Secretary of State Hillary Clinton plans to name Michael Posner, president of the nonprofit group Human Rights First, as assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights, and labor, Bloomberg News reports.

Human Rights First, in New York, works with activists in countries such as Russia, Zimbabwe, and Indonesia.

Mr. Posner declined to comment. His appointment would have to be confirmed by the Senate.

The news comes shortly after Ms. Clinton was criticized by some human-rights charities for saying that China’s human-rights record would not prevent the United States from cooperating with it on economic and security issues.

The U.S. government has frozen the assets of a foundation in Maryland, saying the grant maker gave money that benefited the Sri Lankan separatist group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

In a statement, the Treasury Department said it was moving against the Tamil Foundation, a private grant maker in Cumberland, Md., because the group supported the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization. In 2007, the Treasury Department shut down the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization, accusing it of being a front for the Tamil Tigers, which the United States considers a terrorist organization.

“The LTTE, like other terrorist groups, has relied on so-called charities to raise funds and advance its violent aims,” said Adam J. Szubin, director of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, in a statement. “We will continue to aggressively target attempts by any terrorist group to hide behind...

Charities that provide family-planning services are celebrating Barack Obama’s repeal today of a policy that prevented government money from supporting groups that counsel women overseas on the availability of abortion.

Known as the “global gag rule,” the policy was first implemented by President Reagan and later reinstated by President George W. Bush when he took office in January 2001.

“With the stroke of a pen, President Obama has lifted the stranglehold on women’s health across the globe,” Cecile Richards, Planned Parenthood’s president, said in a statement. “His repeal of the global gag rule ends eight long years of policies that have blocked access to health care for women worldwide.”

Advocacy organizations that oppose abortion raised concerns about the move.

In a statement on its Web site, the group National Right to Life said that President Obama’s move would “divert ...

Amid growing concern that American students lack the skills to succeed in a global work force, a group of charities is urging President-elect Barack Obama to help schools prepare young people for a world in which U.S. businesses and governments are less isolated from, and more dependent on, other nations.

Led by the Asia Society, the group of charities is calling on Mr. Obama to improve teaching of other cultures and economies, to provide more instruction in foreign languages, and to incorporate global issues into classroom lessons.

“Steering our nation out of the financial crisis we now face requires investing in an internationally competent workforce,” said Vivien Stewart, vice president for education at the Asia Society, a nonprofit educational-research group in New York.

“Our long-term comprehensiveness in a global economy depends on our willingness to reinvent education...

In a move praised by nonprofit groups, President-elect Barack Obama has announced the selection of Susan E. Rice, a Brookings Institution scholar and former State Department official, to be United Nations ambassador.

In nominating Ms. Rice, Mr. Obama also plans to restore the position to cabinet rank, as it was under former President Bill Clinton, reports The New York Times.

In the Times article, Ms. Rice drew praise from the nonprofit Save Darfur Coalition for her advocacy on behalf of a stronger response against the fighting in Sudan’s Darfur region.

The United Nations Foundation, meanwhile, applauded both the selection of Ms. Rice and the decision to restore the position to cabinet rank, saying in a statement that it “sends an unambiguous signal to the world that the United States plans to re-engage with the United Nations at the highest levels.”

But John R. Bolton, who...

Many international charities are optimistic that President-elect Barack Obama will overturn the so-called global gag rule, which prevents government money from supporting family-planning groups that counsel women overseas about the availability of abortion.

An informal group of nonprofit organizations is working with Senator Obama’s transition team to repeal the rule, which was first implemented by President Reagan and later reinstated by President George W. Bush when he took office in January 2001.

“We’re confident that President-elect Obama recognizes that this is a destructive policy and is having a horrible impact on women’s health,” said Tod Preston, vice president of U.S. government relations for Population Action International, an advocacy group in Washington. “It’s not reducing abortion; if anything, it’s increasing the number of abortions and unintended pregnancies.” ...

With help from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, two Washington think tanks have created a new fund to help policy makers, journalists, and the public better understand the way tax dollars are raised and spent.

The Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, a joint project of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution, hopes to use a $2.5-million challenge grant from the Gates foundation to create a $10-million fund to analyze tax issues.

The Seattle grant maker will match one out of every three dollars the fund receives before April 1, 2011.

“Getting objective estimates and analyses into the public domain allows policy deliberations to unfold based on facts rather than spin, leading to improved decision making,” said Leonard Burman, director of the Tax Policy Center, in a statement.

Mr. Burman said the new fund would enable his organization to expand its activities,...

The U.S. Agency for International Development is providing $100,000 for a new program designed to help American professionals afford the costs of overseas volunteerism.

Individuals can apply for grants of up to $1,000 through the program, which is run by the Office of Volunteers for Prosperity, a branch of USAID that encourages highly skilled Americans to give their time.

The grants can be used to pay for travel, insurance, and living expenses overseas. People must be able to raise a matching amount of money on their own to qualify for the grant.

“Some professionals are quite capable of paying their own way, but many others are not,” said Jack Hawkins, director of the Office of Volunteers for Prosperity.

“There may be an inner-city teacher who wants to teach English for a short-term assignment in Africa and doesn’t have the wherewithal to get over there,” he said. “This...