Multilateral Banks

Thousands of workers went on strike on Thursday and marched through the main streets of Burkina Faso's capital, Ouagadougou, to protest against privatisations and to press demands for salary increases. The procession and strike were organised by the country's trade unions. Read More

The Earth Summit in Rio de Janiero Brazil 1992 was supposed to result in countries across the world restructuring their development in order to guarantee sustainability for future generations. After 10 years no positive changes can be seen. The exploitation of natural resources and the destruction of the environment continue, access to productive resources has become more difficult. Read More

April's big business-led coup in Venezuela failed, where international finance's coup in Argentina in recent months has succeeded. Greg Palast gives us the inside track on two very different power-grabs. Read More

Group of Eight leaders launched their long-awaited action plan for Africa, promising a new dawn for the continent, but aid activists said the promises amounted to peanuts. Read More

Is the US War on Terrorism in Afghanistan really a war for a natural gas pipeline? Fossil fuel corporations and the World Bank are expressing cautious interest. Activists are concerned. Read More

Sixty-four mainly European nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) from some 37 countries are asking international financial institutions (IFIs), like the World Bank, and bilateral export credit agencies (ECAs), including the United States Export-Import Bank, to deny funding for a multi-billion-dollar oil pipeline project to run more than 1,000 miles from the Caspian Sea to Ceyhan, a Turkish port on the Mediterranean. Read More

The planned Bujagali Dam in Uganda violates five key World Bank policies. This is the conclusion of a confidential new report by the Inspection Panel, the World Bank's investigative body. The Panel report suggests a series of corrective measures to rectify the project's problems. International Rivers Network calls for these measures to be carried out before more funding for the project is approved by the Bank's Executive Board. Read More

OLEY, PA -- Who really rules the world now? Is it governments or a handful of huge, multinational companies? The wealth of American car giant Ford is worth more than the economy of South Africa. A handful of hugely rich men, like Bill Gates, have a wealth greater than most of Africa. Is there now an alliance between the superpowers of wealth, politics and military might? THE NEW RULERS OF THE WORLD -- A Special Report by John Pilger takes the viewer behind the hype of the new 'global' economy, where the divisions between rich and poor have never been greater. Read More

WASHINGTON -- The White House and Congress are trumpeting their determination to bring economic opportunity to the people of Africa. But first, a few million sub-Saharan farmers will have to suffer. Read More

KABUL -- World Bank chief James Wolfensohn said Wednesday he had held talks about financing a fuel pipeline to channel massive gas reserves from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to India or Pakistan. Read More