Search

An American financier is pitching a vast theme park in Baghdad, not out of kindness, but as he says, "for profit."

One year ago this Tuesday, a gas-exploration well part-owned by the Australian mining giant Santos blew, sending a geyser of mud and toxic gas into the air. Nearby villages and factories were flooded, then a big highway and railway were covered, and later East Java's main gas pipeline ruptured.

Roads and bridges built by U.S. taxpayers are starting to be sold off, and so far foreign-owned companies are doing the buying.

Being a columnist is hardly the influential position it's cracked up to be. For weeks I've been trying to convince Ralph Nader voters that they have an obligation to vote for Al Gore or risk right-wing domination of government's three branches. For me, it's a no-brainer since George W. Bush has named Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia as his role models for the three to five Supreme Court appointments he's likely to make.

An Arkansas company and three of its employees face federal charges for alleged improprieties in their work at Fort Leonard Wood.

Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu warned the American company Bechtel that the contract for the Brasov - Bors (Transylvania) highway could be annulled if the company does not follow the laws to the letter.

Executives from three major Spanish construction companies are in the limelight for allegedly contributing to a slush fund for the Partido Popular, the Spanish ruling party: Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas from Barcelona, Obrascón Huarte Lain and Sacyr Vallehermoso from Madrid. The scandal has rocked the conservative government of Mariano Rajoy.

Maya Indian Eligorio Sho will join Canadian environmentalists in Newfoundland this week to urge Fortis shareholders to scrap their company's plans for a hydro scheme that would flood Belize's Macal River Valley.

A Kurdish human rights lawyer is spearheading an international campaign to block the Turkish government's efforts to build a dam he says will dislodge thousands of Kurds and destroy archeological artifacts.

Citing "environmental disruption and corruption" in a letter to the government of Kenya, Japan's Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka indicated that suspension of funding for the Sondu Miriu hydropower dam project was ''a response to criticism from environmental campaigners and differences between Kenya and Japan over further funding.''