Photos
Home Run!
No, it's soccer, actually. Specifically, it's the six-year-old Homeless World Cup, which teams homeless people from at least 56 countries -- such as the 2008 world champions from Melboune, Australia (right) -- to compete for the title, and win big in the game of life.
Photo: Big Issue Australia
No Pregnant Pause
Teen pregnancies are in the pop spotlight, from the Oscar-winning film "Juno" (right) to MTV's new reality show "16 and Pregnant." Talk about reality: More than 750,000 U.S. teens will become pregnant in 2009, while globally the number reaches 14 million.
Photo: Handout
Tracking: Iran Unrest & Realtime Web Feeds
Citizen media is driving, and skewing perceptions of, mainstream coverage of Iran's turmoil. Postings on Twitter, Flickr and YouTube provide an unfiltered look at the situation on the ground, and include propaganda as well as first-person witnessing.
Photo: .faramarz
The Great Divide
Despite recent gestures, the ideological chasm between Cuba and the United States remains wide and deep. The latest development: An invitation to rejoin the Organization of American States was greeted with a shrug by the communist nation, which is sticking with its Cold War-era isolationist script.
Photo: wjklos
The Future Is Faster
High-speed rail is enjoying new buzz in Europe, Russia, Asia -- and the United States, which sent Transportation Secretary Ray La Hood on a tour of the fastest rail systems in Spain (right) and elsewhere. What he learns could inform new high-speed rail projects back home.
Photo: Sean Munson
94607: Oakland's Childhood Asthma Hotspot
West Oakland is pinned between the Bay Area's largest, busiest port and two major commuter freeways, and is home to decades of legacy pollution, making this marginalized but determined community a hotspot for childhood asthma and other illnesses.
Photo & Audio: Kim Komenich
Literature Unfolds Online
News of the written word's demise has been greatly exaggerated -- though it may not turn up as often on your parents' printed, paper pages. Literature is going online -- making works great (and not-so-great) available via text messages, Twitter, RSS feeds, and e-mailed in serialized installments.
Photo: Lin Pernille
Share These Wheels
A bike-sharing program in Paris will scatter tens of thousands of two-wheelers (right) throughout the City of Lights for quick jaunts and rentals. It's the latest in a global trend towards more bicycle infrastructure, driven by hard economic times and fears of climate change.
Photo: ktylerconk
Oakland is Exhausted
Diesel exhaust from trucks serving the Port of Oakland brought confrontational protests to a May 2 public meeting (right). Our latest collaboration with SPOT.US takes a multimedia look at the conflict, in the first part of a series on pollution and communities.
Photo: Kim Komenich for Newsdesk.org
Brazil: Blacks Move Ahead to Stay Behind
Brazil's African-descended citizens now have a .2 percent majority nationwide, but lack proportional access to education and food. This includes almost four times the rate of illiteracy and longer work hours compared to their European-descended countrymen.
Photo: Brazilian child/Carf
Bloc Party
Moldova's April 5 poll saw the Communist Party re-elected with appeals to family and security (right), but young protesters say the vote was rigged, and stormed the national parliament building. It's just more freezing wind for democracy in the former East Bloc.
Photo: Dittaeva
Mexico City Tapped Out?
With reservoirs at record lows, millions of Mexico City residents are experiencing water shortages and even cutoffs. Drought is to blame, but also leaky pipes, which lose as much as 40 percent of the water destined for the world's largest city.
Photo: Mexico City fountain/Tinou Bao
Women Bear the Climate Burden
Women in the developing world are at the climate-change frontlines. From Nicaragua to Mozambique (right), women must travel further for water due to drought and ecological decline, competing with wild animals, and disrupting their family's welfare.
Photo: Stig Nygaard
Is Superfund Weatherproof?
A new study finds that extreme weather, possibly caused by climate change, is damaging underfunded Superfund toxic waste sites. In Summitville, Colorado, critics say one such site is leaking polluted water into a river used for agriculture, livestock and recreation.
Photo: Sprol
Access Denied?
Catching school board meetings or local talk shows on cable access TV will be more difficult. Twenty states are allowing cable companies to end their support for public-access TV studios, and are giving control to state agencies rather than local communities.
Photo: AccessSF/Luxomedia
Easy Doesn't
For years, New Orleans has been sitting on nearly $34 million in federal housing aid. Yet officials in the Big Easy have yet to actually spend any, even in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The funding will have to be returned unless it gets used.
