| US: Research Center Tied to Drug Company
by GARDINER HARRIS, The New York Times November 24th, 2008 Court documents reveal that Dr. Joseph Biederman, a renowned child psychiatrist, pushed Johnson & Johnson to fund a research center whose goal was “to move forward the commercial goals of J&J.” |
| US: Radio Host Has Drug Company Ties
by GARDINER HARRIS, The New York Times November 21st, 2008 An influential psychiatrist who was the host of the popular NPR program “The Infinite Mind” earned at least $1.3 million from 2000 to 2007 giving marketing lectures for drugmakers, income not mentioned on the program. |
| US: Court Says Shell Can’t Drill Near Alaska
by JAD MOUAWAD, The New York Times November 20th, 2008 A federal appeals court on Thursday blocked Royal Dutch Shell from drilling oil wells off Alaska’s North Slope after finding that the Interior Department had failed to conduct an environmental study before issuing the company’s drilling permit. |
| ITALY: Ex-Head of Bank of Italy to Go on Trial
by ERIC SYLVERS, The New York Times November 19th, 2008 Now, three years after his time at the helm of the central bank ended in scandal, he goes on trial in Milan on Thursday, accused of rigging markets in order to keep Italian banks in Italian hands. |
| US: Formerly Lavish Music Patron Is Convicted of Fraud
by DANIEL J. WAKIN, The New York Times November 19th, 2008 Alberto W. Vilar, the investor and music lover accustomed to opulent living, front-row opera seats and the gratitude of arts impresarios, now faces a more humble prospect: prison. |
| US: Mark Cuban Is Charged With Insider Trading
by MICHAEL J. de la MERCED and FLOYD NORRIS, The New York Times November 17th, 2008 On Monday, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil suit charging Mr. Cuban with insider trading for selling shares of a small Internet search company in 2004, just before its share price fell. |
| US: No Bonuses for 7 Senior Executives at Goldman
by BEN WHITE, The New York Times November 16th, 2008 As public scrutiny of Wall Street pay intensifies, one bank has already decided what it will award in bonuses to its top seven executives this year: nothing. |
| US: Indictment Links Deutsche Bank to Tax-Shelter Inquiry by LYNNLEY BROWNING, The New York Times November 16th, 2008 The case may put pressure on Deutsche Bank, which has been under criminal investigation over its tax shelter work from the late 1990s through 2001. |
| CHILE: Nearly 2,000 Carrying H.I.V. in Chile Were Not Notified
by PASCALE BONNEFOY and ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO , The New York Times November 13th, 2008 Chile’s health minister said Thursday that the country’s public health system had failed to notify at least 512 people that they were infected with H.I.V., and that private-sector services did not inform an additional 1,364 that they were carrying the virus, which causes AIDS. |
| US: PacifiCorp Agrees To Remove Dams by Jim Carlton, The Wall Street Journal November 13th, 2008 Electric utility PacifiCorp has tentatively agreed to remove four dams from the Klamath River, in a deal that would end one of the West's most rancorous water disputes and could serve as a settlement model for similar fights. |
| US: Justices Revoke Limits On Navy Use of Sonar by Jerry Markon and Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post November 13th, 2008 The justices voted 6 to 3 to lift restrictions on the Navy's use of sonar off the Southern California coast, backing the military in a longstanding battle over whether anti-submarine training harms marine mammals. |
| US: UBS Executive Indicted in U.S. Inquiry
by LYNNLEY BROWNING, The New York Times November 12th, 2008 A senior Swiss executive at the banking giant UBS has been indicted in an investigation of the bank and its offshore private banking services for wealthy Americans, federal prosecutors said on Wednesday. |
| EU: Glass Makers Are Fined $1.7 Billion in Europe’s War on Price Fixing
by James Kanter, The New York Times November 12th, 2008 The European Commission fined companies controlling the Continent’s auto glass market a record 1.4 billion euros ($1.77 billion), on Wednesday for price-fixing over five years. |
| CHINA: Hong Kong Finds Tainted Chinese Fish Feed
by DAVID BARBOZA, The New York Times November 12th, 2008 The Hong Kong government finding, reported late Tuesday, is the latest indication that melamine, a chemical used to make plastic and fertilizer, has seeped into large parts of China’s food and feed industry, posing potential health hazards to consumers. |
| US: 3 Flat-Screen Makers Plead Guilty to Trying to Keep Prices High
by STEVE LOHR, The New York Times November 12th, 2008 Prices for the flat screens in televisions, personal computers and cellphones have plummeted in recent years — but the decline would have been even faster if it hadn’t been for an international price-fixing cartel, the Justice Department said on Wednesday. |
| US: Early-voting problems in Putnam: Touch-screen votes switched, then corrected by Paul J. Nyden, The Charleston Gazette October 21st, 2008 Two more Putnam County voters - Martha Louise Harrington and Michael K. Koon - have come forward about problems they experienced on early-voting electronic machines at the Winfield courthouse. |
| US: Bank of America Acquires Culture of Corruption in Merrill Lynch Purchase, Warns Former Merrill Star Player Market Watch October 21st, 2008 Keith Schooley, a former star financial consultant with Merrill Lynch, warns Bank of America CEO Kenneth Lewis that he may soon experience buyer's remorse over his acquisition of Wall Street's fallen idol. |
| UK: Britain's failure to tackle corruption damned amid new claims against BAE by David Leigh, The Guardian (UK) October 18th, 2008 • Arms giant accused of fraud over Saudi deals • International monitors put UK ministers in dock |
| VIETNAM: Vietnam Cracks Down on Polluters by Martha Ann Overland, TIME October 17th, 2008 Long before a government report confirmed it, villagers living along the banks of the Thi Vai river in the Mekong Delta knew full well that the waterway was dead. They had complained for years that industrial waste discharged into the Thi Vai had poisoned their wells, killed all the fish and was making them sick. Yet it wasn't until cargo companies refused to dock at the river's main port — saying that the toxic brew was eating through the ships' hulls — that Vietnam officials were willing to get tough on polluters. |
| CANADA: OIL SANDS-PART 2: "Where I Come From Is Ground Zero" by Chris Arsenault, Inter Press Service (IPS) October 17th, 2008 Like many young people from Ft. Chipewayn, Mercredi knows the tar sands well; he spent four years making big money driving trucks at one of the mines. "I just walked off the job one night, I thought 'this is wrong, we're destroying our own land'," said Mercredi. |
| CANADA: OIL SANDS-PART 1: Showdown at Ft. McMoney by Chris Arsenault, Inter Press Service (IPS) October 16th, 2008 The sun rises in a bright, red line over flat land, small lakes, boreal forest and peat bogs as our small double engine plane bumps through early morning turbulence between Edmonton and Ft. McMurray, Canada. |
| US: Bank of New York Mellon Will Oversee Bailout Fund by Eric Dash, New York Times October 15th, 2008 The Bank of New York Mellon was named the master custodian firm overseeing the Treasury Department’s $700 billion bailout fund. It will hold and track the distressed assets that the government will buy as well as run and report on the auctions used to buy the assets. Government officials called it the “prime contractor of the purchase program.” |
| US: The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America by Amy Goodman and James Bamford, Democracy Now! October 14th, 2008 The Bush administration’s wiretapping program has come under new scrutiny. Two influential congressional committees have opened probes into allegations US intelligence spied on the phone calls of U.S. military personnel, journalists and aid workers in Iraq. James Bamford discusses the NSA’s domestic sprying, the agency’s failings pre-9/11 and the ties between NSA and the nation’s telecommunications companies. |
| GUINEA: One killed in Guinea protest over bauxite trains Reuters Africa October 10th, 2008 At least one person was killed when police in Guinea cleared protesters from a railway carrying bauxite for Russian aluminium company RUSAL, police and industry sources said on Friday. |
| CHILE: Native Community in Desert Oasis Threatened by Mines by Daniela Estrada, Inter Press News Service (IPS) October 9th, 2008 The Diaguita indigenous community in Huasco Alto, surrounded by rich gold, silver and copper deposits in the northern Chilean region of Atacama, are engaged in a struggle to prevent mining projects from infringing on their territory and destroying their way of life and ancestral identity. |
| US: U.S. May Take Ownership Stake in Banks by Edmund L. Andrews and Mark Landler, New York Times October 8th, 2008 In fresh efforts to stem persisting turmoil in the credit markets, the US Treasury Department is considering partial nationalization of numerous U.S. banks. Insurance giant A.I.G. will also receive a further injection of $37.8 billion. |
| US: More BP refinery doubts Journal Gazette October 7th, 2008 Smoke rises from the Whiting refinery now owned by BP. Federal regulators are questioning BP’s permit process. According to the EPA, the agency “now has information suggesting that BP may have begun a project to process Canadian crude oil at the refinery in 2005 without the proper permit.” |
| US: Eli Lilly settles Zyprexa inquiries in 32 states by TOM MURPHY and MARLEY SEAMAN, Associated Press October 7th, 2008 Drugmaker Eli Lilly & Co. cleared another legal cloud hanging over its top-selling drug Zyprexa when it announced a $62 million settlement Tuesday, but several other storms are still brewing for the antipsychotic medication. |
| PHILIPPINES: Execs urged: Act on river pollution by Bernadette Parco, Cebu Daily News (Philippines) October 6th, 2008 Environmentalists called on local government officials in Toledo City to actively monitor the ecosystem in the area following reports that a mining company discharged wastewater into the Sapangdaku River. |
| US: California's Number One Inland Oil Polluter in Trouble Again Enviroment News Service October 3rd, 2008 An oil company that state and federal officials have called California's number one inland oil polluter has failed to meet multiple deadlines to clean up leaks from settling ponds on one of its leases, so the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency this week took over partial cleanup operations to ensure they are completed before the rainy season. |
| IRAQ: U.S. to Fund Pro-American Publicity in Iraqi Media by Karen DeYoung and Walter Pincus, Washingtom Post October 3rd, 2008 The Defense Department will pay private U.S. contractors in Iraq up to $300 million over the next three years to produce news stories, entertainment programs and public service advertisements for the Iraqi media in an effort to "engage and inspire" the local population to support U.S. objectives and the Iraqi government. |
| INDIA: In Sore Need of E-Waste Regulation by Keya Acharya, Inter Press News Service (IPS) October 2nd, 2008 India’s lack of safe electronic waste-disposal is growing to a crisis situation, needing strong laws to control the situation, say experts. |
| ISRAEL: U.S.-Israel jet deal sought: Pentagon backs sale of next-generation F-35s fighters to ally by Stephen Manning, Chicago Tribune October 2nd, 2008 The Defense Department said this week that it wants to sell as many as 75 fighter jets to Israel in a $15.2 billion deal for the aircraft expected to be the mainstay of air power in the United States and several other nations for decades. |
| SOUTH AFRICA: AngloGold workers protest SAfrican mine deaths by James Macharia, Reuters October 2nd, 2008 Three workers in South Africa died after three separate mining incidents as miners at AngloGold Ashanti's TauTona mine stopped work over a fatality there last week, union and company officials said on Thursday. |
| U.S.: Great Place for the Oil Business by Stephen Leahy, Inter Press News Service (IPS) September 30th, 2008 Why do U.S. oil companies -- some of the most profitable corporations on the planet -- receive 20 to 40 billion dollars a year in subsidies from the U.S. government? |
| US: Foggo pleads guilty in Wilkes case: Former CIA official fraudulently sent contracts to friend by Paul M. Krawzak, San Diego Union Tribune – Washington Bureau September 30th, 2008 Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, the former No. 3 official in the CIA, pleaded guilty yesterday to fraudulently steering intelligence contracts to his lifelong friend, former Poway defense contractor Brent Wilkes. |
| US: Mosaic threatens $618 million lawsuit by Frank Gluck, Herald Tribune September 30th, 2008 Florida mining giant Mosaic Fertilizer said Monday it will file a $618 million lawsuit against Manatee County unless commissioners reverse a Sept. 16 vote that denied permission for Mosaic to mine phosphate on a property in Duette. |
