Despite today's soaring profit figures, Shell remains a company under siege for its lucrative activities in Africa. At a parliamentary hearing in the Netherlands last week, Amnesty International, Friends of the Earth, Nigerian and British activists, Dutch MPs and others accused the company of breaches of safety, human rights abuses, destroying lives and the environment, hiding information, gas flaring and blaming locals for oil pollution in Nigeria. Shell Holland's president, Peter de Wit, denied all the charges and insisted that the company applied "global standards" to its operations around the world. He argued that Shell had provided thousands of well-paid jobs, brought know-how, education and technology and had launched numerous community projects in the west African nation...The UN Environment Programme, using money from Shell,...will confirm [in an upcoming report] that large areas of land remain polluted, drinking water wells are still highly toxic and many of the fishing creeks are unproductive.