Photo: Lower Ninth Ward/Mike Sax
Bamboo Bikes for the People
Elite bicycle designer Craig Calfee has developed a fully functional two-wheeler made from bamboo. Now, his Bamboosero Bikes aim bring the eco-friendly rides, made by villagers using local bamboo, to rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa.
Photo: Idiolector
Facebook Politics Go Global
President Obama's use of social media to get out the vote was a sign of things to come. Chilean presidential candidate Sebastian Pinera and El Salvador's Mauricio Funes are tapping into Flickr, Twitter, YouTube -- and, yep, both have Facebook profiles (right).
Photo montage by Jennifer Pickens
Acid Reign
Cimate scientists say carbon dioxide pollution is creating acidic oceans at a rapid pace, thinning the carapaces of some shellfish, and potentially reprising underwater mass extinctions last seen 65 million years ago.
Photo: Vanessa Pike-Russell
A Soft 'n' Gentle Forest Killer?
The eco-impacts of "luxury" toilet paper, including deforestation and chemical pollution, may exceed those of driving an SUV or eating fast food. Unlike recycled paper, tissue made from virgin wood is easier to "fluff up," and accounts for 98 percent of the U.S. market.
Photo: Iva_01
Diamonds in the Rough?
Botswana's diamond industry has been not only profitable, but beneficial to its people, bringing in funding for public health and more. But the global economic crash is cutting into diamond sales, raising questions for Botswana's future.
Photo: Botswana diamond mine/Esthr
Its Own Worst Enemy?
Wolves may be in the cross hairs as the Alaska Board of Game debates predator control measures statewide -- but a new report finds that they should also fear their fellows; a high percentage of fatal attacks on wolves in Denali National Park are by wolves from rival packs.
Photo: Alaska wolf/Sean Clawson
Fears of Factory Salmon
New FDA documents show that some Chilean salmon farms are using chemicals and medications banned by regulators. Chile is one of America's biggest suppliers of salmon and the second largest exporter of salmon in the world.
Photo: Chilean salmon farm/Vince Huang
Divisions of Kosovo
Since Kosovo's secession from Serbia, the fledgling country is at peace -- but struggling with severe poverty and unemployment, along with simmering ethnic tensions in the mostly Serbian north.
Photo: Kosovo Serbs/jungle/arctic
The Once and Future Water War
In Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, known for its fertile cropland (right), an old feud between two clans that draw from the same water source is heating up, as resources strain to meet growing populations amid rising temperatures.
Photo: FlickrJunkie
Wurst for Worse
Hoping to combat climate change -- but risking the wrath of its wurst-wolfing citizens -- Germany is pushing for a more Mediterranean national cuisine that limits meat consumption to once a week and special occasions.
Photo: Berlin wurst fans/Lang Heinz
To the East, Radio Silence
Azerbaijan's move to take over airwaves formerly controlled by the BBC and the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe has raised fears of shifting regional alliances, and government censorship in a still-emerging democracy.
Photo: Flavijus
News of a World
You know 2008's big stories -- a change year, war in the Middle East, Proposition 8, the economic crash -- but there's a world of important news beyond the headlines. Check out NYMHM's review of the top issues of the past year: water, forests, war crimes, native rights and more.
Photo: Stitch
Free Wheels
"Scraper bikes" are colorful, customized, and give young people new creative alternatives in crime-plagued communities. The two-wheelers come out of hip-hop's hyphy subculture, and are inspired by the tricked-out "scraper" cars of the late '80s.
Photo: bikeportland
Power from the Rift
East Africa's Rift Valley could transform a continent where two billion people have no access to electricity. Advocates say geothermal sites in the valley (at right) could someday produce at least 4,000 megawatts of electricity for Kenya, Mozambique, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Uganda and Tanzania.
Photo: stevej2000
Tell Us All About It
Your feedback makes a difference! Take the Newsdesk.org annual survey and help us improve our coverage of important but overlooked news in 2009. You'll have real impacts on our work during a time of growth and change for this free public service.
Photo: Lynne Featherstone
Endangered Species?
A new report by Fitch Ratings finds that a deepening credit crunch may cause "several cities" to lose their local newspapers entirely by 2010. On the threatened list? Foreign-coverage mainstay McClatchy, and the ill-starred Tribune Company.
Photo: Special
Pennies for Journalism
We're looking to raise $10,000 to publish News You Might Have Missed in 2009. NYMHM is a unique source for deep context, unexplored angles and neglected stories from around the world -- and your own backyard. Your donation will help keep this free resource going strong!
