Rescuers and salvage workers have concluded a frantic search for victims in Bangladesh's Rana Plaza, an eight-story garment factory complex that collapsed on April 24, killing an estimated 1,127 people. Sadly, there will be no more miraculous stories of survival like that of Reshma Begum, the 19-year-old seamstress...

United Nations officials, civil society groups and worldwide media coverage hailed last month's Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) for taking a significant step forward in the campaign to end gender-based violence. The outcome document from the 57th CSW -- supported by UN Women -- included substantial agreements regarding...

During International Women's Day, the United Nations focuses on fulfilling promises regarding the maternal health, equality, empowerment, education, and safety of women worldwide. There is perhaps no one better suited to help the UN sharpen this focus than U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice.

A Rhodes Scholar with a...

This week, John Kerry heads for his new Foggy Bottom office as the 68th U.S. Secretary of State. Kerry breezed through his nomination process, receiving near unanimous support from both the Senate and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, of which Kerry had been a member for his entire 28-year Senate...

Recently, Dr. Mark Dybul, the newly appointed executive director of The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, wrote an impassioned plea in The Huffington Post, underscoring the urgency of funding disease prevention and treatment programs throughout the world.

"When health professionals working in cities, towns...

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) made headlines in November when its annual report referred to family planning as a "universal human right." The report came in conjunction with two recent General Assembly votes calling for a global ban on female genital mutilation and supporting universal health coverage,...

We may be witnessing the beginning of the end for AIDS. A recent report from UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, reveals a more than 50 percent decline in new HIV infections in 25 low- and middle-income countries over the last decade. Thirteen of those countries...

Perhaps the only thing more surreal than Beyoncé performing at the United Nations is the image of 1 billion people coming together to celebrate humanitarian efforts. But last Friday night, the 30-year-old pop superstar transformed General Assembly Hall into a music video set for a stirring rendition of "I Was...

Cross-posted at The Nation.

What's wrong with this picture? Air America vanishes into the ether, while Glenn Beck indoctrinates 2.7 million daily viewers with his histrionic brand of right-wing lunacy. Independent news agencies must continuously solicit donations from readers to stay afloat, while hate-filled shock jock...

Wells Fargo is a roadblock to economic recovery. That's what members of the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers (UE) are claiming, as they literally blocked a busy Rock Island, Illinois, intersection late last week to protest Wells Fargo's decision to cut off credit to the Quad City Die Casting...

Thousands of Iranian protesters marched toward Tehran University today, both to commemorate the 1999 student uprising and to continue their opposition toward the recently stolen presidential election. Once again, the Iranian regime has responded with violence, as Basij militia members dispersed demonstrators with live fire, tear gas, and other...

According to the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and a newly released UN report, there were 800 civilian casualties between January and May 2009. Armed clashes between insurgents, the U.S. military, and the ISAF are up 24 percent this year, and have displaced tens of thousands...

Though the Pentagon finally took responsibility for the Afghan civilian deaths in last month's Farah province airstrikes, we're only seeing minor adjustments toward a deeply flawed military strategy in need of a complete overhaul.

Since 2001, the US Air Force has dropped nearly 31 million pounds (14,049 metric tons) of bombs on Afghanistan. The UN estimates that US airstrikes alone accounted for 64 percent of the 828 Afghan civilians killed last year. Those numbers practically scream the need to abandon conventional warfare tactics in...

$100 billion more in wartime spending. That's what Congress is hellbent on approving despite valiant efforts from a growing number of Progressives led by FireDogLake's Jane Hamsher to derail this legislation's passage in the House. $100 billion, and for what? To bring more troops to Afghanistan without an exit...

Why isn't this footage on CNN or MSNBC? Why can't the American public have easy access to it? Those are questions we should be asking ourselves as we watch the powerful images of Abdullah Khan, a refugee from Afghanistan's Helmland province forced to seek shelter in an IDP camp outside...

Here is a face of the war in Afghanistan. Najibullah, an air raid victim from the Malwand district of Kandahar, points to where three bombs shattered his home during a recent US airstrike. His message to President Obama: Withdraw US forces from Afghanistan at once. "They're going to leave anyway,"...

Just who is Dr. Roshanak Wardak? She is a member of Afghanistan's parliament -- one of 68 women in the lower house -- committed to women's rights issues, as well as rebuilding schools and hospitals. Before turning to politics, Dr. Wardak was a gynecologist who practiced for 30...

Here comes my coffee spit take for the day. Starbucks just settled its sixth labor dispute in the past three years! According to the settlement, Starbucks must now allow Minneapolis-area workers to discuss unions and post union materials in break areas, and the company can no longer kick union sympathizers...

More and more, former interrogators and counterinsurgency experts are using Dick Cheney's recent ubiquity to expose his iniquity regarding the torture and abuse of detainees. Earlier this week, I wrote about Major Matthew Alexander, the former Senior Interrogator who conducted over 300 interrogations in Iraq and supervised 1,000 more....