Democracy & Civics

El Salvador Amnesty Again Under Scrutiny

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A Spanish judge said he would prosecute 14 military officers from El Salvador for the 1989 massacre of eight Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter. The case challenges El Salvador’s amnesty law, reports the Chicago Tribune, and also is a new test for the “universal jurisdiction” principal, which Spain used in 1998 in its attempt to extradite former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet for crimes against humanity. The soldiers involved in the killing were imprisoned for a few years, but have been free since the amnesty law was passed in 1993 after El Salvador’s 12-year civil war ended. Although human-rights campaigners are pushing for a change in the law, so far there is no drive inside the country to do so. Even the leftist front-runner in El Salvador’s upcoming presidential elections broke with his party’s position, saying that he would leave the amnesty law in place if he were to win the poll.

Environment

A Soft 'n' Gentle Forest Killer?

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The environmental costs of “luxury” toilet paper may exceed that of driving an SUV or eating fast food, reports the Guardian. Toilet paper made from virgin forests accounts for 98 percent of the U.S. domestic market, with tissue made from recycled paper, which doesn’t “fluff up” as easily, trailing behind. The United States is the world’s biggest consumer of paper, yet less than a third of all paper products used nationwide are recycled. One scientist told the Guardian, “People just don’t understand that softness equals ecological destruction.” In addition to causing deforestation, making toilet paper is water intensive and produces chemical pollution.

Featured

Diamonds in the Rough?

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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

Featured

Its Own Worst Enemy?

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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

Newsdesk News

Newsdesk.org: A Changemakers Finalist

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Newsdesk.org was among nine finalists, out of 300+ applicants, in the WeMedia “pitch it” contest, which was staged at their annual event in Miami. Our entry, LOCAL.NEWSDESK.ORG, is a core idea underlying the whole Newsdesk.org effort. It proposes to create a self-propagating network of cost-efficient, public-interest local news bureaus that use the News You Might Have Missed thesis of “important but overlooked news” as a key editorial principle. We do view this as a step forward for public media in general. The Extraordinaries, an ingenious volunteer-through-your-cellphone app, ultimately took the prize, but it’s interesting to note that the local.newsdesk.org presentation was apparently something of a hit.

Featured

Fears of Factory Salmon

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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

Nation

Designer Babies No Longer Sci-Fi?

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A fertility procedure developed to help screen embryos for genetic disease has been introduced as “cosmetic medicine” for parents looking to select a baby’s physical traits. The Wall Street Journal reports that a Los Angeles-based clinic has already received a handful of requests for their new service: selecting traits such as hair, eye, skin color and gender. The service is based on a technique called pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, or PGD, in which a fertilized egg is examined in a lab to screen out certain characteristics, such as inherited diseases, and then implanted in the womb. Introduced in the 1990s for health purposes, many countries have banned PGD to select gender — yet a 2006 survey found that 40 percent of U.S. PGD clinics offered gender selection. –Lauren Riggs and Newsdesk.org staff
Source:
“A Baby, Please.

Democracy & Civics

Fiji Elections Still in Doubt

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Fiji’s military leaders have a plan for racial unity in the ethnically divided nation, but stymied elections are raising concerns of dictatorship. The 16-nation Pacific Islands Forum, whose members include Australia and New Zealand, are giving Fiji until the end of April to set a date for elections, which they say must be held by the end of this year. South Pacific leaders say if Fiji fails to comply, it will drop Fiji from its roster and suspend financial and technical assistance. The military has ruled Fiji since its December 2006 coup, the fourth in more than 20 years. Commodore Josaia Voreqe “Frank” Bainimarama, the coup leader, has advanced a vision of a more racially integrated nation, which is divided between native Fijians, and descendents of farm laborers from India imported by Britain during the colonial era.

Democracy & Civics

Bolivia: Property Rights vs. Land Reform

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Bolivia voted in a new constitution that, among other things, will limit the size of the largest rural properties, and potentially redistribute land to poorer communities. The BBC said more than 60 percent of voters approved the constitution, although Bolivia’s landowners rejected it. Morales, the country’s first indigenous president, originally wanted all “unused” land to be available for redistribution to the poor. Bolivia is the poorest country in South America, according to Inter Press Service, a left-leaning news agency, with most of the country’s arable lands in the hands of the wealthiest, European-descended citizens. Strong opposition from this sector forced Morales to focus landholding limits on future land sales only.