Thanks to lax international tax rules the world’s super rich have siphoned at least $21 trillion -- more than 50 percent larger than the entire U.S. economy -- into secretive tax-free havens, according to a study by UK campaign group Tax Justice Network. The report by James Henry, a former chief economist at international consultancy McKinsey & Co., shows how with the help of private banks the money has ...

News is starting to emerge now about an attack on anti-mining/ water justice activists in the municipality of Megali Panagia on the Chalkidiki peninsula in northern Greece. A media release issued by Initiative 136 notes, “Several hundred men on the payroll of ‘Greek Gold S.A.’, a subsidiary of Canadian company ‘European Goldfields’, attacked a group of local activists that are defending the virgin forests o ...

As American consumers ogle over shiny new gadgets at this week's Consumer Electronic's Show, the workers that make those products are threatening mass suicide for the horrid working conditions at Foxconn. 300 employees who worked making the Xbox 360 stood at the edge of the factory building, about to jump, after their boss reneged on promised compensation, reports English news site Want China Times. It's no ...

While ordinary people fret about austerity and jobs, the eurozone's corridors of power have been undergoing a remarkable transformation.   The ascension of Mario Monti to the Italian prime ministership is remarkable for more reasons than it is possible to count. By replacing the scandal-surfing Silvio Berlusconi, Italy has dislodged the undislodgeable. By imposing rule by unelected technocrats, it has ...

A lobbyist of the multinational elite was appointed prime minister of Greece, an undemocratic political deviation that must be annulled by massive and decisive popular action. PASOK and Nea Democratia agreed at last, after a marathon of consultations, to commonly appoint Loukas Papademos as prime minister. “Democratic Alliance” and LAOS supported the procedure with enthusiasm, while the “Democratic Left” an ...

by Michael Grothaus   "A Reuters employee who was investigating Apple's legendary secrecy visited Foxconn's walled city-like facility in Guanlan, China, and was reportedly roughed up by security." The reporter took a taxi to the facility and left the taxi to take photographs of the front gate and security checkpoint. When a guard shouted, the reporter hopped back in the taxi. The guard then blocked the ...

The Dutch Oil company rejects watchdog's claims that its local contracts made it complicit in the killing of civilians. David Smith The Guardian, Monday 3 October 2011 Shell has fuelled armed conflict in Nigeria by paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to feuding militant groups, according to an investigation by the oil industry watchdog Platform, and a coalition of non-government organisations. Militants ...