Full Coverage: Geopolitics

31.05.2005 Anti-nuclear weapons activists are expressing disappointment after this month's five-year review of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty ended without any movement to reduce the nuclear threat. A Greenpeace disarmament specialist said governments put "their own nuclear self-interests before the desire for disarmament."

31.05.2005 OTTAWA – Si les recommandations du groupe de travail sur l’avenir de l’Amérique du Nord devaient être mises en œuvre, elles mettraient gravement en danger la capacité du Canada d’adopter des lois ou de prendre des décisions indépendantes dans l’intérêt public, dit le Conseil des Canadiens.

31.05.2005 WASHINGTON, D.C., May 31 (OneWorld) - Month-long U.N. talks on halting the spread of nuclear weapons have ended with no agreement on how to update and strengthen the 35-year-old Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

30.05.2005 The Bush administration is making a final push for Congressional passage of a free trade agreement with five Central American countries and the Dominican Republic, but claims that it will improve economies and strengthen freedom and democracy in Central America are not even supported by a majority in the Republican-led U.S. Congress, says In These Times senior editor David Moberg.

27.05.2005 Foreign governments should launch independent investigations into torture allegations against U.S. troops to determine where the ultimate responsibility lies, said Amnesty International Wednesday, launching its annual report on the state of human rights worldwide. And fault is found as high as Rumsfeld, Bush, Tenet or others, they should receive the same treatment the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet got--arrest and trial.

27.05.2005 The House of Representatives rejected a measure Wednesday calling on President Bush to devise a plan for an Iraq withdrawal. With talks of a pullout taboo a few months ago--by even progressive lawmakers--some argue that the proposal--and the 128 "yay" votes it received--indicates a change of attitude in Congress toward Iraq.

27.05.2005 In an unprecedented display of international solidarity, 191 countries pledged to achieve eight Millennium Development Goals by 2015--but that step is just the tip of the human-rights iceberg, writes Yifat Susskind, MADRE’s Associate Director.

26.05.2005 The Dominican Republic - Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) is a threat to poor people in developing countries, said international agency Oxfam today, as the presidents of five Central American countries and the Dominican Republic are meeting with President Bush. The six presidents have just completed an unprecedented road show to convince US citizens and their lawmakers to support the Free Trade Agreement between their countries and the US, but opposition to the agreement is mounting.

26.05.2005 WASHINGTON, D.C., May 26 (OneWorld) - Rights watchdog Amnesty International urged foreign governments Wednesday to investigate and prosecute President George W. Bush much as they once did former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

26.05.2005 Indian farmers campaigning against cultivation of GM crops won their first success against the U.S.-based company Monsanto by simply establishing that the genetically modified crops were less productive than normal crops. India's government on Tuesday withheld licenses for the commerical cultivation of three kinds of genetically modified cotton developed by Monsanto.

26.05.2005 WASHINGTON, D.C., May 26 (OneWorld) - Activists are seeking to use a European breakthrough this week to turn up the heat on some of the world's richest countries to come up with money they promised decades ago in the global fight against poverty.

26.05.2005 The European Union agreed Tuesday to set concrete timetables for fulfilling a promise the world's richer countries made in 1970 to allocate 70 cents of every $100 of national incomes to aid for poor countries. The move, which would double European aid by 2010, is expected to give a massive jolt to poor countries seeking to finally throw off the yoke of poverty.

26.05.2005 With the G8 Summit kicking off in seven weeks to discuss, among other things, canceling billions of dollars in debt owed by impoverished nations to the International Monetary Fund, Africa Action asks you to take three simple actions to support 100% debt freedom that could make the difference between life and debt for African nations.

26.05.2005 President Mahmoud Abbas' White House visit this week--the first between a Palestinian leader and President Bush--will likely be feted as an example of the Middle East's democratic potential. But it will also serve as an example of democracy's uncertainties, says journalist Howard LaFranchi, as Bush refuses to lessen support for Israel and Congress is unwilling to finance Palestinian aid.

25.05.2005 Presqu’un an a passé depuis le jugement du Tribunal international de justice à l’effet que la construction du Mur par le gouvernement israélien était illégale. Dans son jugement, le tribunal réclamait de l’ONU des actions concrètes pour mettre fin à cette situation. Mais en pratique, rien n’a été fait.

25.05.2005 Fifty years after Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell, and eight other scientists released a statement outlining the dangers of nuclear proliferation in a Cold War setting, the world has a new balance of power but the threats have not diminished and a new nuclear arms race could emerge, contends Joseph Rotblat, the only surviving signatory to the 1955 Manifesto.

25.05.2005 A delegation of four ambassadors to the Organization for Security and Cooperation to Europe will pay a visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina between 28 and 30 May 2005.

24.05.2005 WASHINGTON, D.C., May 24 (OneWorld) - U.S. political celebrities and activists demanded Tuesday that the White House ''take specific steps to stop the genocide in Darfur'' and warned that inaction could push the death toll in the war-wrecked Sudanese region past one million people by the end of this year.

24.05.2005 At Halliburton's annual shareholder meeting in Texas last Wednesday, the international human rights organization Global Exchange put questions directly to company heads regarding the welfare of Halliburton employees in Iraq, and Halliburton's continued dealings with Iran despite U.S. sanctions. Most of the 250+ protestors who showed up to the meeting were barred entrance.

24.05.2005 U.S. use of the Marshall Islands as a laboratory for atomic and thermonuclear testing as well as human radiation experiments has irreperably damaged life in the Pacific country. Tony de Brum, a Marshallese indigenous rights activist, told delegates at the Non-Proliferation Treaty Conference how this non-"rogue state" has already done tremendous damage with nuclear weapons.