News stories by Carey L. Biron

WASHINGTON, Jan 13 (IPS) - With Haiti's Parliament possibly set to dissolve by Tuesday, civil society groups are worried that the Haitian president may move to unilaterally put in place a contentious revision to the country's decades-old mining law.

WASHINGTON, Dic 19 (IPS) - An unprecedented number of United Nations special rapporteurs and independent experts are raising pointed concerns over the World Bank's ongoing review of its pioneering environmental and social safeguards, particularly around the role that human rights will play in these revamped policies.

WASHINGTON, Dic 16 (IPS) - Developing countries are losing money through illicit channels at twice the rate at which their economies are growing, according to new estimates released Tuesday. Further, the total volume of these lost funds appears to be rapidly expanding.

WASHINGTON, Dic 10 (IPS) - Nearly two dozen health, advocacy and faith groups are calling on President Barack Obama to take executive action clarifying that U.S. assistance can be used to fund abortion services for women and girls raped in the context of war and conflict.

WASHINGTON, Dic 09 (IPS) - Just half of major global banks have in place a public policy to respect human rights, according to new research, despite this being a foundational mandate of an international convention on multinational business practice.

WASHINGTON, Dic 04 (IPS) - The World Bank has taken an unusual but highly visible step away from traditional economics, encouraging policymakers and development implementers to place far more emphasis on research into local human behaviour when drawing up plans and projects.

WASHINGTON, Dic 01 (IPS) - Multinational oil and gas companies are engaged in a quiet but broad attempt to prepare the groundwork for a significant global expansion of shale gas development, according to a study released Monday.

WASHINGTON, Nov 25 (IPS) - Major U.S. jewellery companies and retailers have started to take substantive steps to eliminate the presence of "conflict gold" from their supply chains, according to the results of a year-long investigation published Monday.

WASHINGTON, Nov 21 (IPS) - The key U.S. advocate of a proposal to create a multilateral body mandated to investigate allegations of political corruption says the idea is receiving significant interest from civil society, politicians and major business leaders.

WASHINGTON, Nov 18 (IPS) - Industrialised countries have agreed to collaborate on a new programme aimed at funnelling significant private-sector investment into global infrastructure projects, particularly in developing countries.