Human Rights

Adidas, the German sportswear company, is making Olympics uniforms for the UK team at sweatshops in Tangerang city, near the main international airport of Jakarta, Indonesia. Young female workers are paid 5,000 rupiah (54 cents) an hour for a 65 hour work week, according to revelations made in the Independent newspaper. Read More

Johnson & Johnson has been fined $1.2 billion in Arkansas over the sales of Risperdal, an antipsychotic drug. A circuit judge ruled that the company did not warn patients that the drug places elderly patients with dementia at an increased risk of major weight gain, possible diabetes and potential death. Read More

Chiquita, the global banana producer, was ordered to face a federal court over their role in paying off right wing death squads in Colombia that are alleged to have used "random and targeted violence" against villagers in exchange for financial assistance and access to Chiquita's private port. Read More

U.S. imports of sodium thiopental have been banned by a federal judge because of the poor quality of imports. The ruling has struck a serious blow against the death penalty because of the key role the drug plays in lethal injections. Not surprisingly, the state of Texas is furious. Read More

Big Brother is watching Iranians with a little help from Chinese and European companies. Reuters revealed that ZTE Corporation had sold Tehran surveillance technology. This comes in wake of revelations late last year by Bloomberg that Creativity Software in the UK had sold the Iranians "location tracking and text-message monitoring equipment." Read More

Emerald Energy, a UK company owned by Sinochem of China, is exploring for oil in the eastern Colombian Andes in the high altitude tropical mountain tundra ecosystem known as páramo. Local communities say that the company's underground explosions have caused landslides and ground collapses that have destroyed homes, crops and contaminated the local water supply. Read More

The decision by PH Kurian, the controller general of patents, designs and trademarks in India, to allow a local company to manufacture Sorafenib, a drug used to treat advanced kidney cancer and liver cancer, is a welcome move that supports the access of poor people to cheap life-saving drugs. Read More

Karuturi Global and Saudi Star have leased thousands of hectares of land from the Ethiopian government for agricultural development. Critics says these projects have displaced traditional farmers and subsistence crops. Read More

The world's nuclear weapons industry is being funded - and kept alive - by more than 300 banks, pension funds, insurance companies and asset managers in 30 countries, according to a new study by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). Read More

Land deals with foreign firms in Liberia 'could sow seeds of conflict'says a new report from the Centre for International Conflict Resolution (CICR) at Columbia University in New York. The report covers Golden Veroleum, Sime Darby, ArcelorMittal and Putu Iron Ore Mining Corporation. Read More