The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "foreign affairs" ...
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Sexual-Harassment Cases Plaque U.N.
This investigation digs into how the United Nations (U.N.) handles internal sexual harassment complaints. The current system for handling complaints is arbitrary, unfair and delays bureaucracy. Many cases take years to judge, accusers either retire or resign, which leaves them out of reach of the U.N. justice system. Overall, “no matter which way the cases go, they mishandle it.”
Tags: United Nations (U.N.); sex discrimination; foreign affairs; Ban Ki-moon; Ruud Lubbers; Investigation Committee
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Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power
This book investigates the response by U.S. companies and the U.S. government to the raising of environmental health standards by the European Union. The book reveals the Bush Administration's policy of retreating from environmental responsibility, while the rest of the world embraces it. The book explores the effects of this attitude on the environment, health of U.S. citizens and international relations.
Tags: environment; international relations; foreign affairs; chemicals; pollution; waste; environmental affairs; international trade;
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Plan of Attack: The Secret Strategy Against the Terrorists
This story looks at the Pentagon's first comprehensive written plan for the war on terrorism, adopted in March 2005. It details the debates that finally produced the plan, and describes its contents.
Tags: foreign affairs; terrorism; Al Qaeda; 9/11; Pentagon; war planning
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Discharged and Dishonored
Adams and Young from the Knight Ridder Washington Bureau investigated the Department of Veterans Affairs to see how it was handling veterans' disability compensation programs. They found inconsistencies among states, over half a million eligible veterans who were not receiving benefits, a 23 percent in processing claims, and more than 13,700 veterans who died in the past decade while waiting for an appeal on their claims to be resolved, among other problems.
Tags: VA; Post-traumatic stress disorder; PTSD; Gulf War syndrome; disability claims; VFW; Foreign Legion; veterans benefits; precision journalism
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US Oil Politics in the Kuwait of Africa
Equatorial Guinea has a history of human rights abuses and went so far as to threaten the US Ambassador to the country with death in 1996. Shortly after this incident, diplomatic ties were cut off with the country. Six years later the Bush Administration resumed those connections due to the possibility of 1 billion barrels of oil existing off the coast of the country.
Tags: politics; foreign affairs; oil; africa
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Phillips in Africa: Coltan (Colombite Tantalite); Zimbabwe business grab
CBS News reports on the Congo civil war. The first part of the investigation finds that the efforts to stop the war have failed, "in part because Western companies are helping pay for it." Coltan, a mineral essential for the production of computer chips and high-tech devices, has kept the war going because African governments, middlemen and rebels have become "interested in loot as much as politics." The second segment reports on a land dispute in Zimbabwe, which has caused racial conflicts. The threats to white farmers and business-owners have forced some of them to try to escape to South Africa.
Tags: TAPE; TRANSCRIPT; Rwanda; democracy; political instability; foreign affairs; international reporting; business
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Khobar Towers
A CBS News report reveals that some of the terrorists involved on the attack of American military personnel in the Khobar towers in Saudi Arabia in 1995 will probably never be indicted. Although the Attorney General John Ashcroft admitted that Iranian officials had supposedly initiated the attack, not one Iranian official was named in the indictment. CBS attempts to explain the possible diplomatic considerations that played part in this.
Tags: TAPE; TRANSCRIPT; foreign affairs; Justice Department; oil; energy; business; soldiers; troops; military; bombing; FBI; surveillance; intelligence
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Plan for Colombia
The Express-News looks at the United States' efforts to eradicate drug trade in Colombia by spending $1.3 billion on army operations aiming to destroy coca fields. The series questions the effectiveness of the plan. Coca farmers account for the majority of the population in Columbia, and the project would be more successful, if they were provided some alternatives. The reporter examines how the drug war combines with the civil war that has been going on for decades, and finds "that it's unlikely that any significant change will come in Colombia's status as a drug exporter until the civil war is ended."
Tags: kidnapping; assassinations; guerrillas; military; Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC); right-wing militia; international politics; foreign affairs; crime; violence; drug trafficking; cocaine; heroin; Latin America; human rights
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The Pros & Cons of Free Trade
Extra examines opinions in favor and against the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), the extension of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which is supposed to spread democracy to the countries in Latin America by lowering tariffs and opening their markets. The article reports on the ongoing negotiations among the 34 countries that will sign the agreement. The story asks the question, "Will President Bush insist on high labor and environmental standards like his predecessor, and if not, will his constituents make him?"
Tags: economics; GATT; business; tariffs; foreign affairs; unions; labor; subsidies
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A Taste of Slavery
An investigation by the Knight-Ridder Washington Bureau reveals that boys enslaved on Ivory Coast farms harvest cocoa use to make chocolate that Americans consume.
Tags: cocoa; slaves; Ivory Coast; chocolate; slavery; labor; foreign affairs; international reporting; business; children