United States Foreign Aid

A human rights group said Tuesday that the U.S. government has systematically provided military aid to countries with poor human rights records--a violation of U.S. law. The report by the London-based Amnesty International said the government has ignored a legal provision that bars security assistance to countries that show a consistent pattern of gross human rights violations.

An advisory panel will recommend to Congress next month the use of foreign aid to curtail illegal immigration from parts of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, according to a New York Times report. The 12-member Commission for the Study of International Migration and Cooperative Economic Development, headed by Diego Asencio, a former ambassador to Brazil and Colombia, concluded that some U.S.

Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, seeking to rally the North Atlantic allies behind Operation Desert Shield, on Thursday asked them to contribute more troops, weapons and other assistance to support the U.S. deployment in Saudi Arabia.

The United States and its six major allies, challenged to shape a new economic order for the post-Cold War era during the economic summit that opens here today, moved toward a shaky compromise Sunday on the contentious issue of whether to provide massive aid to the Soviet Union. Although Secretary of State James A. Baker III reaffirmed Sunday that sizable U.S.

Seeking more freedom in allocating foreign aid, the Bush Administration told Congress on Friday that it wants to divert to 35 countries about $250 million that had been earmarked by Congress for high-priority recipients, including Israel and Egypt. President Bush, who protested that countries such as Bolivia and Jamaica stand to receive far less money than he requested for this fiscal year, has the authority to reallocate earmarked funds without congressional approval.

Overseas aid from the world's major industrialized countries dropped by about 2% in real terms last year, mainly due to timing quirks in U. S. contributions to the World Bank. Meanwhile, the 18 members of the so-called Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development have increased their aid by an annual average rate of 2.3% during the last five years.

Abortion rights advocates won a victory in the House Wednesday when the chamber voted to reverse Bush Administration policy denying foreign aid funds to private family planning groups that advocate abortion.

The Supreme Court, dealing another blow to abortion rights advocates, Monday affirmed the federal government's right to deny foreign aid to overseas health care organizations that promote abortion as a means of family planning. Without comment, the justices let stand a lower court decision affirming the legality of the controversial Ronald Reagan Administration policy that bars aid to foreign family-planning groups that either perform or promote abortions.

The war in the Persian Gulf is rapidly drawing to a close. American and coalition troops are liberating Kuwait and trouncing the Iraqi Republican Guard. Now comes the hard part: Getting U.S. allies to help pay for the short but expensive conflict. With the war all but won after just a few days of ground fighting, anger and frustration are rapidly mounting in Congress over the failure of many of the allies to ante up the cash they pledged.