RIGHTS-US: Professor Who Charged Racism Gets the Axe

A premier U.S. research institute agreed earlier this year to address possible racial bias in hiring, but now it is firing the person who raised the complaints.

DEATH PENALTY: Young U.S. Lawyers Halting Executions

Youthful idealism and perseverance are helping to win the day against the U.S. conservative establishment and its huge law enforcement resources in the life and death legal struggle to halt execution by lethal injection - and with that the final end to the death penalty in the country.

MAY DAY-US: Wal-Mart Skirting Labour Protections

The retail giant Wal-Mart exploits weak U.S. labour laws to prevent union formation and violates the fundamental human rights of its U.S. workers, says a report released Monday on the eve of the May Day labour holiday.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Canada’s New Plan “Pretends” to Curb Emissions, Say Activists

Canada's newest plan to curb greenhouse gas emissions will be much too little and too late, environmentalists said Thursday.

POLITICS-U.S.: Bush’s Faith-Based Initiative Listing but Not Sunk

In early April, officials in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, agreed to bar any public funding of religious activities as part of a settlement in a lawsuit challenging a local "faith-based" ministry for prisoners.

U.S.: Record Military Budget Ignores Security “Big Picture” – Study

Although 57 percent of the U.S. public now believes that sending troops to Iraq was a mistake, the military budget request that President George W. Bush submitted to Congress is the largest since World War II - and little money is earmarked for domestic security.

RIGHTS-U.S.: One in Three Native Women Suffer Sexual Assault

Native American women are at least 2.5 times as likely to be sexually assaulted in their lifetime as other women in the United States, according to a major new report by Amnesty International (AI) released here Wednesday.

RIGHTS-U.S.: DNA, Perseverance Win Freedom for Innocent Inmates

Behind the double security doors at the California Western School of Law campus is a small, unconventional legal practice embedded inside the academic institution.

DEVELOPMENT-U.S.: Nestle Bottling Operations Court Controversy

As Nestlé shareholders gathered Thursday in Switzerland for their annual meeting, growing numbers of voices question the company's claims on spring water around the world and its effects on local communities.

MEDIA-US: Public Broadcaster Pulls TV Documentary on Islamism

The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) has dropped a documentary film purporting to show the struggles of U.S. "moderate" Muslims against Islamic extremists from a television series airing this week on more than 300 U.S. public television stations.

POLITICS-U.S.: Massacre Renews Call for ‘Common-Sense’ Gun Policy

The massacre at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, which left at least 33 dead and 29 injured in the worst school shooting in U.S. history, has led gun control advocates in Congress and elsewhere to call for immediate reforms to current gun control legislation.

CANADA: ‘Prince of Pot’, Hockey and a U.S. Extradition Hearing

Canadian Marc Emery, an evangelical advocate of legalising marijuana, is to face a high-profile hearing next month on whether he should be extradited to the United States to face charges stemming from his lucrative, Internet-based marijuana seed business.

MEDIA-US: Public’s Grasp of Current Issues Unchanged Despite Internet, Cable TV

Despite the emergence of 24-hour cable television news and fast-growing use of internet news sources, the U.S. public's knowledge of national and international personalities and issues is little changed from nearly 20 years ago, according to a new survey released by the Pew Research Centre for the People and the Press.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Rallies Nationwide Take Aim at U.S. Congress

Environmentalists say they are running out of patience with what they see as the snail's pace of climate change legislation moving through the U.S. Congress.

ENVIRONMENT-US: “Bush Effect” Boosts Green Economy

A low-rise bungalow on a busy street here serves as the world headquarters and nerve centre for Whale Tails, a tortilla chip company dedicated to making healthier snack food - and healing the planet.

POLITICS-US: Rev. Moon Orbits Bush Family

When former President George H.W. Bush takes the stage to deliver the keynote address in honour of the 25th anniversary of the ultra-conservative Washington Times newspaper in mid-May, it will not be the first time he has spoken in support of one of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's enterprises.

WORLD HEALTH DAY: Profits Soar, Along With U.S. Uninsured

The U.S. is said to offer gold-standard health care, but as the most expensive health system in the world, some here say that only people with a pot of gold can get that care.

ENVIRONMENT-US: Warming Activists Hail High Court Ruling

In a decision hailed by environmental activists as a milestone in the fight to curb global warming, the U.S. Supreme Court Monday ruled that the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has the authority to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.

HEALTH-US: Top Army Hospital Swamped by Tide of Wounded

As a nine-member commission prepares to investigate allegations of ineptitude at the United States' largest and most prestigious military hospital, politicians in Washington are waiting to see if any more colleagues associated with the scandal will lose their jobs.

CANADA: Election Puts Quebec Separatist Movement on Hold

Liberal Premier Jean Charest and Quebec separatists were delivered a deep blow by Quebecois voters as the pugnacious Action Democratique du Quebec (ADQ) made major gains in Canada's francophone province. Monday's vote resulted in the first minority government in Quebec since the 1870s.

ENVIRONMENT-US: Organic Gardens vs. Chem-Fed Lawns

Sandalistas are on the march here to create a homegrown organic food movement, encouraging gardeners to tear up their lawns for healthier, more natural alternatives.