French prosecutors have opened a judicial investigation into allegations that Niolas Sarkosy’s that successful 2007 election campaign received illicit funding from the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. The inquiry does not name anyone as a suspect, and centres on claims of corruption, influence trafficking, forgery, abuse of public funds and money-laundering. Article
Since 1979, roughly 150 lawsuits have been filed against American and foreign corporations for actions committed around the world. Four local plaintiffs used the ATS to sue Unocal in a federal court in Los Angeles for human-rights violations allegedly committed during the construction of an oil pipeline in Myanmar. A human-rights organisation used it to sue Yahoo on behalf of two Chinese democracy activists for actions committed in China by a subsidiary. ATS suits against DaimlerChrysler and Rio Tinto, among others, are pending. Though most ATS cases have been dismissed or settled, the costs of settlements can be high and the negative publicity damaging.
Multinational companies will therefore cheer the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in Kiobel v Royal Dutch Petroleum (Shell), released on April 17th. It dramatically limits the ability of plaintiffs to file suit against corporations in American courts for actions committed abroad. Article
Egypt’s economy is sinking, and its government desperately needs finance. The Brothers are not only keen to show constituents that they are doing something to stem the slide, but that they are putting a more “Islamic” stamp on the country. Since last June, when Muhammad Morsi, the Brotherhood’s candidate, won the presidential elections, they have touted the issue of sukuk, a form of bond that avoids paying fixed interest (which many interpretations of Islamic law forbid) by making its holder a theoretical partner in a specific undertaking, and therefore eligible for a fixed share of profits, as a sharia-compliant panacea Article 
Rogoff and Carmen Reinhart, despite slipped in transfer of data, continue to assert that their basic finding is true. Article
Foreign Affairs is cautiously optimistic about economic reform in China. Article
Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff left off a line of data which impacts on the notion that the national debt’s tipping point of 90 percent of GDP would produce sharpy slower growth. Matthew Zeitin of Bloomberg lists 7 far more serious errors. Article 
Singapore is no exception. Almost half a century after independence, Singaporeans now live the most number of years after leaving the workforce, according to the Global Sunset Index of 68 countries compiled by Bloomberg. In the world’s sixth-most expensive city, 41 percent of more than 1,000 residents surveyed by HSBC Holdings Plc (5) said they haven’t saved for retirement, with nearly half of them blaming living costs for hampering efforts. Article 
Egypt’s economic situation is catastrophic; the currency is in freefall, with no initial prospects of relief, and this despite the fact that the International Monetary Fund has resumed negotiations with Morsi’s government over a 4.8-billion-dollar loan.
The ailing Egyptian economy needs a kick-start, and the Muslim Brotherhood does not have any bright ideas about how to do so. In a bid to distract from this deficit, it is instead conducting abstract debates about Islam and its role in the state, the constitution and Sharia law. Article 
Turkish high fashion magazine Ala, edited by a woman, takes us intp the future without betraying the past. Article
