News stories by Carey L. Biron, page 14

WASHINGTON, Jul 17 (IPS) - The U.S. and U.K. foreign assistance offices are being accused of ignoring, mischaracterising or downplaying testimony offered by ethnic communities in Ethiopia who accuse the Addis Ababa government of forcefully evicting them from their lands and violating their human rights in the name of mass development projects.

WASHINGTON, Jul 15 (IPS) - International negotiations between more than two-dozen countries to set up conservation areas in the Antarctic seas were thrown into confusion Monday when the Russian and Ukrainian delegations questioned the body's legal standing to make such designations, despite previous precedent.

WASHINGTON, Jul 11 (IPS) - The United States and China have agreed on a suite of potentially far-reaching initiatives aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions in the world's two largest economies and largest polluters.

WASHINGTON, Jul 11 (IPS) - An alliance of 17 major U.S. brands and retailers, including Walmart and the Gap, has unveiled a five-year agreement aimed at strengthening conditions and worker rights at garment factories in Bangladesh.

WASHINGTON, Jul 09 (IPS) - A federal judge here has taken the unusual step of formally calling on President Barack Obama to halt the forcible feeding of dozens of hunger-striking detainees at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba, warning that the practice appears to contravene international law.

WASHINGTON, Jul 02 (IPS) - A federal judge here on Tuesday struck down a key new regulatory provision that would require large U.S.-listed extractives companies to disclose payments made to foreign governments, a rule that rights groups had long pushed as a way to cut down on corruption in developing countries.

WASHINGTON, Jul 02 (IPS) - President Barack Obama on Monday announced a series of new initiatives to combat spiking levels of international poaching and draft a new national plan on wildlife trafficking, an industry that has grown so significantly in recent years that the president now calls it an "international crisis".

WASHINGTON, Jun 28 (IPS) - The World Bank is set to consider dramatically cutting down its funding for coal-related power projects, according to a draft strategy document leaked this week.

WASHINGTON, Jun 27 (IPS) - Indigenous rights groups are applauding U.S. President Barack Obama's creation of a new high-level council aimed at coordinating government actions relating to Native American communities, a move that advocates have been urging since early in the president's first term.

WASHINGTON, Jun 25 (IPS) - Stymied by the U.S. Congress, President Barack Obama on Tuesday unveiled his vision to reset the United States' incoherent national plan to combat climate change, offering dozens of regulatory tweaks and targets that his administration could now implement without Congressional approval.