Swine flu, or more technically influenza A (H1N1), is now officially a pandemic. Addressing the press on June 11, Dr Margaret Chan, the director general of World Health Organisation (WHO) said, “On the basis of available evidence, and these expert assessments of the evidence, the scientific criteria for an influenza pandemic have been met.

In the movie "The Year of Living Dangerously" the little guy Billy Kwan, brilliantly played by Linda Lee, gives a news reporter Guy Hamilton, played by Mel Gibson, a talk about Indonesian puppets - the kind on sticks, which you can now sometime find in import shops in this country.

The global financial crisis has fueled the demand for cheap labor, making the exploitation of the most vulnerable people part and parcel of the economic recovery plans of many companies, and even countries.

Following UN Security Council Resolution 1874 condemning North Korea's nuclear test, a project team of the ruling parties is calling for a special measures law to allow the Maritime Self-Defense Force to inspect cargo on North Korean ships on the high seas.

Washington, DC – the U.S. House of Representatives voted today to force the School of the Americas (renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation - WHINSEC) to release the names, ranks, country of origin, courses and dates attended of students and instructors at the institute.

Some good news, if it could be called that, came out in the business media this week. First, the Commerce Department revised downward its estimate of the GDP growth for the first quarter of this year from negative 5.7 percent to negative 5.5 percent. The economy didn't collapse as badly as first thought.

Finance ministers of the G8, meeting at Lecce in Italy during the latter part of week ending June 14, were cautiously optimistic. The final communiqué noted that in the aftermath of efforts at financial stabilization and fiscal stimulation “there are signs of stabilization in our economies...

The Minister of People’s Power for Foreign Affairs, Nicolas Maduro Moros, confirmed Wednesday that in the coming days, Venezuelan and US ambassadors, Bernardo Alvarez and Patrick Duddy, will return to their respective diplomatic posts.

Opened in 1946 at Fort Gulick in the former U.S. Panama Canal Zone, the School of the Americas (SOA) has, over its lifetime, trained more than 64,000 Latin American and Caribbean members of the uniformed armed forces in an extensive program of military operations.

Many climate scientists agree that sunspots and solar wind could be playing a role in climate change, but the vast majority view it as very minimal and attribute Earth’s warming primarily to emissions from industrial activity—and they have thousands of peer-reviewed studies available to back up that claim.

HAVANA, Cuba, June 24 (acn) Representatives from the United Nations and ministers from 11 countries will participate in the 7th International Convention on the Environment and Development that will take place in Havana on July 6-10, 2009.

Has it become impossible to govern the US by reason or logic? Frank Zappa originally asked that question in 1988, but it occurred to me recently that nothing has improved in the way government is run during the last twenty years. We are governed by trickery, fear, disinformation and superstition.

ATLANTA – The Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless won a temporary injunction and restraining order against the City of Atlanta to have their water turned back on so that they can negotiate a payment plan with the City.

This is a book the Halliburton/KBR can live with. It airs out their dirty laundry: the bribes, kickbacks, the inefficient work, the near slave labor conditions of its subcontracted employees, the deaths from insurgent attacks and electrocution, massive overcharging on its invoices, poor record-keeping, and other serious allegations.

Following the speech of Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader and the commander of the coup d’état, in the Friday prayers in Tehran, the armed thugs of the regime, including the forces of the Basij militia, Intelligence Ministry and units of the Revolutionary Corps brutally attacked peaceful and righteous-seeking demonstrations of the people.

The production lines at Overhill Farms move very quickly. Every day for eighteen years Bohemia Agustiano stood in front of the "banda" for eight or nine hours, putting pieces of frozen chicken, rice and vegetables onto plates as they passed in a blur before her.

Reverend Dr. Michael Kinnamon, general secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ (NCC) in the United States, advocated more solidarity and demanded justice for the five Cuban antiterrorists incarcerated in the US.

Berlin – A disaster was almost certain. Almost the entire German media, if it deigned to discuss the Left party at all, was sure of a major split at the party congress June 20th and June 21st. They had it all figured out, and were kind enough to help make it happen.

Environmental groups are unequivocally against oil shale extraction. For one, extracting operations destroy affected landscapes, forcing plants and animals out, with regeneration unlikely for decades. Another big issue with oil shale extraction is water usage.

une 20th marks the beginning of the 2009 Edition of “Venezuela Sounds.” The first tour will feature the renowned “Maestros del Joropo Oriental” and “Grupo Cumaco,” as well as the multitalented violinist Eddy Marcano, all of whom will delight audiences with their musical repertoires.