(February 3, 2005) Benon Sevan, head of the United Nations office that administered Iraq’s multi-billion dollar oil-for-food programme, "repeatedly solicited" oil allocations from Baghdad, a UN-appointed inquiry said yesterday.
Environmentalists challenge UEGCL
(February 2, 2005) Critics say Uganda’s Owen Falls Extension is a catastrophe and blame it on the government, Acres International, the project consultants, and the World Bank.
The impact of debt burden on women
(February 2, 2005) The early 1980’s financial crisis faced by many countries in the South had unpayable debt service as the immediate cause that was precipitated by the tight money policies in the rich countries that drastically hiked international interest rates. The debt debate ignores the fact that debts were contracted as a result of borrowing by undemocratic governments that were not mandated by the people.
Charging interest on bullets: calls mount for debt cancellation
(February 1, 2005) High-profile debt cases in South Asia, Argentina and Iraq are leading to increased calls worldwide for independent tribunals to determine which debts are not legally enforceable.
‘Africa bores me,’ says Live Aid rocker Bob Geldof
(February 1, 2005) “The pace of change is far too slow, and Africans excuse their own complicity in exactly the same way as our politicians,” he said.
How the west dug holes for the poor
(January 31, 2005) During the cold war, the developed nations lent willingly to Africa. No worries then about how corrupt dictators might misuse the money or line their own pockets.
Dealing the debt
(January 27, 2005) As the ‘Make Poverty History’ lobby takes up a new call for redistribution between the first and third worlds Jon Harle wonders what part debt actually plays in poverty.
Oil/food probe to ask more of Annan
(January 26, 2005) Investigators probing charges of impropriety in the UN oil-for-food program have questioned Secretary-General Kofi Annan about his involvement and will do so again, a UN spokesman has said.
‘Outposts of tyranny’ list is selective
(January 25, 2005)The list is as interesting for the countries it leaves out as for the countries it includes.
Up against the past
(January 23, 2005) The last time Iraq tried a parliamentary system, it ended in failure, under circumstances not unlike today’s.
Pinochet ‘secret’ accounts sought
(January 20, 2005) A Chilean judge is to launch an international search for secret bank accounts belonging to former military ruler General Augusto Pinochet.
Argentina apologizes for debt fiasco amid hostility
(January 20, 2005) As hostility to Argentina’s debt swap offer spread from Italy to Germany, Argentina made a rare apology on television to Italian bondholders, most of them pensioners, who bought the country’s bonds before a default three years ago.
Spotlight on Kofi
(January 19, 2005) US federal prosecutors made public this week their first conviction in the United Nations Oil-for-Food program.
Time to find embezzled millions: opinion
(January 18, 2005) Money embezzled and hidden in foreign banks by African government officials is a potential new source of funds for the continent, a US-based academic has suggested.
Rice vows to pursue oil-for-food scandal
(January 18, 2005) The U.N. oil-for-food program for Saddam Hussein’s Iraq was scandalously mismanaged and will be reviewed as an important item in President Bush’s second term, Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday.
Probe International 