International
Asian slave labor producing prawns for supermarkets in US, UK
Slaves forced to work for no pay for years at a time under threat of extreme violence are being used in Asia in the production of seafood sold by major US, British and other European retailers, the Guardian can reveal. A six-month investigation has established that large numbers of men bought and sold like animals and held…
Read MoreBillions unaccounted for in Venezuela’s communal giveaway program
The unsupervised spending in El Chaparral is symptomatic of a vast community aid effort with lax financial controls. A network of more than 70,000 community groups has received the equivalent of at least $7.9 billion since 2006 from the federal agency that provides much of the financing for the program, Reuters calculates, based on official…
Read MoreUS secretly built ‘Cuban Twitter’ to stir unrest
The Associated Press reports that the U.S. Agency for International Development was behind the creation of a “Cuban Twitter,” a social network designed to undermine the communist government and push Cubans toward dissent. The project – called ZunZuneo – drew tens of thousands of subscribers in the more than two years in operated. American contractors…
Read MoreExtra Extra Monday: Secret settlements, data breaches and university lobbyists
Mizzou did not pursue alleged assault | ESPNThe University of Missouri did not investigate or tell law enforcement officials about an alleged rape, possibly by one or more members of its football team, despite administrators finding out about the alleged 2010 incident more than a year ago, an “Outside the Lines” investigation has found. The…
Read MoreInvestigation reveals role of amateurs in China’s military buildup
The latest entry in Reuters’ “Breakout” series focused on China’s military buildup reveals that the US government has more than 350 active military-technology smuggling cases linked to China, up by more than 50 percent since 2010. The report details how China is recruiting amateurs to buy weapons and significantly complicates U.S. efforts to stop the…
Read MoreTo expand Khamenei’s grip on the economy, Iran stretched its laws
A Reuters investigation into the Iranian supreme leader’s $95 billion economic empire—which was partly built on confiscating family property from ordinary citizens: Several other Iranians whose family properties were taken over by Setad described in interviews how men showed up and threatened to use violence if the owners didn’t leave the premises at once. One…
Read MoreA Yellow Card, Then Unfathomable Violence, in Brazil
Two killings in the Brazilian neighborhood of Centro de Meio over a soccer match gone wrong left the country spinning, the New York Times reports. The killings were widely reported as an extreme example of soccer violence in Brazil, a grisly contradiction to joga bonito, to play beautifully, as the country prepared to host the…
Read MoreSecret memos reveal explicit nature of U.S., Pakistan agreement on drones
“Despite repeatedly denouncing the CIA’s drone campaign, top officials in Pakistan’s government have for years secretly endorsed the program and routinely received classified briefings on strikes and casualty counts, according to top-secret CIA documents and Pakistani diplomatic memos obtained by The Washington Post.”
Read MoreMan Making Ireland Tax Avoidance Hub Proves Local Hero
“Google Inc., Facebook Inc. and LinkedIn Corp. wound up in Ireland because they could reduce their tax bills. Their success is leading European and U.S. politicians to label the country a tax haven that must change its ways. The grand architect of much of that success: Feargal O’Rourke, the scion of a political dynasty who…
Read More‘They Ordered Us To Kill All The People’
The trial of commanding officer Lt. Jorge Vinicio Sosa Orantes began last week, ProPublic reports. It is the first trial in the United States involving an atrocity from Guatemala’s 30-year civil war. It is also the first full airing of the Dos Erres case in a U.S. court. Sosa played a lead role in one of the…
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