| US: EPA sues Bradley Mining Co. for cleanup costs Associated Press September 30th, 2008 The federal government has filed a $7 million lawsuit against Bradley Mining Company, in an attempt to recover costs it says the Forest Service and Environmental Protection Agency incurred cleaning up arsenic-laden mining waste. |
| EU: Lehman sees 750 Europe jobs axed BBC September 30th, 2008 The administrators of Lehman Brothers' European division have cut 750 jobs at the firm with immediate effect. |
| CANADA: High stakes in Canada’s vast oil-sands fields by George Tombs, Christian Science Monitor September 30th, 2008 Trillions of dollars’ worth of oil are present, but the environmental costs are high, too – and growing. |
| IVORY COAST: Pollution trial opens in Ivory Coast Agence France Press (AFP) September 29th, 2008 The trial opened in Ivory Coast on Monday of 12 people charged with involvement in a 2006 toxic waste scandal which killed 17 Ivorians and poisoned thousands. |
| MALAYSIA: Murum Dam - Public Funds for Corporate Profit? by Anil Netto, Inter Press Service (IPS) September 27th, 2008 Who will foot the bill for the Murum resettlement? ''Is it Sarawak Energy or will it be passed on directly to the state government and hence the tax payer,'' asked one Sarawak-based activist, who declined to be identified. |
| MALAYSIA: Murum Dam - Public Funds for Corporate Profit? by Anil Netto, Inter Press Service September 27th, 2008 By end-2007, Sarawak Hidro, the Bakun Dam developer, had outstanding borrowings of 1 billion dollars from a state-managed workers' pension fund and pension trust fund. |
| US: An Inconvenient Bag by ELLEN GAMERMAN , Wall Street Journal September 26th, 2008 It's manufactured in China, shipped thousands of miles overseas, made with plastic and could take years to decompose. It's also the hot "green" giveaway of the moment: the reusable shopping bag. |
| SOUTH AFRICA: Apartheid lawsuit back in US court SABC News September 25th, 2008 After six years of battling, the plaintiffs must prove whether certain multinationals enabled the apartheid government to commit acts of gross human rights violations. Among the 21 defendants are oil, vehicle and financial companies which continue to operate in South Africa -- the likes of BP, Shell, Chevron Texaco, Barclays, Daimler Chrysler and Rio Tinto. They stand accused of supporting the former regime with arms and ammunition, financing, fuel, transportation and military technology. |
| US: Martinez Shell Refinery To Pay $300,000 Penalty For Spill KTVU News September 25th, 2008 The operator of the Shell refinery in Martinez has agreed to pay $300,000 to settle a civil lawsuit charging that the refinery negligently caused about 10 barrels of oil to spill into the Carquinez Strait in Martinez in 2006, according to the Contra Costa District Attorney's office. |
| CONGO: Candidates Silent On Resource War In Congo by Georgianne Nienaber, Huffington Post September 25th, 2008 All politics is local, to paraphrase the venerable Bostonian and Democratic, Tip O'Neill. To human rights workers, journalists, writers, and humanitarians who have intimate knowledge of the Great Lakes Region of Equatorial Africa, this short email conjures a place, people, and tragedy that has been met with a wall of silence on the campaign trail. Neither John McCain nor Barack Obama has addressed this great humanitarian breakdown, except in the context of political squabbling. |
| IVORY COAST: Ivory Coast workers can't sue firms in U.S. by Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle September 25th, 2008 Ivory Coast plantation workers who claim they were sterilized by a U.S.-made pesticide can't sue the manufacturers and distributors of the chemical in the United States because they can't show the companies intended to harm them, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday. |
| US: SEC Presses Hedge Funds by Kara Scarnell, Wall Street Journal September 25th, 2008 American International Group Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Morgan Stanley, Washington Mutual Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co. are part of a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into potential abuse in relation to the current financial markets meltdown. |
| WORLD: Oil Companies' "Self-Policing" a Dismal Failure by Alison Raphael, Inter Press News Service (IPS) September 24th, 2008 The intersection of human rights, the environment and corporate responsibility was highlighted today at a Capitol Hill hearing featuring activists from Burma and Nigeria who underlined the failure to date of "voluntary" controls over major oil companies operating in their countries. |
| ARGENTINA: Is GlaxoSmithKline Behaving Badly in Argentina?
by AINA HUNTER, ABC News September 23rd, 2008 Michaela, a deceased 5 month old, is one of more than 13,000 Argentine children to participate in a clinical study implemented a little more than a year ago by the London-based GlaxoSmithKline, the world's second-largest drug manufacturer. |
| CHINA: China Food-Safety Chief Resigns in Dairy Scandal by Loretta Chao and Jason Leow, Wall Street Journal September 23rd, 2008 China's top food-safety official resigned as a dairy contamination scandal brought more international recalls of Chinese products and heightened fears among dairy farmers that their livelihoods were in danger. Nestlé SA was among those manufacturers involved in the recall. |
| US: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Takeovers Cost U.S. Banks Billions by John Hechinger, Wall Street Journal September 23rd, 2008 About a quarter of the nation's banks lost a combined $10 to $15 billion in the wake of the federal government's takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The losses are galling to small bankers because they took pains to avoid the exotic loans and loose underwriting standards that have hobbled Wall Street titans and some huge banks. |
| COLOMBIA: To die for by Mark Thomas, Guardian (UK) September 20th, 2008 Being a trade union organiser in bottling plants used by Coca-Cola in Colombia is a dangerous business - they are prime targets for death squads. Can Coke be held responsible? Mark Thomas follows the trail from Bogotá to New York |
| INDIA: India Grapples With How to Convert Its Farmland Into Factories by Somini Sengupta, New York Times September 17th, 2008 On the eve of opening a new auto factory in West Bengal, arranged via secret contract with the government, Indian industrial giant Tata is facing massive protests by local farmers determined not to be pushed off their land. |
| UK: UK government responds on Phorm BBC News September 16th, 2008 Clarifying how the system will be used in response to the EU request, the UK government said future trials must be done with consent from those being targeted. |
| US: Companies Cut Holes in CEOs' Golden Parachutes
by PHRED DVORAK, Wall Street Journal September 15th, 2008 Top executives at Double Eagle Petroleum Co. signed employment agreements this month that curtailed a time-honored executive perquisite: the executives don't get severance in cases of "poor performance." |
| US: Regulator Plans to Bar Big Severance
by JAMES R. HAGERTY, Wall Street Journal September 15th, 2008 The regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac said Sunday that it won't allow the companies to make "golden parachute" severance payments to the mortgage companies' ousted chief executive officers. |
| US: Reddy Ice Names Operating Chief,
Puts Sales Executive on Leave
by SHIRLEEN DORMAN, Wall Street Journal September 15th, 2008 Reddy Ice Holdings Inc. has suspended its quarterly dividend, named a new operating chief and put its sales chief on paid leave after finding he violated company policies and is associated with "matters that are under investigation." |
| ECUADOR: Chevron lawyers indicted in pollution case by David Baker, San Francisco Chronicle September 13th, 2008 Two Chevron Corp. lawyers fighting a landmark pollution lawsuit in Ecuador have been indicted by that country's prosecutor general, a move the company says proves the government is trying to tamper with the suit. |
| US: Federal Oil Officials Accused
In Sex and Drugs Scandal
by STEPHEN POWER, Wall Street Journal September 11th, 2008 Employees of the federal agency that last year collected more than $11 billion in royalties from oil and gas companies broke government rules and created a "culture of ethical failure" by allegedly accepting gifts from and having sex with industry representatives, the Interior Department's top watchdog said Wednesday. |
| US: UnitedHealth Ex-CEO Settles Pay Case
by VANESSA FUHRMANS , Wall Street Journal September 11th, 2008 Former UnitedHealth Group Inc. Chief Executive William McGuire agreed to pay $30 million and forfeit 3.7 million stock options to settle shareholder claims related to options backdating, adding to what was already one of the largest executive-pay givebacks in history. |
| ISRAEL: U.S. approves $330 million in arms deals for Israel by Andrea Shalal-Esa, Reuters September 9th, 2008 The U.S. government on Tuesday said it had approved up to $330 million in three separate arms deals for Israel, and sources tracking a much bigger deal for 25 Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter jets said that agreement could be approved later this month. |
| US: 2nd Walkout at Boeing in 3 Years
by MICHELINE MAYNARD, The New York Times September 6th, 2008 The Boeing Company, whose order books are bulging with demand for its planes, was hit by its second major strike in three years early Saturday, when the union that represents 27,000 machinists in Washington State, Oregon and Kansas walked off the job. |
| GEORGIA: US military trained Georgian commandos by Charles Clover in Moscow and Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington, Financial Times September 5th, 2008 The US military provided combat training to 80 Georgian special forces commandos only months prior to Georgia’s army assault in South Ossetia in August. |
| US: Judge to Unseal Documents on the Eli Lilly Drug Zyprexa
by MARY WILLIAMS WALSH, The New York Times September 5th, 2008 A federal judge in Brooklyn decided on Friday to unseal confidential materials about Eli Lilly’s top-selling antipsychotic drug Zyprexa, citing “the health of hundreds of thousands of people” and “fundamental questions” about the way drugs are approved for new uses. |
| US: Altria Said to Be in Talks With Tobacco Maker UST
by ANDREW ROSS SORKIN and ANDREW MARTIN, The New York Times September 4th, 2008 Altria Group is in advanced talks to buy UST, the maker of the popular Skoal and Copenhagen smokeless tobacco brands, for more than $10 billion, people with close knowledge of the negotiations said late Thursday. The terms could not be learned. |
| US: NebuAd Halts Plans For Web Tracking by Ellen Nakashima, Washington Post September 4th, 2008 |
| US: Halliburton Ex-Official
Pleads Guilty in Bribe Case
by RUSSELL GOLD, The Wall Street Journal September 4th, 2008 In a wide-ranging foreign-corruption investigation, fired former Halliburton Co. executive Albert J. "Jack" Stanley pleaded guilty to orchestrating more than $180 million in bribes to senior Nigerian government officials. The bribes were used to win a contract to build a liquefied-natural-gas plant in Nigeria. |
| US: U.S. Drug Ads Questioned
by KEITH J. WINSTEIN and SUZANNE VRANICA, The Wall Street Journal September 3rd, 2008 Consumer advertising for prescription drugs had a negligible impact on sales of products studied by Harvard Medical School researchers -- in a finding that may confound both advertisers and their opponents. |
| FRANCE: Siemens Accused of Posting a Rival’s Secrets by DAVID JOLLY, The New York Times September 3rd, 2008 In another black eye for Siemens, the German industrial conglomerate found itself accused on Wednesday of posting a rival’s business secrets on an internal computer network. |
| US: For Widely Used Drug, Question of Usefulness Is Still Lingering
by ALEX BERENSON, The New York Times September 1st, 2008 About the only point on which both sides agree is that no one can judge ezetimibe’s safety and benefits for certain without more data, ideally from a clinical trial covering more than 10,000 patients and lasting several years, long enough to show that the drug actually helps patients live longer or avoid heart attacks. |
| GLOBAL: Drug Makers’ Push Leads to Cancer Vaccines’ Fast Rise
by Elisabeth Rosenthal, The New York Times August 19th, 2008 The lightning-fast transition from newly minted vaccine to must-have injection in the United States and Europe represents a triumph of what the manufacturers call education and their critics call marketing. |
| Iraq: Introducing DisneyIraq: The Unhappiest Place on Earth by Scott Thill, AlterNet August 15th, 2008 An American financier is pitching a vast theme park in Baghdad, not out of kindness, but as he says, "for profit." |
| Georgia: BP reopens Georgia gas pipeline BBC News August 15th, 2008 BP has said it has resumed pumping gas through a pipeline that runs through Georgia after an EU-brokered truce between Russian and Georgian troops. |
| US: American Airlines Hit
