A leading U.S.-based humanitarian group is urging the George W. Bush administration to engage all rebel groups in the Darfur peace process as the U.S. president prepares to talk with the leader of just one particular faction.   more »

Mindful that life on Earth is seriously threatened by the continued loss of thousands of plant and animal species, an international group of scientists is calling for the creation of a global forum to help officials craft plans to preserve biodiversity on the planet.   more »

An Afghan government proposal to re-establish the notorious Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has raised concerns among U.S. human rights advocates. Under the Taliban, the virtue and vice department enforced restrictions on women and men through public beatings and imprisonment.   more »

Despite unprecedented growth in recent years, the world economy has not only failed to take care of the planet and its health, but also the basic needs of billions of its inhabitants, most of whom are condemned to live in slums with no safe water to drink, according to a new study released by a U.S.-based independent think tank.   more »

An internationally renowned nuclear expert is calling for nuclear reactors in the United Kingdom to be immediately shut down after government documents revealed they contain cracking in the bricks of their reactor cores.   more »

Humanitarian groups trying to assess the number of innocent civilians killed in Iraq are demanding the Pentagon back up its claims that fewer Iraqis are being killed by accident at U.S. military check-points.   more »

For over sixty years the Navy used the Eastern part of Vieques as their Live Impact Area. Everything from Napalm to Agent Orange to Depleted Uranium bullets were released on this eastern part of the island.   more »

Major international footwear companies would be wise to pay as much attention to the plight of their workers as their marketing campaigns during the World Cup, said the international human rights group Oxfam, which ranked each of the world's major sportswear companies for a new report, ''Offside! Labor Rights and Sportswear Production in Asia.''   more »

Activists from more than 70 civil society groups from around the world have denounced the United Nations political declaration on HIV/AIDS released Friday at the end of a major international gathering.   more »

A dramatic shift of funds and priorities is needed to stem the tide of the global AIDS pandemic, said women's health advocates in Washington, DC last week, marking the 25th anniversary of the disease's discovery.   more »

Wrapping up a major meeting of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues here Friday, indigenous leaders called for a key UN human rights body to consider taking new steps to meet their concerns.   more »

As policy makers from around the world gather here to attend a major United Nations conference on fisheries, a prominent environmental group has renewed its demand for a global effort to stem so-called pirate fishing and a worldwide moratorium on high seas fishing by commercial companies using bottom trawlers.   more »

With growing concerns over high prices of oil and its adverse impact on the world's poor and the environment, the United Nations is urging policy makers to explore the use of alternative sources for energy.   more »

The world's leading rights advocacy groups have welcomed the results of Tuesday's elections at the United Nations that have led to the formation of a new international leadership to defend human rights.   more »

The Bush administration's efforts to plead innocence to charges of using torture before a key United Nations committee have been complicated by a new report from an influential human rights group suggesting otherwise.   more »

Devastating storms? Harsh droughts? More diseases? Polluted air and waterways? Contaminated food? Some of the key causes are global warming and a loss of biodiversity caused by humans' excessive use and abuse of the Earth and its resources. Complex global problems all, so what's an individual to do?   more »

A leading international human rights group is calling for the Bush administration to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the alleged involvement of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other senior Pentagon officials in the torture of a prisoner at Guanatanamo Bay some three years ago.   more »

As all of you contact lens wearers have heard by now, Renu has been taken off the public market due to the alarming numbers of fungal infections that have broken out recently.    more »

As tax day looms, a prominent environmentalist is urging changes he says will spare the taxpayer, spur the economy, and save the planet.   more »

Alongside the war in Iraq, Americans worry most about U.S. dependence on foreign oil, a leading pollster said Thursday. While most appeared fatalistic over problems like job outsourcing, around half said the government can do something about energy dependence, according to a survey run by Daniel Yankelovich, funded by the Ford Foundation, and published by the Council on Foreign Relations in its journal Foreign Affairs.   more »

The right to safe water must be enshrined in international law and policed by the United Nations if millions of people are to be spared death from want of water or from water-borne diseases, activists told governments and business at international talks ending Wednesday.   more »