Full Coverage: United States

31.01.2005 The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is urging senators on both sides of the aisle to insist that attorney-general designate, Alberto Gonzales, commit to immediately appoint a special counsel to investigate and prosecute any criminal acts in the torture and abuse of detainees held by the U.S. government.

31.01.2005 The situation in Iraq would be unpredictable and could become even more dangerous if U.S. troops leave the country, but the same will be true if they stay, says Council for a Livable World president John Isaacs, who served 18 months as a U.S. foreign service officer in Vietnam and sees many similarities between this conflict and that one.

31.01.2005 "On my way out of the voting site, an American soldier handed me a sticker with the words 'I voted' printed on it. He looked perplexed as I stuck it on his rifle and left." Tongue planted firmly in cheek, Iraqi-American Hawra Karama tells what Sunday's elections meant to him, and how they differed from the ones in which Saddam Hussein made him participate in 1995 and 2002.

28.01.2005 "Let me describe the scene on the ground here in 'liberated' Iraq. With the 'elections' just three days away, people are terrified. Families are fleeing Baghdad much as they did prior to the invasion of the country...huge lines of cars are stacked up at checkpoints on the outer edges of the city. Policemen and Iraqi soldiers are trying to convince people to stay in the city and vote. Nobody is listening to them."

28.01.2005 President Bush has re-nominated a former attorney from his administration and lobbyist for the National Mining Association to a lifetime position on the federal bench. His court would have jurisdiction over three-fourths of all federal lands and decide coutless mining, drilling, grazing, and timber cases. And William G. Myers III--who has never been a judge before--was rejected the first time Bush tried to nominate him.

27.01.2005 Young and old alike will be inspired by the group of African student- and other community leaders speaking at college campuses across the U.S. in February. The "Life over Debt" tour hopes to encourage Americans to get involved in the movements to fight AIDS and cancel Africa's debt.

27.01.2005 If U.S. President George W. Bush is serious about re-engaging with the global community and ending genocide in Sudan, he should support a UN move to refer war crimes committed in the country to the International Criminal Court, the grassroots group Citizens for Global Solutions said Wednesday.

27.01.2005 Serious doubts about Alberto Gonzales' commitment to ending the practice of torture employed by U.S. soldiers abroad have led a slew of human and civil rights organizations to oppose President Bush's nominee for the top law enforcement position in the country, saying he is a threat to American values that detest torture and secrecy.

27.01.2005 WASHINGTON, D.C., Jan 26 (OneWorld) – On the eve of a key confirmation vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee, several major U.S. human rights groups called on senators to reject the nomination of Attorney General-designate Alberto Gonzales on the basis of his advice regarding the treatment of detainees in the Bush administration’s "war on terror."

26.01.2005 In the U.S., an estimated 1.3 million young children have mothers in prison, and few public resources are devoted to their needs. Find out more about what is being done from a lawyer who's helping inmate mothers, their children, and other family members to maintain critical family ties during the mother's incarceration.

26.01.2005 No international organization that receives U.S. government funding is allowed to perform legal abortions or even counsel women about abortion. This policy, which has been blamed for reducing women's access to vital family planning services in poor countries, has had a tumultuous history, most recently being reinstated by George W. Bush as one of his first acts as president--on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Learn more from this interactive timeline.

26.01.2005 Wal-Mart has been assailed for driving smaller operations out of business wherever it goes, and now the retail behemoth is being challenged itself--forced to scrap expansion plans in several U.S. cities as residents protest its employment policies that they say keep poor workers poor. While the company's profits top $9 billion a year, only half its employees have health insurance, and those that do often pay as much as $200 per month out of their own pockets.

26.01.2005 A coalition of farmworkers will tour the U.S. raising awareness of the sub-poverty wages and sweatshop conditions imposed on the workers who pick tomatoes for the fast food restaurant chain Taco Bell. Twenty-one universities around the country have canceled their contracts with the restaurant.

25.01.2005 The US is advertising rewards for the capture of Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar in Pakistan but no decision has been made on doubling the bounty on the al-Qaeda chief's head to $US 50 million.

25.01.2005 Singling out HIV/AIDS, human trafficking, and family planning, U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton bemoaned the "less-than-friendly" atmosphere women's health advocates face in Washington earlier this month, urging members of the International Women's Health Coalition to hold their leaders accountable for advances--or the lack thereof--on these issues.

25.01.2005 When cattle are raised naturally, with access to pasture and proper feed, the conditions for spreading diseases like mad cow are virtually eliminated, say proponents of sustainable farming in the U.S. who blame the recent outbreak of the disease on factory farms where they say chicken manure, blood, and animal carcasses are used as filler in artificial feeds.

24.01.2005 Amy Goodman, host of US radio show Democracy Now! will speak about independent media in the US, the US election and her new book. Sunday January 30th in London

24.01.2005 Practically all the major television and news outlets covered the story of Armstrong Williams, the Black conservative pundit paid by the Bush administration to promote the president's education program in his newspaper columns and radio shows. But that's not the end of the story; the government also sent out phony "news reports" about other initiatives that were carried by nearly 300 television stations reaching over 22 million households, reports George Curry of BlackPressUSA.com.

24.01.2005 President Bush is expected to soon request $100 billion from Congress for the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and less than half of one percent of that amount for the tsunami disaster. You can tell your congresspeople what you think U.S. taxpayers' dollars should support.

21.01.2005 Cold-blooded killings of journalists in Mexico in 2004 transformed the barely established Center for Journalism and Public Ethics (Cepet) into an activist organization defending the very lives of its constituents. With death at the doorstep, the group sought solidarity from representatives of the U.S. media in a border conference to fortify the free press. But only a week later another Mexican journalist was gunned down.