Energy, Mining & Utilities

Oil companies face a dilemma in Iraq over whether to wait for a new oil law which will give them a legal framework in which to operate or to sign agreements now with the Kurdistan Regional Government at the risk of sullying relations with Baghdad and the rest of the country. Read More

In the wake of the multiple scandals over tainted Chinese food and drug exports in recent months, Chinese goods now have an indelible image of being not just cheap, but life-threatening as well. But the fact that wrongly labelled foods, liquor and pharmaceuticals have routinely sickened and even killed people en masse in China has been largely overlooked. Read More

Mattel, the maker of Barbie dolls and Hot Wheels cars, is recalling nearly one million toys in the United States today because the products' surfaces are covered in lead paint. According to Mattel, all the toys were made by a contract manufacturer in China. Read More

Organized labor often complains of its treatment at the hands of corporate America, but its accusations pale in comparison to those made recently by the widows of Colombian mine workers in an Alabama courtroom. During a two-week trial, a Birmingham jury weighed charges that the local Drummond Coal Company bore responsibility for the murders of three union leaders who represented workers at its Colombian mine - the world's largest open pit mine. Read More

Follow-up studies on a cleanup effort at the site of a former Ford car factory have shown that there is still a great deal of toxins left in the soil. Read More

The U.S. Congress and the mainstream media are picking up on some of the issues that CorpWatch has been digging into over the last couple of years. Namely, trafficking of workers to Iraq; coal power plants on Diné land; and Iraq reconstruction. Read More

South African workers for the world's biggest diamond producer, De Beers, have voted to go on strike over pay. Read More

Italian oil giant Eni has a long history of cutting deals with anyone, and of accusations of corruption and bribery. Now that its future hangs on Russia and its notorious reputation in the energy market, has Eni finally met its match? Read More

The union activists suing U.S. coal company Drummond Co. Inc. in Alabama in the 2001 murders of three labor leaders say deliberate foot-dragging by Colombian authorities is preventing the jury from hearing their star witness. Concerned by the delay, 12 Democrats in the U.S. Congress wrote Colombia's vice president last week asking him to intercede. Read More

A federal grand jury in Houston has charged a former executive of a Willbros Group subsidiary with conspiring to bribe Nigerian officials as part of an alleged scheme to win a major natural gas pipeline contract. Read More