FILM: U.S. Military’s ‘Don’t Ask’ Policy and One Gay Marine

Jeff Key grew up in a small, conservative community in rural Alabama in the south-east United States. A large man standing well over six feet tall, he had already come out as gay to his friends and family, graduated with a degree in theatre, and moved to Los Angeles when, at age 34, he decided to join the Marine Corps.

HEALTH-US: Debating the Right to Die

The recent release from a U.S. state prison of assisted-suicide practitioner Jack Kevorkian has sparked renewed interest in the legal and ethical implications of helping the terminally ill take their own lives.

TRADE: NAFTA Claim Dismissed, Dicey Clause Remains

A seven-year legal battle by the U.S. postal carrier United Parcel Service of America (UPS) against Canada, brought under a controversial free trade agreement, has been dismissed, but advocacy groups say a provision that allows corporations to sue for lost profits should be permanently dropped.

ENERGY-US: Senate Plan Scales Down Fossil Fuel Use

The U.S. Senate began debate on a complex package of energy legislation this week that is running head-on into the politics of global warming.

EDUCATION-US: A Rough Road From Boot Camp to College

Derek Adams played with his two-year-old son on the grounds of Veterans Upward Bound, an outreach and education programme for former U.S. military service members outside the campus of California State University, Humboldt.

POLITICS-US: Aide’s Sentence Caps Star-Crossed Year for Cheney

Tuesday's sentencing to 30 months in prison of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby by a federal judge for lying to government investigators about his role in leaking the identity of a CIA operative marks the latest in a series of blows to Vice President Dick Cheney.

DEATH PENALTY-US: Crash Course for Florida’s Executioners

Two newly-trained teams of executioners committed to the principle of "humane and dignified death" are ready to go into action as soon as Florida's new governor Charlie Crist starts signing death warrants for the state's 380 death row inmates - but no one knows yet who will be the first to be executed after the lifting of a four-month moratorium.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Overcoming the Ostrich Effect

The vast majority of North Americans now declare that they want action on climate change. But whether people are truly willing to embrace "carbon-neutral" lifestyles - including giving up their gas-guzzling sports utility vehicles - remains an open question, say experts.

MEDIA-US: Religious Right Gets More Than Its 15 Minutes

Conservative religious figures are mentioned in the major U.S. news media as many as 2.8 times as often as progressive religious figures, says a new study released Tuesday in Washington.

DEATH PENALTY-US: Retrial Possible for Most Famous Black Inmate

The talents and skills of leading U.S. lawyers, pathologists, scientists and independent criminal investigators are likely to be marshalled to save the life of Mumia Abu-Jamal if he is granted a new trial - and also to highlight the role skin colour may play in U.S. death penalty convictions.

THEATRE: Making a Monkey of U.S. Fundamentalists

The international focus on fundamentalist Islam might obscure the fact that western nations have their own experiences with fundamentalist religion - among them the country whose government has most targeted radical Islam, the United States.

RIGHTS-CANADA: First Nations Warn of a Long, Hot Summer

Phil Fontaine, the Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, a Canadian aboriginal governing body, says that the anger felt by First Nations communities over deplorable economic and social conditions has hit a wall and civil disobedience will increase in the coming months.

POLITICS-US: Florida’s Rogue Primary Wreaks Havoc

Florida's declaration that the state will set its primary vote for next January, a week earlier than the rest of the country, has created a cascade of problems for the other 49 states gearing up for the U.S. presidential elections in November 2008.

POLITICS-US: Father of Christian Zionism Leaves the Building

The right-wing U.S. Christian evangelist Jerry Falwell, who died Tuesday at the age of 73, is perhaps best known for his fundamentalist social positions and tirades against lesbians, gays and feminists, not to mention "pagans", "abortionists" and assorted other miscreants.

HEALTH-U.S.: Boston Residents Face to Face with Bio-War

The U.S. government and Boston University are facing protests and lawsuits for building a laboratory to research potential biological weapons in a neighbourhood whose residents are mostly African-American and Latinos.

HEALTH-US: Suicidal and Facing a Third Tour in Iraq

At the beginning of May, Corporal Cloy Richards tried to kill himself.

POLITICS-US: Religious Right Recruits Bush Loyalist

In mid-March, the Family Research Council (FRC), Washington's premiere right-wing religious lobbying outfit, announced that J. Kenneth Blackwell had been hired on as a "senior fellow for family empowerment".

DEATH PENALTY-US: Three Newspapers Reverse 100-Year-Old Stand

Three established U.S. newspapers, two of them among the 10 largest in the country, in three different states have in the past weeks abandoned their century-old support of the death penalty and become passionate advocates of a ban on state-sponsored killing.

THEATRE-US: Revivals Take on Wars Past and Present

Conflict historically has aroused playwrights' passions - think Aristophanes' famous "War and Peace" trilogy written more than 2,000 years ago.

CANADA: Weakened Quebec Separatist Party in Shake-Up

Separatist Parti Québécois leader André Boisclair resigned suddenly this week after months of severe criticism from separatists disappointed by the last election results.

CANADA: Media Crucifies Green Party Hopeful for 9-11 Views

Kevin Potvin, a writer who was seeking to run for Canada's Green Party in Vancouver, has had his nomination papers denied by Elizabeth May, the party's leader, after an article he wrote expressing confusion and sympathy for the 9-11 attacks emerged from 2002.