Full Coverage: North America

31.03.2004 Environmental groups are upping pressure on the Bush administration, issuing sharp critiques of a wide range of policies such as weakened controls on mercury pollution and a proposal to overturn rules that prevent mining companies from disturbing streambeds.

31.03.2004 Public sector workers in Newfoundland and Labrador are primed to walk off the job when their contracts expire at midnight. The province's position throughout bargaining has been: accept a wage freeze or accept massive layoffs. And yesterday's provincial budget lurched ahead by announcing 4,000 job cuts over the next four years. Union leaders meet with Premier Danny Williams today in a last-ditch effort to break the deadlock.

31.03.2004 BREMEN, Mar 31 (CSM) -- The impersonal white postcards bearing the return address "Camp X-Ray" stopped arriving more than a year ago. Rabiye Kurnaz took little comfort from the short, vague messages she received from her son, who has been a detainee at the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay for nearly two years, but they let her know he was alive.

31.03.2004 WASHINGTON, D.C., Mar 31 (OneWorld) - This week's outburst of apparently Islamist-related violence, which has killed more than 40 people in two major cities in Uzbekistan in the past three days, is spurring renewed attention to the strategically located Central Asian country's deplorable human rights record.

31.03.2004 A coalition of environmental and global justice groups will rally at the U.S. Auto Show in New York April 10 to challenge automakers to dramatically reduce the fuel economy of their cars and trucks.

31.03.2004

© Radio Netherlands

The Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday over a legal remedy known as ATCA (Alien Tort Claims Act) that allows non-Americans to sue those who have violated their rights at home in American courts. ATCA has been around as long as the United States, but the Bush administration is trying to get rid of it. Learn more.

31.03.2004 Els EUA estan reclutant mercenaris perquè desenvolupin tasques de seguretat i vigilància a l'Irac, segons ha confirmat l'empresa Backwater USA, responsable de la selecció. La gran majoria dels mercenaris són xilens que militaven a l'exèrcit durant la dictadura d'Augusto Pinochet, però també s'han enviat a l'Irac uns 1.500 sud-africans, molts d'ells exmembres de les forces de seguretat del règim de l'apartheid.

31.03.2004 EE.UU. está reclutando mercenarios para que desempeñen tareas de seguridad y vigilancia en Irak, según ha confirmado la empresa Backwater USA, responsable de la selección. La gran mayoría de los mercenarios son chilenos que militaban en el ejército durante la dictadura de Augusto Pinochet, pero también se han enviado a Irak unos 1.500 sudafricanos, muchos de ellos exmiembros de las fuerzas de seguridad del régimen del apartheid. (Enlace a texto en catalán)

31.03.2004 The United States has some of the best schools and universities in the world. But it also has a substantial number of students who are being "left behind, falling through the cracks." Rod Paige, Secretary of Education of the United States, explains his government’s efforts to improve the quality of education and to ensure that no child is left behind.

31.03.2004 During his visit to Washington, Colombian president Álvaro Uribe is seeking continued U.S. investment in Plan Colombia and assurances of U.S.-backing for "Plan Colombia II." President Uribe is promoting his controversial plan to demobilize illegal paramilitary groups and highlighting recent reductions in the cultivation of coca.

30.03.2004 Students across Canada will soon be celebrating the end of term. Students Against Missile Defence is calling on students to have "house parties for peace" - and to tell Prime Minister Martin to keep Canada out of a dangerous, ill-conceived and expensive U.S. missile defence program.

30.03.2004 En 2002 et en 2003, le Canada a été le seul des 53 pays membres de la Commission des droits de l'homme de l'ONU à voter contre la reconnaissance du droit humain à l'eau. Le 22 mars, quatre ONG canadiennes, dont le Conseil des Canadiens, se sont réunies sur la colline parlementaire à l'occasion de la Journée mondiale de l’eau afin de contester cette position du gouvernement canadien.

30.03.2004 Gordon Campbell's BC Liberals campaigned on the promise of a "new era" for British Columbia - an end to the supposed excesses of the social democrats. And since "Slash Gordon" came to power, health care, welfare, education, legal aid and other services have suffered from his special attention. Now all 37 BC Women's Centres are on the chopping block.

30.03.2004

September 11 © Guardian Unlimited

National security analyst John Prados sifts through the testimony given to date at the 9-11 Commission hearings and concludes that the Bush administration gave short-shrift to warnings from Clinton-era predecessors that terrorism in general--and Al Qaeda in particular--required urgent action. But the new government was quick-on-the-draw to target Iraq.

30.03.2004 Last week's federal budget fails to address flaws in Canada's provincial equalization program, says a study released today. Often called confederation's "glue," equalization is the formula-based program of federal grants paid annually to provinces with below-average revenue capacity. Today's study says the formula's flaws - coupled with shrinking federal transfers overall - are now depriving have-not provinces to a degree that is unconstitutional.

30.03.2004 Philip Zelikow, a longtime Bush insider and executive director of the 9-11 Commission, strongly suggested to an audience at the Univ. of Virginia in 2002 that the prime motivation behind the overthrow of Saddam Hussein was to protect Israel, not the United States, from potential aggression.

30.03.2004 WASHINGTON, D.C. Mar 30 (CSM) -- The world's rising disapproval of US foreign policy stems in part from opposition to the war in Iraq and the "with us or against us" tone of the world's only superpower. But beneath the focus on geopolitics, such hot-button social issues as family planning and women's reproductive rights are also demonstrating America's shifting stature in the world--especially as the Bush administration seeks to placate its socially conservative base.

30.03.2004 WASHINGTON, Mar 29 (IPS) - U.S. Africa and AIDS activists are increasing pressure on the Bush administration to abandon its apparent efforts to block the use of U.S. aid to purchase life-preserving, generic anti-AIDS drugs for needy Africans, about 6,000 of whom die every day from the disease.

30.03.2004 'I share your dream of a Middle East replete with democracy and human rights for all,' writes a prominent Palestinian doctor to President Bush in Grassroots' Online Journal, 'but why not set a better example?'

30.03.2004 Pres. Bush's nomination of William Myers--a lawyer considered barely competent by his own peers--to a key, lifetime judicial post is expected to reach the Senate floor this week. Myers' nomination is opposed by a broad coalition of jurists and legal scholars, environmentalists, Native Americans, and civil rights groups.