Q&A: "We&#39re Dealing with a Christian Taliban"

Last month, the Pentagon pulled the plug on a plan to dispatch so-called "freedom packages" to U.S. troops in Iraq that included Bibles, proselytising materials in English and Arabic, and an apocalyptic computer game in which "soldiers for Christ" battle satanic "Global Community Peacekeepers".

POLITICS-US: Bush Appointee Campaigns for Evangelicals

The head of the U.S. federal government agency that doles out benefits to disabled veterans is under fire for saying Bible study is "more important than doing [my] job."

FINANCE-US: Charities, Firms Balk at Terror Vetting Scheme

New plans to ensure that federal aid dollars do not end up in terrorists' hands are causing worry among charities and companies entrusted with advancing U.S. interests in developing countries.

DEATH PENALTY-US: Ohio Abolitionists See Light at End of Tunnel

Support is slowly growing for the abolition of the death penalty in the U.S. Midwestern state of Ohio, considered by rights activists as a key state because of its historic, strong stand for the death penalty.

RIGHTS-US: Low-Income Housing on the Chopping Block

Even as people around the United States and the world recall the horrors of Hurricane Katrina two years ago, which displaced tens of thousands of the Gulf Coast's poorest residents, government-subsidised housing has come under increasing attack by policymakers in the U.S.

ECONOMY-US: It&#39s (Really) Good to Be the Boss

The pay gap between workers and employers in the U.S. remains enormous, with the typical chief executive officer (CEO) of a top firm earning more in a single workday than the average U.S. worker takes home in an entire year, according to a new study on executive compensation released Wednesday.

ECONOMY-US: Rural Poverty Stagnates as Uninsured Multiply

Record numbers of people lack health insurance and poverty remains largely unchanged five years after the U.S. economy began clawing its way back from recession.

POLITICS-CANADA: Cop Shoes Gave Away Masked "Protesters"

Quebec provincial police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) are being asked pointed questions after it was revealed that three Quebec police officers were disguised as protesters during last week's North American Leaders' Summit in Montebello, Quebec.

POLITICS-US: Bush Drops Another Crony

Civil liberties advocates and Democrats hailed Monday's resignation by U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales as a major victory, while most Republicans, for whom Gonzales's performance had increasingly become a source of embarrassment, kept their comments to a minimum.

FINANCE: U.S. Mortgage Woes Leave Poor Homeowners Adrift

The prospect of widespread dispossession is prompting closer scrutiny of U.S. mortgage lenders and calls for regulators to help poor borrowers, not big banks.

Q&A: “We Live in an Age of Migration”

Celebrated Canadian writer and poet Michael Ondaatje recently published "Divisadero", his first novel in seven years.

ENVIRONMENT: Carving Up the Melting North

As climate change hit a cultural tipping point in 2007, with more and more people expressing concern and awareness of the risks posed by rising greenhouse gases, warming in the Arctic is already altering the landscape in Canada's north.

POLITICS-US: Hillary Clinton in the Right&#39s Crosshairs

While Democratic candidates are battling it out for their party's 2008 presidential nomination, conservative partisans have been gearing up to take down the frontrunner, Senator Hillary Clinton.

POLITICS-US: Attempts to De-Bug Voting Systems Before 2008 Elections

With 14 months remaining before the 2008 U.S. presidential election, many states are trying to fix security and transparency problems afflicting their voting machines and election systems. With its many system failures in the 2000 presidential election, one of the most prominent of these states is Florida.

THEATRE-US: Million-Dollar Media Yields Cheap Thrills

Two Broadway plays showing here expose how the media and its stars, at both the high and the low end, manipulate politics to turn news stories into emotional confrontations.

HEALTH-US: “Too Many Animals, Too Much Manure in One Place”

Imagine 600,000 hens confined in seven sheds - with a total of four workers to care for them and cages so dilapidated that birds often became entangled in frayed wires and died horribly.

RIGHTS: Canadian Military Keeping Tabs on Peace Activists?

Steven Staples, a prominent Canadian peace activist, is accusing the Canadian military of subtle surveillance after the military sent an officer to take notes on him at a conference at Dalhousie University in 2006.

MEDIA-US: Murdoch’s Expanding Empire Seen as “Ominous”

Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch added one of the most respected brands in journalism to his already vast media empire this week, gaining enough support from the deeply divided Bancroft family to buy Dow Jones & Company, publisher of the Wall Street Journal, for 5 billion dollars.

CANADA: Native Land Deals Get Mixed Reaction

The costly British Columbia land claims negotiations between the government and native peoples, which have garnered few victories over many years, seems to be finally achieving results.

ENVIRONMENT: Climate-Driven Pest Devours Canada’s Forests

Environmentalists and researchers say that climate change is a significant factor in the pine beetle epidemic that has ravaged forests in the western Canadian provinces of British Columbia (BC) and Alberta.

RIGHTS-US: Congress Moves to Protect Native Women from Assaults

Acting in major part on a recent report by Amnesty International and Native American activists, the U.S. Congress is moving to provide additional funding to protect Native American women who suffer disproportionate levels of rape and other sexual abuse.