Internet freedom of expression - report

From Amnesty International UK , this 32-page July, 2006 report: Undermining Freedom of Expression in China: the role of Yahoo!, Microsoft, and Google .

According to the report, although all three companies are "complicit in the Chinese government's denial of freedom of information. . . Google has come closest to acknowledging publicly that its practices are at odds with its principles" - Google's 'first principle' being identifed in the report as 'Do no evil'.

Even when applied, Google's aspirational principle appears to be applied inconsistently: complaints have arisen about domestic news sources eliminated from Google News for hate speech ; yet until Hezbollah television, Al Manar, was taken out of service recently , Google maintained it as a news source on Google News despite, as NESL blogged on April 6, 2006 , Al Manar's having been listed as a terrorist entity by both the U.S. Treasury and State Departments.

International Corruption: Tongsun Park

Tongsun Park has been convicted of conspiracy in his capacity as an unregistered agent of Saddam Hussein.

Claudia Rosett has written extensively on the oil-for-food scandal generally, and kept a blog specifically on this Tongsun Park trial.

A good background article on the nexus between Park and the Oil-for-Food program, as the trial began, is: The U.N.'s Day in Court: Oil-for-Food Hits a New York Courtroom" , June 28, 2006.

And the first entry of Ms. Rosett's trial blog , dated June 30, 2006 began:

"Welcome to the World of Oil-for-Food. The biggest scandal ever to hit the U.N. Arguably the biggest scam in history, in which a U.N. program became a vehicle for a murderous tyrant to scam, skim, and steal billions meant for relief.

And so we come to the trial of Tongsun Park, accused by federal prosecutors of acting as an unregistered agent of Saddam Hussein, accused of playing a vital role in a secret “back-channel” network carrying messages and money between Baghdad and the U.N. executive suite."

Daubert

Professor David Bernstein, bloogging at The The Volokh Conspiracy references a law review article by NESL Professor Joelle Moreno .

Doing Business...report

Doing Business in 2006: Creating Jobs . 196 pages. A copublication of the World Bank and the International Financial Corporation. From the website Doing Business , the report "investigates the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it." Topics include: starting a business, hiring and firing workers, enforcing contracts, getting credit, closing a business, registering property and protective investors, dealing with licences, paying taxes, and trading across borders.

Doing Business is an information-rich website with a global search of the site available, and the ability to generate an "instant report" on over 150 countries.