Explore Publications

Dramatic evidence that America is involved in illegal mercenary operations in east Africa has emerged in a string of confidential emails seen by The Observer. The leaked communications between US private military companies suggest the CIA had knowledge of the plans to run covert military operations inside Somalia - against UN rulings - and they hint at involvement of British security firms.

The human toll in Ivory Coast's toxic waste scandal rose sharply from 1,500 to more than 5,000 people contaminated by open-air dumping sites in Abidjan, the health ministry said.

Fishing communities in the Caribbean island of Trinidad are protesting a $US1.5 billion aluminum smelter that will process raw material from Brazil, Jamaica and Surinam. Cedros Peninsula United, a local organization, says that the factory uses technology that has had serious environmental impacts in countries from China to Iceland and the U.S.

A month after seven Indian states imposed severe restrictions on the sale of colas and other aerated drinks, the Coca-Cola company has become the target of a vigorous popular campaign in Uttar Pradesh, India's largest state.

Prime Minister Patrick Manning yesterday said Alcoa would not be allowed to construct its controversial aluminium smelter in Chatham if it does not commit to developing downstream aluminium industries in Trinidad and Tobago.

CEOs in the defense and oil industries have been able to translate war and rising oil prices into personal jackpots, according to a new report from the Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy, Executive Excess 2006.

After an appellate court in the United States rejected claims by Bhopal city residents, seeking compensation from Union Carbide for environmental contamination around the site of the world's worst industrial disaster, plans are afoot to have the case transferred to India.

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.

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.

A CONFRONTATION involving Chatham residents protesting the construction of ALCOA's multi-million dollar smelter plant and Alcoa officials and police threatened to become violent yesterday, when a policeman held one of the protesters at gunpoint.