In 1978, the poor West African country of Liberia borrowed $6 million from a New York bank. The Liberian government promised to use the money to buy and develop an oil refinery, and to pay the money back in seven years.

Today it's not clear if either of those things ever happened.

Two years after the loan, the Liberian government was overthrown in a coup, which later led to a 14-year civil war. Meanwhile, the loan was bought and sold several times, according to allAfrica.com.

But now two investment funds say they hold the note and are entitled to $20 million from the current government of Liberia — a claim upheld by a London court. Today Liberia is led by a democratic government whose president is working with the IMF and World Bank to settle old debts. The Guardian says Liberia struck deals with most of its private-sector creditors, but these two funds are refusing to settle, demanding full payment through the courts.

A representative for the Jubilee Debt Campaign, a coalition fighting for debt relief for the world's poorest countries, accuses funds like these of "profiting from poverty."

As Al-Jazeera's Barbara Serra reports:

So-called vulture funds have been condemned by several governments for preying on the world's poorest states. They buy up the debt of near-bankrupt nations at a cheap price from financial institutions. They then sue those nations in international courts for the full value of the debt, plus steep levels of interest and penalty charges. Every year, developed countries spend billions of dollars to help pay off the debts of poorer nations, but vulture funds siphon off that money for themselves.

Even the lawyer for Liberia says this is a moral issue as well as a legal one. Get the full scoop from this Al-Jazeera video:

Transparency International's 2009 Corruption Perception Index is out. Where does your country rank?

Day laborers waiting for work in Northern Virginia. Photo: rev bri (flikr)

Working for less than the legal minimum wage. Pressured to not file workers' comp claims. Not receiving mandatory breaks.

These are just some of the egregious workplace violations that American workers put up with on a weekly basis, according to a new survey.

Researchers from the Center for Urban Economic Development, UCLA and the National Employment Law Project surveyed low-wage workers in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. As the New York Times details, the researchers found that more than two-thirds of respondents experienced at least one form of pay violation — such as illegal deductions or loss of overtime pay— in the previous week. And one in four workers was making less than the minimum wage required by their state.

One of the survey's most disturbing findings was that only 8 percent of those seriously injured on the job filed workers' compensation claims. Employer intimidation was largely to blame. Half of injured respondents said that upon reporting their injury, employers either threatened firing, or calling the INS, and/or instructed workers not to file for workers' compensation benefits — all moves that are prohibited by national labor laws.

The report included recommendations that fell into three areas: improving enforcement of existing labor laws, revamping OSHA and other labor standards, and making sure all workers — even "unauthorized" immigrants — are treated equally.

Not everyone will agree with these reforms. But the survey sheds light on a serious problem. And although these days we're more concerned about the benefits we give those who are not employed, we should care equally about the rights we grant to those who are.

Idle mining cars on a train track in La Oroya, Peru. Photo: Max Opp (exoppholdsvaer) (flickr)

La Oroya, Peru, is one of the ten most polluted places in the world, according to the Blacksmith Institute, a New York-based global health agency.

The pollution is caused by a smelter owned by Doe Run Peru, which melts and purifies metals from the mountains surrounding La Oroya. The process is highly toxic: It's estimated that the smelting process emits 890 tons of sulfur dioxide every day.

Today, the area is plagued by acid rain and pollution, among other health and environmental problems. A recent article by the New York Times cited a 2005 study by Saint Louis University that estimated that 97 percent of children under six in La Oroya have lead poisoning, which can cause seizures, anemia as well as problems with the brain and kidneys.

Financially, however, the community needs Doe Run Peru since the majority of residents rely in some way on the smelting plant to earn a living, says the New York Times. About 3,000 people work in the actual plant, and other thousands make a living from selling food to workers and cleaning uniforms.

Community members say they want environmental conditions to improve, but cannot afford to see the jobs go elsewhere. They share their opinions in this video from the U.S. environmental law firm Earthjustice.

"Peace from Rwanda." Photo: courtesy of Adam Bacher

Rwanda, 1994: Hundreds of thousands of people, mostly members of the Tutsi minority, are slaughtered by their ethnic Hutu neighbors in one of the worst genocides of the 20th century.