Photo: long division and x-ray vision
Return of a Cold War
Like a chilly breeze from another era, news of a "catastrophic" NATO security leak came with the arrest of Herman Simm (right), a high-ranking Estonian official whom the E.U. says was recruited by the KGB in the '80s, but was only caught passing secrets to Russia this summer.
Photo: Handout
Lip-Syncing the Cultural Revolution
China's Ministry of Culture says it's going to crack down on lip-syncers that "cheat" the public, but this didn't stop Lin Miaoke (right) from "miming" China's national anthem at the Beijing Olympics. The song was actually performed by Yang Peiyi (left), whom officials found less photogenic.
Photo: Handout
Hidden Statistic?
Is there a spike in violence against homeless people? Are teens the main culprits? Depends which official report you believe. ALSO: Recent attacks put human faces on disturbing and disputed statistics.
Photo: Shapeshift
Losing Tibet
Speaking in Japan, the Dalai Lama said his drive for autonomy in Tibet has failed. He described the situation there as one of martial law, and said Tibet's culture and people "are being handed down a death sentence."
Photo: Jan Michael Ihl
Poll Smarter
The San Francisco Election Truthiness Report fact-checks the ads and arguments around local voter propositions -- Junior ROTC, affordable housing, property and business taxes, clean energy, hospital rebuilding, ballot-book spin doctoring, and more.
Photo: BTobin
Left Hook?
Proposition K, which seeks to decriminalize prostitution in San Francisco, has spawned a heated debate over how to curb human trafficking and protect sex workers. It also reveals a schism among feminists over prostitution itself.
Photo: Sex worker protest in SF
More Than Clean Energy
San Francisco's Proposition H, a clean energy mandate that may take a commercial power utility public, has attracted $5.4 million in influence ads. The Truthiness Report looks at bond exceptions, "blank checks," rate increases, municipalization and more.
Photo: jfraser
About a Ballot-Book Broker
Campaigner and City Hall insider David Noyola (right) placed 22 official and paid arguments in San Francisco's voter guidebook for the November 4 elections, working separately as legislative aide for Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, and later as a campaign professional.
Photo: Copyright (c) Matthew Hirsch
Alphabet Soup
From A to V, Newsdesk.org presents a complete overview of the 22 propositions that San Francisco voters will consider on November 4 -- from public power and Junior ROTC to waterfront redevelopment and legalizing prostitution.
Photo: San Francisco ballot receipt
Under the Influence?
Long before San Francisco voters make it to the polls, they've been subjected to sustained influence-advertising campaigns that even affect the city-sponsored voter guidebook.
Photo: San Francisco polling place/Steve Rhodes
No Place Like Home
Buffeted by gentrification, targeted for redevelopment, San Francisco's black communities are emptying out at an unprecedented rate. The population dropped from 13 percent in 1970 to 6 percent in 2005, a decline that's not expected to slow.
Photo: Juneteenth celebrants/Gretchen Robinette
Recipe for School Success? Add Three Eggs
In India, there apparently is such a thing as a free lunch -- for 140 million students, adding up to the largest school lunch program in the world. Simply adding three eggs per week to the student diet is credited for helping lower the elementary-school dropout rate from 12 to 2 percent since 2002.
Photo: Feuillu
Worked Up For Sick Leave
Proposed laws in California and Ohio would mandate paid sick leave statewide. Businesses decry the plans as "job killing," but advocates say paid sick days would control the spread of disease, and give low-earning workers benefits enjoyed by the highest paid.
Photo: thegirlsmoma
A Maoist Among Us
After years of struggle and the end of its traditional monarchy, Nepal, the world's youngest republic, swore in Maoist and former guerrilla leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal as its prime minister. The ceremony brought dignitaries from around the world, including the United States and United Kingdom.
Photo: Dahal poster/mattlogelin
Cell Phone to the Future
Inexpensive mobile technology is opening doors in the developing world for those who have previously been shut out of the information revolution. Cell phones in India, Africa and beyond are used for banking, credit transfers, even reporting rights abuses.
Photo: India cell user/Tierecke
Fish Doubt
Tuna (right) may be a mainstay of Japanese cuisine, but the country's fishing fleets have agreed to suspend tuna fishing due to sharply declining stocks. It was one of many recent news stories of oceanic declines caused by overfishing, pollution, habitat destruction and climate change.
Photo: Tsukiji Fish Market/tph567
Fished Out
Tuna (right) may be a mainstay of Japanese cuisine, but the country's fishing fleets have agreed to suspend tuna fishing due to sharply declining stocks. It was one of many recent news stories of oceanic declines caused by overfishing, pollution, habitat destruction and climate change.
