During congressional hearings last week, Jonathan B. Perlin, the Veterans’ Administration undersecretary for health, admitted that the VA is short $1 billion and may not be able to cover current needs this year.

In Japan-U.S. "defense" talks, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld stressed the importance of maintaining deterrence in response to Defense Agency Director General Ohno Yoshinori’s view that the task is to reduce the burden (on local residents), mainly in Okinawa.

Cuba this year already spent $300 million USD in markets other than the United States due to Washington´s restrictions hindering free exchange between the two countries. Pedro Alvarez, president of the Cuban food importing company Alimport, denounced the latest measures introduced last February by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) during a meeting with US farm producers and traders.

The Janjaweed militia forces allied with the Khartoum regime are continuing a brutal campaign of systematic sexual violence directed against the women and girls of non-Arab or African tribal groups. Khartoum for its part remains deeply complicit in this campaign, now in its third year.

Three continuities link the global US of the cold war era with the attempt to assert world supremacy since 2001. The first is its position of international domination, outside the sphere of influence of communist regimes during the cold war, globally since the collapse of the USSR.

In the wake of the Downing Street Memo and other leaked British documents created before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, many have begun to question the legality of the Bush administration's actions. Outraged Americans are calling for an independent investigation of the Bush administration's manipulation and outright fabrication of intelligence.

The AfterDowningStreet.org coalition welcomed yesterday’s letter signed by 10 Senators. The coalition described the move as "another major step forward" in learning the truth about the Bush administration’s drive for war. Contact your Senators to let them know what you think about the President's failure to be honest with the public about his drive to war.

From California to New York, from Alabama to Michigan, single-payer health care activists are organizing hearings to press Congress to listen to the human voices of the health crisis. The Campaign for a National Health Program NOW is calling on communities nationwide to organize citizen/congressional hearings to spotlight the need for action to secure a system of comprehensive health care for everyone in the United States.

The recent raise of the minimum wage from 100 to 250 pesos benefited more than 1,700,000 individuals, and with that figure, approximately 537,000 occupy various posts in general and higher education, and in public health; that was the case for mid-level technicians in nursing.

More than 1,200 Iraqis have signed a petition issued by the Iraqi Committee for Democratic Constitution two weeks ago, calling for the adoption of a number of principles as part of a permanent Iraqi constitution that provides the basis for a modern democratic state and consolidates national unity in a free unified democratic federal Iraq.

The Bush administration intends to exert maximum political pressure to produce a win because it fears if a high priority agenda item like CAFTA goes down, it will signal that the Lame Duck phase of Bush’s presidency has really begun.Also, the defect of CAFTA would dissipate the already flagging momentum behind the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), signifying that the President’s trade efforts (a huge chunk of his legislative “must list”) are dead in the water.

The Organization of American States (OAS) General Assembly adopted a resolution in support of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) at its thirty-fifth Session earlier this month. The resolution, entitled "Inter-American support for the CTBT" was adopted at the fourth plenary session, held on 7 June 2005 in Florida, United States of America. It is the sixth such resolution to have been adopted by the OAS General Assembly since 2000.

The recent attacks on the United Nations have nothing to do with the so-called "scandals" involving the oil for food program. Rather, they are part of a well-orchestrated campaign by elements of the Bush administration and their far-right allies in the U.S. press, aimed at punishing the UN for its refusal to support Bush's war in Iraq, and at undermining the overall power and influence of the UN and international law.

Since the 2001 recession, wages and benefits for nonunion workers have been pushed down, while wages and benefits for union workers have remained more consistent and rising costs for health care have pushed up the benefits portion of hourly costs of union workers...Wages for union workers averaged $20.76 per hour in March 2005, compared with $16.72 for nonunion workers.

Caribbean nations have been heavily dependent on sugar exports since colonial times, and the commodity remains the backbone of many regional economies. An August 17, 2004 article featured in the Caribbean and Central America Report revealed that annual revenue from sugar exports totaled $121 million for Guyana alone, $70 million for Jamaica and $34 million for Belize.

The Bush administration has rejected bipartisan calls for an independent Guantanamo Bay prison commission. The White House insists that the military, the very organization suspected of systematically violating human rights, is perfectly capable of investigating the situation and punishing any offending parties.

Dr Ibrahim Al-Jaafary [the Iraqi Prime Minister] presented late last month his government program to the National Assembly, which in turn set up a committee to study the program and give notes about it in a session to be convened with the Prime Minister present.

Retirees groups, labor, and House Democrats yesterday criticized a new congressional Republican plan to privatize Social Security. Worried about a sinking approval ratings and a stalled political agenda, the Republican leadership in the House offered a modified version of the privatization plan heavily promoted in past months by President Bush.

When dealing with the historical background to the Jewish Holocaust, it is important to remember that anti-Semitism in Europe,particularly,was deeply intertwined with class struggle and political development...Thanks most of all to the victory over fascism in World War II, anti-Semitism and racism are no longer “normal,” in the Euro-American world...

“This cowardly political assassination comes at a time when the region and Lebanon in particular are witnessing a very grave and sophisticated political rebirth,” Abed Rabbo(PLO official) said. “The series of assassinations against the Lebanese national and political symbols basically aims at undermining the ability of the Lebanese people and national movement to build an independent and sovereign Lebanon, and targets the democratic and secular movement” in Lebanon