Investigation concludes that Europe's largest bank ignored warning signs about money-launderers and potential terrorists.

A hard-hitting US Senate investigation has concluded that HSBC, Europe's largest bank, ignored warning signs that its global operations were being used by money launderers and potential terrorists.

PARIS | Tue Nov 22, 2011 4:57am EST

Nov 22 (Reuters) - Swiss authorities fined Alstom for corporate negligence but the corruption probe confirmed the absence of any bribery system at the French power and engineering group, Alstom said on Tuesday.

Tuesday April 12, 2011
Commodities Talk- by Hanim Adnan

WHILE IOI Corp is busy clearing its name following a sanction by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) on allegations of land disputes and deforestation charges in Sarawak, environmental NGOs are equally hard at work to gain the support from major palm oil buyers to suspend their purchases from the plantation giant.

The world's urban population now exceeds the world's rural population. What does this mean for the state of our cities, given the strain this global demographic shift is placing upon current urban infrastructure? Some policy points:

• inclusive policies for cities should acknowledge the dynamics of the urban divide and support informal business institutional arrangements
• Freedom of expression, equal opportunities for business development, recognition of cultural rights and adequate housing are all equally important.
• Strategies for inclusiveness must be based on a clear and cogent representation of the way the four dimensions of equality – economic, social, political and cultural – can be integrated concurrently into the day-to-day lives of the population.
• The “right to the city” encapsulates the four dimensions of equality, which, combined, will
  guarantee inclusiveness.

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The International Air Travel Association reported that airlines lost $1.7 billion due to the shutdowns in Europe. But disrupted business travel and tourism (this writer's family vacation to Paris was buried in volcanic ash) are only the tip of the iceberg. Please click here.

Newsweek: OUR ENDANGERED PLANET by Fareed Zakaria

What follows is a list - arbitrary to be sure, and far from all-inclusive - of some of the places that could disappear, or be radically changed, if climatologists are right in their predictions of global warming. To read more please click here.

from Ethical Corp - Paul Hohnen says that a clear passage for the long awaited ISO 26000 guidance standard is far from certain.

Crunch time is coming for the draft ISO 26000 guidance standard on social responsibility. Five years in the making, in a process involving hundreds of experts from government, business, employee, consumer and other organisations from around the world, the draft standard has reached the final phase in ISO’s standards development process. To read more click here.

A majority of the country's top 100 companies by revenue fall short of being equipped with measures needed to meet international standards of corporate social responsibility, an industry report showed yesterday.