By $7.1 Million in Fines
by PAULO PRADA and ANDY PASZTOR, Wall Street Journal August 15th, 2008 The Federal Aviation Administration, proposing one of its biggest penalties ever, said it plans to fine AMR Corp.'s American Airlines $7.1 million for allegedly violating employee drug- and alcohol-testing procedures and knowingly flying airplanes that broke maintenance regulations. |
| US: Wachovia to bail out clients holding auction rate securities AFP August 15th, 2008 Wachovia has become the latest US bank to agree to buy back billions of dollars of tainted auction rate securities that it sold before a market collapse in February, US officials announced Friday. |
| US: Files Show Governor Intervened With Court by Ian Urbina, New York Times August 13th, 2008 West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin III filed a friend-of-the-court brief in June, arguing the State Supreme Court should review a $382 million judgment against DuPont. The case involves thousands of residents in the area of a DuPont-operated zinc-smelting plant, and the largest civil penalty ever levied against the company, for the dumping of toxic arsenic, cadmium and lead at the plant. |
| KATRINA: U.S. Raids New Orleans Agency in Scandal Over a Housing Cleanup Program
by ADAM NOSSITER, The New York Times August 11th, 2008 Federal investigators on Monday raided the downtown offices of a city-chartered nonprofit agency accused of abusing a federally financed program that was created to clean up houses damaged by Hurricane Katrina. |
| US: Collusion Inquiry Targets Ice Companies
by JOHN R. WILKE, The Wall Street Journal August 7th, 2008 Federal prosecutors are investigating an alleged criminal price-fixing conspiracy in the $1.8 billion market for packaged ice, with the help of a former industry executive who told authorities the collusion was nationwide and forced up prices for consumers and businesses. |
| UK: UK questioned on online ad system BBC News August 6th, 2008 EU commissioner Viviane Reding has asked the UK government to clarify whether the Phorm system is in breach of European data laws. |
| US: Inquiry Finds Under-Age Workers at Meat Plant
by JULIA PRESTON, The New York Times August 5th, 2008 State labor investigators have identified 57 under-age workers who were employed at a kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, and have asked the attorney general to bring criminal charges against the company for child labor violations, Dave Neil, the Iowa Labor Commissioner, said on Tuesday. |
| US: Companies Tap Pension Plans
To Fund Executive Benefits
by ELLEN E. SCHULTZ and THEO FRANCIS, The Wall Street Journal August 4th, 2008 In recent years, companies from Intel Corp. to CenturyTel Inc. collectively have moved hundreds of millions of dollars of obligations for executive benefits into rank-and-file pension plans. This lets companies capture tax breaks intended for pensions of regular workers and use them to pay for executives' supplemental benefits and compensation. |
| UK: Qinetiq buys US spy services firm BBC News August 4th, 2008 Qinetiq, once owned by the Ministry of Defence (MOD), said it would it pay $104.5m (£53m) in cash for the firm. |
| UK-Zimbabwe: BAE linked to Zimbabwean arms dealer by Christopher Thompson and Michael Peel , Financial Times/UK July 31st, 2008 According to documents seen by the Financial Times, BAE Systems has been linked to Zimbabwean arms trader John Bredenkamp. BAE reportedly paid at least £20m to Bredenkamp via offshore entities in the British Virgin Islands between 2003 and 2005. The payments raise fresh questions about bribery in BAE's dealings. |
| UK: Law lords: fraud office right to end bribery investigation in BAE case by David Leigh, The Guardian July 31st, 2008 England's House of Lords ruled that the Serious Fraud Office was lawful in its actions to halt investigations into allegations that BAE Systems ran a £60m "slush fund" and offered sweeteners to officials from Saudi Arabia in return for lucrative contracts. |
| US: Sprint early termination fees are illegal, judge rules
by Steve Johnson, Mercury News July 30th, 2008 Californians fed up with being charged for ending their cell phone service prematurely won a major victory in a Bay Area court decision that concluded such fees violate state law. |
| US: FCC to Rule Comcast
Can't Block Web Videos
by AMY SCHATZ, Wall Street Journal July 28th, 2008 The Federal Communications Commission will rule that the cable giant violated federal policy by deliberately preventing some customers from sharing videos online via file-sharing services like BitTorrent, agency officials said. The company has acknowledged it slowed some traffic, but said it was necessary to prevent a few heavy users from overburdening its network. |
| US: OSHA Seeks $8.7 Million Fine Against Sugar Company
by SHAILA DEWAN, The New York Times July 26th, 2008 Imperial Sugar, the owner of a refinery near Savannah where 13 workers died in a sugar dust explosion in February, knew of safety hazards at the plant as early as 2002 but did nothing, and should pay more than $8.7 million for safety violations, the head of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration said Friday. |
| US: Pentagon Auditors Pressured To Favor Contractors, GAO Says by Dana Hedgpeth, The Washington Post July 24th, 2008 Auditors at a Pentagon oversight agency were pressured by supervisors to skew their reports on major defense contractors to make them look more favorable instead of exposing wrongdoing and charges of overbilling, according to an 80-page report released yesterday by the Government Accountability Office. |
| US: WellCare to Restate Years of Results
by THEO FRANCIS, The Wall Street Journal July 22nd, 2008 By accounting for medical expenses improperly, the company said it failed to return about $46.5 million in premiums to state programs providing health care to low-income adults and children in Florida and Illinois, and understated liabilities by about $46 million. |
| FRANCE: Pipe Break Causes Leak
Of Uranium at French Plant
Associated Press July 21st, 2008 Uranium-bearing liquid has leaked from a broken underground pipe at a nuclear site in southeastern France, the national nuclear-safety authority said Friday in the second leak discovered at a French site this month. |
| IRAQ: Electrical Risks at Bases in Iraq Worse Than Previously Said
by JAMES RISEN, The New York Times July 18th, 2008 Shoddy electrical work by private contractors on United States military bases in Iraq is widespread and dangerous, causing more deaths and injuries from fires and shocks than the Pentagon has acknowledged, according to internal Army documents. |
| IRAQ: Iraq Case Sheds Light On Secret Contractors by Siobhan Gorman and August Cole, Wall Street Journal July 17th, 2008 Court documents and interviews with whistleblowers shed light on persistent problems in the operations of private military and security company MVM, Inc., a top provider of secret security to U.S. intelligence agencies in Iraq and Afghanistan. |
| EU: EU hits Intel with fresh charges BBC News July 17th, 2008 European regulators have filed fresh charges against the world's biggest computer chip maker Intel over alleged abuse of its dominant market position. |
| US: Menthol Dose Manipulated, Study Says by STEPHANIE SAUL, The New York Times July 17th, 2008 A new Harvard study claims that the tobacco industry in recent years has manipulated menthol levels in cigarettes to hook youngsters and maintain loyalty among smoking adults. The report could further inflame a controversy over menthol in pending tobacco legislation. |
| US: Art Auctions on Cruise Ships Lead to Anger, Accusations and Lawsuits
by JORI FINKEL, The New York Times July 16th, 2008 While overcharging for a product is not in itself illegal, misrepresenting the goods sold can be. The plaintiffs’ central argument hinges on Park West’s description of its appraisals. |
| US: Psychiatric Group Faces Scrutiny Over Drug Industry Ties
by BENEDICT CAREY and GARDINER HARRIS, The New York Times July 12th, 2008 Senator Charles E. Grassley, right, Republican of Iowa, is demanding that the American Psychiatric Association give an accounting of its financing from the pharmaceutical industry. |
| US: Toxic Smoke and Mirrors by Jim Morris, Mother Jones Filed in federal District Court in Cleveland, their claim joined thousands of others pending against welding-products manufacturers in state and federal courts. (Employers have not been among the targets because lawyers generally concluded they were ignorant of the metal's dangers.) |
| FRANCE: Areva mishandled uranium leak: safety body
by Joseph Tandy and Muriel Boselli, Reuters July 11th, 2008 France's nuclear safety authority (ASN) said on Friday that Areva-subsidiary Socatri had poorly managed a leak of liquid containing uranium that occurred in southeastern France this week. |
| US: FCC Chief to Seek Comcast Penalty Associated Press July 11th, 2008 The head of the Federal Communications Commission said Thursday he will recommend that the nation's largest cable company be punished for violating agency principles that guarantee customers open access to the Internet. |
| US: General Misled Lawmakers on KBR Work, Senator Says
by JAMES RISEN, The New York Times July 10th, 2008 The senator, Byron L. Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota, said at a hearing that Maj. Gen. Jerome Johnson, who was commander of the Army Sustainment Command until last year, made inaccurate statements to the Senate Armed Services Committee about problems with water supplied to American soldiers in Iraq by KBR, the largest defense contractor in Iraq. |
| INDIA: Decades Later, Toxic Sludge Torments Bhopal by Somini Sengupta, New York Times July 7th, 2008 Residents of Bhopal, India continue to suffer from Union Carbide's toxic legacy, this time in the form of toxic waste that still languishes inside a shoddy warehouse on the old factory grounds. Ailments such as cleft palates and mental retardation are appearing in numbers of Bhopali children, raising questions about contaminated soil and groundwater, clean-up, and liability. |
| US: Coca - Cola Agrees to $137.5 Mln Settlement In Case
REUTERS July 6th, 2008 Coca-Cola Co |
| Iraq: U.S. Advised Iraqi Ministry on Oil Deals by Andrew E. Kramer, New York Times June 30th, 2008 The Bush administration has disclosed that U.S. advisors in Iraq played a key role in drawing up contracts between the Iraqi government and five major Western oil companies. The no-bid contracts are expected to be awarded Monday to Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP, Total and Chevron, as well as to several smaller oil companies. |
| UK: Are we falling out of love with Tesco? by David Smith and Zoe Wood, The Observer, The Guardian June 29th, 2008 As the biggest beast in the jungle, Tesco has been accused of monopolisation, exploitation and bullying anyone who dares to stand in its way. It has become a lightning rod for every critic of corporate power, homogenised high streets and the malign influence of multinationals in the developing world. |
| SWITZERLAND: Tax scandal leaves Swiss giant reeling by Nick Mathiason, The Guardian (UK) June 29th, 2008 Sending shockwaves through the Swiss financial industry, banking giant UBS is facing accusations from a former senior banker in US courts of massive fraud and corruption. UBS is alleged to have engaged in routine activities aimed at helping its high net worth clients evade hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes, among other matters. |
| US: Airlines fined $504m in US probe BBC June 26th, 2008 Five airlines have agreed to pay fines totalling $504m (£253m) for conspiring to fix prices for air cargo rates, the US Justice Department says. |
| US: Massachusetts Charges UBS
In Auction-Rate Investigation
by DONNA KARDOS, The Wall Street Journal June 26th, 2008 Marking one of the first sets of government-fraud charges filed since the market for auction-rate securities froze up earlier this year, regulators in Massachusetts charged UBS AG's UBS Securities LLC and UBS Financial Services Inc. with fraud and dishonest conduct in their sales of the securities |
| US: Mastercard in $1.8bn Amex payment BBC June 25th, 2008 In 2004 American Express filed a suit saying Mastercard, Visa and their member banks had illegally blocked it from the US bank-issued card business. |
| US: Court slashes damages award in Exxon oil spill by PETE YOST, Associated Press June 25th, 2008 The Supreme Court on Wednesday slashed the $2.5 billion punitive damages award in the Exxon Valdez disaster to $500 million, a decision that could have broader implications for limiting how much courts can order businesses to pay. |
| US: Arms Dealer Had Troubled History
by ERIC SCHMITT, The New York Times June 25th, 2008 When the Army last year awarded a contract worth up to nearly $300 million to a tiny Miami Beach munitions dealer to supply ammunition to Afghanistan’s army and police forces, it was in spite of a very checkered past. |
