News stories by Danielle Kurtzleben, page 2

Long-stalled efforts to consummate a free trade agreement (FTA) between the United States and Colombia may be gaining some momentum, despite persistent questions about Bogota's human rights record.

Newly released research from experts and refugee advocates paints a clearer and perhaps surprising picture of the plight of Pakistan’s rapidly growing population of internally displaced persons (IDPs).

While worldwide production of heroin and cocaine appears to be slowing, there has been an increase in the use of synthetic drugs, especially in the Middle East, according to the latest report by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released Wednesday.

On Jun. 19, 2008, the U.N. Security Council passed Resolution 1820, expressly addressing the problems of sexual violence in conflict situations. One year later, three experts in the field gathered to speak at the United States Institute of Peace to evaluate the implementation of 1820 and consider how it might better prevent this widespread crime.

Government corruption has long been a fact of life in Nigeria - elections are often fraught with fraud, intimidation, and violence; oil companies have been known to pay the military for assistance in suppressing protests; embezzling politicians steal money away from infrastructure services and programmes.

Cooperation between the U.S. and China was at the forefront of discussions this week in Washington at two events focusing on the possibilities of a bilateral relationship between the two countries on cutting emissions.

Drug trafficking was once thought to be a largely Latin American problem, but the international community increasingly finds itself fighting this phenomenon in Africa.

A broad coalition of civil society groups, as well as some U.S. lawmakers, is fighting what they call a 'blank cheque' from the U.S. to expand funding for the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Environmentalists are expressing discontent over recently introduced legislation regarding the U.S.’s exporting of electronic waste, or 'e-waste'.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the provision Tuesday of 110 million dollars in humanitarian aid to assist the mounting number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Pakistan.