Reversing attempts to eliminate the U.S. military’s advanced biofuels program, both houses of Congress on Tuesday approved major legislation that now presents no obstacles to broad-reaching Defence Department plans to mainstream and spread the use of alternative fuels throughout its operations.

The move has received broad plaudits from environmentalists, industry advocates and high-level defence officials.

“We’re really happy that Congress decided to support the Depart of Defence’s ability to develop and purchase biofuels,” Lena Moffitt, a Washington representative with the Sierra Club, an environment advocacy group, told IPS. “We wholly support the Pentagon’s major role in advancing the industry more broadly, including leading the charge in sourcing materials that are not food based.”

As the largest fuel consumer in the United States – using some 90 percent of the energy used by the federal government – the military has been ramping up plans to diversify its fuel options in the name ...

Just over a week before the United States votes in a highly anticipated and historically tight presidential election, a new poll released Monday finds that interest by Latino voters has strengthened significantly over the past two months, and that turnout among Hispanics could be higher than the records set in 2008.

According to the latest impreMedia-Latino Decisions poll of registered Hispanic voters, 45 percent say they are more excited about the current election than they were for the 2008 election, when Barack Obama was elected. That number has gone up by eight percent over the past 10 weeks, when the poll was first taken.

Further, a full 87 percent of respondents say they would most likely be voting when national polling sites open on Nov. 6, with eight percent having already taken advantage of the early voting options made available in certain states. During the last presidential election, 84 percent of registered Latino voters cast ballots – far higher than the U.S. national turnout, of 57 percent, that same ...

The World Bank warned Monday that over the next decade and a half, the world will need to create 600 million new jobs, particularly in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, just to maintain current employment rates.

A senior World Bank economist, Martin Rama, called the figure “staggering”.

“But the numbers are only part of story,” Rama cautioned in a conversation with journalists Monday. “Social safety nets in many countries are too modest for people to be out of work for too long. In reality, most of the poor work long hours, but don’t make enough to make ends meet. So it’s not just the number of jobs, but also what people do.”

Releasing its flagship annual World Development Report (WDR) for 2013, this year focusing on ...

 After a 16-month delay, a U.S. government regulator charged with investment oversight has voted on rules that will now govern U.S.-listed companies operating in the extractive industry as well as those that use minerals whose sale may fuel violence in other countries, particularly in central Africa.

On Wednesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), charged with overseeing U.S. stock exchanges, approved rules on the implementation of two widely anticipated provisions of a broad financial reform package passed by the U.S. Congress in mid-2010, known in part as Dodd-Frank.

“We have received significant public input on this rulemaking through the written comment process, which generated more than 400 letters,” SEC Chair Mary Schapiro announced Wednesday morning.

“In response, we incorporated many changes from the proposal that are designed to address concerns about the costs…The rules we are considering use the same process as proposed, but many of the mechanisms within the process have been modified ...

Countering a two-year trend, the world overall became slightly more peaceful over the past year, according to an annual report released here on Tuesday.

The United States, however, moved down seven places to 88 out of 158, a “fairly low rank (that) largely reflects much higher levels of militarisation and involvement in external conflicts”, according to the Global Peace Index (GPI) 2012.

The report notes that although U.S. military expenditure “declined sharply” between 1991 and 2000, it “has now returned to Cold War levels”. Worryingly, the GPI finds that higher military expenditure (as a percentage of overall gross domestic product) correlates with lower levels of peace.

The U.S. also continues to score among the highest in the world on the proportion of its population in jail. (A U.S.-specific Peace Index was ...

According to a report released by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) here on Wednesday, at least half of the U.S. corporations under review have actively supported the misrepresentation of the science around climate change.

Many more have offered contradictory statements on the issue. 

This despite the fact that all of the 28 companies included in the study have publicly expressed general or concerted support for emissions reductions. 

“Many of these companies influenced public opinion and undermined the public's understanding of scientific consensus around climate change,” Francesca Grifo, the director of the UCS's Scientific Integrity Program, told journalists on Wednesday. 

“They have done so by developing specific strategies to promote false scientific uncertainty and downplay scientific evidence, and by propping up and using front groups to vilify scientists and promote sympathetic experts.”

Grifo says that such actions mirror past approaches by the tobacco industry, “where the end goal is delaying ...