Full Coverage: Politics

16.12.2004 Recently, journalists reporting from the BiH Parliamentary Assembly (PA) gathered and established an association called the Press Gallery of the BiH PA. Although there are already a few journalists’ associations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, these are still completely disorganized. This is why we decided to use the support of the OSCE Parliamentary Support Programme to establish the Parliamentary Press Gallery as a focal point around which political journalists from our country could gather.

16.12.2004 A new report confirms many suspicions about voter disenfranchisement in the 2004 elections, and momentum is growing for a Congressional commission to look into voting irregularities. With memories of 2000 still fresh, the lesson of 2004 is that our vote is not secure, says Congressman Jesse L. Jackson, Jr., arguing for a Constitutional amendment guaranteeing every American citizen's right to vote.

15.12.2004 Botswana's traditional Baletes tribe has appointed its first woman chief, deferring age old custom to anti-discrimination freedoms guaranteed under the country's constitution.

14.12.2004 Le Président du Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, entreprend ce 13 décembre une visite officielle et d'amitié à Cuba, sur invitation du Chef d'État cubain Fidel Castro, informe une dépêche de l'Agence Cubaine d'Information (AIN), reçue par AlterPresse.

14.12.2004 Whether the country had been in a pre-revolutionary state or not (few people now believe that to be the case) is immaterial. What is important is that there are many relevant lessons to be learned from what transpired in Argentina and what we can do in the future to advance further in the task of bringing about a better society.

14.12.2004 Shut out of political--and often social--life since Estonia gained independence in 1991, some 160,000 ethnic Russians live without the rights and protections of any country, unable to travel freely and suffering disproportionately from poverty, alcoholism, and disease.

13.12.2004 As Palestinians mobilize for elections, Israel must show its committment to peace by easing the everyday lives of Palestinians and ending the policies of collective punishment and assassinations, otherwise no new Palestinian leader will be able to gain support for the beleaguered peace process, warns the Co-Director of a cooperative Israeli/Palestinian think tank.

13.12.2004 The U.S. Congress authorized more funding to provide seed loans to aspiring small business owners in poor countries last week. The field of microfinance has revolutionized financial services for the poor in the past decade, but it still only reaches a maximum of ten percent of the demand for these services, according to a coaliton of groups that promote the practice.

10.12.2004 Un sérieux camouflet moral a été infligé à l’esprit de la démocratie américaine, la plus ancienne du monde, et à ce titre référence primordiale, avec la réélection, le 2 novembre dernier, de M. George W. Bush à la présidence des Etats-Unis. Il va de soi que, techniquement, il n’y a – cette fois – rien à blâmer. Nul ne peut contester le caractère légitime du scrutin. Par Ignacio Ramonet.

10.12.2004 The United States stood by its refusal to sign a landmark global warming agreement, insisting at an environmental conference here that it is doing more to battle climate change than many nations.

10.12.2004 Corporate Europe Observatory's (CEO) new 24-page 'Lobby Planet' guide to the EU quarter introduces you to some of the most powerful corporations, PR firms, think-tanks and industry groups operating in Brussels. The guidebook describes
the increasingly harmful impacts of corporate lobbying and spin on EU
decision-making.

09.12.2004 Réunis au Pérou, les représentants de douze pays de la région ont donné naissance, mercredi 8 décembre, à la Communauté sud-américaine des nations (CSN), une entité destinée à favoriser l'intégration économique et politique du sous-continent. Pour aboutir, ce projet devra dépasser les fortes dissensions qui opposent certains pays signataires de la "Déclaration de Cuzco".

09.12.2004 States rights don't seem to be very important to the White House when it comes to making sure the auto industry doesn't have to contend with tougher state environmental regulations, writes an environmental watchdog group.

09.12.2004 BANGKOK, Dec 8 (IPS) - The baffling question remains - one that seems to indicate that the facade of unity within the region's premier regional grouping, the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN), over member Burma seems to be unraveling.

08.12.2004 "This is America, not Soviet Russia...It is just a matter of time until those who refuse to carry the new licenses will be denied the ability to drive or board an airplane," said U.S. Congressman Ron Paul on Wednesday, lambasting the proposed national identification provision of the intelligence bill being considered by congress.

07.12.2004 Le parti de gauche MAS (Mouvement vers le socialisme) va quant à lui à contre-courant et consolide timidement ses appuis à la grandeur du pays. S'il n'arrive pas à prendre le contrôle d'une ville d’importance, un nombre significatif de conseillers représenteront désormais cette option.

07.12.2004 A large coalition of religious, environmental, and civil rights organizations have reprimanded the United States for using terrorism as an excuse to spy on people who are politically active. "We need to honor and uphold our constitution by not eroding the very principles upon which our country was founded," said the director of a national religious group that has supported marginalized and disenfranchised Americans since the days of slavery.

06.12.2004 From an Alaska land swap to tours of a Georgia barrier island, business interests bested environmentalists in battles that shaped Congress' $388 billion spending bill.

06.12.2004 The world must do far more to reduce greenhouse gases than merely meet the targets set in 1998 at the Kyoto environmental conference in Japan, Australia's environment minister said Monday.

06.12.2004 The 10th Conference of the Parties (COP10) takes place in Buenos Aires from the 6 to 17 December 2004. It is the 10th anniversary year of the entry into force of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which has been ratified by 189 countries. The Kyoto Protocol, agreed under the UNFCCC, has been ratified by 128 countries and will enter into force on February 16, 2005.