Photo: Tsukiji Fish Market/tph567
Both Sides Now
Even a society as tolerant of sexual minorities as Thailand struggles with discrimination. Now, a secondary school in the northeast of the country has built a toilet solely for its 200 transsexual students, who fear harassment, groping and more.
Photo: Thai facilities/Pilgrim Steve
Crash Data Must go Public
Government data on auto accidents must be made public, a court has ruled, turning aside opposition from industry groups that wanted to keep information about catastrophic equipment failures under wraps.
Photo: Mind's Eye
Here to Stay?
With plastic waste clogging landfills and choking waterways, degradable bioplastics are raising hopes for a solution. Yet they may not be quite so quick a fix, and even the word 'bioplastic" isn't always what it seems.
Photo: Idiolector
What Makes a Green Beer?
From the Rocky Mountains to Japan and Australia, beer-brewing companies are adopting practices that aim to reduce waste, as well as energy and water use, by tapping into wind power, using spent grains for fuel and livestock feed, and recycling extensively.
Photo: Justin C. Lenk
China Locks Down
In recent months, China has has redoubled its suppression of dissent in the face of public unrest and protests over a wide range of issues -- including the Sichuan earthquake, the Olympics and Tibetan independence, police brutality and even public health concerns such as hepatitis.
Photo: Chinese police officer/mashrom
Big Year for Drug Deals
In 2007 the pharmaceutical industry spent $168 million lobbying Congress -- a record sum that helped influence legislation and prevented new restrictions on drug ads. And for the first time in history, the bulk of the money was spent on Democrats.
Photo: sparktography
Homeland Insecurity
After four residents of the low-income neighborhood of Francisville in North Philadelphia (at right) circulated a petition criticizing security cameras on their block, their home was raided by local police, who detained them for 12 hours without charges.
Photo: trishylicious
Homeland Security, Philly-Style
After four residents of the low-income neighborhood of Francisville in North Philadelphia circulated a petition criticizing security cameras (at right) on their block, their home was raided by local police, who detained them for 12 hours without charges.
Photo: highstrungloner
Food Crisis Sprouts Biotech Debate
As global food prices climb, the debate over genetically modified agriculture is cropping up once again. Farmers are pondering boosted profits, Japan is allowing modified corn in snacks, and companies such as Germany's BASF (right) are developing new products.
Photo: BASF lab/AgWired
Russian Bear Wants a Bite
Russian energy giant Gazprom, predicting oil prices as high as $250 per barrel in 2009, is angling to take over an American company that can deliver natural gas to the United States from its vast reserves in northern Russia.
Photo: Moscow Gazprom billboard/captainchaos
Will Pond Scum Save the Planet?
With corn-based fuels getting the blame for the global food crisis, biofuel boosters are looking for non-food crops to be the next energy source. This includes algae, a plant that few people would rather see on their plates instead of in their gas tanks.
Photo: Algae/mrjingo
Separate But Unequal?
Though a diverse Islamic community thrives in Australia, cultural contrasts persist -- and sometimes turn ugly. In the latest incident, a fight over a proposed religious school has locals accusing their Islamic neighbors of trying to take over the country.
Photo: Australian Muslims, Western tourists/Betta Design
Ban the Bomblets?
Activists and diplomats from around the world are in Dublin, Ireland, this week to try to establish a treaty banning the use of cluster bombs. They say unexploded bomblets pose risks to civilians, who sometimes mistake the devices for humanitarian aid packages (at right).
Photo: globalresearch.ca
Dole to be Canned?
Elizabeth Dole, a household-name Republican senator from North Carolina, appears to be fighting for her political life against a Democratic challenger. In the past month, her double-digit lead in the polls over State Sen. Kay Hagen has evaporated.
Photo: Elizabeth Dole (handout)
Dry Down Under
Drought is hitting the ten-year mark in some regions, hopes for a good soaking from La Niña are rapidly fading, and Australia's government says climate change is at least partially to blame.
Photo: Lake Hume at four percent (Suburbanbloke)
Tea With Apocalypse
Among the many threats to national security during the Cold War, the United Kingdom was particularly worried about the effects of a thermonuclear attack on tea supplies, and released an extensive report on the topic in the 1950s.
Photo: Rooney
Bobo a Go Go
Songbirds, such as the bobolink (at right), fly thousands of miles to return to the northern hemisphere every spring. Or, that's how it's supposed to be -- but the numbers of migratory birds have plummeted in recent years, with everything from pesticides to American dining habits taking the blame.
