Q&A: "Sex Work Is Work"

Katrina Pacey is a lawyer with the Pivot Legal Society in Vancouver. Pivot is engaged in social justice work through legal reform in the inner city of Vancouver. Pacey is currently taking a case to the British Columbia Supreme Court, and eventually, the Supreme Court of Canada, arguing that the country's prostitution laws violate the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

DEATH PENALTY-US: New Jersey Outlaws “State-Endorsed Killing”

The U.S. state of New Jersey became the first in the union to officially reject the death penalty Monday, when Governor Jon Corzine signed into a law a bill passed by the state legislature last week abolishing capital punishment and replacing it with life imprisonment.

BIODIVERSITY: Fish Farms Pushing Wild Salmon to Extinction

Vast populations of pink salmon on Canada's west coast will be extinct in four years due to infestations of parasites from open ocean salmon farms, scientists reported Friday in the prestigious journal Science.

POLITICS-US: Minority Solidarity Undercut by Mistrust

Serious tensions between major minority groups in the United States persist, but strong majorities of citizens of African, Hispanic, and Asian origin or descent believe that relations between their communities are likely to improve over the next decade, according to a new survey released here Wednesday by a consortium of minority media outlets.

HEALTH: Native Youth Suicides in Canada Reach Crisis Rate

Suicide rates are now five to seven times higher for First Nations youth than for non-aboriginal youth, according to Health Canada, and among Inuit youth, suicide rates are 11 times the national average. Some aboriginal bands have suicide rates over 800 times the national average.

POLITICS-US: Clergy Joins “Tapegate” Battle

A coalition of more than 130 religious organisations has joined a growing chorus calling for appointment of a special counsel to investigate allegations regarding the Central Intelligence Agency's destruction of videotapes and its use of "harsh" interrogation techniques.

RIGHTS: NGO Coalition Slams U.S. Record at Home

A coalition of more than 200 not-for-profit human rights and social justice organisations charge that the George W. Bush administration is contributing to racial, religious and ethnic discrimination in the U.S. - and attempting to cover up its violations in a report to the United Nations they term "a complete whitewash".

RIGHTS-US: Native Tribes Take on Ski Resort

Indigenous communities are up in arms against commercial plans to expand a ski resort on a mountain peak in the U.S. state of Arizona that has been held sacred by the natives for centuries.

RIGHTS-US: Made Homeless by Katrina, Now Gov’t Bulldozers

Low-income residents of New Orleans are frantically struggling to secure the right to return to their homes before the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) begins demolishing thousands of public housing units next week.

POLITICS-US: Dark Horse Surges with Religious Right Backing

Although several of the leading Republican Party presidential candidates have won endorsements from Religious Right leaders and organisations, no one has brought more Christian conservative leaders into their camp than former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee.

RIGHTS-US: AIDS Care Spotty in Migrant Detention, HRW Says

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's wing of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has used its authority to detain nearly 30,000 immigrants in hundreds of prisons, jails and immigration detention centres throughout the United States.

POLITICS-US: Peace Group Barred From Florida Schools

Public school districts in two Florida counties are refusing to allow members of a peace organisation to counter the presence of military recruiters by talking with high school students about options other than joining the service, according to a spokesperson for the group.

CANADA: Landmark Ruling Backs Native Self-Determination

In a case that took a decade to complete and cost close to 30 million dollars, a British Columbia Supreme Court judge last week gave a boost to Native Canadian bands seeking aboriginal land title, but also sent the various parties back to the table to negotiate a treaty.

WORLD AIDS DAY: Racism, Gov&#39t Apathy Fuel U.S. Epidemic

The United States has slashed the AIDS death rate among white and wealthy U.S. citizens, but the disease continues to ravage the black community at full force, leaders say.

RIGHTS-US: Civil Libertarians Warn of “Patriot Act Lite”

Civil libertarians are worried that a little-known anti-terrorism bill now making its way through the U.S. Congress with virtually no debate could be planting the seeds of another USA Patriot Act, which was hurriedly enacted into law after the al Qaeda attacks of Sep. 11, 2001.

Q&A: "Displacement Is a State of Mind"

Madeleine Thien is the Canadian-born daughter of Malaysian-Chinese immigrants. She launched her writing career with a widely acclaimed short story collection called "Simple Recipes" in 2001. Thien's recently released first novel, "Certainty", is about the legacies of loss, displacement from war and how human beings deal with trauma. She recently spoke with IPS correspondent Am Johal.

RIGHTS-US: Billions Spent Locking Up the Poor

Hardnosed sentencing policies that have caused the U.S. prison population to soar over the past three decades have done little to reduce crime, but have devastated low-income, minority communities, according to a report released here Monday.

POLITICS-US: The World According to Pat

In a two-week span that saw several conservative Christian evangelical leaders finally climb down off the fence and begin spreading their endorsements across the field of Republican Party presidential candidates, it was the unexpected endorsement by one of Christian conservatism's longtime leaders that garnered the most media attention.

ECONOMY-US: Hunger Stalks World&#39s Wealthiest Country

More than one in 10 people in the United States go hungry, according to new official figures that suggest government food programmes are falling short in the world's wealthiest country.

THEATRE-US: Strong Women Storm Broadway

New York stages are filled with strong women these days, and while it might be expected in serious drama, they are also asserting themselves forcefully in musicals and classic comedy - forms that speak to the popular culture.

ENVIRONMENT: Turning a Blind Eye – O Canada!

In the 1980s, Canada was a bright green engine of change, pushing the global community forward on sustainable development and global warming. But now it is falling behind in almost every environmental aspect.