International

"It's not all that unusual for Arab countries to enlist U.S. PR firms to help with any image problems that they might be experiencing in the United States," said PR Week's Washington DC bureau chief. "These countries need the assistance of people on the ground ... who are familiar with the best tactics for earning beneficial media coverage for controversial clients." And several Arab governments have increased PR efforts since September 11, 2001.

Nine months before Antony Loewenstein's book on the conflict in Israel and Palestine, Voices of Reason, has even been published, it's under attack.

"UK ministers have been accused of spending British aid money on a public relations campaign to promote water privatisation in Sierra Leone," reports BBC News. Vicky Cann, of the organization World Development Movement, criticized the British Department for International Development (DfID), saying, "In the poorest country of the world, which is still recovering from a decade long bitter civil war, DfID is not only going to pay international consultants to advise on how to privatise water ...

An application by a New Zealand government-owned coal mining company, Solid Energy, for $NZ379,342 in witness costs and legal expenses against two environmental groups has been dismissed. Forest and Bird and the Buller Conservation Group (BCG) had argued before the Environment Court against approval for a new open-cut coal mine. While the Court approved the project, it dismissed the company's costs claim.