Photo: Phodge100
Callbacks on Cell Phone Cancer
Two new studies both affirm and refute the link between cell phones and brain cancer, while an Israeli researcher finds a link between wireless gabbing and salivary gland tumors. Time to hang it up? Or just more crank calls?
Photo: Compujeramy
King Tobacco, Balkan Crime Lord
Cheap cigarettes from the Balkans and Southeastern Europe are prized by smugglers, who sell them in the West at huge markups. The illicit trade fuels border-crossing corruption and crime, at the cost of billions in tax revenue.
Photo: Bulgarian cigarettes/Pudpuhduk
Climate Change: 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, add hay fever to the list of global warming concerns.
Photo: Hibiscus pollen/Macropoulo
Coal of the Navajo
The Navajo Nation has announced plans to create a new wind-power plant on an Arizona reservation, but is also trying to build a coal-fired plant that critics bitterly oppose. An existing coal plant (at right) has been blamed for giving the area some of the dirtiest air in the state.
Photo: evenprimes
A March from New Orleans
Indians hired by Signal International to work in a Mississippi shipyard are marching to Washington, D.C., claiming they were mislead about permanent residency, and decrying living conditions. The company denies the charges, but the workers are suing, and even accused Signal of human trafficking.
Photo: New Orleans Workers' Center
The Moth From Hell
Fearing billions in agricultural losses from the light brown apple moth (right), California wants to spray pesticide over the entire Bay Area. But previous spraying in Santa Cruz brought hundreds of health complaints, and a pesticide executive's political donations are raising more questions.
Photo: jomike
Child Labor Goes Rural
Far from the urban industrial sweatshops, child labor remains widespread in rural parts of the developing world, including the Philippines, where advocates say tens of thousands of children are working on farms (at right), in mines, and even in deep-sea fishing.
Photo: IRRI Images
London Shifts Gears
Twelve new "bicycle superhighways" and hefty fines for polluting vehicles are the backbone of a new London plan to increase the number of bicycle riders in town (at right) by 400 percent. The city is taking a cue from Paris, too, by creating a free downtown bike-rental service.
Photo: Maz Hewett
Hostage Situation
Venezuela's firebrand President Hugo Chavez (at right) has been making headlines by negotiating the release of hostages held by Colombia's long-running leftist insurgency. But critics say he's doing more harm than good, and one former hostage said Venezuela's armed forces shelter the rebels.
Photo: Handout
Hostage Politics
Venezuela's firebrand President Hugo Chavez (at right) has been making headlines by negotiating the release of hostages held by Colombia's long-running leftist insurgency. But critics say he's doing more harm than good, and one former hostage said Venezuelan armed forces provide safe haven to the rebels.
Photo: quecomunismo
Black and White and Read All Over Asia
Newspapers in the United States may be losing subscribers and laying off employees at an alarming rate, but times have never been better for the press in Asia, home of seven of the 10 best-selling daily newspapers worldwide. But what about censorship?
Photo: Indonesian reader (c) Fabio Sabatini
What's in the Water?
That's a darn good question for nine million people living near the Great Lakes, where industrial pollution (at right) may pose a health risk. But the release of a new U.S. government study on that risk has been blocked, and the lead scientist has been demoted.
Photo: Lake Huron factory/Environment Canada
Sea Cow 1, Navy 0
A federal judge found that a planned U.S. military installation in Okinawa threatens the habitat of the endangered dugong -- a "sea cow" similar to Florida's manatee -- throwing the project's future into jeopardy. More: Okinawans comment on sovereignty.
Photo: Frank Gloystein
Newfound Friends
Critics have called the last election in Uzbekistan unfair, and the 2005 killing of hundreds of peaceful protestors there remain remains unresolved. Yet the ice is melting for Uzbek strongman Islam Kamirov (right), who lately is enjoying more friendly relations with Western democracies.
Photo: ITAR-TASS
Trouble Dutch
Will Geert Wilders (at right) share the fate of Theo Van Gogh? The Dutch conservative's new film, which criticizes the Koran and Islam in general, is raising concerns about civil unrest and extremist reactions in the Netherlands and beyond.
Photo: Tubantia
Where There's Smoke ...
Nigeria has filed a $43 billion lawsuit against three tobacco companies, claiming they target "young and underage smokers" with marketing practices that are banned in other nations. Critics note that the companies only recently enjoyed generous tax breaks in Nigeria.
Photo: Addax
There's a Riot Going On
Tibetan nomads (right, in a tourist's photo) may seem to exist outside of politics and time, but more than 1,000 battled Chinese authorities last month over the detention of three monks. Several more nomads were given 10-year jail sentences for demanding the return of the exiled Dalai Lama.
