News stories by Carey L. Biron, page 20

WASHINGTON, Mar 19 (IPS) - A group of environmentalists, gender activists and international finance watchdogs are calling on the U.S. government to support calls for the World Bank to step back from a new programmatic focus on large-scale infrastructure, which critics say does little to help alleviate poverty.

WASHINGTON, Mar 19 (IPS) - Food safety advocates, environmentalists and health professionals here are engaging in a fervent last-minute campaign to highlight a controversial legislative amendment they say would gut the ability of both the judiciary and the federal government to regulate genetically modified agricultural products.

WASHINGTON, Mar 15 (IPS) - President Barack Obama on Friday unveiled a broad new proposal to step up U.S. research into renewable energy technologies, particularly in transportation, which is responsible for around 70 percent of the United States' oil use.

WASHINGTON, Mar 14 (IPS) - Eighteen Nobel Peace Prize recipients called Thursday for President Barack Obama to take a leadership role in supporting a "historic" internationally binding agreement that would regulate the global arms trade, including instituting a strict ban on arms sales to states involved in egregious human rights abuses.

WASHINGTON, Mar 12 (IPS) - As the new board of the United Nations Green Climate Fund meets in Berlin this week, activist and watchdog groups here and around the world are expressing frustration over proposed rules they say are already significantly limiting civil society participation in the new initiative.

WASHINGTON, Mar 11 (IPS) - Around 100 scholars, former government officials and policymakers are calling on the U.S. Congress to enact pending legislation enabling broad governance reforms within the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that would strengthen the voice of developing countries within the institution.

WASHINGTON, Mar 09 (IPS) - Six women recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday lauded the work of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), offering additional high-level support for the institution just weeks ahead of a critical vote on a reforms process that many worry could irreparably weaken the Inter-American system.

WASHINGTON, Mar 07 (IPS) - The United States has refused to vote for involvement by the World Bank Group in a massive but controversial mining project in Mongolia.

WASHINGTON, Mar 06 (IPS) - The World Bank is urging African governments to retool their agriculture policies, particularly to include a far greater focus on agribusiness as a critical driver of future development.

WASHINGTON, Mar 05 (IPS) - Civil society opposition here has strengthened against a U.S.-proposed free trade zone that would include some dozen countries around the Pacific Rim.