 |
| IRAQ: Sexual Violence: An Occupational Hazard -- In Iraq and at Home
by Marie Tessier, Women's Media Center
December 26th, 2007
Jamie Leigh Jones was just 20 in 2005 when she took a leap of faith to work in Iraq for her employer, military contractor Kellogg, Brown & Root, then a subsidiary of Halliburton. She went on a mission she believed in. Shortly after her arrival in Iraq, however, Jones' ambitions were dashed in an alleged gang rape by co-workers. |
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IRAQ: Bosses didn't want to expose Iraqi police corruption
by Henry McDonald, Duncan Campbell and Richard Norton-Taylor, The Guardian
December 24th, 2007
"It appears that ArmorGroup, by taking on extra staff ... and quickly making some redundant, is essentially transferring the risk inherent in such contract work to employees while making fat profits for itself," his MP, Dr Phyllis Starkey, told the House of Commons earlier this year. |
| CHINA/US: The Recalls’ Aftershocks
by Louise Story and David Barboza, New York Times
December 22nd, 2007
Toy makers are investigating whether they need to treat their tainted products with stabilization chemicals or if they must seal the toys in giant polyethylene bags. |
| EUROPE: Europe Proposes Binding Limits on Auto Emissions
by James Kanter, New York Times
December 20th, 2007
European Union officials told leading automakers to make deep cuts in tailpipe emissions of the cars they produce or face fines that could reach billions of euros. Companies including Volkswagen and Renault immediately promised a fight to weaken the proposed legislation.
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| US: Wider Spying Fuels Aid Plan for Telecom Industry
by Eric Lichtblau, James Risen and Scott Shane, New York Times
December 16th, 2007
The Bush administration is waging a high-profile campaign to persuade Congress to pass legislation protecting companies from lawsuits for aiding the National Security Agency's warrantless eavesdropping program. At stake is the federal government's partnership with industry to conduct a wide range of secret surveillance operations in fighting terrorism and crime. |
| US: Charity’s Share From Shopping Raises Concern
by Stephanie Strom, New York Times
December 13th, 2007
Increasingly, nonprofit experts are questioning one of the fastest-growing sectors of giving, the practice of building a donation into the purchase of items. Such giving is unregulated and, in most cases, unaccountable — and no one knows who, if anyone, is claiming a tax deduction for it. |
| US: DOJ Questioned About '05 Iraq Rape Case
by John Porretto, AP News
December 12th, 2007
The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee asked the Justice Department on Tuesday to give a full account of its investigation into the alleged rape of a female contract worker in Iraq two years ago. |
| GLOBAL: Big Oil lets sun set on renewables
by Terry Macalister, Guardian (UK)
December 11th, 2007
Shell, the oil company that recently trumpeted its commitment to a low carbon future by signing a pre-Bali conference communique, has quietly sold off most of its solar business. Rival BP decided last week to invest in the world's dirtiest oil production in Canada's tar sands, indicating that Big Oil might be giving up its flirtation with renewables and going back to its roots. |
| CANADA: Gov't Urged to Rein in Mining Sector
by Am Johal, IPS News
December 7th, 2007
Canadian mining companies continue to come under scrutiny from civil society organisations for international human rights violations and environmental damage that critics say the Canadian government has done little to check. |
| GLOBAL: 'MNCs Gaining Total Control Over Farming'
by Anil Netto, IPS News
December 7th, 2007
Food security campaigners are now more concerned than ever that farmers are turning dependent on large multinational corporations (MNCs) for seeds, fertilisers, pesticides and other inputs while also becoming more vulnerable to pressures to produce genetically engineered crops. |
| US: Life Was Lost in Maelstrom of Suspicion
by Ginger Thompson and Eric Schmitt, New York Times
December 4th, 2007
The suicide of a top Air Force procurement officer casts a cloud of suspicion, threatening to plunge a service still struggling to emerge from one of its worst scandals into another quagmire. |
| IVORY COAST: The Bitter Taste of Cocoa in Côte d'Ivoire
by Michael Deibert, IPS News
December 3rd, 2007
In addition to funding conflict, cocoa revenues are believed to have been defrauded for enrichment of persons in both the government and rebel camps. Article also mentions the following corporations: Lev-Ci and Cargill. |
| US: Producer of Poisonous Toy Beads Issues Apology
by Keith Bradsher, New York Times
November 29th, 2007
The Hong Kong company that manufactured millions of poisonous toy beads in mainland China issued a public apology on Thursday, with the chairman saying that it had not occurred to anyone to check whether an inexpensive glue ingredient in the beads would be dangerous for children to eat. |
| GLOBAL: Global campaign vows to fight MNC drug monopoly
by Marwaan Macan-Markar , IPS News
November 26th, 2007
Public health and HIV/AIDS activists from the developing world are seeking to break the monopoly over drugs held by pharmaceutical giants through a new global campaign designed to influence international debate over the issue. |
| UK: Payload: Taking Aim at Corporate Bribery
by Nelson D. Schwarts and Lowell Bergman, New York Times
November 25th, 2007
Controversial financial ties between British military contracting giant, BAE Systems, and Downing Street in Saudi Arabia attract attention during King Abdullah's visit to Buckingham Palace. |
| US: Law firm seeks nearly $700 mil for Enron pacts
by Martha Graybow, Reuters
November 21st, 2007
The law firm that helped win $7.2 billion in settlements for Enron investors is seeking nearly $700 million in legal fees for itself and other attorneys who handled the case, according to court documents.
