Homeless Again

A police cordon kept everyone out of the Buenaventura “corrala” on Thursday after the police evicted 13 families living in the occupied building in the centre of this southern Spanish city early in the morning.

FAO: Modernisation or Irrelevance

The current international situation is characterised by financial and economic challenges that in one way or another affect most countries around the world. In this context there is an increasing call to modernise state institutions, private sector companies, and civil organizations, whatever their remit may be.

Egypt Paying a Price for ‘Cheap’ Labour

Egyptian workers who mobilised during the 2011 uprising that toppled the regime of Hosni Mubarak have used the past two and a half years to organise into unions, press for labour reforms, and strike for better wages and working conditions.

Bloody Days in Sudan

Activists claim that more than one hundred people have been killed and thousands injured during demonstrations in Sudan following the removal of fuel subsidies.

Poverty Declines as Inequality Deepens

As world leaders from 193 countries evaluate the successes and failures of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) during high-level meetings and special events here, the United Nations claims that extreme poverty worldwide has been cut in half.

Sponsor a University Student in Spain

Adopt a tree. Adopt a polar bear. Sponsor a child in a poor country. The concept has caught on in Spain’s troubled academic system and now people and companies can sponsor a university student.

Robin Hood Activists Take Aim at Wall Street

Five years after the 2008 world financial crisis and two years after the Occupy movement it triggered, U.S. critics of the financial sector are coalescing around the idea of a Robin Hood Tax on financial transactions.

Greek State Workers Rally Against Job Cuts

Thousands of civil servants have marched through the Greek capital, Athens, and the second largest city, Thessaloniki, amid a two-day nationwide strike against planned job cuts.

Credit Rating Reform Overlooks Developing World

The concerns of developing countries about credit rating agencies (CRAs) risk going unheard as regulatory bodies around the world tackle questions raised after the 2008 financial crisis.

Sliding Back to the Victorian Age

A recent report by the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion at the London School of Economics called attention to the fact that, at the present rate of inequality, by the year 2025, the United Kingdom will have returned to the unequal society of the end of the 19th century. In other words, we are going back to the times of Queen Victoria!

Downsizing Finance: The Mother of All Bubbles

As our climate destabilises, floods inundate cities, wildfires burn forests, droughts kill our crops and manmade radioactive isotopes leach into our soil and water, many accountants and policy analysts are waking up. They are joined by NGOs, civic leaders, whistle-blowers and a few public-minded politicians.

Nationwide Protests Rage against Colombia’s Economic Policies

A strike declared nearly two weeks ago in Colombia by farmers and joined later by truck drivers, health workers, miners and students spread to include protests in the cities before mushrooming into a general strike Thursday, demanding changes in the government’s economic policies.

Argentina Seeks to Restructure Debt Held by Vulture Funds

As a sign of Argentina’s willingness to repay its bondholders, President Cristina Fernández introduced a bill for a new swap of the foreign debt held by “holdout” creditors who refused earlier restructurings after the country’s late 2001 default.

U.S. Executives’ Pay on “Inexorable Upward Climb”

Three years after the passage of landmark legislation aimed at strengthening regulation of major U.S. companies, one of the most criticised disparities characterising today's corporate culture – the outsized compensation offered to top executives – continues to grow.

Israeli Lobby Looks to 2008 Law to Justify Request for More U.S. Aid

Israel and its domestic U.S. lobby are already in the early stages of the next 10-year aid package, which would not go into effect until 2017 and will be the first since Congress passed the Naval Vessel Transfer Act of 2008, which requires in part that U.S. military aid to Israel ensure that Israel maintains its "Qualitative Military Edge" (QME) over any combination of states and non-state actors.

U.S. Court Ruling Boosts Vulture Funds at Developing World’s Expense

A recent U.S. court ruling over a fight between Argentina and its creditors on Wall Street will increase global poverty by making it easier for "vulture funds" to seize the assets of indebted nations, according to anti-debt campaigners who are urging the U.S. government to overturn the decision.

Hard to Stay, Harder to Return

After working in Thailand legally for four years, many Myanmar migrant workers are facing an uncertain future in the coming weeks as their visas expire. Tired of the lack of security, they want the Myanmar government to improve the current labour agreement with Thailand.

The Role of the State in Developing Countries under Attack from New FTAs

Two new trade agreements involving the two economic giants, the United States and the European Union, are leading a charge against the role of the state in the economy of developing countries.

Protests in Portugal Going Grey

The elderly have taken to the streets in Portugal to protest drastic public sector pension cuts announced this week by the government of conservative Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho.

Spanish Workers Hit Hard by Madrid-Gibraltar Row

"The situation is messed up. Spain is on the verge of a civil uprising and the government is trying to divert attention" by tightening border controls to Gibraltar and provoking tension, complained Manuel Márquez, a delegate for the Socio-cultural Association of Spanish Workers in Gibraltar (ASTECG).

Corruption Scandal Fuels Calls for Strict Party Funding Rules

The corruption scandal enveloping the governing conservative People's Party in Spain and its leader, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, calls into question the funding model for political parties and points towards the need for strict controls, experts say.