Soaring prices heavily weighed on the Vietnamese economy and challenged the nation in May and the past five months.

Commemorations of the August 1945 nuclear bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are occasions when the demand is raised for the abolition of all nuclear weapons. Hiroshima is a stark reminder of the devastation that weapons of mass destruction cause and a time to demand an end to the terror of nuclear annihilation.

The Vietnam Agent Orange Victims’ Association (VAVA) has raised almost 1 billion VND nationwide in preparation of the Day for Agent Orange/dioxin Victims (August 10).

Senior US government officials are making an overt demand that Japan spend more tax money for the military.

Everyone is now accustomed to hearing that the financial crisis in the United States and in Britain was caused by American financial institutions lending money to unsafe borrowers for buying houses.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has asked Khanh Hoa province, home of coastal tourist destination Nha Trang bay, to focus on upgrading infrastructure for high-quality tourism that harmonizes with the environment.

About 30,000 people from around the country participated in a rally in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, to express their determination to stop the deployment of the US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier George Washington to the US Yokosuka Naval Base.

Filipino writer Alex Pinpin was arrested by sixty heavily armed security personnel of the Arroyo regime last April 28, 2006, together with four companions, after a meeting with coffee farmers in Tagaytay City, Philippines, on their way to a May Day Labor rally in Manila.

Environmentalists started to warn of the dangers of climate change 30 years or more ago. Ignoring warnings, corporations and their equally irresponsible governments continued to aggravate the crisis by a callous and reckless disregard for the predictable consequences of their activities.

Four Japanese workers filed a lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court against American Airlines on July 1 claiming that the U.S. airline company illegally dismissed them when it outsourced their jobs.

PA contributing editor Wadi'h Halabi, the interviewee here, recently attended a conference titled Marxism and Scientific Sustainable Development held in Beijing, China.

Describing the economic interests of workers in the industrialized countries and those of workers in developing countries as "inextricably tied," United Auto Workers (UAW President Ron Gettelfinger presented a keynote address to the International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF) in Sao Paulo, Brazil last month.

Vietnam and 14 United Nations organizations in the country have signed an expanded common cooperation plan through 2010 with the aim of maximizing the UN’s support to Vietnam ’s development.

Vietnam and the UK have discussed ways to promote bilateral cooperation in coping with climate change and controlling environmental pollution during a week-long visit by Minister of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) Pham Khoi Nguyen.

In his new climate change initiative dubbed the "Fukuda Vision" announced on June 9, Prime Minister Fukuda Yasuo failed to declare Japan’s mid-term target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.

A bill to revise the 1998 Law Concerning the Promotion of the Measures to Cope with Global Warming was approved by the House of Councilors committee on environment on June 5.

The New York Times recently reported on John McCain's 1974 Naval War College thesis dealing with his being a prisoner of war in Vietnam. It appears, according to the article, that McCain's thesis simply repeats what was conventional right-wing wisdom of the time – that the anti-war movement encouraged defections among prisoners, that the military must do a better job in educating its members to the anti-Communist goals of U.S. foreign policy, etc.

The new Russian President Medvedev traveled to China on his first visit abroad. Beyond the new announced cooperation agreements, which confirm the forward momentum of the commercial relations between China and Russia, the two countries also signed a joint statement on some important international issues.

In the wake of the widespread U.S. sub-prime mortgage crisis, speculative funds began to flow into the oil and grains markets, pushing up their prices. The trend is so powerful that it is very difficult to keep these moves under control. Observing this situation, some economic analysts are saying, “Capitalism is reaching its limits.”

While talking down the likelihood of a serious financial crash in Australia, the federal government is taking a number of measures to equip it to bail out any financial institution in difficulties and to stave off panic if any such institution appears to be in trouble.