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| US: Intel official: Say goodbye to privacy
by Pamela Hess , Associated Press
November 11th, 2007
Privacy no longer can mean anonymity, says Donald Kerr, the principal deputy director of national intelligence. Instead, it should mean that government and businesses properly safeguards people's private communications and financial information. |
| DRC: Six arrested in Congo radioactive dumping scandal
by Joe Bavier, Reuters
November 10th, 2007
Congolese authorities arrested six people in connection with the dumping of tonnes of highly radioactive minerals into a river near the southeastern town of Likasi. A report said some 17 tons of the minerals confiscated were destined for Chinese firm Magma. |
| EU: Court hits at Brussels secrecy
by Andy Bounds, Financial Times
November 8th, 2007
The European Union's secretive decision-making processes were condemned on Thursday in a legal judgment that should lead to more light being shed on how thousands of regulations affecting businesses are hatched. |
| US: Banana Workers Get $3.3M In Pesticide Case
AP
November 7th, 2007
A Los Angeles jury awarded $3.3 million to six workers on Monday who claimed they were left sterile by a pesticide used at a banana plantation in Nicaragua operated by Dole Fresh Fruit Co. |
| US: Blackwater Mounts a Defense With Top Talent
by John M. Broder and James Risen, NY Times
November 5th, 2007
lackwater Worldwide, its reputation in tatters and its lucrative government contracts in jeopardy, is mounting an aggressive legal, political and public relations counterstrike. |
| US: Gap plans 'sweatshop free' labels
by Dan McDougall, Guardian
November 4th, 2007
In what would be the biggest commitment to ending child labour ever undertaken by a major retailer, Gap Inc is drawing up plans to label its products 'Sweatshop Free'. |
| US: Blackwater's Owner Has Spies for Hire
by Dana Hedgpeth, Washington Post
November 3rd, 2007
The Prince Group, the holding company that owns Blackwater Worldwide, has been building an operation that will sniff out intelligence about natural disasters, business-friendly governments, overseas regulations and global political developments for clients in industry and government. |
| US: Protest Leads Army to Reconsider Big Contract
by Dana Hedgpeth, Washington Post
November 1st, 2007
One of the biggest military contracts to house, feed and provide other services to U.S. military troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait may be canceled and renegotiated after the Government Accountability Office said yesterday that it upheld a protest from two teams that lost the bid. |
| US: Little Green Lies
by Ben Elgin, Business 2.0
October 29th, 2007
The notion that making a company environmentally friendly can be not just cost-effective but profitable is questioned. |
| US: Rice Says ‘Hole’ in U.S. Law Shields Contractors in Iraq
by John M. Broder, NY Times
October 26th, 2007
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice conceded on Thursday that there was a “hole” in United States law that had allowed Blackwater USA employees and other armed contractors in Iraq to escape legal jeopardy for crimes possibly committed there. |
| US: US lawmakers plan squeeze on Chevron in Myanmar
AFP
October 24th, 2007
Proposed sanctions introduced in the US House of Representatives would pressure US energy giant Chevron to pull its investment from Myanmar, which rights activists say is helping prop up the ruling military junta. |
| US: BP Settlements Seen on Safety and Price Cases
by Stephen Labaton and Lowell Bergman, NY Times
October 24th, 2007
The British energy company BP, tarnished by a string of costly legal problems, is preparing to settle accusations that it was criminally indifferent to worker safety and that it manipulated energy prices. |
| US: V.A. Is Limiting Use of Diabetes Drug
by Stephanie Saul, NY Times
October 18th, 2007
The Department of Veterans Affairs has decided to severely limit the use of Avandia, the once-popular drug for Type 2 diabetes, delivering another blow to the product’s maker, GlaxoSmithKline.
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| NAMIBIA: All Hiring for Iraq Halted
by Brigitte Weidlich, The Namibian
October 16th, 2007
A Namibian labour hire company, which processed the applications of Namibian ex-combatants who wanted to become 'security' guards in Iraq and Afghanistan, has stopped the process.