Photo: Zanzo
All Together Now
The National Solidarity Program in Afghanistan seeks to boost morale and regional stability by directly involving communities with reconstruction programs (at right). Now, the Washington Monthly reports that decreasing U.S. support for the program may undermine gains.
Photo: nspafghanistan.org
Smoke on the Water
Oil trucks on the Napo River (right) are blazing trails into a vast corner of the Amazon, thick with rare species and indigenous peoples in "voluntary isolation." Environment News Service reports that an area there larger than California and Maine has been opened to development.
Photo: drcohen
Frontiers of Medicine
Concurrent outbreaks in Uganda of ebola, meningitis, cholera, bubonic plague and even yellow fever have health officials there on the defensive. Critics say the government has been slow to react, and that clinics in rural areas (right) are short on funding.
Photo: Clinic sign in Uganda (make_change)
Malay Divisions
Riot police (right) greeted thousands of minority protesters in Malaysia's capital, turning back their calls for increased social benefits -- including business licenses, scholarships and other privileges "reserved exclusively for native Maylays" -- with water cannons and tear gas.
Photo: Police line in Kuala Lumpur (Angshah)
Dam in Question
China's Three Gorges Dam cost $15.6 billion, displaced 1.2 million people, and has 19 hydropower generators expected to produce 84.7 million megawatt-hours of electricity each year. Now, reports of landslides around the dam are stoking fears of a super-sized disaster.
Photo: Three Gorges hydropower (Mr. Frosted)
Cash Flow?
Nigeria's oil industry is hugely profitable, but poverty remains widespread. Now, British officials are investigating the potential laundering of $40 million in aid money by a former Nigerian state governor, and direct cash payments by Chevron and Shell to his businesses.
Photo: Shell oil gear, Nigeria (only_e)
Light of the World
Nigeria's oil industry is hugely profitable, but poverty remains widespread. Now, British officials are investigating the potential laundering of $40 million by a former Nigerian state governor, including direct cash payments by Chevron and Shell to his private businesses.
Photo: Gas flares on a Nigerian oil rig (Travelling Steve)
Not OK with Immigration
Immigration opponents (right, in the Oklahoma legislature's public gallery) have advanced a new law that makes it a crime to "hire, transport or house an illegal immigrant." Religious leaders have pledged to disobey, and some Constitutional concerns have surfaced.
Photo: bjmccray
Race is the Place
Discrimination against Israeli Arabs has spurred court rulings and confrontations at all levels of Israeli society, including in the Knesset, Israel's parliament, where Jewish and Arab legislators (such as Jamal Zahalka, lower right) find their disputes are increasingly bitter.
Photo: (c) LisaG
A Site In Question
Leased to the United States by the British in the early 1970s, the island of Diego Garcia is home to extensive U.S. military facilities that include, critics say, a CIA "black site." The Guardian reports that British MPs will investigate the claims.
Photo: Air Force hangars on Diego Garcia (gin_e)
The Right to Publish?
A crackdown on media appears to be easing in Zimbabwe, with the government of Robert Mugabe agreeing to consider a new publishing license for a popular daily newspaper. It could be a ray of sunshine at a time of increasing political repression.
Photo: Political graffiti/benettontalk.com
Nomad's Land?
Africa's struggle with mineral wealth and regional poverty has a new poster child, as Tuareg nomads in Niger take up arms (at right) for a greater share of the booming uranium trade there.
Photo: (c) Sergio Pessolano
A Taste of Old Russia
This young partisan of the United Russia party -- the leading backer of President Vladimir Putin -- may not have to vote at all in the future, thanks to sharp new limits on international election monitors, and new laws that shut the opposition out of Russia's upcoming Dec. 2 poll.
Photo: KRHamm
River of Metal
In Peru, community groups blame 17 active mining operations for the contamination of the Mantaro River (right) with copper, iron, lead and zinc. It's just one of many local environmental battles emerging around mining practices worldwide
Photo: JoseLuisParra
Asylum Adrift
These Cuban asylum seekers (right, as seen from the cruise ship that later rescued them), are relatively lucky. Many refugees who set out by sea to Europe and elsewhere are refused landfall, or placed in private detention centers more akin to jail cells.
Photo: TarikB
State of Denial
Armenians in Turkey may have been killed during World War I (at right), but the Turkish government insists it wasn't on the scale of a true genocide; now, a bill contesting that version of history is making its way through U.S. Congress, and Turkey's foreign minister says Jews could pay the price for its passage.