| US: Former Customers Off Limits To Verizon by Cecilia Kang, The Washington Post June 24th, 2008 The federal government, speaking on behalf of former Verizon phone service customers, yesterday sent the communications company a stern message: Stop trying to woo back those consumers who have opted for a new provider. They've moved on. |
| US: Justices Take Case on Navy Use of Sonar
by LINDA GREENHOUSE, The New York Times June 24th, 2008 The Supreme Court on Monday stepped into a long-running environmental dispute over the impact on whales and other marine mammals of Navy training exercises off Southern California. |
| US: Cover-Up Is Cited on Illegal Arms
by ERIC SCHMITT, The New York Times June 24th, 2008 A military attaché has told Congressional investigators that the American ambassador to Albania endorsed a plan by that country’s defense minister to remove evidence of illegal Chinese origins on ammunition being shipped from Albania to Afghanistan by a Miami Beach arms-dealing company. |
| US: Put oil firm chiefs on trial, says leading climate change scientist by Ed Pilkington, Guardian (UK) June 23rd, 2008 On June 23, James Hansen, a leading world climate scientist, called for the executives of major fossil fuel companies, including ExxonMobil and Peabody Energy, to be put on trial for crimes against humanity and nature through actions like funding climate skeptics to undermine global consensus around combating climate change. |
| TOBACCO: Altria Drops New Filter Cigarettes, In Strategy Setback
by VANESSA O'CONNELL, The Wall Street Journal June 23rd, 2008 The nation's largest cigarette maker, Altria Group Inc.'s Philip Morris USA, has failed in yet another attempt to sell Americans on a potentially safer cigarette, pulling the plug on Marlboro Ultra Smooth, a version of Marlboro that used a high-technology filter. |
| US: House Passes Bill on Wiretap Powers
by ERIC LICHTBLAU and DAVID STOUT, The New York Times June 21st, 2008 The House on Friday overwhelmingly approved a bill overhauling the rules on the government’s wiretapping powers and conferring what amounts to legal immunity to the telephone companies that took part in President Bush’s program of eavesdropping without warrants after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. |
| US: Guilty Plea by Ex-Banker
Likely to Aid Probe of UBS by Evan Perez , The Wall Street Journal June 20th, 2008 A former banker at UBS AG pleaded guilty in federal court to helping a billionaire client evade taxes by hiding $200 million in assets in offshore accounts, in a move expected to aid U.S. prosecutors in their probe of the Swiss banking giant. |
| US: KBR stake under attack
by Jon Ortiz, Sacramento Bee June 20th, 2008 Sacramento for Democracy and other groups presented CalPERS with what they said were the names of 20,000 petitioners asking the fund to shed its KBR holdings. CalPERS owns about $27 million in KBR stock. |
| US: U.S. Probe of Glaxo's Paxil Widens
by ALICIA MUNDY, The Wall Street Journal June 20th, 2008 A Justice Department investigation of GlaxoSmithKline PLC's handling of its blockbuster antidepressant drug Paxil, including its marketing and safety research, appears to be widening. |
| TOBACCO: FTC Counters Altria In 'Light' Cigarettes Case
by LAUREN POLLOCK, The Wall Street Journal June 20th, 2008 The Federal Trade Commission is asking the Supreme Court to reject Altria Group Inc.'s argument that only that agency can regulate cigarette advertising, saying such an interpretation mischaracterizes the FTC's "scope and effect" on the issue. |
| US: Prosecutors Build Bear Stearns Case on E-Mails
by LANDON THOMAS Jr., The New York Times June 20th, 2008 The two men, who were forced out of their jobs last year, are the first senior executives from Wall Street investment banks to face criminal charges stemming from the credit mess, and the investigation by federal prosecutors based in Brooklyn is likely to become a test case of the government’s ability to make successful prosecutions of arcane financial transactions. |
| KATRINA: Audit Faults KBR's Repairs of Hurricane Damage by Derek Kravitz, The Washington Post June 18th, 2008 Efforts by defense contractor KBR to repair hurricane-damaged Navy facilities were deemed shoddy and substandard, and one technical adviser alleged that the federal government "certainly paid twice" for many KBR projects because of "design and workmanship deficiencies," the Pentagon's inspector general reported in an audit released yesterday. |
| IRAQ: Iraq deal with US to end immunity for foreign contractors by Patrick Cockburn, The Independent UK June 18th, 2008 The US has accepted that foreign contractors in Iraq will no longer have immunity from Iraqi law under a new security agreement now under negotiation, says the Iraqi Foreign Minister, Hoshyar Zebari. |
| US: Justices Turn Down Appeal by Exxon
REUTERS June 17th, 2008 The Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear an appeal by Exxon Mobil seeking to dismiss a lawsuit by 11 Indonesian villagers. |
| US: Army Overseer Tells of Ouster Over KBR Stir by James Risen, New York Times June 17th, 2008 Charles M. Smith, the senior civilian overseeing the multibillion-dollar contract with KBR during the first two years of the war, says he was ousted for refusing to approve payment for more than $1 billion in questionable charges to KBR. The Pentagon has recently awarded KBR part of a 10-year, $150 billion contract in Iraq. |
| US: Big Penalty Set for Law Firm, but Not a Trial by Jonathan D. Glater, New York Times June 17th, 2008 The law firm formerly known as Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach agreed on Monday to pay $75 million to dodge a criminal trial. Misconduct at the firm has severely tarnished the reputation of lawyers representing shareholder claims against corporate corruption. |
| US: Mannatech Settles Holder Suits
by SUZANNE SATALINE, Wall Street Journal June 13th, 2008 Dietary-supplements maker Mannatech Inc. said it settled several lawsuits with shareholders who accused the company of using improper sales tactics to boost the value of the stock. |
| SOUTH AFRICA: S Africa bans Aids vitamin trials BBC News June 13th, 2008 A South African court has banned unauthorised trials of vitamin therapies for Aids, which some say are a health risk. |
| EUROPE: Chemical Law Has Global Impact by Lyndsey Layton, Washington Post June 12th, 2008 Europe this month rolled out new restrictions on makers of chemicals linked to cancer and other health problems. The changes follow eight years of vigorous opposition from the U.S. chemical industry giants like DuPont, and the Bush administration. |
| TOBACCO: Profits in Hand, Wealthy Family Cuts Tobacco Tie
by STEPHANIE SAUL, The New York Times June 11th, 2008 Now, the next generation of Tisches has removed tobacco from the portfolio of the conglomerate they lead, the Loews Corporation, spinning off its tobacco unit, Lorillard, as a stand-alone business, with the Newport brand representing more than 90 percent of the new company’s revenue. The new stock began trading Tuesday, and analysts have said the new company might be a takeover target. |
| EU: E.U. Snubs Microsoft on Office Systems
by JAMES KANTER, The New York Times June 11th, 2008 Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes of the European Union delivered an unusually blunt snub to Microsoft on Tuesday by recommending that businesses and governments use software based on open standards. |
| IRAQ: BBC uncovers lost Iraq billions by Jane Corbin , BBC News June 10th, 2008 A BBC investigation estimates that around $23bn (£11.75bn) may have been lost, stolen or just not properly accounted for in Iraq. |
| US: From a Whistle-Blower to a Target by TIM ARANGO, The New York Times June 9th, 2008 Mr. Ripp's journey from whistle-blower to defendant is another example of the long shadow cast by the AOL-Time Warner merger, now widely regarded as one of the most disastrous corporate marriages in history. It is also a cautionary tale for corporate executives who may illuminate fraudulent conduct to one government agency but then find themselves a target of another. |
| US: Researchers Fail to Reveal Full Drug Pay
by GARDINER HARRIS and BENEDICT CAREY, The New York Times June 8th, 2008 A world-renowned Harvard child psychiatrist whose work has helped fuel an explosion in the use of powerful antipsychotic medicines in children earned at least $1.6 million in consulting fees from drug makers from 2000 to 2007 but for years did not report much of this income to university officials, according to information given Congressional investigators. |
| US: Workers on Hunger Strike Say They Were Misled on Visas
by JULIA PRESTON, The New York Times June 7th, 2008 The Indian workers say they were deceived by Signal International and labor recruiters when they paid as much as $20,000 for visas they believed would allow them to work and live permanently with their families in the United States. In fact, the H-2B visas are for short-term contracts. |
| UK: Call to prosecute BT for ad trial BBC News Online June 5th, 2008 BT should face prosecution for its "illegal" trials of a controversial ad-serving technology, a leading computer security researcher has said. |
| US: Calstrs May Remove
Ban on Tobacco Stocks
by CRAIG KARMIN, The New York Times June 5th, 2008 In a move that could reverberate throughout the fund industry, the nation's second-largest pension fund is considering lifting a nearly eight-year ban on tobacco investments. |
| US: Opposition to Menthol Cigarettes Grows
by STEPHANIE SAUL, The New York Times June 5th, 2008 The seven, from Democratic and Republican administrations, faxed a letter to members of the Senate and House of Representatives demanding that menthol-flavored cigarettes be banned just like various other cigarette flavorings the legislation would outlaw. |
| US: Wal-Mart's Detractors Come In From the Cold by MICHAEL BARBARO, New York Times June 5th, 2008 But after waging an aggressive public relations campaign against Wal-Mart for three years, the company's full-time, union-backed critics, who once vowed never to let up, are lowering their pitchforks. |
| GLOBAL: Union Takes Anti-Buyout Campaign Worldwide
by MICHAEL J. de la MERCED, The New York Times June 4th, 2008 Beginning Wednesday, the Service Employees International Union, one of the country’s biggest unions, will call upon people to attend protests on July 17 in 100 cities in 25 countries. The rallying cry will be: Take back the economy from buyout firms that the union says have exploited tax loopholes to amass great wealth at others’ expense. |
| US: Lockheed Faulted for Failure to Control Costs by Dana Hedgpeth, Washington Post June 4th, 2008 Lockheed Martin, the biggest U.S. defense contractor, failed to follow military guidelines to track and manage costs on major weapons programs, according to an internal Pentagon document released yesterday by a government watchdog group. |
| US: Walgreen to Pay $35 Million
To Settle Drug-Switch Charges
by HEATHER WON TESORIERO, Wall Street Journal June 4th, 2008 Walgreen Co. has agreed to pay $35 million to settle allegations that it improperly switched customers to more expensive forms of pills paid for by Medicaid, the government health care program for the poor. |
| US: Bush administration files nuclear dump application by H. JOSEF HEBERT, Associated Press June 3rd, 2008 Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said Tuesday he's confident the government's license application to build a nuclear waste dump in Nevada will "stand up to any challenge anywhere." |
| US: Tyson Pulls Antibiotic-Free Label
by LAUREN ETTER, Wall Street Journal June 3rd, 2008 Under pressure from regulators and competitors, Tyson Foods Inc. withdrew its antibiotic-free chicken label awarded by the Agriculture Department barely a year ago. |
| US: Former Colo. nuke plant contractors ordered to pay $925M AP June 3rd, 2008 Two companies that worked as contractors with the now-defunct Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant have been ordered to pay $925 million to residents who claimed that contamination blown from the facility endangered people's health and devalued their property. |
| US: Concrete contractor cuts deal with prosecutors by Jaxon Van Derbeken, San Francisco Chronicle June 1st, 2008 Substandard concrete from Ramirez's now-defunct company was poured into a half-mile stretch of the Bay Bridge's rebuilt western approach. Inferior, less-durable material also was used on a retrofit project at the Golden Gate Bridge, a wastewater treatment plant in Burlingame, the new parking garage in Golden Gate Park, the Municipal Railway's Third Street light-rail line and other projects. |
| FRANCE: Ex-EADS chief charged in French probe by INGRID ROUSSEAU, Associated Press May 30th, 2008 A former co-CEO of Airbus parent company EADS, Noel Forgeard, was hit with preliminary insider trading charges Friday in an extensive probe into stock sales by more than a dozen former and current executives at the European planemaker. |
| BRAZIL: Businessman alleges Alstom paid bribes for Brazil project: report AFP May 29th, 2008 French engineering group Alstom allegedly paid nearly a million dollars in bribes in connection with a Brazilian energy plant, testimony from a Brazilian businessman reported in the press here said Thursday. |
