Gates Foundation investments scrutinized

Charles Piller, Edmund Sanders and Robyn Dixon of the Los Angeles Times explore the investments held by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and found that it "reaps vast profits every year from companies whose actions contradict its mission of improving society in the United States and around the world, particularly the lot of people afflicted by poverty and disease." The two-part series highlights the conflicts created by its "blind-eye investment strategy" dictated by profit rather than its philanthropic priorities. "At the same time that the foundation is funding inoculations to protect health [in the Niger Delta], The Times found, it has invested $423 million in Eni, Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and Total of France -- the companies responsible for most of the flares blanketing the delta with pollution, beyond anything permitted in the United States or Europe."