News Articles
| 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." |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| US: Inuit sue US government over BP land usage by David Litterick, The Daily Telegraph (UK) November 20th, 2006 Fresh from settling a lawsuit over last year's fatal explosion at its Texas City oil refinery, BP looks set to become embroiled in a legal battle in Alaska over royalties paid on oil production in Prudhoe Bay. |
| 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. |
| US: Conference Explores Benefits of 'Green' Construction Methods by Melissa Followell, Environmental News Network May 27th, 2005 Preserving resources for energy and environmental reasons took the forefront at Wednesday's Green Trends conference at the Chelsea Center in Sarasota. As more people move to Manatee and Sarasota counties, and demand for resources grows, conservation techniques are very important to the area's future. |
| US: Clean-Energy Mega-Mall by Amanda Griscom Little, Grist May 20th, 2005 The developer of a new mall planned for Upstate New York vows that it will be the closest thing to an "Apollo Project" for renewable energy that America has ever seen -- one that grows the economy, strengthens national security by encouraging energy independence, and protects the environment. |
| US: New Law to Cut Down on Cruise Ship Waste Associated Press April 14th, 2005 While the Cruise Ship industry is installing equipment that one executive says makes sewage and other wastewater almost as "clean as Perrier," environmentalists, state officials and some members of Congress are pushing to toughen what they call outdated marine pollution standards. |
| SERBIA: Brewery's Privatization Threatened by Dispute by Eric Jansson, Financial Times March 28th, 2005 The sale of the Serbian brewery, Beogradska Industrija Piva, seen by some as a key step in economic reform, is being fought by the family that lost the firm when it was seized by communists. |
| MEXICO: Business returns to Mexico City by Sara Silver, Financial Times February 8th, 2005 This year, the affordable urban real estate attracted international tenants including Hewlett-Packard, HSBC and McKinsey and Marsh & McLennan. |
| CANADA: Natives' Land Battles Bring a Shift in Economy by Clifford Krauss , The New York Times December 9th, 2004 The Haida won a landmark case in November in Canada's Supreme Court obliging British Columbia to consult with them over land use anywhere on their traditional homelands on the Queen Charlotte Islands. The decision is expected to have a sweeping impact on similar Indian claims across Canada. |
| UK: To Be a 'Clone Town,' or Not: That Is the Question by Lizette Alvarez, New York Times November 1st, 2004 To survive the approach to the home where William Shakespeare was born, a striking timber-frame house in the center of this bustling town, it would be wise to bid adieu to all bucolic notions of quaint old England and ready oneself for the onslaught of globalization. |
| IRAN: France Steps Up Its Investments in Iran by Borzou Daragahi , The New York Times June 23rd, 2004 Undeterred by Iran's pariah status in the United States and by the shortcomings of the country's commercial climate, French companies (many of them car companies) have been increasing their presence in the country in the last few years. |
| US: AOL, Cendant Added to Homestore Pension Fund Suit Reuters November 17th, 2002 SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- AOL Time Warner Inc. and Cendant Corp. were among 16 companies that contributed to the financial collapse of online real estate firm Homestore.com, a California retirement fund has alleged in a lawsuit. |
| US: For Cruise Ships, A History of Pollution by Edwin McDowell, The New York Times June 16th, 2002 On April 19 the Carnival Corporation pleaded guilty in United States District Court in Miami to criminal charges related to falsifying records of the oil-contaminated bilge water that six of its ships dumped into the sea from 1996 through 2001. |
| WORLD: The Blight of Eco-Tourism by David Nicholson-Lord, Resurgence June 13th, 2002 Tourism is by some estimates the world's biggest industry; it's certainly among the fastest-growing, and few believe the events of Sept. 11 will cause anything more than a downward blip on a steep upward curve. In 1950 there were around 25 million international tourist visits. Currently there are around 700 million. By 2020 there will be around 1.6 billion. |
| COSTA RICA: Eco-Tourism Slump Endangers Wildlife by Jamie K. Mccallum, Pacific News Service January 30th, 2002 A decline in worldwide travel since Sept. 11 is putting in jeopardy Costa Rica's careful balance of preserving biodiversity through ecotourism. Poachers-turned-nature-guides may be forced to return to illegal hunting and harvesting in the country's last remaining wild places. |