Dust-choked mine shafts, crowded working conditions and stifling hostels where up to 16 miners share a room — all conspire to make mining a more important contributor to tuberculosis in Africa than had been realized, a new study finds. Rates of the illness have doubled in Africa over the past two decades, [...]

Independent Ranking Shows More Transparency, More Programs for Low-income Countries. European pharmaceutical companies outcompete their U.S. counterparts in making medicines available to people in developing countries, but their lead is shrinking, according to the second Access to Medicine Index, released today.Compared to 2008, when the first Index was published, pharma companies have given more insight [...]

It is rare for two global crises to occur in such quick succession.  The banking and financial services industry, once heralded for its social responsibility and support of community issues, is under fire for seriously mishandling their financial responsibilities of late.  On the oil industry front, BP, once the darling of progressives for their “Beyond [...]

At the center of Gucci’s new eco program is the company’s ‘green’ packaging initiative that aims to reduce materials consumption, exclusively use paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and be 100 percent recyclable. The initiative will be launched at all of Gucci’s 284 directly operated global stores starting in June 2010. Through Gucci’s [...]

The chief executives of the world’s biggest international oil companies will testify on Tuesday that the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico “was preventable’’, publicly distancing themselves for the first time from the UK company, the Financial Times has learnt. Executives from ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron and ConocoPhillips will say that by following current [...]

Money from any oil collected and sold from BP’s leaking oil well will go toward a fund that helps restore and improve wildlife habitat in the four states most damaged by the nation’s largest oil spill. Although thousands of barrels of oil continue to spew into the Gulf of Mexico each [...]

In the lead up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup’, Official FIFA Partner, Sony Corporation, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have launched a campaign to bolster efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) a set of eight internationally-agreed goals designed to reduce poverty, hunger, disease, and maternal and [...]

Less than a week after announcing a 30 percent pay raise for its workers, electronics giant Foxconn said it will hike wages by another 66 percent beginning in October. The company said it hoped the pay raise would help increase the incomes of its employees and enable them to reduce overtime work and have enough [...]

Stung by labor shortages and a rash of suicides this year at its massive factories in southern China, Foxconn Technology said Wednesday that it would immediately raise the salaries of many of its Chinese workers by 33 percent. The pay increase is the latest indication that labor costs are rising in [...]