POLITICS-US: More of the Same from House Immigration Caucus?

Turning away from the pugnacious rhetorical style of its founder and former chair Rep. Tom Tancredo, a Colorado Republican, the House Immigration Reform Caucus (HIRC), now chaired by Rep. Brian Bilbray, seems desirous of setting a kinder gentler course for itself, yet it appears to be headed in the same old direction.

RELIGION-US: Who Says Halal and Kosher Don’t Mix?

If you happen to visit Fredericksburg, Maryland soon or other U.S. towns, you may find yourself invited to a local mosque for dinner - especially if you are Christian or Jewish.

DEATH PENALTY-US: Abolitionists See Victory in View

Campaigners against the death penalty in the U.S. believe the momentum for a country-wide ban on executions is now unstoppable and some are predicting all their death rows will be closed down within 15 years.

RIGHTS: One Fumbled Execution Sets U.S. Further Thinking

Last December's botched execution by lethal injection in the U.S. state of Florida has raised to new levels the controversy surrounding capital punishment - and focused public attention here squarely on this particular way of carrying out a death sentence.

CANADA: Peace Scholars See Shrinking Space for Dissent

Can Canadians have a fair debate on their military mission in southern Afghanistan when so many of the sources quoted in the domestic press are bankrolled by the Department of National Defence (DND)?

RIGHTS: U.S., Canada Diverge on Terror War Tactics

In stark contrast to last week's U.S. court decision upholding the Military Commissions Act, Canada's court has unanimously struck down a law that would allow the Canadian government to use secret evidence to detain foreign-born terror suspects indefinitely without charges or open court hearings.

POLITICS-US: Right’s New Strategy Emulates the “Enemy”

The history of the modern U.S. conservative movement - circa 1964 to the present - is replete with its share of hucksters, snake oil salesman, rhetoricians, mudslingers, marketers and one-hit wonders. But it also has had more than its fair share of visionaries, opportunists (in the best sense of the word), motivated entrepreneurs, perhaps even revolutionaries.

EDUCATION-US: Ivory Tower Still Blindingly White

A premier U.S. research institute has agreed to address possible racial discrimination in hiring, following a 12-day hunger fast by one of its African American scientists.

ENVIRONMENT-US: Slow Rescue for Famed River of Grass

Both the state of Florida and the U.S. federal government agree that the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Project (CERP), the largest wetlands restoration project in the world, is a critical endeavor that must be carried out.

POLITICS-US: Bush Library to Boost a Sagging Legacy

In the midst of the United States Senate debate over whether to allow a non-binding resolution opposing President George W. Bush's 21,000-plus troop surge in Iraq, and the United Nations climate change panel's report attributing global warming to human activity, it seems a little strange perhaps that a debate over a proposed presidential library would stir so many passions.

RIGHTS-US: Audit Finds Multiple Abuses in Immigration Jails

Suspected illegal immigrants held in detention by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security are failing to receive timely medical treatment and adequate food, are subjected to frequent sexual harassment, and have their access to lawyers, relatives and immigration authorities improperly limited.

DEVELOPMENT-US: Vietnamese Enclave Thrives After Katrina

As Hurricane Katrina made landfall in August 2005, Mo Thi Nguyen, 71, fled New Orleans with family members to Dallas, Texas, where she stayed for three months.

U.S.: Proposed ’08 Pentagon Earns Superlatives All Around

How big is President George W. Bush's proposed 2008 Pentagon budget?

CANADA: Native Land Treaty 13 Years in the Making

The British Columbia provincial government in Canada is starting to make real headway on aboriginal land claims agreements after years of costly negotiations and inter-governmental deadlock.

POLITICS-US: Goode Grief Over Koran Jibe

More than 20 prominent religious leaders have launched an online petition demanding that Rep. Virgil Goode, a Virginia Republican, rethink his opposition to newly-elected Rep. Keith Ellison, a Muslim from Minnesota, taking his unofficial oath of office using the Koran.

POLITICS-US: Ailing Health System Defies Easy Fix

When the U.S. Democratic Party snatched 29 House seats and six Senate seats away from the Republicans in November, putting themselves in the majority for the first time in 12 years, the party's presumptive leader Nancy Pelosi promised that during their first 100 hours in power, the law would be changed to allow the government to negotiate directly with drug companies for lower prices for Medicare patients.

BOOKS-US: ” Zebra Murders” Recalls a City’s Collective Punishment

It may seem like an unlikely place to look, but those concerned with stopping the spread of terrorism would be advised to check out "The Zebra Murders: A Season of Killing, Racial Madness and Civil Rights", a new book about a string of murders in 1970s San Francisco written by the city's first black police chief, Earl Sanders, and co-author Bennett Cohen.

CHALLENGES 2006-2007: Docu-mania Sweeps U.S.

From Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" to Barbara Kopple's "Shut Up and Sing" about the travails of the Dixie Chicks, U.S. audiences flocked to theatres in 2006 to watch films that took on heavy topics like global warming, the meaning of "patriotism" and the war in Iraq.

MIGRATION-US: Massive Sweep Creates Havoc for Workers’ Families

Families are still scrambling to get information about their loved ones a week after U.S. immigration agents arrested over 1,000 workers at meatpacking plants in six states in a massive operation targeting people working with false documents.

RELIGION-US: Video Game Metes Out Death to Infidels

A coalition of U.S. religious and progressive groups has stepped up a formal campaign to protest a controversial new Christian fundamentalist video game in which players battle the "forces of the Anti-Christ" and kill or convert non-believers.

DEATH PENALTY-U.S.: Victims’ Families Weigh In on State Moratorium Debate

When Lorry Post's daughter was murdered in 1989, Post did not want to see his daughter's murderer executed, but to spend the rest of his life behind bars.