Human Rights

L-3 Communications, a little-known but gigantic military contractor, provides 300 contract intelligence experts to the Pentagon in Iraq to support operations ranging from interrogation to media analysis. The secretive $426.5 million operation, which is run out of Virginia, may be a recipe for disaster, say critics. Also see related story, A Translator's Tale, by Pratap Chatterjee. Read More

One of the worst polluters in the Maputo region, the Portuguese-owned cement company, Cimentos de Mocambique, has tried to blame the electricity company, EDM, for the clouds of cement dust that frequently belch out of its factory in the southern city of Matola. Read More

Pharmaceutical multinationals, seeking to ramp up profits through cheap drug trials, are increasingly turning to India with its combination of a vast pool of poor, ignorant patients on the one hand and skilled medical personnel and fine research infrastructure on the other. Read More

International companies and local elites in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are pocketing revenues from copper and cobalt production instead of sharing it with local communities or spending it to reduce poverty, a watchdog group charged Wednesday. Read More

A HIGH-LEVEL government report into toxic hazards at a notorious industrial estate north of Brisbane is expected to find several violations of chemical storage rules by businesses located on the site. Read More

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. Read More

Children in the Queensland mining capital of Mount Isa have been put at risk by fallout from the city's copper and lead smelters because the state Government has failed to routinely test for lead poisoning. Read More

Once again, the government has been compelled to suspend work on the Maheshwar dam over the Narmada River in central India. Read More

A major drug company is blocking access to a medicine that is cheaply and effectively saving thousands of people from going blind because it wants to launch a more expensive product on the market. Read More

Wired News is a "scofflaw" full of "hot air" and should not be heard in a class-action lawsuit accusing AT&T of violating customers' privacy by cooperating with the National Security Agency in a warrantless internet wiretap operation, the telecommunications company said in a court filing Monday. Read More