News Articles
| EU: Court hits at Brussels secrecy by Andy Bounds, Financial Times November 8th, 2007 The European Union's secretive decision-making processes were condemned on Thursday in a legal judgment that should lead to more light being shed on how thousands of regulations affecting businesses are hatched. |
| CONGO: World Bank accused of razing Congo forests by John Vidal, The Guardian (UK) October 4th, 2007 The World Bank encouraged foreign companies to destructively log the world's second largest forest, endangering the lives of thousands of Congolese Pygmies, according to a report on an internal investigation by senior bank staff and outside experts. |
| BRITAIN: Companies 'looting' a continent by Fran Abrams, BBC News July 24th, 2007 Gordon Brown has signalled he wants to see poor countries develop through trade rather than aid. |
| WORLD: A Way for Resource-Rich Countries to Audit Their Way Out of Corruption by Tyler Cowen, The New York Times July 12th, 2007 An Oxford economist has a new and potentially powerful idea: setting up an voluntary international charter to guide transparency efforts in resource-rich developing countries, in order to stave of corruption. |
| UGANDA: African forest under threat from sugar cane plantation by Daniel Howden, The Independent (UK) July 10th, 2007 Conservationists in Uganda are fighting a last-ditch battle to stop the destruction of a forest reserve by a sugar corporation friendly with the government. |
| GERMANY:German Police and Protesters Battle Near Site of G-8 Meeting by Reuters, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/03/world/europe/03germany.html?_r=1&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fOrganizations%2fG%2fGroup%20of%20Eight&oref=slogin June 3rd, 2007 German police clashed with hundreds of protesters in the port of Rostock on Saturday following a much larger peaceful demonstration against the Group of 8 summit meeting next week in a nearby Baltic resort. |
| SUDAN: China accused of supporting Sudan rights abuse Agence France Presse May 18th, 2007 A leading opponent of a Chinese-financed dam in Sudan accused Beijing on Friday of fueling widespread human rights abuses, as Khartoum moved to relocate 70,000 villagers to make way for the project. |
| CONGO: New row over delay of Congo funds report by Dino Mahtani, Financial Times May 8th, 2007 The World Bank has withheld the findings of an inquiry into alleged mismanagement of bank funds in the Democratic Republic of Congo, raising fresh questions about the anti-corruption strategy of Paul Wolfowitz, the bank's president |
| CONGO: New row over delay of Congo funds report by Dino Mahtani, Financial Times May 8th, 2007 The World Bank has withheld the findings of an inquiry into alleged mismanagement of bank funds in the Democratic Republic of Congo, raising fresh questions about the anti-corruption strategy of Paul Wolfowitz, the bank's president. |
| ZAMBIA: 'Vulture' feeds on Zambia by Ashley Seager, Guardian Unlimited February 14th, 2007 A so-called "vulture" fund has been given permission by a British court to enforce a claim for tens of millions of dollars theoretically owed by Zambia. |
| WORLD: Private Sector 'Not the Answer to Poverty' by Philip Thornton, Independent (UK) September 1st, 2006 Rich countries must deliver more money directly to poor nations to avert a growing health and sanitation crisis spreading across the southern hemisphere, Oxfam will say today. |
| WORLD: Firms admit paying bribes in World Bank program Reuters August 31st, 2006 A "healthy" number of companies have admitted paying bribes under a new World Bank disclosure program, which encourages firms that have worked on bank-funded projects to report corruption or fraud. |
| WORLD: Legalizing Human Trafficking
by Basav Sen, Dollars & Sense June 28th, 2006 The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), now being negotiated in the World Trade Organization (WTO), is likely to reduce migrant workers to the status of commodities. |
| NIGERIA: New Pipeline a "Recipe for Disaster", Locals Say by Emad Mekay , Inter Press News Service (IPS) April 27th, 2006 Local communities in Nigeria are taking the World Bank before an internal auditor over claims that the lender neglected its duties and anti-poverty mission when it funded a controversial gas pipeline in the region, whose construction they say will harm the environment and area residents. |
| CHAD: Chad eases threats on oil, Darfur refugees by Daniel Flynn, Swiss Info April 17th, 2006 Chad on Monday softened threats to stop sheltering Sudanese refugees and halt oil production following rebel attacks as the United States offered to broker a solution to a dispute with the World Bank. |
| URUGUAY: New Report May Show Way Ahead in Paper Mill Dispute by Diana Cariboni, Inter Press News Service April 13th, 2006 A report from an unexpected quarter, the World Bank, has set forth a number of recommendations to mitigate the environmental impact of two paper pulp factories being built in Uruguay on a river that separates the country from Argentina. |
| IRAQ: Cut in Food Rations Hurting Poor Iraqis by Daud Salman, Environmental News Service April 3rd, 2006 A government decision to cut food rations has hurt poor Iraqis who cannot afford high prices on the open market, say economists and Baghdad residents. |
| WORLD:‘WE DON’T OWE THEM ANYTHING’
by Bikash Sangraula, Inter Press Service News Agency March 29th, 2006 Over a hundred countries in the developing world have taken to neo-liberal policies thanks to the insistence of creditors from the north, including the G8, the World Bank (WB), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). But after 20 years, it is clear that these policies have not worked. The poor are poorer with their governments spending a lot of money to pay back loans, activists say. |
| THAILAND: Court Ruling Hits Privatisation Plans by Marwaan Macan-Markar, Inter Press Service March 27th, 2006 On Thursday, the supreme administrative court ruled that the planned sale of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), to raise an estimated 892.5 million US dollars, was illegal. |
| WORLD: Cleaning Up Its Reputation
by Rebecca Bream, Financial Times March 6th, 2006 The mining industry has a worldwide image problem. In developing and developed countries alike, the public tends to regard mines as dirty, dangerous and disruptive — and those who stand to profit from them as greedy despoilers. |