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Under a strong summer sun and a broad political proclamation that "Another world is possible," tens of thousands of activists from around the world are arriving here for the second annual World Social Forum. The host, like last year, is Brazil's southernmost major city, capital of the state of Rio Grande de Sul.

As global business and political players gather today in New York for the opening of the World Economic Forum, differences are beginning to emerge among nongovernmental organizations, multinational corporations and the United Nations over the future shape of the U.N. Global Compact and its role in regulating corporate behavior worldwide.

Pass it on. General Motors is providing $100,000 of backing for two fiercely anti-corporate activist groups, IndyMedia and CorpWatch, with a little help from the British pop band Chumbawamba.

Will demonstrators show that anti-corporate sentiment is alive and well? We look at the issues raised by the World Economic Forum in New York and the World Social Forum in Brazil.

Alliance for Corporate-Free UN writes letter to Kofi Annan about the Global Compact saying that the Compact as currently designed has serious flaws that threaten the integrity and mission of the United Nations, by partnering with multinational corporations.

Members of the Alliance for a Corporate-Free UN, a grouping of non-governmental groups from around the world, send letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan outlining major proposed changes to the Global Compact.

The international community has fallen short of promises to prevent deterioration of the global environment, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Monday.

The system is blind -- not only in Argentina, not only in Latin America. For the most notorious economists, the people are mere numbers. For the most powerful bankers, they are debtors. For the most efficient technocrats, they are problems. For the most successful politicians, they are votes.

The administration's energy program, developed by Vice President Dick Cheney in secret meetings -- six of them with Enron officials -- could have been written by lobbyists for the now failed company.

The McDonald's hamburger chain that occupies villages throughout modern-day France has commandeered a Asterix, a national cartoon character, to promote its food as part of a marketing campaign launched yesterday that pushes aside the venerable clown, Ronald McDonald.