(January 1, 2009) After months of threats, the government of Ecuador has made good on its promise to forego payment of foreign loans deemed illegitimate by the country’s debt audit commission. Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa announced that his country would not be paying $30.6 million interest due Dec. 15 on its 2012 global bonds after the commission claimed the debt had been ‘illegally’ acquired by past administrations.
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China quakes, but the dams don’t break
(December 28, 2008) The biggest potential disaster, Pearce reports, was averted at the Zipingpu dam, just 17 kilometres from the quake’s epicenter. “Holding back more than a cubic kilometer of water … the hydroelectric dam was the largest of a new, cheap design with a rock core and concrete face. As the tight valley sides juddered, the structure was squeezed and ended up 18 centimeters downstream, and 70 cm lower. … The concrete was ripped apart but the core of the dam survived.”
Glitch in the System
(December 23, 2008) Ecuador’s Conscientious Default. When the government of Ecuador failed to make a scheduled interest payment on private bonds this month, it was hardly the first time a country had defaulted in the middle of a financial crisis. In fact, it wasn’t even the first time for Ecuador. The small South American country did so just 10 years ago, at a time when the economy was reeling from natural disasters and a drop in oil prices.
Glitch in the System: Ecuador’s conscientious default
(December 23, 2008) When the government of Ecuador failed to make a scheduled interest payment on private bonds this month, it was hardly the first time a country had defaulted in the middle of a financial crisis.
Developers suspend major hydro investments in Lao PDR
(December 17, 2008) Investors have decided to suspend major electricity power development projects in Laos as a result of the international financial crisis, according to a Ministry of Planning and Investment official.
China to speed up building gigantic south-to-north water diversion project in 2009
(December 16, 2008) China would accelerate the construction on the country’s huge south-to-north water diversion project next year, head of the project office Zhang Jiyao said on Monday.
Chinese scientists talk about the Zipingpu reservoir-triggered earthquake
(December 15, 2008) Top Chinese scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have dismissed the possibility that the Zipingpu dam reservoir could have induced China’s devastating 2008 earthquake, complaining that the media has been “incessantly questioning the wisdom of building more and more hydro dams in earthquake-prone southwest China” in the wake of last year’s quake.
Ecuador defaults on foreign debt
(December 12, 2008) GUATAQUIL, Ecuador – Leftist President Rafael Correa defaulted on Ecuador’s foreign debt on Friday, vowing to fight bond holders in court in one of most aggressive moves against investors in the region for years.
Ecuador’s default
(December 12, 2008) After months of threats, the government of Ecuador has made good on its promise to forego payment of foreign loans deemed illegitimate by the country’s debt audit commission.
ANALYSIS: Chinese hydro concessions generate controversy in Cambodia
(December 11, 2008) In a desperate bid to attract investment in Cambodia’s failing power sector, the government is offering guaranteed power revenues to Chinese companies willing to finance and build large hydro dams, and sell their entire output to the financially-strapped state utility, Electricite du Cambodge (EdC).
China postpones Yangtze water diversion scheme
(December 11, 2008) China has postponed completion of its multi-billion dollar water transfer scheme to bring water from the Yangtze river to Beijing, citing water pollution and other environmental risks as the reason for pushing the completion date back four years, official media reported last week.
Failing water scheme leaves Beijing high and dry
(December 9, 2008) The completion date for an engineering mega-project to bring water from a tributary of the River Yangtze in the wet south of China to the capital city, in the arid north, has been postponed again.
Beijing officials downplay Three Gorges landslide threat
(December 4, 2008) In a delayed response to two major landslides in the Three Gorges reservoir last month, officials in Beijing now say the slides pose no danger to local residents or shipping, and that natural factors triggered the landslides, not the filling of the Three Gorges dam’s reservoir.
Manifesto for Ecuador and for creation of a global network against illegitimate debt
(December 4, 2008) Latin America and the Caribbean are still paying the colonial tribute. The foreign debt, contracted under illegitimate, deceptive, illegal or corrupt terms, undermines the sovereignty of the peoples and forces them to hand over all their wealth. Odious debts, contracted by dictatorships, designed to subjugate and repress, combine with expansive debts: those that paradoxically, the more they are paid off, the more they grow. These debts were not contracted by the people but against them.
Three Gorges farmers should shun fertilizer, US scientists say
(October 29, 2008) Farmers should cut back on fertilizers during a flood season that can last as long as six months to help mitigate ecological damage in China’s Three Gorges Dam region, according to US scientists quoted by Bloomberg.
Patricia Adams
Dai Qing
Fan Xiao
Lawrence Solomon
Mu Lan
Probe International
Lisa Peryman
Probe Media
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Probe International 