| UK: Blair admits link between party donations and seats in Lords by George Jones and Graeme Wilson, The Telegraph July 17th, 2006 Tony Blair admitted yesterday that there was a direct link between donating large sums of money to the Labour Party and being nominated for a seat in the House of Lords. |
| US: Jury Convicts HealthSouth Founder in Bribery Trial by Carrie Johnson, The Washington Post June 30th, 2006 An Alabama jury yesterday convicted HealthSouth Corp. founder Richard M. Scrushy -- acquitted last year of federal accounting-fraud charges -- of paying half a million dollars in bribes to former governor Don Siegelman in exchange for a seat on a state health-care board. |
| KATRINA: Mississippi developers' murky past includes fraud
by Mike Stuckey, MSNBC June 29th, 2006 Two brothers involved in the biggest post-Katrina development on the Mississippi Gulf Coast were key figures in an Internet stock scam that federal authorities say bilked investors out of more than $12 million, MSNBC.com has learned. |
| CANADA: Corporate SLAPP by Kim Petersen, The Dominion Paper June 22nd, 2006 The Ontario-based mineral company Platinex has slapped the Ojibwa of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (Big Trout Lake) First Nation (KIFN) with a $10-billion damage suit for refusing the company permission to drill on territory the KIFN says is its own. |
| ARGENTINA: Kolla Indians Fight to Protect Their Land
by Marcela Valente, Inter Press News Service (IPS) June 8th, 2006 "We are here to take care of the land, because we depend on it for a living," said Andrés Sajama, cacique (chief) of Queta, a Kolla indigenous community in the northwestern Argentine province of Jujuy. "We don't want to block mining projects, but we won't allow them to take away what little we have left," he told IPS. |
| US: Critics Wary of Development Plans for Utah Land by Julie Cart, Los Angeles Times June 6th, 2006 The proposed Washington County Growth and Conservation Act would sell up to 40 square miles of federal land and use the proceeds to finance a multimillion-dollar water pipeline and other local projects. Utah Republican Sen. Robert F. Bennett and Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson are expected to introduce the bill in coming weeks. Waiting in the wings are nearly a dozen similar bills for counties in Utah, Idaho, Nevada and New Mexico where population pressure is fueling the demand for more developable land. |
| US: Privately Funded Trips Add Up on Capitol Hill by Jeffrey H. Birnbaum, Washington Post June 6th, 2006 Over 5 1/2 years, Republican and Democratic lawmakers accepted nearly $50 million in trips, often to resorts and exclusive locales, from corporations and groups seeking legislative favors, according to the most comprehensive study to date on the subject of congressional travel. |
| US: Report Says Fannie Mae Manipulated Accounting Associated Press May 23rd, 2006 Employees at mortgage giant Fannie Mae manipulated accounting so that executives could collect millions in bonuses as senior management deceived investors and stonewalled regulators at a company whose prestigious image was phony, a federal agency charged Tuesday. |
| MEXICO: Mexico and Cuba Protest Hotel's Expulsion of Havana Delegation by James C. McKinnley Jr., The New York Times February 6th, 2006 Mexico and Cuba criticized the United States on Monday for demanding that the Sheraton Maria Isabel Hotel here order a group of Cuban officials, who were meeting last week with representatives of American oil companies, to check out of the hotel and leave the premises. |
| PHILIPPINES: No new mining permits by Gil C. Cabacungan Jr. , Blanche S. Rivera, Philippine Daily Inquirer February 4th, 2006 PRESIDENT Macapagal-Arroyo has offered to suspend the issuance of new mining permits to try to appease Roman Catholic bishops strongly opposed to the country's new Mining Act, a top Malacanang official said yesterday. |
| BRAZIL: Indigenous People Fight for Their Rights by Mario Osava , Inter Press Service February 3rd, 2006 Land conflicts involving indigenous people have multiplied in Brazil over the last few months, generating greater tension and showing once again that the country's roughly 400,000 indigenous people still have a long way to go to win respect for their rights. |
| VENEZUELA: Indigenous Demonstrators Protest Coal Mining by Humberto Márquez, Interpress News Service January 27th, 2006 Indigenous protesters from northwestern Venezuela marched Friday through the streets of Caracas, which is hosting the sixth World Social Forum (WSF), to protest plans for mining coal on their land. |
| US: Possible big jump in tolls upsets motorists: Residents of Northern Indiana say plan isn't fair to their communities by Bill Ruthhart, The Indianapolis Star January 25th, 2006 Residents of Northern Indiana feel that a plan to privatize toll roads and raise fares does not benefit the community. |
| US: Many Contracts for Storm Work Raise Questions by Eric Lipton and Ron Nixon, The New York Times September 26th, 2005 Topping the federal government's list of costs related to Hurricane Katrina is the $568 million in contracts for debris removal landed by a Florida company with ties to Mississippi's Republican governor. Near the bottom is an $89.95 bill for a pair of brown steel-toe shoes bought by an Environmental Protection Agency worker in Baton Rouge, La. |
| US: Auditors investigate Katrina contracts by Hope Yen, Associated Press September 22nd, 2005 Government auditors are questioning whether several multimillion-dollar Katrina contracts” including one involving a subsidiary of Houston-based Halliburton Co.” invite abuse because they are open-ended and not clearly defined. |
| US: Many Contracts for Storm Work Raise Questions by Eric Lipton and Ron Nixon, The New York Times August 26th, 2005 Topping the federal government's list of costs related to Hurricane Katrina is the $568 million in contracts for debris removal landed by a Florida company with ties to Mississippi's Republican governor. Near the bottom is an $89.95 bill for a pair of brown steel-toe shoes bought by an Environmental Protection Agency worker in Baton Rouge, La. |
| US: Ex-Cendant Executive Gets 10 Years in Prison Associated Press August 3rd, 2005 Former Cendant Corp. Vice Chairman E. Kirk Shelton was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in prison for his role in an accounting scandal that cost investors more than $3 billion. |
| VIETNAM: Golf helps drive economic modernisation by Amy Kazmin, Financial Times August 1st, 2005 When Hanoi opened its door to global capitalism in 1988, the Communist party frowned on golf as an irrelevant bourgeois indulgence. Today, the Communist elite has bestowed its full blessing on the game as both symbol, and tool, of Vietnam's economic modernisation. |
| US: Justices Uphold Taking Property for Development
by Linda Greenhouse, New York Times June 24th, 2005 The Supreme Court ruled, in one of its most closely watched property rights cases in years, that fostering economic development is an appropriate use of the government's power of eminent domain. |
| CHINA: Video Gives Rare Glimpse of Bitter War Between Developers and China's Poor by David McNeill, The Independent June 17th, 2005 The world got a rare glimpse of the deadly, mostly unseen war between Chinese developers and the poor who stand in their way with the release of a harrowing video showing a murderous attack on villagers protesting against the construction of a power plant. |