Some of the findings are pretty amazing. For example:

• Almost one-quarter of all companies have no continuity plan at all.
• Political violence has caused 37% of companies to avoid investments in overseas markets, and one in five firms have foregone otherwise promising business opportunities for the same reason.
• Only 37% of business leaders believe that their companies have a strong understanding of the political violence risks they face, and perceptions of risk appear to be driven by media headlines rather than rigorous analysis.

As Lord Levine, Chairman of Lloyd’s, puts it (emphasis ours):

21st Century terrorism is a specific issue where the price of getting it wrong can be very high, and the solutions are rarely simple. In the last decade, in addition to those who perished after 9/11, nearly 2,000 people have died in terrorist attacks on business alone, and around 20% of terrorist attacks are aimed at the business community.

This new research shows that boards are spending an increasing amount of time discussing terrorism and political violence risks. However, there appears to be a significant gap between a growing risk awareness and tangible action actually taken by many companies, driven by a lack of understanding of the dynamics they encounter as they globalise.

This is coupled with a lack of awareness about the impact the organisation has on the environment in which it operates. Typically, business sees itself neither as part of the problem nor part of the solution in regions of conflict and instability. More active engagement can deliver real benefits to organisations – which go beyond strong risk management alone.

For those of us operating in an increasingly complex risk environment, political violence may not always be top of mind. But, in an era of increased globalisation, understanding and preparing for political violence has arguably never been more important for business. More than one of the organisations interviewed for this study has seen colleagues killed in politically motivated attacks.

Police raided the premises of leftist groups in cities across Germany Wednesday on suspicion of a plot to attack next month’s G-8 summit. More than 900 federal and local police officers in cities including Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen searched some 40 apartments or offices used by various leftist groups, federal prosecutors said in a statement. The prosecutors said they were investigating more than 18 individuals suspected of organizing a terrorist group. They said they were focused on dismantling a Web server where many leftists and groups and projects maintained their internet sites and mailing lists.

Germany hosts the 33rd G-8 Summit June 6 to June 8 in Heiligendamm.

The AP says Colorado State University’s Philip Klotzbach and Joe Bastardi of Accuweather both expect 2007 to be a busy hurricane season. AP says Klotzbach admits their predictions last year were off, but says they should be more accurate this year.

Avian Influenza Q&A
Travel Advice – Avian Influenza

The advice page lists the 12 countries who have reported cases of the H5N1 strain in humans. The countries are: Azerbaijan, Cambodia, China, Djibouti, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Laos, Nigeria, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam.

In the report, released April 30, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) placed 12 countries on its “priority watch list” for failing to protect adequately producers of copyrighted, patented and trademarked materials, such as movies, music and pharmaceuticals. The list is issued annually as part of USTR’s “Special 301” report to Congress highlighting intellectual property problems facing U.S. companies worldwide. As in previous years, Russia and China were at the top of the priority list despite some evidence of improvement in both countries. Others included in that list were Argentina, Chile, Egypt, India, Israel, Lebanon, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine and Venezuela.

The USTR makes the report available here.

Turkey enters a period of intensified political activity linked to the presidential election. Several demonstrations and public rallies were held in April 2007 and further demonstrations could occur in the weeks to come, particularly in major cities throughout the country.

Bloomberg has some background:

Turkey will hold early parliamentary elections and will seek to alter the nation’s constitution after the highest court blocked a move by the government to elect Turkey’s first head of state with an Islamist past. Turkey’s governing party will apply to parliament to hold the general election on June 24 or July 1, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters at a news conference in the capital Ankara late yesterday. The polls were due to start Nov. 4. The army, which has ousted four governments from power in the past four decades, warned the government on April 27 about its proposal to select Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, 56, as its candidate for president in a first round of balloting.

The State Department says that May 1 demonstrations in Istanbul turned violent:

For decades, protesters have been banned from marching in large numbers in Taksim Square, where nearly three dozen May Day demonstrators were killed in 1977 in a shooting and subsequent stampede. In order to commemorate the 30th anniversary of those deaths, authorities allowed small groups of demonstrators to lay flowers in the square. However, the gathering quickly turned violent and spilled over into Istiklal Caddesi, a heavily traveled Istanbul street. According to press reports, thousands of police were deployed, arresting between 500-700 people, and hundreds were reported injured.

President Hugo Chavez’s government took over Venezuela’s last privately run oil fields Tuesday, intensifying a power struggle with international companies over the world’s largest known single petroleum deposit. Newly bought Russian-made fighter jets streaked through the sky as Chavez shouted ”Down with the U.S. empire!” to thousands of red-clad oil workers, calling the state takeover a historic victory for Venezuela after years of U.S.-backed corporate exploitation.

Venezuela has announced they are pulling out of IMF and the World Bank as well. Multinationals have been concerned about Chavez seizing private assets in the past.

Weirdly, the giant oil companies are cooperating with this nonsense:

While the state takeover had been planned for some time, BP PLC, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., France’s Total SA and Norway’s Statoil ASA remain locked in a struggle with the Chavez government over the terms and conditions under which they will be allowed to stay on as minority partners. All but ConocoPhillips signed agreements last week agreeing in principle to state control, and ConocoPhillips said Tuesday that it too was cooperating. The companies have leverage with Chavez because experts agree that Venezuela’s state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela SA, cannot transform the Orinoco’s tar-like crude into marketable oil without their investment and experience.

Sayeth AP:

Terrorist attacks worldwide shot up more than 25 percent last year, killing 40 percent more people than in 2005, particularly in Iraq where extremists used chemical weapons and suicide bombers to target crowds, the State Department said Monday. Among countries, Iran remains the biggest supporter of terrorism, with elements of its government backing groups throughout the Middle East, notably in Iraq, giving material aid and guidance to Shiite insurgent groups that have attacked Sunnis, U.S. and Iraqi forces, it said.

Gunmen shot and killed a local police chief on Saturday in Acapulco, a Mexican beach resort that has been sucked into a bloody turf war between drug gangs in northern and western Mexico, local media reported.

According to recently released figures, “there were 1,300 assaults, 417 robberies and 111 sexual offences on the RailCorp network over the 13 months to November last year.” Rob Mason, the acting head of RailCorp notes that crime on the system has actually dropped 33% since 2002. Mason admits more needs to be done to combat crime on the system.

SMH also lists the most dangerous stations.