News stories by Jim Lobe, page 6

WASHINGTON, Apr 02 (IPS) - In a decision with major implications for the U.S. political system, a bare majority of the Supreme Wednesday ruled that the government cannot limit total spending by individuals on federal elections.

WASHINGTON, Mar 26 (IPS) - International human rights groups have strongly denounced Monday's sentencing by an Egyptian court of 529 Islamists to death for a riot in which one policeman was killed.

WASHINGTON, Mar 24 (IPS) - The observation that the Chinese characters for the word "crisis" combine the characters for "danger" and "opportunity" has become a staple of Washington foreign policy discourse for years.

WASHINGTON, Mar 21 (IPS) - The World Bank Thursday approved a 73.1-million-dollar grant in support of a controversial giant dam project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

WASHINGTON, Mar 19 (IPS) - In an unusual intervention in policy debates, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) warned Tuesday that that world was "at risk of pushing our climate system toward abrupt, unpredictable, and potentially irreversible changes with highly damaging impacts."

WASHINGTON, Mar 15 (IPS) - Despite pressure from the Barack Obama administration, Ukraine's new prime minister, and a veritable who's who in Washington's foreign policy and financial establishment, Congress adjourned Friday for a 10-day recess without approving emergency assistance for an increasingly beleaguered and economically bereft Ukraine.

WASHINGTON, Mar 12 (IPS) - An ongoing battle between the Democratic chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) over reports about the agency's "enhanced interrogation" practices during the George W. Bush administration has escalated sharply.

WASHINGTON, Mar 05 (IPS) - In the latest twist in a 21-year-old environmental pollution case, a U.S. federal judge Tuesday ruled that the victims of massive oil spillage and their U.S. attorney could not collect on a nine-billion-dollar judgement by Ecuador's supreme court against the Chevron Corporation.

WASHINGTON, Mar 04 (IPS) - A familiar clutch of hawks have taken wing over the rapidly developing crisis in Ukraine, as neo-conservatives and other interventionists claim that President Barack Obama's preference for diplomacy over military action  invited Russian aggression.

WASHINGTON, Feb 28 (IPS) - Civil society activists from five Arab countries are urging the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to ease pressure on their governments to reduce food and fuel subsidies until stronger social-protection schemes and other basic reforms are implemented.