World

EU split on birthday declaration

The German Presidency is seeking a consensus for Berlin Declaration, which will mark the Union's 50th anniversary on 25 March 2007. But views differ on what it should include. The so-called Berlin Declaration will mark the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, signed in 1957.

Questions about Obama and campaign Donors

Less than two months after ascending to the United States Senate, Barack Obama bought more than $50,000 worth of stock in two speculative companies whose major investors included some of his biggest political donors, according to a report in The New York Times on 7 March.

One of the companies was a biotech concern that was starting to develop a drug to treat avian flu. In March 2005, two weeks after buying about $5,000 of its shares, Mr. Obama took the lead in a legislative push for more federal spending to battle the disease.

The Coup That Disrupted Africa's Forward March

June Milne the former research and editorial assistant to Kwame Nkrumah and later his literary executrix writes on the coup that set Africa back. "It is not difficult to imagine the greatly improved condition of the African people today if Nkrumah had continued in power in Ghana to lead the pan-African movement," she writes.

Robert Fisk on Osama bin Laden at 50

Robert Fisk is a veteran war correspondent and one of the world's most experienced journalists covering the Middle East, interviewed on the New York radio station, "Democracy Now" by Amy Goodman

US severe poverty highest in three decades

Extreme poverty in the US has reached its highest point in at least three decades, according to an analysis of Census Bureau figures by McClatchy Newspapers published February 22. The increase reflects the stark reality of declining living standards for the majority of the population in the so-called capitalist recovery of the past five years as well as during the period that preceded it.

Women even more unequal

Women's rights remain a major issue, although progress has been made in some areas, there is growing inequality world-wide, as the report on the United Nation's Women's Treaty reveals.

World military expenditures increasing

World military expenditure in 2005 is estimated to have reached $1001 billion at constant (2003) prices and exchange rates, or $1118 billion in current dollars. This corresponds to 2.5 per cent of world GDP or an average spending of $173 per capita, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute in a report by Petter Stålenheim, Damien Fruchart, Wuyi Omitoogun and Catalina Perdomo

How Barack Obama learned to love Israel

I first met Democratic presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama almost ten years ago when, as my representative in the Illinois state senate, he came to speak at the University of Chicago. He impressed me as progressive, intelligent and charismatic. I distinctly remember thinking 'if only a man of this calibre could become president one day.'

Hot House Flowers

A woman, a black, a Mormon and a cross-dresser. No, it's not a Village People-style cabaret – it's the 2008 US presidential election. Marion McKeone reports from New York.

Pages