Today, the words "Hutu" and "Tutsi," once ripe with divisiveness and hatred, are no longer spoken on the streets of Rwanda. Reconciliation efforts have led perpetrators and survivors to work together to rebuild their common livelihoods.

Photographer Adam Bacher is documenting the efforts of this New Rwanda, giving readers of his blog a reason to be hopeful about the country's future. He provides a sweeping visual tour of reconciliation efforts, from a progressive rehabilitation center for former child soldiers, to a community-service program for former prisoners who rebuild the homes of survivors. He also documents programs meant to empower victims and rebuild the Rwandan economy. He visits a community-driven hospital construction project for infectious disease patients, and follows a non-profit that teaches vocational micro-business skills to children orphaned by the genocide.

The inspiration behind Bacher's work lies in the resilience of the Rwandan people:

Today Rwanda is an example of peace. The people have chosen not to allow themselves to become captive to decades of retributional killings. Distinctions between ethnic groups, political extremism, wide spread corruption, media manipulation, and other factors that led to the genocide have all but disappeared. Rwandans are working hard to reconcile their differences, and grow themselves out of poverty - toward peace and prosperity. They are an example to the world of what is possible.

What happens when tens of thousands of impoverished Africans sue one of Britain's biggest oil companies for sickening them with toxic waste?

In 2006, the British company Trafigura unloaded a ship full of untreated chemical slop at a household garbage dump in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire. Scores of people living nearby were diagnosed with poisoning, hundreds lost their livelihoods as trash-scavengers, and 17 died. Now, 30,000 residents are suing the oil trading company for exposing them to toxic sludge. The company paid for a clean-up and admitted to "neglecting its duty of care," but has denied responsibility for the poisonings. The trial starts this fall.

Al Jazeera chronicles this David-versus-Goliath tale of Britain's biggest-ever lawsuit in the first installment of Corporations on Trial, which covers five lawsuits that pit ordinary people against the world's most powerful and wealthy corporations.

The other shows are just as compelling: Yesterday, the program aired the story of why Native American villagers in Alaska are suing Exxon Mobil. Next week, learn why 40,000 Indonesians who fled their homes after a volcanic eruption blame a gas company for their troubles.

Pirates stock up on goats, cigarettes and other supplies when they return to shore. Photo: CharlesFred (flickr)

Piracy along Somalia's coastline represents a very lucrative business — as the pirates collectively earned an estimated $150 million in 2008 — but what is piracy's effect on Somalia's economy?

Somalia's economy is in a fairly grim state. An estimated 73.4 percent of the country's population lives in general or extreme poverty and the average Somali earns only $600 per year, making Somalia one of the poorest countries in the world.

Fishing used to be one of Somalia's most profitable industries. But as piracy has increased — there were roughly 100 attacks in 2008 — the New York Times reports that foreign ships have become reluctant to brave the waters surrounding Somalia's coastline to buy fish and other exports. The amount of goods coming into Somalia, including aid, has also declined.

Pirate money has also skewed prices. In the town of Garowe, near Somalia's central coast, resident Mohamed Hassan told the BBC that "piracy has a negative impact on several aspects of our life," including a financial one:

They have made life more expensive for ordinary people because they "pump huge amounts of U.S. dollars" into the local economy which results in fluctuations in the exchange rate.

On the other hand, pirates are putting wealth back into the Somali economy — an estimated $1 million to $2 million is made from each captured ship.

Whenever a ship is seized, pirates stock up on sheep, goats, water, fuel, rice, spaghetti, milk, and cigarettes in towns up and down Somalia’s coast. Sugule Dahir, a local shop owner in Eyl, a town just off the coast in central eastern Somalia, feels the incoming money has had a positive impact. He tells ABC News that, because of the pirates, more businesses are beginning to emerge and the general public seems better off. "There are more shops and business is booming because of the piracy. Internet cafes and telephone shops have opened, and people are just happier than before."

Government officials are getting a fair sum of pirate money as well. By allowing the pirates to work in controlled areas, the regional Puntland Government is given shares of the pirate's earnings. About 30 percent of the collected ransom goes directly to government officials, Farah Ismael Eid, a captured pirate, tells Time.