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| US: US green groups urge Toyota U-turn
by John Reed, Financial Times
October 15th, 2007
Toyota is scrambling to protect its green reputation in the US, its largest market, where environmental groups are urging it to drop its opposition to a draft fuel economy bill. |
| UK: From $1 firm, Lord Ashcroft nets £132m
by Simon Bowers, Guardian (UK)
October 9th, 2007
The UK's Lord Ashcroft, the Conservative party deputy chairman and major donor, has agreed to sell his loss-making US janitorial business in a deal that will bring him a £132m windfall. |
| RUSSIA: Siberian boom threatens traditions
by Tom Esslemont, BBC News
October 8th, 2007
Russia is forging ahead with ambitious energy projects in eastern Siberia, but the indigenous Evenk people are complaining that their age-old way of life is in danger. |
| GERMANY:Siemens Settlement Sets Off Criticism of German Inquiries
by David Crawford and Mike Esterl, Wall Street Journal
October 8th, 2007
In the wake of a settlement between Siemens AG and German authorities over one aspect of a bribes-for-business scandal, critics are saying the sanction is light given the scale of the alleged crime and reflects how difficult it is for local law enforcement to pursue corporate corruption. |
| BURMA: Criticism of Total Operations Grows
by Michael Diebert, IPS
October 4th, 2007
The Yadana natural gas pipeline runs through the heart of the debate on corporate responsibility as to how foreign businesses should operate in a country ruled by a military dictatorship accused of widespread human rights abuses and violent suppression of dissent within its borders. |
| CONGO: World Bank accused of razing Congo forests
by John Vidal, The Guardian (UK)
October 4th, 2007
The World Bank encouraged foreign companies to destructively log the world's second largest forest, endangering the lives of thousands of Congolese Pygmies, according to a report on an internal investigation by senior bank staff and outside experts. |
| US: Wal-Mart Workers Win $62 Million
by Marieclaire Dale, AP
October 4th, 2007
Wal-Mart workers in Pennsylvania who previously won a $78.5 million class-action award for working off the clock will share an additional $62.3 million in damages, a judge ruled Wednesday. |
| US: The People vs. the Profiteers
by David Rose, Vanity Fair
October 4th, 2007
Americans working in Iraq for Halliburton spin-off KBR have been outraged by the massive fraud they saw there. Dozens are suing the giant military contractor, on the taxpayers' behalf. Whose side is the Justice Department on?
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| US: Chief of Blackwater Defends His Employees
by John M. Broder, New York Times
October 2nd, 2007
Erik D. Prince, chief executive of Blackwater USA, told a Congressional committee on Tuesday that his company’s nearly 1,000 armed guards in Iraq were not trigger-happy mercenaries, but rather loyal Americans doing a necessary job in hostile territory. |
| US: Billions over Baghdad; The Spoils of War
by Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele, Vanity Fair
October 1st, 2007
Between April 2003 and June 2004, $12 billion in U.S. currency--much of it belonging to the Iraqi people--was shipped from the Federal Reserve to Baghdad, where it was dispensed by the Coalition Provisional Authority. Incredibly, at least $9 billion has gone missing, unaccounted for, in a frenzy of mismanagement and greed. |
| FRANCE: Total: No Capital Expenditures in Myanmar
Associated Press
September 27th, 2007
Total SA, reacting Thursday to comments by French President Sarkozy urging the oil and gas giant to refrain from new investment in Myanmar, said it had not made any capital expenditure there since 1998. The military junta that rules Myanmar this week escalated its efforts to repress pro-democracy demonstrations led by thousands of Buddhist monks. |
| US: Software maker admits to taking bribes
by Stephanie Kirchgaessner, Financial Times
September 25th, 2007
An oil and gas services company owned by a US buy-out firm on Monday admitted it sought to bribe officials connected to several nationally owned oil companies to improve sales of its software, including Kazakhstan’s KazMunaiGas and subsidiaries of China’s CNOOC. |
| US: UAW Workers Walk Off the Job
by John D. Stoll and Jeffrey McCracken, Wall Street Journal
September 24th, 2007
The decision Monday by the United Auto Workers to walk off the job at General Motors highlights yet again the divisive element of healthcare in labor relations, and how what began as a historic accident is now the single biggest liability for both businesses and workers. |
| US: Cribs Recalled After Deaths of 2 Children
by Michael M. Grynbaum, nytimes
September 24th, 2007
One million cribs designed by Simplicity for Children, a manufacturer based in Pennsylvania, have been recalled after the suffocation deaths of at least two children, the government said yesterday. It was the company’s fourth recall in a little more than two years. |
| IRAQ: Blackwater Shooting Crisis Rallies Baghdad
by Philip Shishkin, Wall Street Journal
September 24th, 2007
An escalating controversy over the alleged shooting of Iraqi civilians by a U.S. security firm has triggered the strongest challenge yet to legal immunity for some foreigners in Iraq, while providing a rare rallying cry for the country's polarized factions. |
| IRAQ: Big oil’s waiting game over Iraq’s reserves
by Ed Crooks and Sheila McNulty, Financial Times
September 19th, 2007
Oil companies face a dilemma in Iraq over whether to wait for a new oil law which will give them a legal framework in which to operate or to sign agreements now with the Kurdistan Regional Government at the risk of sullying relations with Baghdad and the rest of the country. |
| US: Families Cannot Sue Firm for Israel Deaths
by Ed Pilkington, Guardian (London)
September 19th, 2007
The parents of Rachel Corrie, the US peace activist who was crushed to death four years ago in the then Israeli-occupied Gaza as she was protesting against the demolition of Palestinian homes, have been refused permission to sue the company which made the bulldozer that killed her. |
| EUROPE: Microsoft Ruling May Bode Ill for Other Companies
by Kevin J. O'Brien and Steve Lohr, New York Times
September 18th, 2007
Europe’s second-highest court delivered a stinging rebuke to Microsoft Monday, but the impact of the decision upholding an earlier antitrust ruling may extend well beyond the world’s largest software maker to other high-technology companies. |
| US: U.S. Contractor Banned by Iraq Over Shootings
by Sabrina Tavernise, New York Times
September 18th, 2007
Blackwater USA, an American contractor that provides security to some of the top American officials in Iraq, has been banned from working in the country by the Iraqi government after a shooting that left eight Iraqis dead and involved an American diplomatic convoy. |
| IRAQ: Will Iraq Kick Out Blackwater?
