In The News

Iran Playing With Fire

October 3, 2003
Iran faces harsh international scrutiny in coming weeks about its nuclear weapons program as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) begins new inspection. In question are traces of weapon’s grade enriched uranium found in Iran that Tehran officials claim were contaminated before Iran received them. The IAEA has warned that Iran could face international sanctions backed by the US if Iran...

The Myth of Localism

George Monbiot September 9, 2003
Some delegates at the world trade talks claim to defend the interests of the poor but actually promote policies that are detrimental to developing countries, says British environmentalist and author George Monbiot in The Guardian. A proposal of particular danger, Monbiot argues, is localization, which advocates that everything that can be produced locally should be produced locally. Proponents...

Shell Workers Protest Planned Job Cuts

Mike Oduniyi August 28, 2003
Employees of Shell Petroleum's base in Nigeria are protesting the proposed centralization of the oil company's global operations. Under a new proposal called "Exploration and Production Globalization," Shell says it hopes to increase the efficiency of its operations. "The Group continues to explore best practices in its drive to evolve a more overall efficient...

Why the US needs the UN in Iraq

Paul Reynolds August 28, 2003
The chief US administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, claims that Iraq is "not a country is chaos and Baghdad is not a city in chaos," yet Washington is edging ever closer to asking for multilateral assistance from the UN. This article from BBC News says that Washington's stance is changing because of both domestic politics and the growing complexity of the situation in Iraq. At home...

Iran Admits Foreign Help on Nuclear Facility

Joby Warrick August 27, 2003
The UN nuclear watchdog agency – the IAEA – noted many improvements in the quality of information and cooperation Iran gave them during inspections last month. However, environmental samples taken from nuclear facilities outside Tehran tested positive for enriched uranium, a key ingredient in the manufacture of nuclear weapons. In an effort to explain the test results, Iran deviated greatly...

Ecologists Fear Disaster as Oil Rush Takes Grip in Quake Zone

Nick Paton Walsh August 25, 2003
The Russian island of Sakhalin will soon be home to the largest energy project in the world, and there is fear, possibly the largest disaster. The oil rich island borders Japan and lies directly on top of an active seismic fault line, a fact that has environmentalists up in arms. They fear that the underground pipelines will not be able to withstand the island's frequent earthquakes and...

Ecologists Fear Disaster as Oil Rush Takes Grip in Quake Zone

Nick Paton Walsh August 25, 2003
The Russian island of Sakhalin will soon be home to the largest energy project in the world, and there is fear, possibly the largest disaster. The oil rich island borders Japan and lies directly on top of an active seismic fault line, a fact that has environmentalists up in arms. They fear that the underground pipelines will not be able to withstand the island's frequent earthquakes and...