Photo: armediapedia
Myanmar's Power Source
World leaders have condemned the Myanmar junta's crackdown on protesters -- but its grip on power has only been strengthened by decades of cooperation with the West on projects such as the Yadana Pipeline (at right), which is owned by Unocal/Chevron and France's Total.
Photo: geocities.jp/shinji_th
Ethiopia's 'Darfur'?
Civilians fleeing Ethiopia's Ogaden region say troops are suppressing a separatist movement with rape, beatings and murder. Officials say no such incidents are taking place, but experts fear the crackdown could mirror violence in Darfur.
Photo: Ogaden camel drivers/CharlesFred
The Lucky Ones
UNICEF estimates that 800,000 Iraqi students, 63 percent of them girls, did not attend school in 2005-2006. Children are regularly kidnapped, and more than 600 teachers were killed, making this schoolroom photo, taken by an active-duty U.S. soldier, something of a rarity.
Photo: YourLocalDave
Pump You Dry
Biodiesel may be the hot new eco-fuel, but the production of soybean oil, a primary component, remains energy-intensive and too expensive to sustain a profit in many Midwest farming communities.
Photo: Rob Elam
Hungary's Dark Shadows
The far-right Jobbik Party's Magyar Garda ("Hungarian Guard") has a flag and coat of arms (at right) similar to the Nazi-aligned Arrow Cross party of World War II, a fact that caused Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany to denounce the group as "Hungary's shame."
Photo: melyviz
How Much Free Speech for Fascists?
Around the world -- including South Carolina, at right -- neo-Nazis are testing free speech limits, attracting sometimes raucous counter-protests, and, in Russia, pushing violence on the Web.
Photo: KOMU
Khatami's Losing Hand
Iranian reformist and former president Mohammad Khatami's inopportune handshake with an Italian woman has outraged religious conservatives, prompting him to withdraw from the 2009 presidential race.
Photo: Khatami in Cuba/Carlos Coutinho
Buy Me a River
The Tigris River (right), is one of 13 rivers in Turkey up for sale under a new privatization plan expected to boost infrastructure and net $3.1 billion in profits. Similar plans around the world are pushing forward, though not without opposition.
Photo: Charles Roffey
Breaking the Cycle
Reliant on reservoirs and tightly controlled water resources, China nevertheless faces an increasingly dry future. But a Beijing cab driver's proposal for restoring natural water cycles may change all that.
Photo: Great Wall reservoir/H. Alverson
Common As Dirt
Hardly isolated mega-catastrophes, oil spills occur routinely all around the world, from remote wilderness (at right) to bustling cities and placid suburbs.
Photo: BP/Alaska
The $205 Million Question
A Mexican sting that netted a huge stash of cash, guns and drugs has turned into a PR nightmare for President Felipe Calderon. The primary suspect claims the money is actually illegal campaign funding he was forced to hide.
Photo: pgr.gob.mx
Dead Again
After a military spokesman in Baghdad reported the killing of al Qaeda leader Kamal Jalil Uthman last month, a reporter for the Examiner noticed Uthman had been previously killed by U.S. forces in 2006.
Photo: CNN covers Uthman's second death
This Photo May Be Illegal
Taking pictures without a permit of New York City's many landmarks will be prohibited under new, post-9/11 regulations that have the ACLU claiming a First Amendment violation.
Photo: Tourists in Manhattan/Scalleja
Bus Lane to Paradise?
The Globe & Mail reports that pollution, traffic and murder rates are down, while school enrollments are up, following a Bogota mayor's embrace of "hedonics."
Photo: Bogota bus lanes/Drayru
Land of the Lost
Like its elected leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma has been held captive for almost 20 years by a military junta that renamed it Myanmar in 1989. The pariah state is rife with forced labor and repression, and survives in part through its trade in gems and illegal timber.
Photo: Bagan, Myanmar/H. Schmid
An Islamist Gets Religion
Can it be that Hassan al-Turabi, the world-renowned Sudanese Islamist who once offered shelter to Osama bin Laden, is now speaking out against violence in Darfur and in support of women's rights?
Photo: jamestown.org
The Poppies Shall Bloom
This bowl of raw opium paste (right) is the common ground between the Taliban and the Afghan government, according to reports: Both profit so much from the drug trade that they suspended spring hostilities to accommodate poppy farmers.
Photo: unodoc.org
Mexico's Next Desert?
Cuatro Cienegas biosphere (right), often called "Mexico's Galapagos," is also threatened by desertification as ranches and industry tap into its aquifers.