by Adam Zagorin and Brian Bennett, TIME Magazine
September 17th, 2007
TIME has obtained an incident report prepared by the U.S. government describing a fire fight Sunday in Baghdad in which at least eight Iraqis were reported killed and 13 wounded. The loss of life has provoked anger in Baghdad, where the Interior Ministry has suspended Blackwater's license to operate around the country. |
| US: In Turnaround, Industries Seek Regulations
by Eric Lipton and Gardiner Harris, New York Times
September 16th, 2007
After years of favoring the hands-off doctrine of the Bush administration, some of the nation's biggest industries are pushing for something they have long resisted: new federal regulations. |
| US: '60s Figure Says He Financed Donor Hsu
by Ianthe Jeanne Dugan and Brody Mullins, Wall Street Journal
September 12th, 2007
A company controlled by Democratic Party donor Norman Hsu recently received $40 million from a Madison Avenue investment fund run by Joel Rosenman, who was one of the creators of the Woodstock rock festival in 1969. That money, Mr. Rosenman told investors this week, is missing. |
| US: Whistle-blowers remain in the line of fire
by Jeremy Grant, Financial Times
September 12th, 2007
When the Securities and Exchange Commission came under congressional fire this year for its handling of an insider trading probe into hedge fund Pequot Capital, Senator Charles Grassley said the episode showed that whistle-blowers were "as welcome as a skunk at a picnic". |
| CHINA: An Opportunity for Wall St. in China’s Surveillance Boom
by Keith Bradsher, New York Times
September 11th, 2007
China Security and Surveillance Technology, a fast-growing company that installs and sometimes operates surveillance systems for Chinese police agencies, jails and banks, has just been approved for a listing on the New York Stock Exchange. The company’s listing is just a sign of ever-closer ties among Wall Street, surveillance companies and the Chinese government’s security apparatus. |
| US: Iraq convoy was sent out despite threat
by T. Christian Miller, LA Times
September 3rd, 2007
Senior managers for defense contractor KBR overruled calls to halt supply operations in Iraq in the spring of 2004, ordering unarmored trucks into an active combat zone where six civilian drivers died in an ambush, according to newly available documents. |
| US: SEC Asks Firms to Detail Top Executives' Pay
by Kara Scannell and Joann S. Lubli, The Wall Street Journal
August 31st, 2007
Stepping up its campaign to shed light on the mysteries of executive pay, the Securities and Exchange Commission has sent letters to nearly 300 companies across America critiquing disclosures in this year's proxy statements and demanding more information. |
| INDIA: Building a Modern Arsenal in India
by Heather Timmons and Somini Sengupta, The New York Times
August 31st, 2007
India is developing a military appetite to match its growing economic power. With a ballooning arms budget, India will soon become one of the largest military markets in the world, making it an important new target for American arms manufacturers. |
| US: Army to examine Iraq contracts
by Richard Lardner, Associated Press
August 29th, 2007
The Army will examine as many as 18,000 contracts awarded over the past four years to support U.S. forces in Iraq to determine how many are tainted by waste, fraud and abuse. |
| US: FTC: Milk Ads Not Misleading
by Sam Hananel, Guardian (UK)
August 28th, 2007
Federal regulators have turned down a request from Monsanto Co. to take action against dairy companies that advertise milk as free of synthetic hormones. |
| US: Role of Telecom Firms in Wiretaps Is Confirmed
by Eric Lichtblau, New York Times
August 24th, 2007
The Bush administration has confirmed for the first time that American telecommunications companies played a crucial role in the National Security Agency’s domestic eavesdropping program after asserting for more than a year that any role played by them was a “state secret.” |
| CHINA: U.S. Group Accuses Chinese Toy Factories of Labor Abuses
by David Barboza , New York Times
August 21st, 2007
A workers’ rights group in the United States released a report on Tuesday detailing what it called brutal conditions and illegal practices in Chinese toy factories, many of which supply some of the world’s biggest brand-name toy makers, including Walt Disney and Hasbro. |
| US: Plaintiffs Find Payday Elusive in Vioxx Cases
by Alex Berenson, New York Times
August 21st, 2007
Facing numerous lawsuits by people contending that they or their loved ones suffered heart attacks or strokes after taking the painkiller Vioxx, Merck & Company has managed to combat litigation, avoiding any form of liability. |
| EU: EU lobbyists face tougher regulation
by Andrew Bounds and Marine Formentini, Financial Times
August 16th, 2007
Europe seems set for US-style controls on lobbying after the biggest public affairs companies in Brussels ruled out voluntary regulation because they would have to divulge their clients and fees. |
| INDIA: Indian Activists' Rising Clout
by Jackie Range, Wall Street Journal
August 16th, 2007
India's Supreme Court is poised to decide whether a British
company has the right to mine in a sacred tribal forest, a case that underlines the complexity of undertaking large-scale industrial projects here. The case's hearing by the court reflects the growing clout of activist groups in India. |
| CHINA: China Enacting a High-Tech Plan to Track People
by Keith Bradsher, The New York Times
August 12th, 2007
