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A Texas based oil conglomerate and four of its employees were indicted last week on 97 counts of violating federal clean air and hazardous waste laws. The charges come less than one year after the company was slapped with the largest civil penalty ever levied under federal environmental statutes.

Lawyers for Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader sought on Thursday to toss out corporate financing of the presidential debates, arguing before a federal appeals panel that such funding was illegal.

If the race for the White House was won by whoever drew the biggest crowd there would be no contest. The next president would be a gaunt man in a crumpled suit who travels on discounted senior citizen's tickets and delivers long, rambling speeches. He is Ralph Nader, the consumer advocate turned Green Party presidential candidate.

While the comment came in a light-hearted exchange with his Democratic opponent Joe Lieberman, Cheney's reply left out how closely Dallas-based Halliburton's fortunes are linked to the U.S. government. The world's largest oil services firm is a leading U.S. defense contractor and has benefited from financial guarantees granted by U.S. agencies that promote exports.

Expected price tag for Bush-Cheney inauguration: $30 million Portion coming from private contributions: 100%. Cost of a table at any of three candlelight dinners on January 18 that President-elect George W. Bush and Vice President-elect Dick Cheney are expected to visit: $25,000.

More than 20 non-governmental organizations -- environmental, civil rights, labor, conservative and liberal -- announced their campaign to defeat Gale Norton's nomination as Secretary of Interior at a news conference this morning.

In retaliation for the investigative story about the finances of the George W. Bush campaign, Barrick Gold Mining of Canada has sued my paper, the Observer of London, for libel. The company, which hired the elder Bush after his leaving the White House, is charging the newspaper with libel for quoting an Amnesty International report.

Weapons manufacturer Heckler & Koch said it would end its relationship with Blackwater after German media reported that the controversial US-run military firm was using its guns in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Out of the dozens upon dozens of reports of abuses by private contractors as part of the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, only one prosecution of a contractor has taken place.

In May 2005, a Blackwater helicopter dropped CS gas onto a crowded area near the Green Zone in Baghdad. The previously undisclosed incident has raised significant new questions about the role of private security contractors in Iraq.

Two women killed Tuesday by a barrage of gunfire from private security guards in central Baghdad are buried there.

Escalating a campaign questioning Vice President Al Gore's environmental commitment, environmental organizations today placed a full-page ad in the west coast edition of the New York Times. The ad, whose headline reads ''Who is Al Gore?Environmental Champion or Petroleum Politician? The U'wa people need to know'' substantiates Gore's connections to Occidental Petroleum and argues that the Vice President has a specific responsibility to act on behalf of the U'wa people.

Sherpa, a French NGO, has asked courts to investigate Vinci, a French construction company, for violation of migrant workers rights in Qatar. QDVC, a Vinci subsidiary, has €2.2 billion ($2.3 billion) in infrastructure contracts for the 2022 World Cup soccer tournament including a new subway and an orbital highway.

Plans for the Don Sahong dam in southern Laos have come under renewed fire from environmental activists. This week activists boycotted a regional consultation on the dam, just eight weeks after filing a formal request for an investigation of Mega First Corporation, the company that has the construction contract.

A $3.7 billion contract to build a high-speed rail link between Mexico city and the city of Queretaro has been canceled after Enrique Peña Nieto, the Mexican president, was alleged to have accepted favors from Grupo Higa, a Mexican construction company that was a member of the winning consortium.