| US: Exxon investors reject green initiatives by Andrew Clark, The Guardian May 29th, 2008 The world's biggest oil company emerged bruised but victorious from a bust-up with the billionaire Rockefeller family yesterday as an effort to foist green initiatives on ExxonMobil failed to capture wholehearted support from shareholders. |
| US: In Stock Plan, Employees See Stacked Deck
by MARY WILLIAMS WALSH, The New York Times May 29th, 2008 Now that many U.S. Sugar workers are reaching retirement age, though, the company has been cashing them out of the retirement plan at a much lower price than they could have received. Unknown to them, an outside investor was offering to buy the company — and their shares — for far more. Longtime employees say they have lost out on tens of thousands of dollars each and millions of dollars as a group, while insiders of the company came out ahead. |
| IRAQ: Court revives suits against Halliburton in truckers' deaths by MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, Associated Press May 28th, 2008 A federal appeals court on Wednesday revived lawsuits against military contractors over a deadly ambush that killed civilian truck drivers in Iraq. |
| US: Judge Finds Dell Engaged
In Deceptive Practices
by CHAD BRAY, The Wall Street Journal May 27th, 2008 A state judge in Albany has found that Dell Inc. and its financing unit engaged in deceptive business practices related to financing promotions for its computers and technical support, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday. |
| US: Express Scripts to Pay $9.5 Million
To Settle Drug-Swapping Allegations
by ANDREW EDWARDS, The Wall Street Journal May 27th, 2008 Pharmacy-benefits manager Express Scripts Inc. agreed Tuesday to pay $9.5 million to settle allegations that the company asked doctors to switch drugs primarily to get bigger rebates from pharmaceutical companies. |
| US: Rockefellers Seek Change at Exxon by CLIFFORD KRAUSS, The New York Times May 27th, 2008 The family members have thrown their support behind a shareholder rebellion that is ruffling feathers at Exxon Mobil, the giant oil company descended from John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Trust. |
| GERMANY: Ex-Manager Tells of Bribery at Siemens by CARTER DOUGHERTY, The New York Times May 27th, 2008 A former manager of Siemens, the European engineering company, testified Monday about an intricate system of slush funds and bribery at the company as the first trial on allegations of corporate corruption in Germany began. |
| GERMANY: Phone Giant in Germany Stirs a Furor by MARK LANDLER, The New York Times May 27th, 2008 Germany was engulfed in a national furor over threats to privacy on Monday, after an admission by Deutsche Telekom that it had surreptitiously tracked thousands of phone calls to identify the source of leaks to the news media about its internal affairs. |
| IRAQ: Controversial Contractor’s Iraq Work Is Split Up
by JAMES RISEN, The New York Times May 24th, 2008 For the first time since the war began, the largest single Pentagon contract in Iraq is being divided among three companies, ending the monopoly held by KBR, the Houston-based corporation that has been accused of wasteful spending and mismanagement and of exploiting its political ties to Vice President Dick Cheney. |
| US: 30 Former Officials Became Corporate Monitors
by ERIC LICHTBLAU and KITTY BENNETT, The New York Times May 23rd, 2008 The Justice Department has appointed at least 30 former prosecutors and other government officials as well-paid corporate monitors in arrangements that allow companies to avoid criminal prosecution, according to government data released Thursday by Congress. |
| US: Burger King Ends Dispute
With Farmworkers Group
Associated Press May 23rd, 2008 Burger King Corp. and a farmworkers advocacy group announced a deal Friday to end a bitter dispute by trying to boost wages and improve conditions for Florida tomato pickers. |
| US: Oil Industry, Lawmakers Aim
To Lift Bans on Drilling
by RUSSELL GOLD BEN CASSELMAN and STEPHEN POWER, Wall Street Journal May 23rd, 2008 Mounting concerns about global energy supply are fueling a drive by the oil industry and some U.S. lawmakers to end longstanding bans on domestic drilling put in place to protect environmentally sensitive areas. |
| US: Medtronic Settles a Civil Lawsuit on Allegations of Medicare Fraud by MARY WILLIAMS WALSH, The New York Times May 23rd, 2008 A unit of Medtronic defrauded Medicare of hundreds of millions of dollars, according to a civil lawsuit that was unsealed Thursday and simultaneously settled with the Justice Department. |
| GERMANY: Pesticides: Germany bans chemicals linked to honeybee devastation by Alison Benjamin, The Guardian (UK) May 23rd, 2008 Germany has banned a family of pesticides that are blamed for the deaths of millions of honeybees. The German Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) has suspended the registration for eight pesticide seed treatment products used in rapeseed oil and sweetcorn. |
| US: At One University, Tobacco Money Is a Secret by ALAN FINDER, The New York Times May 22nd, 2008 On campuses nationwide, professors and administrators have passionately debated whether their universities should accept money for research from tobacco companies. But not at Virginia Commonwealth University, a public institution in Richmond, Va. |
| UK: Shell 'selling suicide' by preferring tar sands to wind by Terry Macalister, The Guardian May 21st, 2008 Shell was accused yesterday of "selling suicide on the forecourt" by pressing ahead with tar sands operations in Canada and continuing to flare off excess gas in Nigeria while pulling out of renewable schemes such as the London Array - the world's largest offshore wind scheme. |
| US: Halliburton CEO says Dubai base the 'right decision' by Brett Clanton, Houston Chronicle May 21st, 2008 Shareholder John Harrington questioned Halliburton CEO David Lesar during the 2008 annual meeting of the company's shareholders Wednesday at the Houstonian Hotel, Club and Spa, over his motives to move to Dubai, suggesting it was designed to dodge paying U.S. taxes or escape blame for past wrongs. |
| US: Congress grills oil execs on record pump prices by Chris Baltimore, Reuters May 21st, 2008 Executives from the five biggest international oil companies on Wednesday claimed that they were victims of high oil prices along with U.S. consumers, but U.S. Senate lawmakers showed little sympathy. |
| US: Merck Agrees to Settlement Over Vioxx Ads
by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, The New York Times May 21st, 2008 The drug maker, Merck & Company, has agreed to pay $58 million as part of a multistate settlement of accusations that its ads for the once-popular painkiller Vioxx deceptively played down the health risks. |
| US: Eight ex-AOL executives charged with fraud by Joanna Chung in New York and Richard Waters in San Francisco, The Financial Times May 20th, 2008 US regulators on Monday announced fraud charges stemming indirectly from the merger of Time Warner and AOL, the largest union in US corporate history and a symbol of the dotcom boom and bust of the early part of this decade. |
| US: Slaughter Ban Is Implemented
On Cows Too Sick, Weak to Stand
by Associated Press, Wall Street Journal May 20th, 2008 Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer announced Tuesday a total ban on meat plant slaughter of cows too sick or weak to stand. |
| US: BAE chief detained as US turns up heat in bribes case by Nick Clark and Stephen Foley, The Independent (U.K.) May 19th, 2008 BAE Systems admitted yesterday that American authorities investigating corruption claims over an arms deal with Saudi Arabia had issued a series of subpoenas to senior executives, as the investigation continues to gather pace. Two bosses of the defence giant were also detained after they landed at a Houston airport last week |
| US: Contractors, insurance firms gouging taxpayers, panel says by RICHARD LARDNER, Associated Press May 15th, 2008 A poorly run Pentagon program for providing workman's compensation for civilian employees in Iraq and Afghanistan has allowed defense contractors and insurance companies to gouge American taxpayers, a House committee said Thursday. |
| NETHERLANDS: Nigerians seek damages from Shell over pollution by Arthur Max, Business Week May 14th, 2008 Four Nigerian villagers and the environmental group Friends of the Earth are demanding Shell take responsibility for damage from oil leaks caused by its Nigerian subsidiary, lawyers said Wednesday. |
| US: Cigarette Bill Treats Menthol With Leniency
by STEPHANIE SAUL, The New York Times May 13th, 2008 Some public health experts are questioning why menthol, the most widely used cigarette flavoring and the most popular cigarette choice of African-American smokers, is receiving special protection as Congress tries to regulate tobacco for the first time. |
| LUXEMBOURG: Mittal braced for protests on pollution by Heather Stewart, The Observer May 11th, 2008 Steel giant ArcelorMittal will be accused of leaving a trail of environmental destruction in its wake this week when campaigners descend on Luxembourg to protest at its annual meeting. |
| RUSSIA: As Gazprom Goes, So Goes Russia by Andrew E. Kramer, New York Times May 11th, 2008 Gazprom and the Russian government have long had a close relationship, but the revolving door between them is spinning especially fast this year. But Gazprom also epitomizes the risks of state capitalism: waste and inefficiency. |
| UK:British MEPs took gifts from firms they are meant to regulate by Andy Rowell , The Independent May 11th, 2008 Members of the European Parliament are routinely accepting gifts, wages and hospitality from companies they are charged with regulating. |
| EUROPE: Stealth Lobbyists Creep In by David Cronin, IPS May 9th, 2008 The often cosy relationship between corporate lobbyists and the Brussels bureaucracy was illustrated in the past few weeks as several members of the European Parliament (MEPs) prepared to visit Peru. |
| NIGERIA: Ex-Halliburton unit in bribery probe by Michael Peel in London and Matthew Green in Lagos, The Financial Times May 9th, 2008 US anti-bribery investigators are targeting a former Halliburton subsidiary over its work on a key Royal Dutch Shell project in Nigeria, widening a corruption probe into the country’s troubled oil industry. |
| US: Hawaii ironworkers' pension fund sues Alcoa, board members over Bahrain bribery allegations The Associated Press May 8th, 2008 The Hawaii Structural Ironworkers Pension Trust Fund accuses Alcoa's board in the lawsuit of "causing and/or failing to prevent Alcoa's illegal payment of hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal bribe payments" to senior Bahraini government officials. |
| MEXICO: Pemex Oozes Corruption by Diego Cevallos , IPS May 7th, 2008 Funds belonging to the Mexican state oil monopoly, Pemex, have paid in recent years for liposuction treatment for the wife of the company's chief executive, a presidential candidate's campaign, contracts with firms facing legal action, and the whims of trade union leaders who are not required to account for their expenses. |
| FRANCE: Prosecutors probe Alstom for contract corruption AFP May 6th, 2008 French prosecutors suspect engineering giant Alstom, builder of power stations and high-speed trains, of bribing foreign officials to win contracts, a judicial source said Tuesday. |
| TANZANIA: Norweigian firm pulls out over graft by Tom Mosoba, The Citizen (Tanzania) May 6th, 2008 The firm, Norconsult AS, announced on Sunday that it was winding up all its operations in Tanzania and terminating the employment of its managing director after audit reports linked it to corruption. |
| CHINA: In China City, Protesters See Pollution Risk of New Plant by Edward Wong, New York Times May 6th, 2008 Residents took to the streets of Chengdu to protest a $5.5 billion ethylene plant under construction by PetroChina, reflecting a surge in environmental awareness by urban, middle-class Chinese determined to protect their health and the value of their property. |
| IRAQ: Despite Alert, Flawed Wiring Still Kills G.I.’s
by JAMES RISEN, The New York Times May 4th, 2008 One electrician warned his KBR bosses in his 2005 letter of resignation that unsafe electrical work was “a disaster waiting to happen.” |
| US: Court Orders Tyson to Suspend Ads For Antibiotic-Free Chicken by Annys Shin, Washington Post May 2nd, 2008 Poultry giant Tyson Foods has 14 days to dismantle a national multimillion dollar ad campaign centered on the claim that its chickens are raised without antibiotics, a federal appeals court in Richmond ruled yesterday. |
| UK: Retailers in tobacco price probe BBC NEWS April 25th, 2008 n the case of Gallaher, Imperial Tobacco, Asda, Sainsbury, Shell, Somerfield and Tesco, there was an indirect exchange of proposed future retail prices between competitors, it adds, allegedly between 2001 and 2003. |
| SOUTH KOREA: Indicted Samsung Chairman Resigns by Blaine Harden, Washington Post Foreign Service April 22nd, 2008 The Lee family, for all its public-relations woes and legal entanglements, remains the dominant shareholder in Samsung, the jewel in South Korea's conglomerate crown. |
