Month: November 2012

By Martin Khor* An epidemic of international legal suits taken by companies against governments for billions of dollars is causing public concern and leading to reviews of investment treaties.

By PAUL KRUGMAN* ? The New York Times On Election Day, The Boston Globe reported, Logan International Airport in Boston was running short of parking spaces. Not for cars ? for private jets. Big donors were flooding into the city… Continue Reading →

By ANDREW HIGGINS – The New York Times BRUSSELS ? Europe faces rising unemployment for at least another year amid the most painful economic convulsions to hit the Continent since it first set out on a path of economic and… Continue Reading →

By Jim Lobe WASHINGTON, Nov 29 2012 (IPS) – The rule of law ? an essential element of good governance ? is prospering best in the countries of northern Europe and worst in Uzbekistan, Zimbabwe and Cameroon, according to the… Continue Reading →

Analysis by Cam McGrath CAIRO, Nov 28 2012 (IPS) – Brandishing flags and carrying banners denouncing ?the new pharaoh?, thousands of protesters thronged to Cairo?s Tahrir Square on Tuesday to voice their opposition to President Mohamed Morsi?s attempt to expand… Continue Reading →

Chris McGreal ? The Guardian A group of Nobel peace prize-winners, prominent artists and activists have issued a call for an international military boycott of Israel following its assault on the Gaza Strip this month.

By Wambi Michael DOHA, Nov 27 2012 (IPS) – African negotiators attending the United Nations climate change talks in Doha, Qatar say they are determined to ensure that developed countries do not let the Kyoto Protocol die as its commitment… Continue Reading →

Paul Krugman* Sorry about radio silence — real life intruded. Also, working on longer-term projects; including one that had me looking at a pretty big puzzle that isn’t getting much attention, namely, what is going on with Italy.

Jim Newell* On December 23, 2011, the dons of Harvard University finally got to see Adam Wheeler sentenced to a year in prison. Wheeler, a twenty-five-year-old whom they admitted in 2007 on the strength of an academic record he?d fabricated… Continue Reading →

Analysis by Richard Heydarian MANILA, Nov 2012 (IPS) – Against the backdrop of growing territorial tensions in the South China Sea, inflamed by a more explicit Sino-American rivalry in the Pacific theatre, the recently-concluded ASEAN Summit in Cambodia represented the… Continue Reading →

Nicholas Shaxson – The Guardian Switzerland and other offshore specialists are doing their best to frustrate international transparency in taxation The world is seeing the first stirrings of an emerging new architecture of global transparency in taxation which could, if… Continue Reading →

Paul Krugman – 1994 essay As the fears of Japan’s economic prowess fade, economic writers and corporate executives foresee a new threat: Third World economic growth. In this article, Stanford economist Paul Krugman argues that such fears about the impact… Continue Reading →

Strobe Talbott* WASHINGTON: The announcement by the Norwegian Nobel Committee in October 2009 that Barack Obama had won the Peace Prize came as a surprise to just about everyone, including the recipient. The president, barely nine months into his new… Continue Reading →

By Julio Godoy – IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis BERLIN (IDN) – Between late 2009 and mid-2010, the German government, represented by its foreign minister Guido Westerwelle, made a case for dismantling B61 atomic bombs on German soil. The actual number of such… Continue Reading →

Glenn Greenwald – guardian.co.uk The temptation to wash one’s hands of the whole conflict is understandable, but US support of Israel is a central force driving it all

By Jim Lobe WASHINGTON, Nov 20 2012 (IPS) – Despite recession in Europe and a weak recovery in the United States, remittances to developing countries have been growing at a strong pace over the last year and are likely to… Continue Reading →

By Johan Galtung * WASHINGTON, Nov (IPS)–The media did their best to make the U.S. presidential election look important, the altar on which democracy is built. But there has been a problem ever since the Supreme Court legalised unlimited campaign… Continue Reading →

By Mairead Corrigan Maguire* – TRANSCEND/Human Wrongs Watch It is with the greatest sadness, mixed with frustration, and a sense of helplessness, that many people around the world, myself included, watched on television the horrific scenes of death and destruction… Continue Reading →

Human Wrongs Watch Geneva, ILO* ? More than 70 per cent of workers worldwide have no statutory access to unemployment insurance or any type of unemployment assistance, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said.