At least 20,000 police surveillance cameras are being installed along streets here in southern China and will soon be guided by sophisticated computer software from an American-financed company to recognize automatically the faces of police suspects and detect unusual activity. |
| IRAQ: U.S. Pays Millions In Cost Overruns For Security in Iraq
by Steve Fainaru, The Washington Post
August 12th, 2007
U.S. military has paid $548 million over the past three years to two British security firms that protect the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on reconstruction projects, more than $200 million over the original budget, according to previously undisclosed data that show how the cost of private security in Iraq has mushroomed. |
| INDIA: Novartis Patents Case Far From Dead
by Praful Bidwai, Inter Press Service News Agency
August 9th, 2007
Cancer patients in India have reason to be relieved at a high court ruling this week which dismissed a petition by Swiss pharmaceuticals multinational corporation (MNC) Novartis challenging an Indian law which denies patents for minor or trivial improvements to known drugs. |
| US: As Iraq Costs Soar, Contractors Earn Record Profits
by Eli Clifton, Inter Press Service News Agency
August 2nd, 2007
In a report to lawmakers earlier this week, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office found that the war in Iraq could cost U.S. taxpayers over a trillion dollars when the long-term costs of caring for soldiers wounded in action, military and economic aid for the Iraqi government, and ongoing costs associated with the 190,000 troops stationed in Iraq are totaled up. |
| WORLD: We must count the true cost of cheap China
by Richard McGregor, Financial Times
August 2nd, 2007
In the wake of the multiple scandals over tainted Chinese food and drug exports in recent months, Chinese goods now have an indelible image of being not just cheap, but life-threatening as well. But the fact that wrongly labelled foods, liquor and pharmaceuticals have routinely sickened and even killed people en masse in China has been largely overlooked. |
| US: Mattel Recalls One Million Toys
by Louise Story , New York Times
August 2nd, 2007
Mattel, the maker of Barbie dolls and Hot Wheels cars, is recalling nearly one million toys in the United States today because the products’ surfaces are covered in lead paint. According to Mattel, all the toys were made by a contract manufacturer in China. |
| COLOMBIA: Suing Multinationals Over Murder
by Ken Stier, TIME Magazine
August 1st, 2007
Organized labor often complains of its treatment at the hands of corporate America, but its accusations pale in comparison to those made recently by the widows of Colombian mine workers in an Alabama courtroom. During a two-week trial, a Birmingham jury weighed charges that the local Drummond Coal Company bore responsibility for the murders of three union leaders who represented workers at its Colombian mine - the world's largest open pit mine. |
| MEXICO: Thousands of Unpaid Teens Bag Groceries for Wal-Mart
by Joseph Contreras, Newsweek
August 1st, 2007
Wal-Mart prides itself on cutting costs at home and abroad, and its Mexican operations are no exception. Wal-Mart is Mexico's largest private-sector employer in the nation today, with nearly 150,000 local residents on its payroll. An additional 19,000 youngsters between the ages of 14 and 16 work after school in hundreds of Wal-Mart stores, mostly as grocery baggers, throughout Mexico-and none of them receives a red cent in wages or fringe benefits. |
| US: Blackwater-U. of I. tie
by E.A. Torriero and Jodi S. Cohen, The Chicago Tribune
July 31st, 2007
The University of Illinois is investigating potential conflicts of interest involving the director of the school's prestigious police-training institute and Blackwater U.S.A., the military contractor. |
| US: Navajos and Environmentalists Split on Power Plant
by Felicity Barringer, The New York Times
July 27th, 2007
A plan to build a new, large coal-fired power plant has proved divisive in the Navajo community in Nevada, with some arguing that it will bring the community millions, while others saying it is a lethal "energy monster" and harbinger of environmental destruction. |
| IRAQ: Foreign Workers Abused at Embassy, Panel Told
by William Branigin, The Washinton Post
July 27th, 2007
Two American civilian contractors who worked on a massive U.S. Embassy construction project in Baghdad told Congress yesterday that foreign laborers were deceptively recruited and trafficked to Iraq to toil at the site, where they experienced physical abuse and substandard working conditions. |
| US: FDA Panel to Review Avandia
by Jennifer Corbett Dooren, The Wall Street Journal
July 26th, 2007
The Food and Drug Administration will ask a panel of outside medical experts Monday whether it thinks GlaxoSmithKline PLC's diabetes drug Avandia should remain on the U.S. market. |
| US: Savings and Issues in Candidates’ Use of Private Jets
by Michael Cooper and Leslie Wayne, The New York Times
July 26th, 2007
Political fortunes and high costs have forced some presidential candidates to switch from using chartered private jets to those of corporations, including John McCain, who had previously sponsored a bill limiting use of corporate jets by candidates. |
| US: Blackwater supports inquiry into fatal shooting
by Bill Sizemore, Virginian-Pilot
July 25th, 2007
After one of his personal bodyguards was shot to death by a Blackwater USA security contractor last Christmas Eve, Iraqi Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi assured the U.S. ambassador that he was trying to keep the incident out of the public eye. |
