Enough funds to pay for the entire primary health and education needs of the world’s developing countries are being siphoned off through offshore companies and tax havens, according to a body formed to expose the offenders. A new group aims to expose how money that could finance global development is being hidden offshore.

Writers, politicians and filmmakers from more than a dozen countries have offered their support to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who faces a referendum this month on his future. The group have signed a manifesto saying that if they were Venezuelan they would vote for Chavez in what will be a volatile contest. Signatories include Argentinian Nobel Peace Prize-winner Adolfo Perez, and politician Ken Livingstone.

A strike by more than 70 000 supermarket staff in California is intensifying, with a policy of civil disobedience and the intervention of everyone from religious leaders and Hollywood stars to right-wing think tanks. The outcome of the strike is seen as crucial to the future of the union movement.

It has been hailed as a cultural and architectural jewel, nicknamed the ”sparkling artichoke” but also portrayed as a symbol of the vast gap between the city’s rich and poor. On Thursday the -million Walt Disney Concert Hall will open to the sound of superlatives from architectural critics and carrying with it the hopes of a city that has often been accused of lacking a heart.

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, said California’s new governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, in the final days of his campaign in response to allegations of his harassing women. At the time, it seemed as though he was speaking metaphorically but, in retrospect, maybe he was pondering on the issue of what Californians smoke and where and what should be done about it.