J As General Motors Corp. prepares to sell its best assets to a streamlined new entity, the worst of what it owns will be auctioned off in bankruptcy court, including contaminated factory sites, parking lots in Flint, Michigan, and a nine-hole golf course in New Jersey. One property the carmaker... » read this article

US forces have launched a major military operation in southern Afghanistan in the first big push to drive the Taliban out of a key stronghold since Barack Obama became US president. Four thousand marines, backed by Nato aircraft and a 650-strong Afghan force, are moving into towns in Helmand province,... » read this article

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) fired the fourth short-range missile in the day off its east coast on Thursday evening, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported.     DPRK fired the fourth missile at 09:20 p.m. (1220 GMT), after three missiles fired at 5:20 p.m., 6:00 p.m. and 07:50... » read this article

MILITARY OFFICERS and right-wing forces in Honduras with long ties to the U.S. government organized a coup to topple the democratically elected president at the end of June--and the reaction of the Obama administration was lukewarm criticism at best. President Manuel Zelaya was rousted from his bed in the early-morning... » read this article

Of the three main political forces in Uruguay, the National Party turnout was higher in all of Uruguay’s 19 electoral districts expect in the capital Montevideo which is the stronghold of the ruling Broad Front coalition. Nevertheless the opposition advance was more than significant. Out o total 2.6 million registered... » read this article

The current strain of H1N1 influenza, or swine flu, has people scared because it’s a novel virus that most of the population has never been exposed to. But as a group, H1N1 viruses aren’t new. They’ve been circulating since 1918, when a new strain appeared simultaneously in pigs and humans... » read this article

"Silvino was riding his bike on a dirt road near our home when he was poisoned by toxic agrochemicals, sprayed on a nearby field of soybeans. He died soon afterwards. He was 11," said his mother, Petrona Villasboa, a rural activist in southern Paraguay. Silvino Villasboa died in 2003 in... » read this article

Less than two years after its discreet sealing, the truce between ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party and the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) seems to have ended. The publication Jun. 12 of an article in Taraf, a liberal newspaper, of an alleged plan by army officers to overthrow the government... » read this article

"They told us 'go west or we will shoot you'," says Ashraf Sadallah. "Initially, we refused, so they began shooting very close all around our boat." At 6am on Jun. 16, Sadallah and his brother Abdel Hadi Sadallah, in their early twenties, went roughly 400 metres out to sea off... » read this article

 Tens of thousands of Hondurans are marching towards the capital to support the return of constitutional President Manuel Zelaya after a coup three days ago, informed grassroots leaders.   Representatives of the teachers union told media of preparations of demonstrations in different departments such as Cortes, Choluteca, Comayagua, Santa Barbara... » read this article

An unknown number of Hondurans have taken to the streets today in an effort to stop the coup that the military, in league with Congress and the Supreme Court, has carried out against democratically elected President Manuel "Mel" Zelaya.   Due to intermittent power outages and heavy rain, independent media... » read this article

YouTube opened an online journalism training hub on Monday featuring tips from some of the top names in the business including Bob Woodward of Watergate fame.   The YouTube Reporters’ Center, located at youtube.com/reporterscenter, hosts a series of short video tutorials on subjects such as investigative journalism, citizen journalism, journalism... » read this article

Signatories to the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) - an international initiative to stem the flow of conflict diamonds - restated their commitment to the scheme at the close of a three-day meeting in Namibia on 26 June, but campaigners warned that more action, not talk, was needed now. "There... » read this article

During the 22 days of the Israeli military operation, nowhere in Gaza was safe for civilians. Hospitals were overwhelmed with casualties, including small children, women and elderly people. Medical personnel showed incredible courage and determination, working around the clock to save lives in extremely difficult circumstances. Meanwhile, daily rocket attacks... » read this article

(At Sea, 60km off the coast of the Gaza Strip) Human Rights activists aboard the Free Gaza ship, the SPIRIT OF HUMANITY, today demanded that the Israeli Navy immediately stop threatening them. “This aid is desperately needed by the people of Gaza,” said Mairead Maguire, winner of the Noble Peace... » read this article

President Obama on Monday strongly condemned the ouster of Honduras’s president as an illegal coup that set a “terrible precedent” for the region, as the country’s new government defied international calls to return the toppled president to power and clashed with thousands of protesters. “We do not want to go... » read this article

Here are English translations of today's declarations from Via Campesina International and COPINH. There has been a conspicuous absence of voices from the citizens' organizations that support the president and the consultation in the press. CNN claims that they cannot find anyone who speaks in favor of the consultation and... » read this article

The secretive world of Middle East oil deals will be thrown open in Baghdad next week when a contract auction is broadcast live, shining a spotlight on big oil dealmakers that prefer to stay behind the scenes. "This is shaping up to be unlike anything I have ever been involved... » read this article

Delegates from over 80 countries pledging to destroy their cluster bombs started a two-day conference in Berlin to assess progress since a 2008 agreement banning the weapons. Absent however were the United States, Israel, Russia and Georgia -- countries which have used cluster bombs in recent years and which refuse... » read this article

Central bank chief Zhou Xiaochuan has loudly led calls for the US dollar to be replaced during the financial crisis. The bank report called for more regulation of the countries that issue currencies that underpin the global financial system. "An international monetary system dominated by a single sovereign currency has... » read this article