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Almost a decade after the "War on Terror" began, a bipartisan U.S. Congressional commission spent two days cross-examining witnesses to see if the outsourcing of private security has been a terrible mistake.

Declining Wages and Loss of Jobs and Labor Protections Draws Attention of Lawmakers As the United States Negotiates More Trade Agreements (Oakland, CA)-In an open challenge to the United States Trade Representative and the Bush administration's economic policies, a delegation of America's working poor from all walks of life will expose the harsh reality behind free trade at a congressional briefing, sponsored by the Congressional Progressive Caucus, on June 12, 9:00-11:30 a.m. at 2168 Rayburn House Building, Washington, DC. This briefing will be webcast live at: http://www.foodfirst.org

The Group of Eightmembers yesterday committed themselves to concluding the stalled Doha world trade round on schedule by the end of next year, but hinted at no shifts in negotiating positions that could lead to progress in the talks.

BUENOS AIRES-- Leaders of Protestant churches of Latin America, tired of alleviating social problems that they blame on neo-liberal free market policies, have decided to advance their own alternative proposals to governments and the multilateral lending institutions.

WASHINGTON, Apr. 10 (IPS) -- Activists from labor, development, human rights and farm groups are calling on the United States and five Central American countries not to rush a trade agreement that they say is undemocratic and would drive farmers and other vulnerable groups deeper into poverty.

Maybe it's just a coincidence that the Commerce Department announced decisions in recent days to confer "market-based-economy" status on Bulgaria and Romania, two Eastern European countries that support President Bush's tough stance on Iraq.

International creditors of Mali have agreed to cancel $675 million of its debt over time under a controversial debt relief scheme, rewarding the West African nation for its pro-free market economic restructuring plan, they say.

You are invited to attend Fair Trade Activist Trainings with the Sierra Student Coalition & Sierra Club in Florida and New York.

In this report from the Tokyo mini-ministerial, activist and scholar Walden Bello looks for cracks in the WTO's armor on the road to the September summit in Cancun.

Trade ministers gather in Tokyo on Friday for a three-day meeting to try to step up the pace of flagging global trade talks, beset by failed deadlines and a lack of progress. Only 25 of the 145 members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) have been invited to send ministers to the February 14-16 "mini-ministerial". Their task: to thrash out ideas for giving a boost to negotiations, mainly on greater market access in services, industrial goods and the traditionally-thorniest subject of agriculture.

The European Union is expected to bow today to political and popular concern about public services, by ruling out talks in the Doha world trade round on further liberalization of its health, education, energy and water markets.

The Bush administration has decided that a controversial fishing method involving encircling pods of dolphins with mile long nets to catch tuna has "no significant adverse impact" on the dolphins. Conservation groups say the determination, which will allow tuna from Mexico to be sold in the U.S. under a "dolphin safe" label, could spell disaster for imperiled dolphin populations.

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