newsdesk.org: Civics & Society Archives

California may Sue Nestle over Water Plan

Nestle's plans to build a water-bottling plant in northern California may uncork a lawsuit against the whole operation. State Attorney...

Did U.S. Taxpayers pay for Burma Junta's Satellite?

A U.S. government-backed satellite company tested its products in Burma, despite longstanding U.S. sanctions against doing business with that nation's...

China sets up protests during Olympics

In a bid to placate rights activists, China will set aside three protest zones in Beijing during the Olympics in...

Low-caste Indian woman rising up through politics

Kumari Mayawati, a low-caste Indian woman and chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, led an electoral charge in late July to...

Real Estate Slump Good for Conservationists

The mortgage crisis and real estate slump are affecting just about everyone these days, but some conservationists are not complaining....

Racial Profiling in the Great White North?

Racial minorities in Canada are more likely to have a police record than their white counterparts even if they don't...

Court Dates and Coup Attempts for Turkey Secularists

Political unrest and terrorism is causing problems for Turkey's ruling party, which has staved off coup attempts as well as...

Pinochet's Ghost Still Haunts Chile

General Augusto Pinochet is dead, but Chile continues to wrestle with the legacy of his 17 years of brutal military...

A Toilet for Thai Transsexuals

A secondary school in northeast Thailand recently built a toilet solely for its transsexual student population. According to the Telegraph,...

Argentina: Saving the Family Farm

A coalition of farm worker organizations, small farmers and native communities has rallied together in Argentina to focus attention on...

On the Run: Accused Balkan War Criminals Remain at Large

A former Serbian leader accused of the massacre of thousands of Muslims in the mid-1990s has been apprehended, but several...

Car Crash Data Must go Public, Court Rules

The public will have access to previously secret government data about serious car accidents, a court ruled this week. The...

A Grassroots Water Grab in California

The debate about water privatization is global, but many of the battles are local. One such struggle ended recently, when...

Monsanto Loses Canadian GMO Dispute

In late March, Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser won a small victory against Monsanto Corporation after a decade-long legal engagement. His...

Zimbabwe Troubles May Bust Borders

Zimbabwe's controversial re-election of President Robert Mugabe is bringing new pressure on South Africa to resolve the conflict, and raising...

Colombia's Disappeared Return to View

Thousands of Colombians who have "disappeared" over the decades were commemorated in prose and pictures at a June conference in...

Canada In Heated Debate over Global Warming Tax

Environmentalists have long proposed taxing carbon emissions as a way of combating global warming -- but if a new Canadian...

China: A Million Mutinies Now

After years of brutally suppressing dissent, China has in recent months faced violent public unrest in a number of different...

Pumped up for Public Water

The tide may be turning for water privatization. Water supplies have already fallen out of private hands in developing nations...

A Big Year for (Democratic) Drug Deals

The pharmaceutical industry spent $168 million lobbying Congress in 2007 -- a record sum that helped influence legislation and prevented...

Philly Police Raid Raises Hackles

After four residents of a North Philadelphia home passed out petitions criticizing surveillance cameras in the neighborhood, police raided their...

Philippines: Activist Deaths Persist

A human rights activist warned that the extrajudicial killing and disappearance of activists in the Philippines could spike again in...

When is 'Voter Fraud' a Fraud?

Willie Ray, a Texas grandmother and Democrat, says had been helping elderly shut-ins to vote for years when she was...

Food Crisis Renews Biotech Farming Debate

As global food prices climb, the debate over genetically modified agriculture is once again heating up. The Christian Science Monitor...

Less than Virginal, a French-Muslim Marriage Goes Awry

France has been rocked in the past week by news that a court allowed a Muslim groom to annul his...

Local Music Thrills to New Community Radio

A new, noncommercial FM radio station -- one of the first to be approved nationwide in 15 years -- is...

Earthquake Parents Protest China Schools Collapse

About 100 parents of children killed in schools by China's recent earthquake have been turned back from a protest at...

Muslims Down Under: Bias, Sketch Comedy

A fight over a proposed Islamic school in a small Australian town has turned nasty, with locals accusing Muslims of...

A Gathering Around Cluster Bombs

Activists and diplomats from around the world are in Dublin, Ireland, this week to try to establish a treaty banning...

Australian Press Points to Children of Burmese Junta

Since Cyclone Nargis ravaged Burma earlier this month, the military junta that rules the nation has been roundly condemned for...

Household-Name Republican Fighting for Her Political Life

With congressional elections coming up this fall, many Republican incumbents are looking vulnerable even in states where their party previously...

New Execution Inquiries

The United States resumed executions last week after a brief moratorium, but several other nations that still carry out the...

For Cold War Brits, the Day After was a Tea-Time Nightmare

A wry old anti-nuclear slogan used to say "One nuclear bomb can ruin your whole day." If you're British, and...

