Full Coverage: United States

31.12.2004 Jeremy Rifkin, best selling author of the ‘The End of Time’ believes that the AmericanDream--which was the gold standard for the whole world for 200 years--“has completely unravelled in the last forty years.” With the U.S. ranking 24th in income disparity among industrial nations, the “American Dream is fading and in its place a new more inclusive European vision of the future is on the rise.”

30.12.2004 As news emerges that the US may work independently of the UN in response to the tsunami disaster, the Director of Oxfam International calls for effective coordination between the major donors - EU, UN and US.

30.12.2004 “I wanted to work at a decent job and earn a decent wage, with decent benefits, so I can raise my kids, give them a decent education,” said 31-year-old Aaron Kemp who used to work at Maytag corporation’s factory in Galesburg, Illinois. The corporation closed the plant in September, sending most of the 1,600 jobs performed there to Mexico in a move the workers blame more on corporate greed than declining revenue.

29.12.2004 The Bush administration's foreign policy may be costing U.S. corporations business overseas--according to a new survey of 8,000 international consumers released this week by the Seattle-based Global Market Insite (GMI) Inc.

29.12.2004 The tsunami may have struck on the other side of the world, ripple effects of more positive kind are emerging across America. Communities and concerned individuals from Massachusetts to Texas rally to provide aid to victims and survivors.

29.12.2004 The Iraqi interim government is planning major economic changes, including passing a new law that will grant full access for U.S. companies to the country’s oil reserves. Adil Abdel Mahdi, Iraqi finance minister said during a visit to the U.S. last week that cuts to social subsidies and reconsideration of oil deals that Saddam Hussein sign with France and Russia are part of the planned changes.

28.12.2004

Pondicherry fishing village after the tsunami © M S Swaminathan Research Foundation

Relief agencies and governments are mobilizing the biggest operation ever to support victims of last weekend’s tsunami disaster, among them are partner organizations of OneWorld United States.

27.12.2004 Parents of three U.S. soldiers killed in the war in Iraq are on their way to that country as part of a humanitarian mission aimed at showing a different face of the United States to Iraqis displaced by fierce fighting in Fallujah.

24.12.2004

23.12.2004 A combination of Washington's gaping federal budget deficit and unanticipated humanitarian crises overseas means that U.S. food aid programs designed to lift millions of people out of absolute poverty and chronic malnutrition are being sacrificed to meet more urgent needs in life-and-death situations.

23.12.2004 "We are convinced that the presence of U.S. troops is a destabilizing force in the region and contributes to the increasing loss of life," a prominent faith-based humanitarian group said Wednesday. Noting that a solid majority in the U.S. now believe the war was a mistake, the group called for the U.S. to give way so the UN and other agencies, working with the Iraqi interim government, can bring peace and stability.

23.12.2004 Charity volunteers who run an annual holiday food and toy giveaway have been overwhelmed by donations for hurricane victims.

22.12.2004 Army documents released Tuesday by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) offered new details about the deaths of Iraqis in U.S. custody and suggested that prosecution in several cases was pre-empted by military commanders.

22.12.2004 "We support elections as one component of democratization. But not every election is a legitimate instrument of democracy," notes international affairs expert Phyllis Bennis. An election cannot be legitimate when it is conducted under foreign military occupation, administered by a government put in place by those occupiers, and when war is raging throughout the country, she explains.

22.12.2004 An author who brought international attention to genocide, the lead plaintiff in the Wal-Mart sex discrimination suit, and the "Jersey Girls"--four widows of the world trade center tragedy who made the 9/11 commission happen--were among those chosen by Ms. Magazine as 2004's Women of the Year.

21.12.2004 A major annual conference ended Saturday with some progress made to help countries prepare for climate change; some further discussions and aid to small island developing states were blocked by U.S. and Saudi representatives.

21.12.2004 U.S. courts are stripping undocumented workers of their rights, charges a coalition of over 20 labor, civil rights, and immigrants' rights organizations who have requested a hearing on the issue before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

21.12.2004 The Modest Needs Foundation, which gives small grants for specific purposes to families struggling to make ends meet, started in 2002 as the small bits of salary one college teacher was able to put aside from his monthly paycheck. In two and a half years it has grown to a community of over 46,000 responding to needs such as a pair of glasses for a child with a rare disease and a water bill payment that saved a family's home.

20.12.2004 A major U.S. human rights organization has accused the Iranian judiciary of using coerced confessions and threats of lengthy prison sentences to cover up arbitrary detentions and torture of internet journalists and dissidents.

20.12.2004 It is estimated that one-quarter of the approximately 900,000 HIV-positive people living in the United States are unaware of their status. New tests that deliver results in 20 minutes are being used around the country, with hopes of reaching more people at risk.