| COLOMBIA: Drummond Union: Govt Muffles Key Witness
by Frank Bajak, Forbes.com
July 24th, 2007
The union activists suing U.S. coal company Drummond Co. Inc. in Alabama in the 2001 murders of three labor leaders say deliberate foot-dragging by Colombian authorities is preventing the jury from hearing their star witness. Concerned by the delay, 12 Democrats in the U.S. Congress wrote Colombia's vice president last week asking him to intercede. |
| US: Tax Break Used by Drug Makers Failed to Add Jobs
by Alex Berenson, The New York Times
July 24th, 2007
Two years ago, when companies received a big tax break to bring home their offshore profits, the president and Congress justified it as a one-time tax amnesty that would create American jobs.
Drug makers were the biggest beneficiaries of the amnesty program, repatriating about $100 billion in foreign profits and paying only minimal taxes. But the companies did not create many jobs in return. Instead, since 2005 the American drug industry has laid off tens of thousands of workers in thi |
| ITALY: Devil's Advocate
by Daniel Fisher, Forbes
July 24th, 2007
Italian oil giant Eni has a long history of cutting deals with anyone, and of accusations of corruption and bribery. Now that its future hangs on Russia and its notorious reputation in the energy market, has Eni finally met its match? |
| US: 'America's private army' under fire for Illinois facility
by E.A. Torriero, Chicago Tribune
July 23rd, 2007
Blackwater North, as the North Carolina-based firm calls its new site, is designed primarily as a tactical training ground for domestic law enforcement and contractors. Using civilians schooled in military warfare, the site offers training in weaponry, hostage dealings and terror reaction. Still, the sudden appearance of Blackwater is attracting criticism and questions from miles around. Anti-war activists and locals are wary about the new training site. |
| US: 3 Executives Spared Prison in OxyContin Case
by Barry Meier, The New York Times
July 20th, 2007
After hearing testimony from parents of young adults who died from overdoses involving the painkiller OxyContin, a federal judge Friday sentenced three top executives of the company that makes the narcotic to three years' probation and 400 hours each of community service in drug treatment programs. |
| US: Filling Gaps in Iraq, Then Finding a Void at Home
by John M. Broder, New York Times
July 17th, 2007
Taking the place of enlisted troops in every American army before this one, contract employees in Iraq cook meals, wash clothes, deliver fuel and guard bases. And they die and suffer alongside
their brothers and sisters in uniform. About 1,000 contractors have been killed in Iraq since the war began; nearly 13,000 have been injured. The consequences of the war will be lasting for many of them and their families, ordeals that are largely invisible to most Americans. |
| US: Katrina Ice Being Melted After 2 Years
Associated Press
July 14th, 2007
After nearly two years, thousands of truck miles and $12.5 million in storage costs, the federal government is getting rid of thousands of pounds of ice it had sent south to help Katrina victims, then north when it determined much of the ice wasn't needed. |
| US: Conrad Black Found Guilty in Fraud Trial
by Richard Silkos, The New York Times
July 13th, 2007
Conrad M. Black, the gregarious press tycoon also known as Lord Black of Crossharbour, was found guilty today by a Chicago jury of three counts of mail fraud and one count of obstruction of justice. He could face up to 35 years in prison. |
| CHINA: Lead Toxins Take a Global Round Trip
by Gordon Fairclough, The Wall Street Journal
July 12th, 2007
High levels of toxic lead turning up in cheap jewelry from China are prompting recalls in the U.S. But some of the lead used by these Chinese manufacturers comes from an unconventional source: computers and other electronic goods discarded in Western countries and dumped in China. |
| CHILE: Gold rush threatens glacier
by Lucia Newman , Al Jazeera
July 8th, 2007
A new gold rush is under way as mining companies seek to supply the ever-increasing demand for the precious metal from emerging economies such as India, and with reserves dwindling all over the world they are going to extraordinary lengths to extract it. |
| UN: Global Compact with Business 'Lacks Teeth' - NGOs
by Gustavo Capdevila, Inter Press News Service (IPS)
July 6th, 2007
The U.N.'s Global Compact with international big business "at the moment is so voluntary that it really is a happy-go-lucky club," says Ramesh Singh, chief executive of ActionAid, a non-governmental organisation. The controversy has come to a boiling point because of the Global Compact Leaders' Summit being held in Geneva on Thursday and Friday, at which over 1,000 representatives of multinational companies are taking part, in addition to well-known civil society figures like Irene Khan, the secretary general of AI; Mary Robinson, president of the Ethical Globalisation Initiative; Guy Ryder, general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation; and Jeremy Hobbs, executive director of Oxfam International. |
| INDONESIA: Palm Oil Producer Unethical, Groups Say
by Toby Sterling, The Associated Press
July 3rd, 2007
A Singapore-based company was involved in slashing and burning Indonesian forests to make way for palm oil plantations that feed the growing market for biofuels, environmental and activist groups claimed Tuesday. The company emphatically denied the allegations.