Photo: Christian Frausto Bernal
Behind the Veil
Iranian bloggers are circulating photos of a woman beaten by police (right) during a confrontation over "immodest" attire. New laws there target student political activism, satellite dishes, and the "provocative" movements of women on bicycles.
Photo: irwomen.net
I Spy the NSA
Retired engineer Mark Klein (right) says secret Internet surveillance gear installed by the National Security Agency in AT&T's San Francisco office is still in place. The company is currently facing five federal lawsuits for giving the government access to its network.
Photo: quinnums
There's No Place Like Home
Palestinian refugees in Iraq (at right) were once welcomed, but now face persecution. Those hoping to flee have been held indefinitely at the Syrian border in a camp with few services and only one doctor, while native Iraqis are admitted freely.
Photo: IRIN
Voter Fraud in Question
Former Justice Department staff say political appointees tried to suppress minority and poor voters using tough voter ID requirements (right) later determined unconstitutional.
You're Soaking In It
A booming Asian economy doesn't just mean jobs -- it also means factories and pollution, making waterways unusable even for agriculture. (Right: a contaminated canal near Hanoi, Vietnam.)
Photo: env.go.jp
Crop Dusting
The worldwide honeybee die-off has different culprits depending on who you ask. Farmers in California already fear a lack of pollination will affect their crops. (Photo: Jupiter Images)
Reader Update: Study cites mobile phones
The Arab's Gambit
Perennial anti-immigration candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen is again gaining ground in France's upcoming presidential election -- even among French Arabs and Muslims, who share his social conservatism.
Photo Source: Fr@ncois
Nuclear Fallout
Throughout the Cold War, federal nuclear workers (right) were routinely exposed to radiation. Decades later, critics say their health-care payouts are being cut without regard for patient needs.
Photo: Rocky Flats Cold War Museum
Watching the Inspectors
9News.com in Denver reports that undercover TSA agents found airport security missed 90 percent of the simulated weapons they tried to sneak past.
Photo source: tsa.gov
Feinstein's Conflict Question
Did Sen. Dianne Feinstein and her husband Richard Blum (middle) profit from contracts his companies secured under a Senate appropriations subcommittee she chaired?
Photo source: senate.feinstein.gov
Widows' Hope
Iraqi widows who have lost their families to war "surrender easily to the pressure" to become suicide bombers, a local women's advocate says. An al-Qaeda spokesman said the women "look for our help."
Photo: Women in Fallujah wait on news of loved ones (IRIN)
A Gusher of Politics
A new pipeline is expected to bring more than $200 billion into Azerbaijan, but with such a windfall comes claims of birth defects caused by pollution, lawsuits and conflicting land claims in the impoverished villages that line the pipeline's course.
Photo Source: www.BP.com
Haiti Gangs Defy U.N.
Even as U.N. peacekeepers crack down on gangs in the slums of Port-au-Prince, rapes are on the rise and kidnappings persist. At least 800 women there were victimized in the past 12 months.
Photo source: un.org
Net Loss
The fishing industry brought in a record $71.5 billion last year, most of it from fisheries that lack ecological oversight. Now, a new report finds that 25 percent of ocean fisheries are virtually depleted, and 52 percent "fully exploited."
Illustration: Halibut from George's Bank, 1882 (NOAA Photo Library)
Forgive and Forget?
Now chief of staff of the Afghan armed forces, General Abdel Rashid Dostum (right) is one of several government officials accused of war crimes who would benefit from a controversial amnesty bill advancing through Afghanistan's legislature.
Photo Source: Human Rights Watch
Amnesty's Naysayer
Afghan parliamentarian Malalai Joya (center, arm extended) has already earned death threats for her outspoken human-rights advocacy, and now is a leading opponent of amnesty for militants and mujahedeen accused of war crimes.
Photo Source: Afghan Women's Mission
Down and Out in Paris and London
... and the rest of the continent, too, where one out of six citizens, especially children, are living below the poverty line, and four in ten young people are unemployed -- particularly those lacking higher education.
Photo Source: European Commission
To the Back of the Bus? I'll See You in Court
Naomi Ragan (right), a New York City-born Orthodox Jew, is taking on the ultraconservative Haredi sect in Israel after a group of Haredi men tried to force her to sit at the back of a sex-segregated Jerusalem bus.Photo source: naomiragen.com
Loose Canon?
Carry a gun into a courthouse in Florida, and you'll get off with a misdemeanor if you have concealed-weapon permit. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that such loose regulations and a four-person license office enable hundreds of convicted criminals to retain their guns.
Photo source: Holsters.org