New Wind-Power Projects Becalmed

With oil prices setting new highs nearly every day, wind power is getting another look. But, like most weather reports,...

Yemen Steps, Uneasy, From Past to Future

Yemen -- the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden, bordered by Saudi Arabia and the Red Sea -- is opening...

Broadband: BBC calls for Market 'Intervention'

Citing inclusion and civic participation as trumping private profit, the British Broadcasting Corporation is making a case for government "intervention"...

Ghana's Oil -- Blessing or Curse?

With the discovery that Ghana is sitting atop an estimated three billion barrels of oil, the impoverished West African nation...

A Political Resurrection in Malaysia

Almost 10 years after he was driven out of office by a bizarre series of corruption and sodomy charges, Malaysia’s...

Not Your Father's Hate Groups

A national survey has found the number of active hate groups in the United States has increased by 48 percent...

Israel: Homelessness Spikes for Girls

The percentage of homeless teenage girls in Israel jumped from 15 to 25 percent last year, driven by the social...

Cultivating Change in Lebanon

Caught between warring militias and Israeli reprisal, Lebanon's farmers have a hardscrabble life that is only exacerbated by the threat...

The Ends of the Internet?

How shall the Internet come to an end? Let us count the ways. GigaOm.com, an online media service focusing on...

Rhode Island: Secrecy Affirmed for Cable TV

Rhode Island's lead cable TV regulator has agreed to keep secret previously open data about the business operations of the...

An Investor's Guide to Presidential Candidates

Pondering a donation to a presidential candidate? Looking for the right choice given the needs of your special-interest group? Friends...

Windmills and Foul Air in the Navajo Nation

To much environmentalist acclaim, the Navajo Nation has announced plans to create a new wind-power plant on a reservation in...

'The Great Firewall' Lets Down its Guard

While China, confronted with violence in Tibet, was shutting down some parts of the Internet, it opened access to one...

"Avoidable" Gaza Deaths Follow Medical Travel Bans

The World Health Organization said preventable deaths almost doubled in the Gaza Strip between 2006 and 2007, following the Hamas...

Australian Labor's Nuclear Powers

Firmly established in power, Australia's Labor Party has opted to reinvigorate a plan from the previous government to expand uranium...

U.S. Guest Workers Kept Like "Pigs in a Cage"

Almost 100 Indian guest workers at a Mississippi shipyard stormed off from their jobs one day earlier this month, claiming...

Debt Waived for India Farmers

Small and marginal farmers in India will get almost $15 billion in debt relief, thanks to legislation orchestrated by the...

Who Wants to Buy a President?

Bucking the trend of "horse race" campaign coverage, the Center for Public Integrity's latest edition of "The Buying of the...

Gay Muslims Seek Political Asylum in Britain

The United Kingdom has been gripped in recent weeks by the stories of two gay teenagers who say they face...

Communist Chic in the Former Eastern Bloc

There's nothing unusual about people returning to the fashions, products and social spots of their youth, but when that youth...

South Africans March as Crime Wave Peaks

A planned march against crime in South Africa is highlighting how racial and economic relations have changed in the nation...

New Reparations Call for Philippine "Comfort Women"

The Philippine legislature is considering a new resolution to ask for apologies from Japan, as well as financial reparations, for...

News Outlet Seeks Reader Donations to Fund Iraq Trip

An Oregon news service has come up with an unusual way to help pay for a reporter's trip to Iraq:...

Koran in Hand, She Wins Over Mullahs

Fiery and not yet out of her 20s, Wazhma Frogh has been making waves in Afghanistan by using the Koran...

Short-Changed by the Labels? Musicians Dispute Napster Settlement

The recording industry may have netted hundreds of millions of dollars in settlement money from lawsuits targeting Napster, Kazaa and...

"Enviropig": Less Pollution, More Questions

A little bit of genetic editing is all that's required to slash the environmental damage caused by sewage from industrial...

Infants and International Incidents

With regulations tightening in China, Western couples are increasingly looking to Vietnam for overseas adoptions. But the trend is creating...

Radiation on the Reservation

As the market booms for uranium mining in the American West, a Seattle newspaper took a new look at what...

A "Complicated Truth" About Obama Donations

Although Barack Obama has publicly disavowed campaign donations from lobbyists, the candidate, along with his rival Hillary Clinton, has received...

Friend of Hostages, or Friend of Hostage-Takers?

Venezuela's firebrand President Hugo Chavez has been deeply involved in recent months in trying to resolve the long-running standoff over...

Wikileaks Shutdown Thwarted

Infoworld technology guru Robert X. Cringley said the attempted shutdown of the Wikileaks Web site by a U.S. judge at...

Great Lakes Toxics Data Suppressed?

Millions of people in the Great Lakes region may face health problems from toxic pollution, but a study on the...