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| IRAQ: A Private Realm Of Intelligence-Gathering; Firm Extends U.S. Government's Reach
by Steve Fainaru and Alec Klein, Washington Post Foreign Service
July 1st, 2007
On the first floor of a tan building inside Baghdad's Green Zone, the full scope of Iraq's daily carnage is condensed into a 30-minute PowerPoint presentation. The intelligence was compiled not by the U.S. military, but by a British security firm, Aegis Defence Services Ltd. The Reconstruction Operations Center is the most visible example of how intelligence collection is now among the responsibilities handled by a network of private security companies that work in the shadows of the U.S. military. |
| US: Buying Into the Green Movement
by Alex Williams, The New York Times
July 1st, 2007
Consumers have embraced living green, and for the most part the mainstream green movement has embraced green consumerism. But even at this moment of high visibility and impact for environmental activists, a splinter wing of the movement has begun to critique what it sometimes calls “light greens.” |
| CHINA: The Growing Dangers of China Trade
by Jyoti Thottam, TIME Magazine
June 28th, 2007
Growing concerns over the safety of everyday goods manufactured in China and imported to the US have thrown into relief the problematic (and dangerous) differences in safety and regulatory standards between the two countries. |
| WORLD: US probes Saudi-linked UK arms firm
by David Robertson and Tom Baldwin, The Times (London)
June 28th, 2007
The British and US governments are on a diplomatic collision course after the US Department of Justice launched a formal investigation into allegations of corruption at defence company BAE Systems. The US investigation will scrutinise BAE's dealings with Saudi Arabia to expose an account allegedly held by the Bank of England that is used to facilitate Saudi payments for arms.
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| US: At Home Depot, How Green Is That Chainsaw?
by Cliffard Kraus, New York Times
June 25th, 2007
As companies rush to carry "environmentally friendly" products, Home Depot encourages suppliers to pitch to have their products included in its new Eco Options marketing campaign. Critics argue that the green label is overused and overmarketed. |
| SOUTH AFRICA: Globalization Brings South Africa Gains -- and Pains
by David Wessel, The Wall Street Journal
June 21st, 2007
Globalization has been both a boon and a bane for South Africa; it has helped along the country's integration into the global economy and strengthened its regional political position, but it has also contributed to the widening gap between a wealthy minority and the poor majority, something that is creating a whole new generation of disenfranchised citizens. |
| INDONESIA: Mud Volcano Sullies Top Investment Firms
by Emad Mekay, Inter Press News Service (IPS)
June 21st, 2007
Environmental campaigners are urging several heavyweight investment firms, including Credit Suisse, Barclays, Fortis Group and Merrill Lynch, to shoulder some responsibility for a catastrophic mud volcano on the Indonesian island of Java that resulted from a gas project the firms helped fund. |
| US: Justices Back Underwriters On New Issues
by Linda Greenhouse, The New York Times
June 19th, 2007
The securities industry dodged a bullet on Monday when the Supreme Court threw out a private antitrust suit that accused 10 leading investment banks of conspiring to fix prices for the initial public offerings of hundreds of technology companies during the 1990s. |
| US: Politics Forcing Detroit to Back New Fuel Rules
by Micheline Maynard, The New York Times
June 19th, 2007
This week, with a vote possible in the Senate on an energy plan, car companies retreated from their longstanding argument that any legislation to increase fuel economy standards would rob them of profits, force them to lay off workers and deprive consumers of the vehicles they wanted to buy. They are now lobbying for a modest increase in mileage standards, a position already adopted by Toyota, in the hopes of silencing calls for even tougher targets. |
| AFRICA: What Does Africa Need Most: Technology or Aid?
