(October 9, 2006) Norway’s decision earlier this month to cancel some of its Third World debt claims after implicitly acknowledging them as illegitimate has inspired debt activists around the world: campaigners in the Philippines have since called on the Arroyo administration to stop paying back suspect loans incurred under former president Ferdinand Marcos, reports Alecks Pabico for Inside PCIJ (Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism).

(October 6, 2006) In a stunning move, the Norwegian government has become the first creditor country to implicitly acknowledge that some of its Third World debt claims are illegitimate and says it will cancel such debts outright and unilaterally. The Norwegian Parliament must now approve the government’s debt cancellation plan, details of which are contained in the government’s budget being submitted to Parliament today. If the plan is accepted, five countries – Ecuador, Egypt, Jamaica, Peru and Sierra Leone – will be relieved of some $80 million they owe Norway.

(September 25, 2006) By not paying bribes in graft-prone countries, companies would
be interfering in national sovereignty, say defenders of illicit
corporate payments to poor nations.

(September 12, 2006) The annual meetings of the World Bank and the IMF, being held in Singapore, are facing controversy over the participation of civil society.

(September 7, 2006) The Jubilee South-Asia Pacific Movement on Debt and Development will call for immediate 100 percent cancellation of multilateral debt owed by countries of the South at the upcoming International People’s Forum versus the International Finance Institutions.

(September 5, 2006) Former Kenyan Permanent Secretary for Governance and Ethics, John Githongo, has renewed his anti-corruption crusade from abroad accusing the Kenyan government of failing to recover a whopping Sh 74 billion he says he established was stashed away in foreign banks by senior people in the present and former governments, Kenya Times Online reports.