New York Targets Nonprofit Fraud

New York City investigators are looking into more than 30 cases of potential nonprofit fraud, the New York Post reports....

Black and White and Read All Over ... in Asia, Anyway

Newspapers in the United States may be shrinking, losing circulation and laying off employees at an alarming rate, but times...

Russia Sends Opposition To Psych Wards

A Russian opposition activist was forced into a mental hospital in one of many signs of the Russian government's crackdown...

Specter of Fraud Haunts Pakistan Election

The majority of Pakistan's voters expect the upcoming February 18 election to be rigged, reports McClatchy Newspapers. Doubts are widespread,...

Sea Cow Stymies Navy's Okinawa Plan

The endangered dugong, a type of "sea cow" similar to Florida's manatee, threatens to put the brakes on a huge...

Death After Pepper Spray Raises Questions

A mentally ill man died not long after being pepper sprayed, the New Zealand Herald reported, prompting criticism of a...

Erosion Takes a Toxic Toll in Alaska

It has been widely reported that global warming threatens to sweep scores of coastal Alaskan towns into the sea. Now,...

Uzbek Strongman Has Powerful Friends Again

Western nations are once again making diplomatic overtures to Uzbekistan, despite the former Soviet republic's dismal human rights record. Admiral...

Canada Acknowledges Afghan Torture

Canada's defense minister acknowledged that the military knew prisoners they transferred to Afghan jails were being tortured. Although the military...

California Marijuana Law Takes a Hit

The California State Supreme Court found that employers can fire workers for using doctor-approved marijuana, despite a voter-approved state law...

War Crimes Trial Spurs Threat Claim

A witness in the war crimes trial of Charles Taylor, the former president of Liberia, said a group of men...

The Biodiesel Road Proves Bumpy in Southeast Asia

It's heralded as the clean-burning alternative to petroleum, but biodiesel's baggage has made a smooth roll-out seem unlikely. The challenges...

Malaysia Ban on "Muslim" Words Sparks Furor

Long simmering religious tensions are heating up as Malaysia prepares for national elections. In recent weeks, the Muslim-led government of...

The Dutch Ponder a Free-Speech Powder Keg

Geert Wilders, one the Netherland's most notorious right-wing politicians, seeks to make headlines around the world with the debut of...

Genetically Engineered Trees Cut Down

An electric fence wasn't up to the task of protecting a field of genetically engineered trees in New Zealand. Twenty...

Indigenous Rights Wend a Legal Labyrinth

Armed with a U.N. declaration on indigenous rights, an activist coalition is working to stake out new legal protections for...

Smells Like Team Spirit

In what may be a first for political branding, a Spanish political party has begun marketing its own perfume. The...

Iran Grapples with Discrimination, Division

Despite an ongoing crackdown on dissent, women's rights and ethnic separatism remain a thorn in the side of Iran's fundamentalist...

Nigeria's Smoke Out

Claims that international tobacco companies are targeting young people in Nigeria have spurred a $43 billion government lawsuit against Phillip...

Free After 20 Years on Death Row

A Scottish man who spent 20 years on Ohio's death row has been freed following a new plea. Kenny Richey...

Thailand's New Democracy as Fractious as the Old

Thailand returned to democracy last month, with its first national elections after 15 months of military rule. But the transition...

Trouble at the Roof of the World

Water rights and free speech are the latest sparks that have inflamed protests in Tibet against the Chinese government. Hundreds...

Judge SeeksTerror Trial Jury Blackout

A federal judge in Miami ordered jurors to be selected anonymously in the upcoming retrial of an alleged terrorist cell,...

Muslim Teen's Slaying Sparks Canada Debate

The slaying of a 16-year-old Muslim girl, allegedly by her father, has sparked a furor in the Canadian press and...

Afghan Reconstruction Faces U.S. Budget Cuts

An innovative reconstruction program in Afghanistan has been praised for giving decision-making power to small villages and communities, but may...

Protestors say Israel will Exclude Ethiopian Jews

Hundreds of Ethiopian Jews demonstrated in Jerusalem on Monday, alleging that as many as 8,500 of their family and community...

The Stirrings of Islamo-Liberalism

Plenty of media attention has been given to fundamentalist Islam and Taliban-style "Islamo-fascism." But three recent articles bring to light...

Things Looking Up for the Poor Down Under

When Australia's conservative government was voted out of office last month, much of the world's media emphasized the possible ramifications...

Corruption Roils Alaska Politics

With two oil executives headed to jail for giving hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal payments and "benefits" to...

A Man, a Dam and a Salmon Plan

A federal judge has rebuked the government for its latest plan to restore salmon runs along the Columbia and Snake...

Data Snooping and its Discontents

The limits of data privacy are being tested in Western democracies, as governments and corporations push for greater access with...