(August 27, 2004) As the World Bank prepares to finalise its decision to support Laos’ controversial Nam Theun 2 project, opponents yesterday said the dam would "irreversibly" affect one of Southeast Asia’s largest wild elephants herds.
In Kenya, corruption fight sign of times
(August 27, 2004) Visitors arriving at Nairobi’s international airport are greeted with this sign at passport control: "No bribes should be given or accepted whether demanded or not.
World Bank Support for Big Dams Remains
(August 26, 2004) Groups like the U.S.-based International Rivers Network (IRN) have argued that the Bank cannot claim to have distanced itself from building large dams.
Mekong River at risk
(August 26, 2004) Drought, dam-building and over-fishing are suffocating the Mekong, one of Asia’s mighty, life-giving arteries. Can countries along its banks rally to save it?
Beijing’s clumsy manoeuvres
(August 26, 2004) Is the opening of the Mekong for large trading vessels an example of Beijing’s strong-arm tactics with it’s neighbours?
U.N.’s big debt to Iraq
(August 26, 2004) It was supposed to be oil for food in Iraq, but the largest humanitarian program ever launched by the United Nations turns out to have been grease for friends – Saddam Hussein’s friends.
Banks ‘laundered’ Iraq oil for food payments
(August 26, 2004) Two European banks were yesterday accused by the US Treasury Department of helping Saddam Hussein launder money stolen from the UN oil-for-food programme.
Terrorism and rising crime hound Iraq, says Allawi
(August 25, 2004) Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi called for Iraq’s national debt – the highest in the world as a percentage of GDP – to be largely forgiven "so that future generations of Iraqis are not made to suffer for the wrongs of the Saddam regime.
Terrorist Stocks?
(August 25, 2004) The biggest public pension funds in the U.S., having wrestled with everything from apartheid to tobacco to corporate governance, have a new issue to worry over.
New World Bank strategy proposes $550 million for dams in India
(August 24, 2004) The World Bank Board of Directors will decide on a new Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) for India on Thursday, August 26. In this strategy, the World Bank proposes to double loans to India, and to spend $550 million on new dams in 2005-08.
Hydro dam threatens elephants
(August 24, 2004) The inundation and degradation of a large part of the Nakai Plateau would eliminate 95% of the wetlands, almost all mineral licks and large areas of forests and grasslands that are essential habitat for the Nakai elephants.
The Mekong’s toothless guardian
(August 24, 2004) Can the Mekong be preserved without a functioning body to oversee it? The Mekong River Commission is in place, but is it strong enough to put
pressure on Beijing?
U.N. chief backs body to compensate war victims
(August 23, 2004) U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan backs a permanent U.N. body that would provide reparations for victims of wars.
Elephants and the Nam Theun 2 dam
(August 23, 2004) The Nakai plateau allows elephants to maintain widespread seasonal movements on a landscape scale. The proposed Nam Theun 2 dam would destroy these special conditions, forever.
Tiny Laos in the spotlight over landmark power project
(August 22, 2004) Despite assurances by the foreign investors, the International Rivers Network and several other groups maintain the planned dam could pollute or choke waterways in the untamed region and displace impoverished farming communities.
Patricia Adams
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