Mexico seeks to fill drug war gap with focus on dirty money
The evolving anti-laundering campaign could change the tone of the Mexican government’s battle by striking at the heart of the cartels’ financial empire, analysts say.
By Ken Ellingwood and Tracy Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times
November 27, 2011Reporting from Mexico City– Tainted drug money runs like whispered rumors all over Mexico’s economy – in gleaming high-rises in beach resorts such as Cancun, in bustling casinos in Monterrey, in skyscrapers and restaurants in Mexico City that sit empty for months. It seeps into the construction sector, the night-life industry, even political campaigns.
Piles of greenbacks, enough to fill dump trucks, are transformed into gold watches, showrooms full of Hummers, aviation schools, yachts, thoroughbred horses and warehouses full of imported fabric.
Looming Congo election sparks deadly violence
Rallies are cancelled in Kinshasa and opposition frontrunner is blocked from meeting supporters, with at least two dead
Reuters
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 27 November 2011Police in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have blocked President Joseph Kabila’s main rival at an airport in Kinshasa to stop him staging an election rally after at least two died in violence across the capital city.
Ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections on Monday, rival factions hurled rocks at each other and gunfire was heard across the town.
A Reuters reporter saw one dead body on the road to the airport while a UN source reported another death elsewhere in town.
Rich nations accused of climate-change ‘bullying’
JONATHAN OWEN SUNDAY 27 NOVEMBER 2011
Britain and other rich countries are using aid money as a lever to bully developing countries over climate change, according to a new report by an anti-poverty pressure group.
With international climate change negotiations beginning in South Africa tomorrow, a report by the World Development Movement reveals that threats and bribery are often attached to aid packages
News that’s fit to spin: meet the Fox of China
The state-owned Global Times is a provocative instrument that seems the embodiment of its unusual editor, writes Christina Larson.
November 27, 2011
Most mornings, the senior editorial staffers at China’s hyper-nationalistic Global Times newspaper roll in to the office between 9am and 10am. They leave about midnight.
In the hectic intervening 14 hours, they commission and edit articles and editorials on topics ranging from asserting China’s claims on the South China Sea to the US’s nefarious role in the global financial crisis in a slim, 16-page tabloid with eye-popping headlines. In the late afternoon, staffers propose topics for the all-important lead editorial to editor-in-chief Hu Xijin, who makes all final decisions and has an instinct for the jugular.
Govt launches campaign to sell FDI in multi-brand retail
PTI | Nov 27, 2011,
NEW DELHI: Under attack from the Opposition and UPA ally Trinamool Congress on allowing global retail chains in the Indian market, the government on Sunday launched a campaign to sell advantages of FDI in multi-brand retail.
In a full page advertisement in newspapers, the commerce and industry ministry said foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail will help farmers, create more jobs and benefit consumers.
Conservatives mount expensive air assault on Obama
Attack ads are coming early and often – and look for more of the same
By JEREMY W. PETERS
Inside the debate halls, the clash may be Republican versus Republican. But offstage, conservatives are mounting a unified and expensive air assault on the candidates’ common opponent: President Obama.
Nearly a year before Election Day, Republican presidential candidates and conservative action groups are already spending heavily on television advertising aimed at casting Mr. Obama as a failure.
Their tactics, the aggressive and sometimes misleading kind not typically used until much further along in a campaign season, have led to a spat with Democrats in what is shaping up to be the most costly election advertising war yet.