Some Somalis are worse off because of piracy. But it's clear that the pirates do spread the wealth.

Photo: Dan Patterson (flickr)

Tiny European country Moldova grabbed headlines this week as post-election dissent went viral on Twitter and Facebook, prompting a crowd of 15,000 to take to the streets in the capital city of Chisinau.

After news emerged that the country’s Communist party captured a majority vote in national elections, a small group of demonstrators gathered outside the parliament and government buildings to show their outrage at what they claim was a rigged election. But as the BBC reported, when the Moldovan government shut down mobile phone and cable news networks, broadcasting a soap opera and dance program instead of political coverage, local activists turned to the Web to spread the word.

Users flooded Twitter with tweets tagged "#pman," referencing the protest site Piata Marii Adunari Nationale, the biggest square in Chisinau. Youth NGOs Hyde Park and ThinkMoldova led the online charge for a peaceful demonstration.

At the time of this post, the dialogue on #pman was still on Twitter's short list of Trending Topics.

Most Twitter updates were in Romanian, alerting local readers with a play-by-play of the protests as they unfolded, rallying people to join efforts that turned violent as activists clashed with police. "I am terrified," wrote a Moldovan woman, "but i hope that the revolution will happen and that our country will be free at last... after years and years."

A few English posts helped journalists and supporters outside the country track the protests. A post from Romania read "Is Moldova closed? Borders, Internet, phones? Is it legal? Isn't it against human rights?"

While the protests were politically motivated, Moldova’s dire economic situation helped spur activists, according to the BBC. Moldovans earn an average of $250 per month, the lowest wage among Europeans. The country's floundering economy is dependent almost solely on agriculture and remittances. The New York Times says a quarter of Moldova's young workers send money from abroad, but as their jobs are eliminated in the wake of the global financial crisis, many young Moldovans are returning home, anxious to see their country move away from Communist rule.

Natalia Morar, a ThinkMoldova activist, posted regular updates on her "Blog for Democracy". As the protests unfolded, she reiterated the firm demands of her group, called "I am not a Communist":

We demand the formation of a civil coalition made up not just of politicians, but members of civil society. If the parties insist on playing their political games, we call on our young people not to let themselves be manipulated by them.

Wired reported that Morar has been charged with "calls for organizing and staging mass disturbances." But efforts like hers show a clever mass appeal using networking tools to dodge government blockades, especially in a country like Moldova where freedom of speech hasn't always prevailed.

Moldova gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, and has since been divided between Communist loyalists and those seeking closer ties to Europe's economic benefits. Moldova's economic isolation has been magnified since next-door neighbor Romania — a nation closely linked with Moldova in language and history — joined the EU in 2007.

How will the so-called "Twitter Revolution" will play out in Moldova? Writing for Foreign Policy's tech blog net.effect, Evgeny Morozov says it may not have the impact as the 2004-2005 Orange Revolution in Ukraine, which was largely aided by mobile and text messaging technology. Yet in a place where media is state-controlled and censorship is commonplace, online social networks, he says, provide a space where people can feel relatively free.

Hostage takings, vandalism and attempted assault sound like charges on a rap sheet for a hardened criminal. But they're the collective crimes of people who've been laid off recently.

Workers in the French factories for 3M and Sony — enraged about the size of severance packages for laid-off workers — held their bosses captive last month. The captured CEOs actually ended up bargaining with the kidnappers, while the police — not wanting to incense the workers even more — promptly responded by doing ...nothing.

Just last week, workers at a Caterpillar plant in France held their bosses captive as well. They, too, were looking for better treatment for laid-off coworkers. In another incident, workers at the French luxury retail company PPR surrounded their CEO's car and blocked roads so he couldn't escape. This time police did intervene and escorted François-Henri Pinault to safety.

Across the Channel in the United Kingdom, people are outraged with the multimillion dollar pension package given to former Royal Bank of Scotland CEO Fred Goodwin. One group was so upset that it vandalized Sir Goodwin's house and car.

