newsdesk.org: News You Might Have Missed Archives

Ain't no Other Fish in the Sea?

Tuna may be the signature fish of Japan, the world's foremost consumer of fish, but last week Japan's largest organization...

Dreaming of a Zero-Carbon Economy

Several nations around the world have launched national programs to increase energy efficiency, cut carbon emissions and build environmentally friendly...

Climate Change, as the Crow Flies

A group of new studies find that the patterns of bird migration literally change with the weather -- or more...

Chile: Dammed if They Do

Critics of a hydroelectric dam just approved in Chile say building it in a national park is illegal and paves...

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...

It Takes a Tree to Save a Village

A plan to replenish the forests of the West African nation of Burkina Faso is at odds with the development...

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...

Newspaper Guild Alleges Retaliatory Layoffs

Recent staff cuts at a group of San Francisco Bay Area newspapers are retaliatory against union organizers, critics allege. The...

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...

Europe: Birthrate Down, Maternity Wards Packed

While much has been made in recent years over declining birthrates in Europe and other parts of the industrialized world,...

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...

30 Floors of Farmland, Coming to New York City?

A plan to build a skyscraper in New York City -- one that contains 30 stories of farmland -- might...

Memories of Old Japan Stir Island Dispute

A new school curriculum in Japan is opening old wounds for its neighbors. South Korea has recalled its ambassador to...

Bioplastics: Friend or Foe?

Biodegradable plastics are raising hopes for a potential solution to overstuffed landfills, climate change and diminished fossil fuel resources. Yet...

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...

U.S. Fourth Fleet Returns, Heads South

Some Latin American nations are wondering if the return of the U.S. Navy's Fourth Fleet to their coastlines signals the...

Fly the Cellulosic Skies: Will Second-Generation Biofuels Take Off?

Japan Airlines recently announced plans to test fly one of its aircraft using a form of "second generation" biofuel in...

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...

The Other Kind of Green Beer

From the Rocky Mountains to Japan and Australia, beer-brewing companies are adopting practices that aim to reduce waste, as well...

Immigration: Filipinos in EU Spotlight

A new European Union mandate to expel illegal Filipino immigrants does not mean a crackdown is imminent, an EU delegate...

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...

For Forests Under Fire, a Slight Return

Forests are disappearing from the Amazon to Afghanistan, but the rate has slowed, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reports. A new...

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...

Medical Bills Spur India Suicide Plan

A woman stricken with kidney disease and her husband have petitioned a municipal official in Kolkart, India, to allow them...

Somali Refugees: Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Fire

Several new reports reveal that Somali and Ethiopian refugees, fleeing drought and violence at home, often face renewed danger crossing...

Who Resurrected the Electric Car?

With gasoline prices climbing ever higher, private companies and government agencies are giving the electric car another look. Even Republican...

Australia's Billion-Dollar Land Grab

Never mind the aboriginal land battles that followed the colonial era -- turf wars in today's Australia are for billionaires....

U.K. Journalist Gets Some Source Protection

A freelance journalist in Manchester, England, may reveal some, but not necessarily all, of his source material on a book...

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...

Africa's Double Dip of Global Warming

Africa is already the continent hardest hit by the worldwide food crisis, but according to a new report it's also...

Doctors Resign as Life-Support Lawsuit Drags On

A Canadian hospital is facing a shortage of doctors, who are resigning rather than continue to care for an elderly...

Pa. Militia Allegedly Threatens Blacks, Candidates

A self-professed militia member in Pennsylvania has allegedly threatened to shoot African Americans and public officials, and said that if...

Philippines: Activist Deaths Persist

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

German Zeppelins Target London, San Francisco

More than 70 years after the fiery crash of the Hindenburg, that once-mighty invention -- the airship -- has been...

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...

U.K. Faces Diabetes "Explosion"

A new report predicts a 46 percent increase in diabetes in the United Kingdom by 2025, driven primarily by eating...

A Russian Bear is Bullish for Big Oil

Climbing energy prices are a natural reaction to limited oil supplies, and are in fact necessary to "choke off demand,"...

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...

News You Might Have Missed * Vol. 7, No. 24

Important but overlooked news from around the world. QUOTED: "This agreement in no way limits our ability to prosecute anyone...

Will Pond Scum Save the Planet?

With corn-based fuels being blamed for the global food crisis, biofuel supporters are looking for non-food crops to be the...

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...

A Merrie Olde Credit Crisis

Aftershocks from the mortgage and credit crises are rattling nerves around the world -- particularly in England's banking and lending...

Where'd All the Dead Bodies Go?

You might think that if there's one product that will never be in short supply, it's dead bodies. Though there's...

Olympic Stadium Mobile Home

The Olympic Torch makes a world tour, why not an Olympic stadium? The Guardian is reporting that organizers of the...

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...

Japan's Military Dilemma

Japanese activists turned out in the thousands last week to oppose changes to the nation's pacifist constitution. At issue is...

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,...

Drought Persists Down Under

Australians had high hopes for the Pacific weather pattern known as La Nina. That periodic cooling of the eastern Pacific...

More Deaths Alleged at Myanmar Pipeline

Alleged human rights abuses by soldiers guarding a Burmese pipeline have revived old questions about pipeline co-owner Chevron's relationship with...

Where Have all the Songbirds Gone?

Songbirds fly thousands of miles to return to the northern hemisphere every spring, just as regularly as the sun comes...

Look, up in the Sky! Urban Farming Puts Down Roots

UPDATE: According to the Las Vegas Sun, the NextEnergryNews story about a proposed agricultural skyscraper in Las Vegas is not...

Virtual water and real thirst

The recent hike in the price of food worldwide is usually blamed on the price of oil or the conversion...

Callbacks on the Cell Phone Cancer Story

The long running debate over whether cell phones cause cancer is heating up again. The latest round of press came...

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...

King Tobacco, Balkan Crime Lord

Cigarette counterfeiting and smuggling in the Balkans is one of the primary drivers of crime and corruption in the region,...

Global Warming: Something to Sneeze at

As if deadlier storms, new diseases, compromised agriculture, rising sea levels and endangered polar bears weren't enough to worry about,...

Uneasy France Steps up NATO Role

Playing for a larger role in NATO, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said his country will send 700 or more...

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...

Rwandan President Disputes Spanish Indictments

A Spanish judge has issued indictments against 40 Rwandan Army officers -- and the nation's president, Paul Kagame -- over...

"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...

Witch Hunting in the 21st Century

"Do We Need to Uproot Witchcraft in Africa?" demands a headline in Rwanda's New Times newspaper. The answer, according to...

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...

Cancer in the Air, and in Your Hair

Two new reports identify byproducts of everyday life as culprits behind an increase in avoidable cancers and other health issues....

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...

Hunting Animals Who Hunt Humans

With mountain lion attacks are on the rise in rural Washington, and many residents feel the answer is more hunting....

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...