| US: Working Life (High and Low)
by STEVEN GREENHOUSE, The New York Times April 20th, 2008 Jean called it “a great deal for FedEx. They don’t have to pay for trucks, for the insurance, for fuel, for maintenance, for tires,” she said. “We have to pay for all those things. And they don’t have to pay our Social Security.” |
| US: Fannie Mae Ex-Officials Settle
by JAMES R. HAGERTY, Wall Street Journal April 19th, 2008 The settlement, announced Friday, brings the government far less than it had originally sought over alleged violations of accounting rules. Fannie's regulator, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, in 2006 sought to require the three former executives to pay back more than $115 million of bonuses and pay fines that it said at the time could total more than $100 million. |
| US: Report Finds Air Force Officers Steered Contract by Josh White, Washington Post April 18th, 2008 It was during that meeting in November 2005, according to the 251-page report, obtained by The Washington Post, that a controversial $50 million contract was awarded to a company that barely existed in an effort to reward a recently retired four-star general and a millionaire civilian pilot who had grown close to senior Air Force officials and the Thunderbirds. |
| US: Merck Wrote Drug Studies for Doctors
by STEPHANIE SAUL, The New York Times April 16th, 2008 The drug maker Merck drafted dozens of research studies for a best-selling drug, then lined up prestigious doctors to put their names on the reports before publication, according to an article to be published Wednesday in a leading medical journal. |
| US: Wall Streeter Converts to a Fan of Regulation by Landon Thomas Jr., New York Times April 15th, 2008 In the last two years, Robert K. Steel has been co-chairman of one commission that claimed heavy-handed regulation was stanching financial innovation and another that argued that hedge funds could police themselves. |
| US: Drug Companies to Reveal Grant Practices
by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, The New York Times April 11th, 2008 Watchdog groups say the companies are trying to derail legislation that would require public disclosure of their giving. |
| US: Rape in Iraq Recounted by SUZANNE GAMBOA, The Associated Press April 10th, 2008 An Illinois woman who says she was raped while working for a contractor in Iraq recounted the experience in a congressional hearing Wednesday. |
| US: US business unites to fight labour reform by Jonathan Birchall and Francesco Guerrera, The Financial Times April 9th, 2008 US business leaders are stepping up a campaign against proposed labour law reforms, backed by the Democrats, that could significantly enhance the ability of unions to organise workers. |
| US: In Justice Shift, Corporate Deals Replace Trials
by ERIC LICHTBLAU, The New York Times April 9th, 2008 In a major shift of policy, the Justice Department, once known for taking down giant corporations, including the accounting firm Arthur Andersen, has put off prosecuting more than 50 companies suspected of wrongdoing over the last three years. |
| US: House panel questions Bear rescue plan by James Politi , The Financial Times April 8th, 2008 The rescue of Bear Stearns faced further scrutiny in Congress on Tuesday as a powerful Democratic lawmaker demanded more information on the selection of BlackRock as investment manager for $30bn in the bank’s mortgage assets. |
| US: America for Sale: 2 Outcomes When Foreigners Buy Factories
by PETER S. GOODMAN, The New York Times April 7th, 2008 As foreign buyers descend upon the United States, capturing widening swaths of the industrial landscape and putting millions of Americans to work for new owners, these two cities offer sharply competing narratives for a nation still uneasy about being on the selling end of the global economy. |
| US: Drug Makers Near Old Goal: A Legal Shield
by GARDINER HARRIS and ALEX BERENSON, The New York Times April 6th, 2008 The Bush administration has argued strongly in favor of the doctrine, which holds that the F.D.A. is the only agency with enough expertise to regulate drug makers and that its decisions should not be second-guessed by courts. The Supreme Court is to rule on a case next term that could make pre-emption a legal standard for drug cases. The court already ruled in February that many suits against the makers of medical devices like pacemakers are pre-empted. |
| US: Washington Blocks Exports of Munitions Firm Suspected of Fraud by C. J. CHIVERS, New York Times April 4th, 2008 The U.S. State Department on Thursday suspended the international export activities of AEY Inc., a Miami Beach arms-dealing company led by a 22-year-old man whose munitions procurements for the Pentagon are under criminal investigation. |
| ECUADOR: Expert asks Ecuador court to fine Chevron $7-$16 bln
Reuters April 2nd, 2008 An independent environmental expert told a court in Ecuador that oil company Chevron Corp should pay $7 billion to $16 billion in compensation for environmental damage in the country. |
| US: Reynolds Ads Oppose Move to Regulate Tobacco
by STEPHANIE SAUL, The New York Times April 1st, 2008 As legislation moves through Congress that would empower the F.D.A. to regulate the tobacco industry, Reynolds, whose brands include Camel cigarettes, is attacking what it views as the bill’s vulnerability: a weak, overextended F.D.A. |
| US: Alcoa lawsuit halted so federal criminal probe can continue by Associated Press, International Herald Tribune March 28th, 2008 A civil lawsuit accusing Alcoa Inc. and affiliates of bribing officials in the Persian Gulf state of Bahrain will be temporarily halted so that U.S. investigators can conduct a criminal investigation of the aluminum maker. |
| CHILE: Salmon Virus Indicts Chile’s Fishing Methods
by ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO, The New York Times March 27th, 2008 The new virus is spreading, but it has primarily affected the fish of Marine Harvest, a Norwegian company that is the world’s biggest producer of farm-raised salmon and exports about 20 percent of the salmon that come from Chile. |
| AFGHANISTAN: Supplier Under Scrutiny on Aging Arms for Afghans
by C. J. CHIVERS, The New York Times March 27th, 2008 With the award last January of a federal contract worth as much as nearly $300 million, the company, AEY Inc., which operates out of an unmarked office in Miami Beach, became the main supplier of munitions to Afghanistan’s army and police forces. Since then, the company has provided ammunition that is more than 40 years old and in decomposing packaging, according to an examination of the munitions by The New York Times and interviews with American and Afghan officials. |
| US: Cigarette Company Paid for Lung Cancer Study
by GARDINER HARRIS, The New York Times March 26th, 2008 Prominent cancer researchers and journal editors, told of the foundation by The Times, said they were stunned to learn of Dr. Henschke’s association with Liggett. |
| IRAQ: Authorities Identify Remains Of Two American Contractors
by Steve Fainaru, Washington Post Foreign Service March 25th, 2008 U.S. authorities have recovered the remains of two American contractors, the latest grim development in one of the longest-running hostage dramas of the Iraq war. |
| AFGHANISTAN: Missing: The £5bn aid needed to rebuild lives by JEROME STARKEY AND ROSS LYDALL, The Scotsman March 25th, 2008 Vast sums of aid are lost in corporate profits of contractors and sub-contractors, which can be as high as 50 per cent on a single contract. A vast amount of aid is absorbed by high salaries, with generous allowances, and other costs of expatriates working for consulting firms and contractors. |
| EUROPE: In Europe, widening probe targets tax haven by Mark Rice Oxley and Jeffrey White, Christian Science Monitor March 25th, 2008 Nearly two decades after taking the helm of Deutsche Post, Klaus Zumwinkel surrendered to police amid suspicion that he evaded €1 million in taxes. The next day, he resigned, becoming the first to fall in a massive probe that has broadened to nine other countries. |
| GERMANY: Germans sour on capitalism amid corporate scandals by Jeffrey White, Christian Science Monitor March 25th, 2008 Recent scandals, involving such titans as Siemens, Volkswagen and Deutsche Poste, have undermined public trust in the integrity of German corporations, bolstering a growing shift to the left and its social welfare ideals. |
| INDONESIA: Indonesia's Commodity Boom Is a Mixed Bag by Tom Wright, Wall Street Journal March 24th, 2008 Indonesia's economy is riding the recent wave of high global commodity prices. But local pressure is arising towards steel makers and power producers in China and India who have diverted coal supplies abroad by locking in 20-year supply contracts with Indonesian miners. |
| US: Class-Action King Weiss to
Plead Guilty to Conspiracy by Nathan Koppel, Wall Street Journal March 21st, 2008 Melvyn Weiss, whose law firm, Milberg LLP, built a reputation and fortune filing class-action securities fraud lawsuits against corporations including Tyco International and Enron, agreed to plead guilty in a case alleging improper kickbacks to clients. |
| US: CALIFORNIA $100 million tip for Starbucks servers by Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer, The San Francisco Chronicle March 21st, 2008 A San Diego judge ordered Starbucks to pour more than $100 million into the accounts of its low-wage coffee-servers in California on Thursday after ruling that the company had improperly required the workers to share tips with their bosses. |
| US: A Push to Limit the Tracking of Web Surfers' Clicks
by LOUISE STORY, The New York Times March 20th, 2008 AFTER reading about how Internet companies like Google, Microsoft and Yahoo collect information about people online and use it for targeted advertising, one New York assemblyman said there ought to be a law. |
| US: Study says diesel emissions raise cancer risk by Elizabeth Fernandez, Chronicle Staff Writer, The San Francisco Chronicle March 20th, 2008 The analysis by the California Air Resources Board, released Wednesday night, shows that the greatest health dangers related to toxic air emissions stems from diesel trucks traversing the freeways and other roadways around West Oakland and the Port of Oakland. |
| IRAQ: Forbidden fields: Oil groups circle the prize of Iraq's vast reserves by Roula Khalaf and Steve Negus, The Financial Times March 19th, 2008 Shell is one of several international oil companies - including BP and the US groups ExxonMobil and Chevron - that have been tapping into Iraq's oil industry by remote control. |
| US: Eli Lilly E-Mail Discussed Unapproved Use of Drug by ALEX BERENSON, The New York Times March 17th, 2008 John C. Lechleiter, an Eli Lilly official who is about to become the company's top executive, wrote an e-mail message in 2003 that appears to have encouraged Lilly to promote its schizophrenia medicine Zyprexa for a use not approved by federal drug regulators. |
| US: Families Sue Chiquita in Deaths of 5 Men
by CARMEN GENTILE, The New York Times March 17th, 2008 Last week, Ms. Julin, who has remarried, and the widows of the four other men filed a lawsuit against Chiquita Brands International Inc., saying the company contributed to their husbands’ deaths by financing the leftist group. |
| US: When a Corporate Donation Raises Protests
by STUART ELLIOTT, The New York Times March 12th, 2008 But a coalition of children’s advocates contends that the hospital went too far by agreeing to name a new emergency department and trauma center after another locally based retailer, Abercrombie & Fitch, in exchange for a $10 million donation. |
| IRAQ: KBR Faulted on Water Provided to Soldiers by Dana Hedgpeth, The Washington Post March 11th, 2008 U.S. soldiers at a military base in Iraq were provided with treated but untested wastewater for nearly two years by KBR, the giant government contractor, and may have suffered health problems as a result, according to a report released yesterday by the Pentagon's inspector general. |
| US: Workers Sue Gulf Coast Company That Imported Them by ADAM NOSSITER, The New York Times March 11th, 2008 A group of 500 foreign welders and pipefitters brought in to work at Gulf Coast oil rig yards after Hurricane Katrina said Monday that they had sued their employer, claiming they were lured with false promises of permanent-resident status, forced to live in inhumane conditions and then threatened when they protested. |
| US: Pollution Is Called a Byproduct of a 'Clean' Fuel by BRENDA GOODMAN, The New York Times March 11th, 2008 The spills, at the Alabama Biodiesel Corporation plant outside this city about 17 miles from Tuscaloosa, are similar to others that have come from biofuel plants in the Midwest. The discharges, which can be hazardous to birds and fish, have many people scratching their heads over the seeming incongruity of pollution from an industry that sells products with the promise of blue skies and clear streams. |
| US: Fighting on a Battlefield the Size of a Milk Label
