Full Coverage: United States

28.02.2005 Fifty-seven countries, including most members of the European Union, Australia, and Japan have agreed to ensure truthfulness in cigarette advertising among many other steps to protect the health of smokers and non-smokers alike.

28.02.2005 Indonesia doesn't have the resources to combat illegal logging and the U.S. has no law against importing illegally sourced timber, but environmentalists are calling on the U.S.'s largest wood distributor to stop importing products from the country where logging threatens the home of millions of indigenous people and a long list of endangered species.

28.02.2005 In December Ross Kauffman and Zana Briski were featured on OneWorld for their film Born into Brothels. Sunday night millions watched as Briski and Kauffman were given the movie industry's highest award for the film, which portrays the fimmakers' work teaching the children of Calcutta's red light district to express themselves through photography.

28.02.2005 California has a tradition of setting tough emissions targets for vehicles sold in the state. Car manufacturers would much prefer that regulations be decided by the Federal government which is soft on the environment. In US fashion, the courts will decide.

25.02.2005 The United States is one of only two major industrialized nations that has not signed on to the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, which went into effect last week. "This is madness...If the leaders won’t lead, then We the People must," says Global Exchange, co-sponsoring a People's Ratification of the Global Warming Treaty that any citizen can sign on to.

24.02.2005 "Democracy is not a potato that you can plant from one kitchen garden to another" says Russia's foreign minister, angry at European grumbles about President Putin's authoritarian ways. Activists are nevertheless pressing President Bush to raise the matter at today's summit.

22.02.2005 Iraq is by tradition the breadbasket of the region, its wheat farmers expert in selection and preservation of seeds. This will not prevent US agribusiness from endeavouring to convert diversity into uniformity and foreign ownership.

22.02.2005 As European leaders seek to cool the passions of George Bush on Iran, the Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohamed ElBaradei, says that inspections in Iran have produced no recent evidence of development of nuclear weapons. He recommends that the US should join in the European strategy of diplomatic engagement.

21.02.2005 WASHINGTON, D.C., Feb 21 (OneWorld) - A diverse array of advocacy groups is expressing hope that proposals in President George W. Bush's budget for fiscal year 2006 and in legislation before the U.S. Senate will help tackle rural poverty in the United States and the developing world.

18.02.2005 The Economist magazine practically predicted Nepal's coup two months before it happened, warning that military aid pouring in from the country's "allies"--the U.S., UK, and India--was stoking the false belief that the Maoist rebellion could be crushed under force of arms. But was Nepal just being used by superpowers fighting their own battles?

18.02.2005 President Bush is faced with a difficult choice--continue to oppose the International Criminal Court on ideological grounds, or give way to overwhelming public opinion and agree to let the Court hear war crimes cases from the Darfur region of Sudan, thereby expediting justice and likely hastening the end of atrocities that continue in the troubled region today. But a group of experts may have found a third way.

18.02.2005 In a bold move this week, President Bush re-nominated several candidates who were rejected by the Senate last year as "out of the mainstream" for lifetime appointments to the federal bench. "Despite what the President would like us to believe, these nominees are not moderate, fair-minded judges who have the letter of the law and our best interests at heart," said the director of a major civil rights coalition.

18.02.2005 Huge government payments to the largest U.S. farms are driving family farms out of business, depriving farmers in poor countries from a fair price for their products, and costing U.S. taxpayers billions each year, explains Oxfam. A proposed bill in the Senate could change all that, but it needs support to get off the ground, the group says.

17.02.2005 WASHINGTON, D.C., Feb 17 (OneWorld) - Despite his strong opposition, U.S. President George W. Bush is under growing pressure from human rights groups and U.S. allies to refer what his administration has called "genocide" in Darfur, Sudan, to the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague.

17.02.2005 China now consumes more of almost all major food, energy, and industrial commodities than the United States--the world's greatest consumer of the 20th century--and it's beginning to widen its lead, making the country an "emerging economic superpower" and the likely dominating force of the 21st century, says eco-economy expert Lester Brown.

17.02.2005 It may not be hard for Americans to get their hands on condoms, but around the world, the scarcity of condoms is leading to the spread of AIDS and booming birth rates. Population advocates are urging the United States to help make condoms available everywhere they're needed.

17.02.2005 Support for U.S. military operations may not be overwhelming at home, but popular support for the troops themselves has never wavered. So why are so many coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan only to end up homeless?

17.02.2005 As evidence mounts that electro-shock TASERs are not being used by law enforcement personnel solely as an "alternative to lethal force"--and have resulted in nearly 100 deaths themselves--an investigation into their use and effects will finally be conducted.

17.02.2005 Ten years ago, the U.S. committed to promote women's human rights, political participation, and access to education, employment, and health care around the world. In a series of meetings last year, however, the U.S. pulled its support for the platform. A coalition of women's groups is asking Americans to call on the president to reaffirm the country's support for women's rights at a major UN meeting in March.

16.02.2005 President Bush is asking Congress to cut more than $1 billion in total education spending and eliminate entirely the $500 million Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) state block-grant program, the primary source of federal funding for school technology.