In The News

Huge Effort Urged on Global Warming

Chrystia Freeland September 28, 2007
Contrary to a recent United Nations report that the fight against global warming will be costly, former US President Bill Clinton argues that a serious and ambitious program will save money and create jobs. For example, businesses investing in new, energy-efficient technology can dramatically decrease their utilities costs. Other analysts have also noted that the costs of future natural disasters...

A Bumper Crop of Inertia

Robert J. Samuelson September 14, 2007
US farmers of wheat, corn, soybeans, cotton and rice are hooked on government subsidies that began in the 1930s during the Great Depression. Since then, the subsidies have continued, year after year, while political or agriculture industry leaders refuse to admit that changing needs demand new priorities. Rather than saving family farms, creating jobs, encouraging good nutrition habits or...

Mattel Recalls About 9 Million Toys

Nicholas Casey August 15, 2007
Ingesting lead, even small amounts, can cause irreparable brain damage in young children. So the news that major toy company Mattel has embarked on yet another major recall of toys made in China, because some contain lead paint and others contain small magnets, disturbs both consumers in the West and workers in China. Manufacturers based in China, where speech is censored, are unaccustomed to...

Why Africa Fears Western Medicine

Harriet A. Washington August 14, 2007
Africa has a history of Western doctors who claim to provide health care while in reality “administrating deadly agents.” The most infamous example is Wouter Basson, who killed hundreds through injecting poisons, but was never convicted. More recently, a Libyan court convicted a foreign physician and five nurses of infecting children with AIDS, before releasing the providers to Bulgaria. Many...

US Mortgage Crisis Hits Pacific Rim Markets

Carter Dougherty August 7, 2007
Lured by low adjustable-interest rates, US homeowners bought larger homes than many could afford. Mortgage companies bundled those loans into bond packages, selling them to investors worldwide. But the credit was too easy, and wages are stagnant for many. For homeowners who can’t handle automatic rate increases, loans go into default. Trying to sell homes and escape the trap, homeowners discover...

In Africa, Mortgages Boost an Emerging Middle Class

Michael M. Phillips July 26, 2007
A growing middle class in Africa requires housing, but political and economic instability often contribute to shortages. The wealthy can pay cash for homes, but financing home purchases is difficult in a country where only 16 percent of the population holds salaried jobs. In Zambia, the Lilayi project tackles the problem with a suburban development, funded by public and private investors, that...

Libya’s Release of 6 Prisoners Raises Criticism

Matthew Brunwasser and Elaine Sciolino July 24, 2007
In 1999, Libya accused five nurses and a physician, based in Benghazi, of deliberately infecting hundreds of children with the HIV virus that causes AIDS. Over the next eight years, the health-care providers, five from Bulgaria and one from Palestine, endured imprisonment, three trials and death sentences. Analysts suggest that the unsanitary conditions in the hospitals infected the children...