by ANDREW MARTIN, The New York Times March 9th, 2008 A new advocacy group closely tied to Monsanto has started a counteroffensive to stop the proliferation of milk that comes from cows that aren’t treated with synthetic bovine growth hormone. |
| GLOBAL: Slum Visits: Tourism or Voyeurism? by ERIC WEINER, The New York Times March 9th, 2008 Slum tourism, or “poorism,” as some call it, is catching on. |
| CHINA: Solar Energy Firms Leave Waste Behind in China by Ariana Eunjung Cha, Washington Post March 9th, 2008 The Luoyang Zhonggui High-Technology Co. of Henan, China, is a green energy company, producing polysilicon for solar energy panels. But the byproduct -- silicon tetrachloride -- is a highly toxic substance that poses environmental hazards. |
| US: Chiefs’ Pay Under Fire at Capitol by JENNY ANDERSON, The New York Times March 8th, 2008 In pointed exchanges with Congressional lawmakers Friday, three prominent financial executives defended the multimillion-dollar pay packages they received even as their companies were brought to their knees by the spreading credit crisis. |
| US: Pesticide maker owned by political donor
by Matthew Yi, San Francisco Chronicle March 8th, 2008 The company that makes one of the pesticides state officials are considering spraying over the Bay Area to fight the light brown apple moth is owned by a wealthy California agribusinessman who has been a generous contributor to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and other state officials. |
| CAYMAN ISLANDS: Top Iraq contractor skirts US taxes offshore
by Farah Stockman, The Boston Globe March 6th, 2008 Kellogg Brown & Root, the nation's top Iraq war contractor and until last year a subsidiary of Halliburton Corp., has avoided paying hundreds of millions of dollars in federal Medicare and Social Security taxes by hiring workers through shell companies based in this tropical tax haven. |
| US: In Trial, Alaska Says Lilly Concealed Risks of a Schizophrenia Drug
by ALEX BERENSON, The New York Times March 6th, 2008 Eli Lilly, the drug maker, systematically hid the risks and side effects of Zyprexa, its best-selling schizophrenia medicine, a lawyer for the State of Alaska said Wednesday in opening arguments in a lawsuit that contends the drug caused many schizophrenic patients to develop diabetes. |
| US: Fidelity Settles After Employees Accepted Gifts by Carrie Johnson, The Washington Post March 6th, 2008 Mutual fund manager Fidelity Investments yesterday settled allegations that more than a dozen of its current and former employees, including star executive Peter Lynch, accepted such perks as sports tickets, tropical vacations and a $160,000 bachelor party from brokers seeking to win business. |
| CANADA: Native Leader Serving Six Months for Opposing Mine by Chris Arsenault, IPS March 5th, 2008 Algonquin community leader Robert Lovelace had never been charged with an offence, but when a uranium company began prospecting for radioactive ore on unceded native land without engaging in consultation, he decided to take action, organising a non-violent blockade. |
| BRAZIL: King of soya: environmental vandal or saviour of the world's poor? by Rory Carroll and Tom Phillips, Guardian (UK) March 3rd, 2008 Erai Maggi's company Bom Futuro produces more than 600,000 tonnes of soya a year, most of it to feed livestock ending up as meat in China and Europe, and generating £175m in revenue. Critics decry the link between increasing soya production and Amazon deforestation. |
| US: Alcoa Faces Allegation By Bahrain of Bribery
by GLENN R. SIMPSON, The Wall Street Journal February 28th, 2008 A company controlled by the Persian Gulf state of Bahrain accused Alcoa Corp. of a 15-year conspiracy involving overcharging, fraud and bribery. |
| US: Immigration Agency Accused of Illegal Searches by N.C. Aizenman, The Washington Post February 26th, 2008 A privately convened commission of labor and immigrant advocates held the first of several planned nationwide hearings yesterday to publicize allegations that U.S. immigration officials routinely violate constitutional protections against unreasonable search and seizure during workplace raids. |
| US: In Shift, Ashcroft to Testify on Oversight Deal by Carrie Johnson, The Washington Post February 26th, 2008 Former Attorney General John D. Ashcroft agreed last night to appear at a House hearing to discuss his lucrative arrangement overseeing a medical equipment company, averting a showdown with committee members who had planned to meet today to authorize a subpoena. |
| FRANCE: Sarkozy calls on head of Sociéte Générale to resign over trading scandal by Katrin Bennhold, International Herald Tribune February 26th, 2008 President Nicolas Sarkozy of France called on the head of Sociéte Générale to resign over a €4.9 billion trading fraud, saying, "That someone earns €7 million doesn't shock me. On one condition: that he takes responsibility." |
| INDIA: Gates in India to push US firms BBC News Online February 26th, 2008 Mr Gates is expected to spend his two-day visit lobbying for US firms that hope to win a contract to supply India with 126 new fighter jets. |
| US: Court Considers Protecting Drug Makers From Lawsuits
by GARDINER HARRIS, The New York Times February 26th, 2008 Less than a week after issuing a sweeping ruling that bars most lawsuits against medical device makers, the Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in the first of two cases that could determine whether drug makers receive similar protection. |
| US: F.C.C. Weighing Limits on Slowing Web Traffic by STEPHEN LABATON, The New York Times February 26th, 2008 The head of the Federal Communications Commission and other senior officials said on Monday that they were considering taking steps to discourage cable and telephone companies from delaying the downloads and uploads of heavy Internet users. |
| US: Pfizer to End Lipitor Ads by Jarvik
by STEPHANIE SAUL, The New York Times February 26th, 2008 Under criticism that its ads are misleading, Pfizer said Monday that it would cancel a long-running advertising campaign using the artificial heart pioneer Robert Jarvik as a spokesman for its cholesterol drug Lipitor. |
| UGANDA: Privatization of Seeds Moving Apace by Aileen Kwa, IPS February 21st, 2008 The Ugandan parliament will soon have a hearing on the draft Plant Variety Protection Bill, approved by the cabinet early last year. According to an inside government source, seeds companies including Monsanto have been lobbying for such intellectual property protection. |
| US: Inside the world of war profiteers
by David Jackson and Jason Grotto|Tribune reporters, Chicago Tribune February 21st, 2008 Hundreds of pages of recently unsealed court records detail how kickbacks shaped the war's largest troop support contract months before the first wave of U.S. soldiers plunged their boots into Iraqi sand. |
| US: 12 Years for Contractor in Bribery Case by ELLIOT SPAGAT, AP February 20th, 2008 A defense contractor was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison Tuesday for bribing former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham with cash, trips, the services of prostitutes and other gifts in exchange for nearly $90 million in Pentagon work. |
| KAZAKHSTAN: Kazakhs warn Mittal over safety by Isabel Gorst in Moscow and Peter Marsh in London, The Financial Times Limited 2008 February 19th, 2008 Kazakhstan has warned ArcelorMittal, the world’s biggest steel company, that it could be forced to close one of its coal mines if it does not improve safety following an explosion last month that killed 30 people. |
| GERMANY: German Arms Firm Ends Blackwater Deal After TV Report
by DW staff (ncy), Deutsche Welle February 19th, 2008 Weapons manufacturer Heckler & Koch said it would end its relationship with Blackwater after German media reported that the controversial US-run military firm was using its guns in Iraq and Afghanistan. |
| US: Holes in the Wall
by Melissa del Bosque, The Texas Observer February 18th, 2008 As the U.S. Department of Homeland Security marches down the Texas border serving condemnation lawsuits to frightened landowners, Brownsville resident Eloisa Tamez, 72, has one simple question. She would like to know why her land is being targeted for destruction by a border wall, while a nearby golf course and resort remain untouched. |
| UK: BAE: secret papers reveal threats from Saudi prince by David Leigh and Rob Evans, The Guardian (UK) February 15th, 2008 Prince Bandar, the head of the Saudi national security council, and son of the crown prince, was alleged in court to be the man behind the threats to hold back information about suicide bombers and terrorists. He faces accusations that he himself took more than £1bn in secret payments from the arms company BAE. |
| GERMANY: Authorities Investigating Deutsche Post CEO for Tax Evasion
by Barbara Schmid, Der Spiegel February 14th, 2008 Klaus Zumwinkel, the CEO of former German postal monopoly Deutsche Post, is under investigation for tax evasion. |
| US: Court dismisses lawsuit on secret kidnapping by Adam Tanner, Reuters February 14th, 2008 A federal judge, saying the case involved a state secret, dismissed a lawsuit on Wednesday against a unit of Boeing Co that charged the firm helped fly terrorism suspects abroad to secret prisons. |
| US: Lawmakers Move to Grant Banks Immunity Against Patent Lawsuit by Jeffrey H. Birnbaum, The Washington Post February 14th, 2008 Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) has sponsored an unusual provision at the urging of the nation's banks granting them immunity against an active patent lawsuit, potentially saving them billions of dollars. |
| GLOBAL: 2 Reports At Odds On Biotech Crops by Rick Weiss, The Washington Post February 14th, 2008 Dueling reports released yesterday -- one by a consortium largely funded by the biotech industry and the other by a pair of environmental and consumer groups -- came to those diametrically different conclusions. |
| US: Hewlett-Packard Settles Spying Case
by MATT RICHTEL, The New York Times February 14th, 2008 Hewlett-Packard has agreed to a financial settlement with The New York Times and three BusinessWeek magazine journalists in connection with the company’s spying scandal that stemmed from surreptitiously obtaining private phone records. |
| CHINA: China Plant Played Role In Drug Tied to 4 Deaths
by ANNA WILDE MATHEWS and THOMAS M. BURTON, The Wall Street Journal February 14th, 2008 A Chinese facility that hasn't been inspected by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration made the active ingredient in much of the widely used Baxter International Inc. blood-thinner that is under investigation after reports of hundreds of allergic reactions and four deaths among the drug's users, the agency said yesterday. |
| US: UnitedHealth Faces Suit Over Payment System
by VANESSA FUHRMANS and THEO FRANCIS, The Wall Street Journal February 13th, 2008 The New York attorney general said his office plans to sue UnitedHealth Group Inc. as part of a broader investigation into the way the health insurance industry sets payment rates for hospitals and doctors outside of their networks. |
| US: Comcast Defends Role As Internet Traffic Cop by Cecilia Kang, The Washington Post February 13th, 2008 Comcast said yesterday that it purposely slows down some traffic on its network, including some music and movie downloads, an admission that sparked more controversy in the debate over how much control network operators should have over the Internet. |
| US: Limbo for U.S. Women Reporting Iraq Assaults
by JAMES RISEN, The New York Times February 13th, 2008 Ms. Kineston is among a number of American women who have reported that they were sexually assaulted by co-workers while working as contractors in Iraq but now find themselves in legal limbo, unable to seek justice or even significant compensation. |
| US: Bush Presses House to Approve Bill on Surveillance
by ERIC LICHTBLAU, The New York Times February 13th, 2008 The president’s remarks came the morning after the Senate handed the White House a major victory by voting to broaden the government’s spy powers and to give legal protection to phone companies that cooperated in President Bush’s program of eavesdropping without warrants. |
| US: U.S. jewelry retailers oppose large Alaska gold mine by Mary Pemberton, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS February 12th, 2008 Just in time for Valentine's Day, five of the leading U.S. jewellers have sworn off gold that someday could come from the Pebble Mine, a huge deposit being scoped out by a subsidiary of a Canadian company near the world's most productive wild sockeye salmon stream in southwestern Alaska. |
| AFGHANISTAN: Security companies fall foul of gun controls by Jeremy Page, Times Online U.K. February 11th, 2008 Afghan police have begun a crackdown on private security guards carrying guns in Kabul, paralysing foreign aid and other organisations whose rules oblige them to travel with armed escorts. |
| US-CHINA: Staples cuts ties with APP on environment worry Reuters February 8th, 2008 Staples Inc, the largest U.S. office supplies retailer, said on Friday it ceased doing business with Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) late last month because of environmental concerns. |