An ominous e-mail from the vandals threatened more attacks:

We are angry that rich people, like him, are paying themselves a huge amount of money, and living in luxury, while ordinary people are made unemployed, destitute and homeless. This is a crime. Bank bosses should be jailed. This is just the beginning.

Joining in the spirit of protest, as many as 5,000 protesters gathering in London's financial district on the first day of the G-20 summit, expressing discontent over the financial crisis, climate change and war. Several demonstrators threw projectiles and forced their way into an RBS branch through broken windows.

Bert Klandermans, a professor of applied social psychology at Amsterdam's Free University, offers a psychological explanation for why some people are expressing their frustration in this way.

Anger is an emotion that spurs collective action ... [It's] an emotion that results from feeling that somebody is responsible for something, and could have acted differently ... [For many] the bankers did it wrong, and they did it wrong because they were greedy. That's what makes people angry.

Frustrated by executive compensation and the economy, protesters broke windows of an RBS branch in London. Photo: Camus Live Art (flickr)

Istanbul, Turkey. Photo: shioshvilli

Officials attending the World Water Forum in Turkey this week issued a statement that essentially said there's not enough water to waste.

That much was clear to one Canadian reporter attending the conference, who found that her press pass wasn’t enough to get her access to bathrooms with running water — reserved only for VIPs.

But it was less clear to two protesters from a California group, who were hosed by local police with water cannons — presumably the most “cost effective” way to respond.

But the water in those cannons is especially precious to Turkish residents, who are running out of water, according to Al Jazeera.

Turkey has experienced periods of extreme drought in recent years, and multinational companies have a stronghold on increasingly scarce water resources. Most locals drink bottled water, but that’s not a luxury everyone in Turkey can afford.

During the conference, Turkish engineers demonstrated against large firms that they say benefit cities by exploiting rural resources. Their view is that water talks need to focus on conservation, not privatization.

"We believe our drinking water should be managed so we don't need to buy it in bottles and it's freely available," lawmaker Ufuk Aras told Al Jazeera. "We were not born on this earth to help companies add to their profits."

Police in Reykjavik, Iceland after a violent protest turned into a riot on January 20. Photo: finnur.malmquist (flickr)

It’s a lot worse than just about everyone thought. By some estimates, the economic crisis could cost 50 million jobs worldwide. That's a catastrophic number, and even their potential loss is already fueling some discontent and sounding alarms.

Worried about the ripple effects of widespread unemployment, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency recently added the state of the economy to the agency's list of top security threats. Retired Admiral Dennis Blair, the U.S. Director of National Intelligence, warned that "economic crises increase the risk of regime-threatening instability if they persist over a one-to-two-year period."

On the international stage, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon voiced his concern: "If not handled, today’s financial crisis will become tomorrow’s human crisis. Social unrest and political instability will grow, exacerbating all other problems."

Violent flare-ups over the economic recession and resulting unemployment are already occurring all over the globe.

In Pakistan, chronic power outages have forced many textile factories to close down for hours at a time, triggering thousands of angry protesters to set fire to the state-owned power company's office. Government cuts in Lithuania’s social programs prompted protesters to pelt the parliament building with eggs and rocks ; at least 14 people were injured and 84 detained. Chinese police officers are now undergoing special training to deal with expected social unrest over factory closings that have left millions of migrant workers out of a job.

Iceland and Latvia serve as extreme examples of the devastating consequences from the declining state of the worldwide economy: both countries’ respective governments collapsed under the pressure of the economic crisis.

However, security experts are concerned about other forms of collateral damage that extend beyond protests. Bruno Tertrais, a strategic and security expert at the Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris tells Time Magazine that he believes the biggest threat to international security is "the collapse of regimes vital to maintaining international order." Tertrais cites Somalia as an example — a place where, after the collapse of its government, piracy has gained a foothold and severely disrupted shipping routes along the horn of Africa.

Extreme poverty has always posed a threat, especially in the world’s emerging economies. However, the breadth and force of the current global economic crisis poses a threat to all nations, whether rich or poor.

Of the 3.6 million lost jobs since the recession started in December 2007, 82 percent were held by men leaving many women to step in to financially support their families. Photo: jemsweb (flickr)

Industries typically dominated by men — construction, manufacturing and finance — are shedding jobs faster than ones favored by women, such as education and health care.

