Trade : Panel set over US measures on zeroing and sunset reviews (PRIV)
(Kanaga Raja, Geneva)
The WTO Dispute Settlement Body on Friday agreed to establish a panel, at the request of Japan, to rule on compliance by the United States of an earlier WTO ruling concerning its measures relating to zeroing and sunset reviews.

United Nations : Development financing still gender-blind (PRIV)
(IPS, New York)
When the UN's Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) held a special high-level meeting to discuss the new challenges facing the international community, the focus was largely on the credit crisis, rising commodity prices, declining development aid and the devastating impact of climate change on developing nations.

Trade : Fair is not easy (PRIV)
(IPS, Brussels)
From its humble beginnings in the 1950s, the fair trade movement has gone from selling coffee at left-wing political meetings to having whole sections devoted to its fruit and chocolate products in European supermarkets.

Iraq : Petraeus hid Maliki resistance to US troops in Basra (PRIV)
(IPS, Washington)
In testimony before Congressional committees last week, Gen. David Petraeus portrayed Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's late March offensive in Basra as a poorly planned effort that departed from what US officials had expected.

Iraq : Chaos hardening sectarian fiefdoms (PRIV)
(IPS, Washington)
There are an estimated 2.7 million Iraqis who have been displaced within their own country. No house; no food; no security. Who do they turn to for help? The international community's humanitarian organisations? The occupying United States government? The central Iraqi government based in Baghdad?

United States : Little new in Bush climate plan (PRIV)
(IPS, Washington)
Seven years after rejecting the Kyoto Protocol, US President George W. Bush on 16 April called for halting the growth in US greenhouse-gas emissions by 2025, a goal greeted with derision by Democrats and environmental groups.

United States : New Jewish lobby seeks to redefine "pro-Israel" (PRIV)
(IPS, Washington)
A new group of prominent US Jews who believe that the so-called "Israel Lobby" has been dominated for too long by neo-conservatives and other Likud-oriented hawks has launched a new organisation to help fund political candidates who favour a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a stronger US role in achieving it.