The United Nations has warned against the continuation of the epidemic growth and called for an exceptional response to the threat.

“The working people of Venezuela have repeatedly resisted and defeated attempts by the rich and powerful to overthrow the democratic government led by president Hugo Chavez, which has embarked on a process of social change that has delivered many important benefits to the population..."

This change in the rates charged will only moderately affect residential customers, whose costs in Havana average around 150 kilowatt-hours a month; for that same quantity of electricity such households will soon pay about 24 pesos ($1.25 USD), up from 19 pesos.

Britain has the third highest number of companies in the top 500 global companies by capital value after the US and Japan. In total 36. Their composition has much to tell about the nature of British capitalism.

There have been news reports of a number of secret US prisons in Eastern European countries. These reports, coming as they do after reports about torture at Guantanamo Naval Gulag, at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan, the Diego Garcia base situated in the middle of the Indian Ocean, and, of course, Abu Ghraib in Iraq, should show us that torture lies at the very heart of the U.S.-declared 'War on Terror'.

We are very eager to have our four colleagues released.  We were very distressed to see the recent video of them.  We hope that Harmeet, Jim, Norman, and Tom have been able to explain their work and their opposition to the war and the occupation of Iraq.

The Bush administration is using the IRS in an apparent attempt to punish its critics and reward its friends. President Bush has proven himself a friend of some religious organizations, generously doling out billions of US taxpayer dollars to them each year in violation of the Constitutional injunction against doing so.

No one has ever confused George Bush with an intelligent man. What he has always been though is charming, folksy, if you believe the corporate press that is paid to make him look good. This charm was enough to fool America for five years now.

As I see it, TV has gotten, all things considered, worse politically in recent years. The cable stations are all pretty rightwing, not just Fox News but also the others that specialize in news and current affairs, at least in comparison to the networks.

This week, System of a Down are releasing their fifth studio album, Hypnotize, following on from their summer album Mezmerize. The two albums dovetail together effortlessly.

The retailer Target recently announced that it would allow pharmacists at its stores to refuse to fill prescriptions for emergency contraception (EC), if dispensing it would violate their religious beliefs.

We can all forget about God blessing America. No God would bless such a narcissistic nation. It's time to dispense with our deluded and romanticized notions of America standing for truth, justice, or the rule of law. We subvert such principles whenever it suits us.

We were very saddened to see the images of our loved ones on Al Jazeera television recently. We were disturbed by seeing the video and believe that repeated showing of it will endanger the lives of our friends.

In an arrant display of rank political opportunism, Venezuela’s faltering middle-class opposition parties have announced that they would boycott the December 4 legislative elections.

Colombia’s long and brutal political crisis drags on. Human rights organisations and visiting trade unionists attest to the often unspeakable violence of the quasi-state paramilitary forces inflicted on progressive sections of the population.

In a wise and fortunate society, ruthless and amoral forces are kept out of power—blocked by effective constitutional checks backed up by the society’s “moral capital” endowing its elites with a genuine love of the greater good.

Chilean former dictator Augusto Pinochet ordered current ruling coalition presidential candidate Michelle Bachelet and her mother, Angela Jeria, arrested in January 1975, admitted former secret service chief Manuel Contreras.

This fall has been a trying time for the Bush administration, both at home and around the world, but in no arena is its reputation more compromised or the contempt with which it is held is greater than throughout Latin America.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was in the limelight at the Summit of the Americas on November 4-5 after taking the lead role in burying the US-backed "Free Trade Area of the Americas."

Whether it’s called stress management, relaxation training, or its newest incarnation, “Resiliancy,” it seems that the question of healthy response to the stress of daily life is on everyone’s mind. But it’s important to remember a few things about stress that are rarely discussed—if known at all!