Eighty-two percent of jobs lost since the recession began have been held by men, according to the New York Times.

If the trend continues, women are soon projected to comprise the majority of America's workforce for the first time in history.

Families that have seen their primary source of support, or "breadwinner," shift from the father to the mother may experience some financial difficulty. Women are far more likely to hold part-time positions that don't include health insurance and unemployment benefits, and women on average still earn 77 cents to every dollar earned by men.

On the other hand, more working women may mean a better opportunity to fully confront the issues of equal pay that have lingered far too long.

Paying people a decent wage may not be just a humane thing to do; it may be the key to jump-starting our ailing international economy.

The logic goes like this. The economic slowdown hit the U.S. hard, which is causing the demand for goods to drop. Countries like China and India are struggling to fill the gap by trying to increase domestic demand for the goods manufactured in their respective countries. By establishing a healthy minimum wage in these countries, people will be able to buy more and, thus, keep the engines of industry moving smoothly, despite the lull in demand from the West.

Global asset manager and author Richard Duncan is a key proponent of this "trickle-up" theory. As Newsweek reports:

Duncan, now a partner at Blackhorse Asset Management in Singapore, believes that kind of government intervention — undertaken within Asia or imposed by the U.S. via import tariffs for any nation not following set minimums — is more important today than ever, as the region's deep pools of labor effectively thwart the market from pushing up wages fast or far enough on it own.

Convincing Asian governments to dampen what they believe to be their biggest business advantage — low wages — won’t be an easy task. Instead, movement towards this goal may come externally, with the new Obama administration keen to negotiate trade agreements with higher labor standards.

It’s still not clear if this theory will actually work. A Global Envision post from earlier this month discussed a New York Times editorial that argued that trade agreements that push for higher wages will force factories out of business, causing their employees to take even less palatable jobs.

So who’s right? Will raising wages help or harm the millions of factory workers across the world?

Given the frequently gloomy headlines regarding the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, many may not be surprised to hear of the latest violence in the region. But NPR reports the current conflict is the heaviest fighting the Gaza Strip has seen since the 1967 Six Day War — and some of the hardest hit seem to be Palestinian civilians.

Following the start of an Israeli ground invasion, the latest reports from the Washington Post indicate that 550 Palestinians have been killed and 2,500 injured — and according to Palestinian health officials, between 24 and 30 percent of those are women and children. Currently the Israeli government has closed Gaza's borders to everything except a small trickle of humanitarian aid, insufficient to meet the needs on the ground.

Mercy Corps is calling for immediate humanitarian access to Gaza to deliver food and other essential supplies. You can sign the petition by clicking here. This petition urges the U.S. government to push for aid to be allowed in now.

You can also help get critical humanitarian items needed once the border is open by donating to Mercy Corps' Gaza Crisis Fund. Mercy Corps has a four-ton shipment of food that's scheduled to enter Gaza tomorrow, and they're deploying additional aid workers to Jerusalem and Egypt to prepare to do more. Check out how Gazan youth involved with Mercy Corps are handling the crisis and keep up-to-date on Mercy Corps' response to the crisis.

The Saudi-owned oil tanker MV Sirius Star is shown at anchor on November 19, 2008, off the coast of Somalia. Photo: William S. Stevens/Reuters, courtesy of Alertnet.org

Ahoy, consumers. Beware of yer pocketbooks. Pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia are up 75 percent this year, threatening price hikes for everything from the gas in your car to the shoes on your feet.

The price of oil increased this week after Somali pirates hijacked a Saudi oil tanker in the Gulf of Aden. British researcher and author Roger Middleton says Asian exporters may be forced to ship their goods the longer route around the Cape of Good Hope to reach European and American shores.

The longer route would add up to three weeks to the delivery of goods from Asia and of oil and gas from the Middle East to European markets. Someone will have to pay for that extra time – very probably the consumer. For Europe and the eastern seaboard of America, this inflation is a real possibility.

The brashness of these modern-day pirates has also forced people to rethink their romantic, Disneyesque notions about pirates — and how desperate the Somali people truly are.