Leaders Assail Bush Agenda

Describing George W. Bush as "an explicitly evangelical president" with a "sadly truncated" moral vision, a group of religious leaders is calling on the U.S. president to use his State of the Union message to Congress Monday evening to salvage his legacy by "changing course on the most pressing moral issues of our time".