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The world's worst corporations http://www.inaltreparole.net/en/money/classificaimprese290110.html

A Swiss research company, Covalence, periodically publishes a ranking list that measures, according to various parameters, the ethics of large multinational corporations. At the bottom of the list are thus the worst companies in the world, those who have a serious negative impact on the lives of people for working conditions or the damage they cause. It is not really an exhaustive catalog of the evils of the world, but it is a good approximation.

Among the worst are Shell, with a list of environmental crimes and unending support for bloody dictatorships like the one that decided the death of the poet Ken Saro-Wiwa in Nigeria. Then Chevron, which has been accused of pollution and systematic violations of human rights both in Nigeria and in Ecuador. Or Total, recently accused of using slaves to build an oil pipeline in Burma in complicity with the local regime. Again, Occidental Petroleum, accused of having caused enormous environmental damage in several indigenous lands in Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. 

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Bolivia: Evo Morales launches "decolonization of judiciary" http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2010/02/bolivia-president-appoints-18-interim.php

Bolivian President Evo Morales Feb. 18 appointed 18 judges ahead of the country's judicial elections, calling the move "the beginning of the decolonization of the judiciary." The appointees will fill five vacancies on the country's Supreme Court, five on the Constitutional Court, and three on the Judiciary Council, while five others were named alternates.

All will serve until judicial elections are held on Dec. 5. Though roughly 20 of 26 high-level judicial posts were unoccupied prior to the announcement, the move has drawn criticism from Morales's opponents who fear it jeopardizes the judiciary's independence. The Bolivian National Congress passed legislation last week authorizing Morales to appoint judicial officials on an interim basis until the election.

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Banana Bloodshed: Chiquita and Dole guilty of Paramilitary Terror in Columbia http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcEPFcQkuNo

In Colombia, however, the Chiquita name has recently come to symbolize the confirmation of a long-suspected relationship between multinational firms and illegal armies fighting in the nation's four-decade-old war.Chiquita Brands International admitted in US court last month that it paid $1.7 million to Colombia's brutal right-wing militias over the course of eight years. The company said it did so to protect its employees and agreed to pay a $25 million fine. The case is sparking outrage in the capital, Bogotá, where officials want to see company executives on trial.

Many in Urabá, Colombia's banana growing region, shrug off the payments as normal. Chiquita pulled out of Colombia in 2004 by selling its Banadex subsidiary to a local company for $43.5 million. But the case could have implications for other companies doing business here or in other conflict areas around the world, analysts say."It's one of the first if not the first times that a [US-based] company is indicted and pleads guilty to providing material support to an organization known to commit widespread human rights abuses"

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British military insider: World War III is being staged; to initiate between Israel and Iran http://www.examiner.com/x-25059-Nonpartisan-Examiner~y2010m2d19-British-military-insider-World-War-III-is-being-staged-to-initiate-between-Israel-and-Iran

Below is Bill Ryan’s video explanation of his interview with a vetted British military insider discussing the planning of manipulated global war (transcript here). The highlights from Bill Ryan in five bullet-points and nine paragraphs: 

 

• There is a planned Third World War, which will be nuclear and biological. Our source believes that this is on track to be initiated within the next 18-24 months.  • It is planned to begin with a strike by Israel on Iran. Either Iran or China will be provoked into a nuclear response. After a brief nuclear exchange, there will be a ceasefire. The world will be thrown into fear and chaos - all carefully engineered.  • The extreme state of tension will be used to justify heavy social and military controls in all western first world nations. Plans are already in place for that.

comment-see below Michael Chossudovsky: US will start WW3 by attacking Iran...

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Evo Morales: in Cancun signals an OAS without the U.S. or Canada http://www.telesurtv.net/noticias/secciones/nota/67154-NN/evo-morales-en-cancun-se-gestara-una-oea-sin-estados-unidos-ni-canada/

Bolivia's President Evo Morales, said Friday that the Rio Group Summit, to be held between 21 and 23 February in the Mexican resort of Cancun,will give  rise "a new Organization of American States (OAS) without the presence of U.S. or Canada. "New political movements  therefore proposed by new presidents of Latin American governments  a new OAS without the north, without U.S. or Canada," said Morales at a news conference at Government House. It is "an excellent proposal that we want to consolidate, this would be an instrument of great liberation of Latin America,from U.S. imperialism," he said.

Morales emphasized that at the initiative of a new OAS without U.S. and Canada, should neither include the government of Honduras, the successor to the de facto administration contrary to democracy. The Bolivian president stressed that the Rio summit will be an opportunity to bolster the assertion of American rights After elaborating on  the initiative, he warned  "The empire is now geared towards coups, aimed at creating internal conflicts: in order to pin our revolutionary governments against the fence, thru capitalist projects, but also using militarism."