Editor’s Comments: Yesterday we posted an article published yesterday, 25 June 2011, regarding corruption by a very rich business man. Today’s article is another 25 June 2011 article about corruption by a wealthy corporation. In one day, a rich company and a rich business man made the front page. How can people say that they can trust big corporations and rich business men, just because there are laws? As written in this article, the big corporation did not go to jail for brigery, IT simply paid a small fine of 9.5M; this is small because this fine is a fraction of the worth of the company. This is just one day of hundreds of days in a year where this happens.

Niko Resources Ltd. has agreed to pay a $9.5-million penalty after admitting it bribed a Bangladeshi minister with the use of a vehicle and a trip to Calgary and New York in 2005.

The Calgary-based company pleaded guilty Friday to one charge laid after a six-year RCMP probe into allegations that a government official was offered goods and services by the company in an attempt to “induce that official to influence the acts or decisions” of the state.

In Court of Queen’s Bench, an agreement was read between Niko and the crown prosecutor, which suggests an $8.26-million fine plus a 15-per-cent victim surcharge.

According to a news release issued by the company on Thursday, Niko was indicted for offering the official the use of a car and a paid trip to Canada and the U.S., in contravention of Canada’s Corruption and Foreign Public Officials Act. Read more

Source: The Gazette

A Rochester, NY woman is facing misdemeanor charges after police arrested her for filming a routine traffic stop from her front lawn.

Emily Good began recording officers on her iPhone outside her home after they pulled a man over shortly before 10 p.m. on May 12. Ryan Acuff, a friend of Good, writes that cops stopped a young black male, handcuffed him and detained him in their cruiser while they searched his car for drugs. While the suspect was released, Good wasn’t quite as fortunate.

A police report says Officer Mario Masic of the Rochester Police Department is the individual that told Good she had to retreat into her house after he noticed her filming.

Masic asks, “You guys need something?” to which Good responds, “I’m just — this is my front yard — I’m just recording what you’re doing. It’s my right.”

“Actually, not from the sidewalk,” replies Masic. Read More

Source: RT

An early Tuesday morning raid by the FBI at a data center outside of Washington DC brought multiple websites offline as officials confiscated computer servers from a Reston, VA hosting facility.

The 1 a.m. raid came hours after an official speaking anonymously told The New York Times that the FBI was actively investigating the LulzSec hacker group.

Switzerland-based DigitalOne operates its web services from the Reston branch and says no employees were present when the FBI stormed their offices. At first they assumed the outage their clients suffered was due to a technical glitch, but later learned that three enclosures and equipment were apprehended, causing websites to go offline for “tens” of clients, including a network of popular blogs.

DigitalOne’s CEO Sergej Ostroumow told The Times that the FBI was interested in one of the company’s clients, but declined to name them. He also said he did not know why the FBI had to take more servers than they sought, leaving many clients in the dark.

Read More

Source: RT

Higher jobless claims indicate weak labor market

New claims for unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week, a government report showed on Thursday, suggesting little improvement in the labor market this month after employment stumbled in May.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits climbed 9,000 to a seasonally adjusted 429,000, the Labor Department said. The prior week’s figure was revised up to 420,000.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims to edge up to 415,000 from a previously reported count of 414,000.

Read More

Source: Reuters