News stories by Joe Hitchon

WASHINGTON, May 25 (IPS) - Following the release of a major draft report on drug policy in the Americas, the secretary-general of the Organisation of American States (OAS), Jose Miguel Insulza, called for the beginning of debate aimed at reforming those policies throughout the region.

WASHINGTON, May 17 (IPS) - With casualties in the long-running conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) now surpassing every conflict since World War II, U.S. policymakers and advocates are stepping up campaigns to raise awareness and push legislation aimed at encouraging new negotiations, assisting in government reforms, and pressuring the neighbouring countries that have propped up the DRC's government.

WASHINGTON, May 03 (IPS) - Twenty of the world's most fragile states, including those currently affected by conflict, have achieved one or more of the development targets outlined under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the World Bank said this week.

WASHINGTON, Apr 24 (IPS) - With climate change rapidly opening up new opportunities for shipping and resource extraction across the once permanently frozen Arctic, the United States and other northern countries are being compelled to re-examine their policies, both national and collective, towards this region of growing geostrategic importance.

WASHINGTON, Apr 18 (IPS) - The U.S. Supreme Court has dismissed a lawsuit against the Royal Dutch Shell Petroleum Company brought by alleged human rights victims.

WASHINGTON, Apr 17 (IPS) - Public debate here over the military prison at Guantanamo Bay heated up again following Monday's surprise publication of a highly charged article by an inmate at the prison, one of dozens currently engaged in a months-long hunger strike over detainees' "indefinite detention".

WASHINGTON, Apr 13 (IPS) - Women and minorities should be a top priority in U.S. policy toward Egypt and its Muslim Brotherhood government leaders, experts here said on Friday, despite increasingly unfavourable public views towards Egypt.

WASHINGTON, Mar 26 (IPS) - Researchers have unveiled new data warning that governments in Latin America are infringing on the rights of their indigenous populations in a bid to fuel development through the extraction of natural resources.

WASHINGTON, Mar 16 (IPS) - The world's food security remains "vulnerable", new data suggests, with some 870 million people experiencing sustained hunger and two billion suffering from micronutrient deficiencies.

WASHINGTON, Mar 13 (IPS) - In unusual public testimony, the U.S. government has publicly stated that no "indefinite detention" is taking place among detainees at the military prison in Guantánamo Bay.