| US: CIA Likely Let Contractors Perform Waterboarding by SIOBHAN GORMAN, The Wall Street Journal February 8th, 2008 The CIA's secret interrogation program has made extensive use of outside contractors, whose role likely included the waterboarding of terrorist suspects, according to testimony yesterday from the CIA director and two other people familiar with the program. |
| US: Committee Investigates Ad Tactics for Lipitor by Stephanie Saul, New York Times February 8th, 2008 A Congressional investigation revealed that Pfizer agreed to pay Dr. Jarvik $1,350,000 as a celebrity pitchman for the heart drug Lipitor, and wants to know how much stunt doubles in the ads may have also been paid. |
| US: Uranium Exploration Near Grand Canyon
by FELICITY BARRINGER, The New York Times February 7th, 2008 With minimal public notice and no formal environmental review, the Forest Service has approved a permit allowing a British mining company to explore for uranium just outside Grand Canyon National Park, less than three miles from a popular lookout over the canyon’s southern rim. |
| US: Drug Ads Raise Questions for Heart Pioneer
by STEPHANIE SAUL, The New York Times February 7th, 2008 Celebrity advertising endorsements are nothing new, of course. But the Lipitor campaign is a rare instance of a well-known doctor’s endorsing a drug in advertising — and it has helped rekindle a smoldering debate over whether it is appropriate to aim ads for prescription drugs directly at consumers. |
| US: Some Campuses Decide Tobacco Company Money Is ‘Tainted’
by ALAN FINDER, The New York Times February 4th, 2008 Across academia, universities and graduate schools are wrestling with whether to accept financing from tobacco companies for research or student activities. In the past few years, 15 public health and medical schools have turned away donations from the industry; McCombs’ move was unusual because of its longstanding ties to an array of corporations. |
| EL SALVADOR: "Life Is Worth More than Gold" Say Anti-Mining Activists by Raúl Gutiérrez, Inter Press Service (IPS) February 1st, 2008 Peasant farmers from the northern Salvadoran province of Cabañas fear that mining operations planned for the region will consume 30,000 litres of water a day, drawn from the same sources that currently provide local residents with water only once a week. |
| US: An Ex-President, a Mining Deal and a Big Donor by JO BECKER and DON VAN NATTA Jr., The New York Times January 31st, 2008 Unlike more established competitors, Mr. Giustra was a newcomer to uranium mining in Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic. But what his fledgling company lacked in experience, it made up for in connections. Accompanying Mr. Giustra on his luxuriously appointed MD-87 jet that day was a former president of the United States, Bill Clinton. |
| PERU: For Peru's Indians, Lawsuit Against Big Oil Reflects a New Era by Kelly Hearn, The Washington Post January 31st, 2008 Oxy is Occidental Petroleum, the California-based company that pulled a fortune from this rain forest from 1972 to 2000. It is also the company that Maynas and other Achuar leaders now blame for wreaking environmental havoc -- and leaving many of the people here ill. |
| CHINA: Tainted Drugs Tied to Maker of Abortion Pill
by JAKE HOOKER and WALT BOGDANICH, The New York Times January 31st, 2008 A huge state-owned Chinese pharmaceutical company that exports to dozens of countries, including the United States, is at the center of a nationwide drug scandal after nearly 200 Chinese cancer patients were paralyzed or otherwise harmed last summer by contaminated leukemia drugs. |
| INDIA: H.P. Case to Go Forward in India
by HEATHER TIMMONS, The New York Times January 31st, 2008 A decision by India’s highest court may force international companies who outsource business here to do more to guard the safety of local workers. |
| US: Altria to spin off foreign cigarette unit March 28 by Vinnee Tong, Associated Press January 31st, 2008 Altria Group Inc. said Wednesday it would spin off its international tobacco business on March 28, freeing it to pursue cigarette sales more aggressively without ties to its U.S. counterpart - and U.S. regulatory oversight. |
| GLOBAL: False 'Green' Ads Draw Global Scrutiny
by Tom Wright, Wall Street Journal January 30th, 2008 With companies eager to tout their "green" credentials to consumers, advertising watchdogs are stepping up efforts to rein in marketers that make false or exaggerated claims. |
| UK: Vestey's vegan grandson sees off Shell by Isabel Oakeshott, The Sunday Times (UK) January 27th, 2008 SHELL has abandoned its sponsorship of one of Britain’s most prestigious wildlife photography exhibitions after protests by environmental groups. |
| US: Contractor Abuses Rarely Punished, Groups Say
by Ali Gharib, IPS January 21st, 2008 Out of the dozens upon dozens of reports of abuses by private contractors as part of the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, only one prosecution of a contractor has taken place. |
| US: Giuliani Had Ties to Company Trying to Sell Border Technology by RUSS BUETTNER, New York Times January 18th, 2008 On the presidential campaign trail, former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani often promotes the installation of electronic monitoring devices at the border to stem illegal immigration, without mentioning that until a few months ago, he was partner in a company trying to market such technology. |
| US: McDonald’s Ending Promotion on Jackets of Children’s Report Cards
by STUART ELLIOTT, New York Times January 18th, 2008 McDonald’s has decided to stop sponsoring Happy Meals as rewards for children with good grades and attendance records in elementary schools in Seminole County, Fla. |
| US: Duke Energy sued for alleged kickbacks New Mexico Business Weekly January 17th, 2008 Two lawyers have filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court in Cincinnati accusing Duke Energy Corp. of overcharging tens of thousands of residential and business customers. |
| US: Antidepressants Under Scrutiny Over Efficacy
by DAVID ARMSTRONG and KEITH J. WINSTEIN, Wall Street Journal January 17th, 2008 The effectiveness of a dozen popular antidepressants has been exaggerated by selective publication of favorable results, according to a review of unpublished data submitted to the Food and Drug Administration. |
| US: A Mission to Rebuild Reputations by Dana Hedgpeth, Washington Post January 17th, 2008 Now those promises -- and the public's perception of the Air Force's ability to spend its money prudently -- are being tested by new contracting and public relations challenges. The Air Force is about to award two key contracts worth a total of about $55 billion, and Boeing is in the running for both deals. |
| EU: European Antitrust Regulators Raid Large Drug Makers
by STEPHEN CASTLE and JAMES KANTER, New York Times January 17th, 2008 Antitrust regulators on Wednesday raided big European drug makers as part of an investigation into whether patents and lawsuit settlements are being manipulated to keep generic products off the market. |
| US: Corporate Fraud Lawsuits Restricted
by Robert Barnes and Carrie Johnson, Washington Post January 16th, 2008 The Supreme Court yesterday strictly limited the ability of investors who lost money through corporate fraud to sue other businesses that may have helped facilitate the crime, a decision that could doom stockholder efforts to recover billions of dollars lost in Enron and other high-profile cases. |
| UK: FBI wants instant access to British identity data
by Owen Bowcott, The Guardian (UK) January 15th, 2008 Americans seek international database to carry iris, palm and finger prints |
| US: Protests Greet Nuclear Power Resurgence in US South by Matthew Cardinale, IPS January 14th, 2008 Residents and environmental activists are in a bitter dispute with large U.S. energy corporations and the federal government over the safety of nuclear power, as more than a dozen corporations plan to, or have filed, paperwork to open new nuclear power plants, primarily in the U.S. South. |
| NIGERIA: Nigeria delays $44bn smoking case by BBC News, BBC January 14th, 2008 A court in Nigeria has adjourned a multi-billion dollar lawsuit brought by the government against three major tobacco firms until March. |
| CHILE: Copper Boom - Cui Bono? by Daniela Estrada, IPS News January 11th, 2008 According to global forecasts, the price of copper, Chile’s main export, will remain high in 2008 thanks to strong demand from China. But just who will benefit from this bonanza is up for debate. |
| NIGERIA: Inefficient Gas Flaring Remains Unchecked by Sam Olukoya, IPS January 10th, 2008 Some of the largest multinational oil companies in the world -- including the U.K. and Dutch owned Shell, the French company Total, and the American companies Mobil and Chevron -- are responsible for the bulk of the scores of gas flares burning in Nigeria. |
| IRAQ: 2005 Use of Gas by Blackwater Leaves Questions by JAMES RISEN, New York Times January 10th, 2008 In 2005 Blackwater accidentally dropped teargas on US soldiers, which has raised significant new questions about the role of private security contractors in Iraq, and whether they operate under the same rules of engagement and international treaty obligations that the American military observes. |
| THAILAND: Green Groups Will Take GM Crops Issue To Court by Marwaan Macan-Markar, IPS News January 9th, 2008 Thai environmentalists are banking on the country’s courts to overturn a decision by the military-appointed government to allow field trials of genetically modified (GM) crops. |
| JAPAN: Yamada gave additional 400,000 dollars to organization Yomiuri Shimbun January 8th, 2008 Defense contractor Yamada Corp. provided a total of 400,000 dollars in consultant fees to an executive director of a Japan-U.S. exchange organization between 2003 and 2005. |
| AFGHANISTAN: Copper project tests Afghanistan’s resources by Jon Boone, Financial Times January 8th, 2008 The debris left over from previous attempts to extract some of Afghanistan’s colossal mineral wealth can be found just 35km south-east of Kabul. But in five years, the landscape in the Aynak exploration area may be changed into one of the world’s largest opencast mines, thanks to a $3bn (£1.5bn) investment by the China Metallurgical Group Corporation (MCC). |
| US: U.S. high court declines to review Can. company pollution ruling by JOHN K. WILEY, Associated Press January 7th, 2008 An Indian tribe says it will continue its efforts to force a Canadian company, Teck Cominco Ltd., to pay to clean up pollution of a stretch of the Columbia River that flows past the tribe's reservation. |
| CHINA: In Chinese Factories, Lost Fingers and Low Pay by DAVID BARBOZA, New York Times January 5th, 2008 Nearly a decade after some of the most powerful companies in the world — often under considerable criticism and consumer pressure — began an effort to eliminate sweatshop labor conditions in Asia, worker abuse is still commonplace in many of the Chinese factories that supply Western companies, according to labor rights groups. |
| US: Cloned Livestock Poised by Jane Zhang, John W. Miller and Lauren Etter, Wall Street Journal January 4th, 2008 After more than six years of wrestling with the question of whether meat and milk from cloned animals and their offspring are safe to eat, the Food and Drug Administration is expected to declare as early as next week that they are. The food industry appears to be divided over the issue. |
| US: Suit says IBM dumped chemicals in New York state
by Dan Wilchins and Philipp Gollner, Reuters January 3rd, 2008 Neighbors of a former IBM plant in New York state sued the company on Thursday, saying it released chemicals into the air, ground and water for nearly 80 years that caused birth defects and cancer. |
| US: Former miners oppose bond release by Nathan Blackford, Warrick Publishing Online January 2nd, 2008 Former miners do not want the Indiana Department of Natural Resources to release the final portion of a $4 million bond on a large section of the North Field at the Squaw Creek Mine. |
| EUROPE/RUSSIA: Gas pipeline stirs up Baltic fears by Tristana Moore, BBC News Online December 31st, 2007 Nord Stream, a consortium led by Russia's Gazprom, is building a new controversial pipeline under the Baltic Sea. |
| IRAQ: Shame of Imported Labor in Kurdish North of Iraq by Michael Kamber, New York Times December 29th, 2007 Thousands of foreign workers have come to the Kurdish districts in northern Iraq in the last three years. Many have been deceived by unscrupulous agents who arrange the journeys, like the Bangladesh-based Travel Mix agency. |
| JAMAICA: Regulators Mull Viability of Ferti-irrigation by Patricia Williams, IPS News December 26th, 2007 Appleton Estates seemed to have solved the centuries old problem of what to do with distillery waste when they started a new project eight years ago. However, they are yet to convince regulators and locals that it is a viable option. |