by Jason Pontin, The New York Times
June 17th, 2007
TED Global 2007 is one small skirmish in a larger ideological conflict between those who believe that Africa needs more and better international aid, and those who think entrepreneurialism and technology will lift the continent out of poverty and thus reduce its miseries. |
| BURMA: No End to Forced Labour
by Gustavo Capdevila , Inter Press Service News Agency
June 15th, 2007
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) expressed profound concern about the persistence of forced labour in Burma, while it is closely monitoring the implementation of a mechanism for victims to file complaints, which was recently agreed with the Southeast Asian country's governing junta. |
| IRAQ: Caught in Trafficking
by David Phinney, Inter Press Service News Agency
June 15th, 2007
A Filipino air conditioner repairman's life was turned upside down when promises of good pay and work in Kuwait were replaced with the harsh realities of corrupt recruiters, horrible living conditions and forced work in Iraq. |
| US: CIA Plans Cutbacks, Limits on Contractor Staffing
by Walter Pincus and Stephen Barr, Washington Post
June 11th, 2007
Acting under pressure from Congress, the CIA has decided to trim its contractor staffing by 10 percent. It is the agency's first effort since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to curb what critics have decried as the growing privatization of U.S. intelligence work, a circumstance that has sharply boosted some personnel costs. |
| IVORY COAST: Cocoa exports ‘fund’ Ivory Coast conflict
by William Wallis and Dino Mahtani, Financial Times
June 7th, 2007
After diamonds and timber, Global Witness, the London-based pressure group, has turned its sights on chocolate in a report that claims cocoa exports from Ivory Coast, the world’s largest producer, have contributed to funding and prolonging the conflict there. |
| CHILE: Chile Must Pay US$5.4 Million to Aricans Living Amid Toxic Waste
by Mike Hager, The Santiago Times
June 1st, 2007
In a landmark case, Chile’s Supreme Court ruled this week that the state must compensate 356 residents of two slums in the northern mining city of Arica for health problems brought on by years of exposure to open deposits of toxic waste. Promel, the Swedish company responsible for the importation of the toxic materials, cannot compensate the plaintiffs because the company no longer exists. |
| US: Bristol-Myers to Pay Fine
Agence France Presse
May 31st, 2007
Bristol-Myers Squibb has agreed to plead guilty and pay a $1 million criminal fine for lying to the government about a patent deal on its blood-thinning drug Plavix, officials said Wednesday.
The Justice Department said in a statement that the company’s actions had threatened to reduce competition for the drug, one of the best-selling prescription medications worldwide. |
| JAPAN: NEC workers fake orders worth Y2.2bn
by Mariko Sanchanta , Financial Times
May 29th, 2007
NEC, the Japanese electronics company, Tuesday said that 10 rogue employees placed fake orders worth Y2.2bn ($200m) and accepted kickbacks worth Y500m, which they spent on personal wining and dining.
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| CHINA: BNP executive ‘bribed official’
by Richard McGregor in Beijing and Sundeep Tucker in Hong Kong, Financial Times
May 29th, 2007
An executive in the Shanghai office of BNP Paribas bribed a senior government official in the capital in order to win business underwriting Chinese sovereign bonds, according to the Beijing city prosecutor’s office. |
| IRAQ: U.S. Security Contractors Open Fire in Baghdad
by Steve Fainaru and Saad al-Izzi, The Washington Post
May 27th, 2007
Employees of Blackwater USA, a private security firm under contract to the State Department, opened fire on the streets of Baghdad twice in two days last week, and one of the incidents provoked a standoff between the security contractors and Iraqi forces, U.S. and Iraqi officials said. |
| INDONESIA: Blood boils as mud volcano swallows homes
Sydney Morning Herald
May 26th, 2007
One year ago this Tuesday, a gas-exploration well part-owned by the Australian mining giant Santos blew, sending a geyser of mud and toxic gas into the air. Nearby villages and factories were flooded, then a big highway and railway were covered, and later East Java's main gas pipeline ruptured. |
| IRAQ: Death Toll for Contractors Reaches New High in Iraq
by John M. Broder and James Risen, New York Times
May 19th, 2007
Casualties among private contractors in Iraq have soared to record levels this year, setting a pace that seems certain to turn 2007 into the bloodiest year yet for the civilians who work alongside the American military in the war zone, according to new government numbers. |
| AUSTRALIA: Miner's poll cash for MPs
by Amanda O'Brien, The Australian
May 19th, 2007
MINING company Precious Metals Australia donated thousands of dollars to the election campaigns of two West Australian politicians who helped write a doctored report that commercially benefited the company.
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| US: Governor vetoes liquefied gas proposal
by Marc Lifsher, Los Angeles Times
May 19th, 2007
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday vetoed a proposal to build a terminal for importing liquefied natural gas 20 miles off the coast of Malibu, but he kept the door open for future LNG projects if they are environmentally sensitive. |
| THAILAND: Holding Big Pharma's feet to the fire
by Marwaan Macan-Markar, Inter Press Service
May 17th, 2007
For nearly a week, the advertising pages of Thai- and English-language dailies have been the stage for debates on Thailand's decision to break patents on anti-AIDS drugs in the interest of public health. A lobby championing the cause of the powerful pharmaceutical companies ran full-page spreads in the morning newspapers with an eye-catching warning in large, bold text, which said: "The Wrong Prescription for Thailand". |
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