15 million. That, according to data complied by the Department of Labor, is the approximate number of full-time jobs needed to put unemployed, underemployed, and discouraged workers back to work in the U.S.

Although Pakistan has been in continuous state of crisis ever since its creation some 60 years ago, the current stage of the crisis is the deadliest of all. This is not only a political, but also an economic and social crisis.

The Stockholm Environment Institute and Tufts University have published a study warning that the Caribbean and the 40 million people living in the island nations are in the front lines of vulnerability to climate change.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez called on the new leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Alfonso Cano, to liberate all of the insurgent group’s hostages and advance toward a peaceful end to the Colombian conflict.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro reiterated Tuesday a call for Colombian guerrillas to free detainees to open possibilities of a peace process in that country.

Hundreds of people Saturday, June 7 along Tel Aviv's Rothschild Boulevard to Meir Garden to protest the 41st year of the Israeli occupation and the incessant rocket attacks on the country's southern region.

Unemployment rose in May, from 5% to 5.5%, the largest one month jump in over 20 years. The national average for a gallon of gas reached $4 this week, with the upward spiral expected to continue.

After the failure of the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act in the Senate last week, climate change activists are calling for a stronger "science-based" bill that will meet minimum standards needed to maintain a livable climate.

International Labor Organization Director General Juan Somavia, speaking at the annual conference of ILO in Geneva this week, summoned labor rights advocates to urgently challenge what he called globalization without social justice.

A group of Israeli human rights activists has begun a project to help Palestinians in the West Bank, who have in the past had land taken away by settlers, regain what they say are their property rights.

The generals, who form the hegemonic political-military think-tank in Israel’s perpetual state of emergency, are in the media, explaining that Israel as a matter of national survival must teach our enemies a lesson that they never will forget. Deterrence will thereby be restored.

Despite kidnappings, murders, and other egregious human rights violations against union leaders and activists in Iraq, unions are continuing the fight to give Iraq's least powerful and least politically connected workers a voice in their own future.

As El Salvador prepares for its 2009 national elections, a new poll conducted by the Public Opinion institute of the Central American University reveals that as many as 8 in 10 Salvadorans are dissatisfied with the leadership of President Elías Antonio Saca.

A study conducted in the late 1980s on Everglades National Park employees to determine the effects of DEET found that a full one-quarter of the subjects studied experienced negative health effects that they blamed on exposure to the chemical.

On Wednesday, June 4, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta issued its decision on the appeal submitted by the defense. In a 99-page ruling, and by unanimous decision, the three judges upheld the guilty verdicts against the five Cuban patriots and annulled the sentences of three of them, who must be re-sentenced.

Left-wing parties, trade unions and social organizations in France will hold demonstrations across that country to protest the upcoming visit of US President George W. Bush.

The people of Ireland go to the polls this week to vote on the acceptance or otherwise of the European Union's Lisbon Treaty in a referendum required by the country's constitution. The people of Britain, in stark contrast, do not.

Speculation in the world financial market has played an important role in skyrocketing oil prices, among other factors such as supply woes and a weak dollar, analysts said.

The occupation of the Palestinian territories is exacting a high price from Israel, a local think-tank said. "The prolonged conflict with the Palestinians is a millstone around Israel's neck," Adva, a social justice NGO, said in a 4 June report, The cost of the occupation.