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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
“Do We Need to Uproot Witchcraft in Africa?” demands a headline in Rwanda’s New Times newspaper. The answer, according to the article, is no — but that opinion is not necessarily shared around the continent. Indeed, witchcraft — or at least the accusation of it — is a serious matter in much of Africa and the African diaspora. In Ghana, belief in witchcraft is widespread, Africa News reports, and in rural areas a witchcraft accusation lead to exile.
Two new reports identify byproducts of everyday life as culprits behind an increase in avoidable cancers and other health issues. Diesel emissions from the Port of Oakland and the freeway system around West Oakland puts millions of people at risk of cancer, asthma and other diseases, according to a new report from the California Air Resources Board. The study found that 1,200 cancer cases per million people were attributable to diesel exhaust, most from trucks, but also from port activities, which collectively cause hundreds of premature deaths. In France, a new study has found a “small but consistent risk” of bladder cancer among male barbers and hairdressers. The study also found personal use of hair dyes had a possible correlation to bladder cancer, lymphoma and leukemia.
Important but overlooked news from around the world. QUOTED:
“The government celebrates [non-resident Indians] and is able to build airports on their remittances, but turns its back on them when they expose the ugly reality of immigrant life in the U.S.” — New Orleans-based labor activist Saket Soni (see “Immigration,” below). CONTENTS:
*Top Stories*
Who wants to buy a President? Cancer in the air, and in your hair
Debt waived for India farmers
*Immigration*
U.S. guest workers kept like “pigs in a cage”
*Women*
Witch-hunting in the 21st century
TOP STORIES
* Who Wants to Buy a President?
Important but overlooked news from around the world. QUOTED:
“You don’t get to be an old cougar by doing stupid stuff like hanging out in backyards and eating cats.” — Researcher Robert Wielgus on why mountain lion attacks are up in Washington State (see “Wildlife,” below). CONTENTS:
*Gay Rights & Refugees*
Gay Muslims seek political asylum in Britain
*Wildlife*
Hunting animals who hunt humans
GAY RIGHTS & REFUGEES
* 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 persecution and even death in their home countries of Iran and Syria. Though unrelated, the stories the two youths tell are eerily similar.
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
[UPDATED 3/15/08]
The nine-county San Francisco Bay Area is now on a federal quarantine list — to which Mexico has added Los Angeles and Napa counties — as state agricultural officials ponder a massive pesticide campaign to combat the light brown apple moth. There are billions of dollars at stake, especially if the moth spreads into California’s agricultural heartland in the Central Valley. Yet some scientists say the moth, a native of New Zealand, has already been in California for decades, and are calling for an alternative plan. Now, amid rising controversy and protests over the aerial spraying campaign, which would repeatedly blanket whole cities, the San Francisco Chronicle reports that the owner of the company that produces the moth pesticide is a major political campaign donor. Stewart Resnick, who owns some of the largest almond, pistachio and citrus farms in the country and the world, also owns a pesticide company in Oregon that produces CheckMate, a pheromone that disrupts the moth breeding patterns.
Important but overlooked news from around the world. QUOTED:
“Both the right and the left are talking about Americanization, Westernization, and cultural homogenization. Something like Tisza shoes is embraced because it’s retro, it’s Hungarian, and it’s also a statement against the big corporate brands.” — Anthropologist Balazs Frida on the new communist chic in the former Eastern Bloc (see “Pop & Politics,” below). CONTENTS:
*Top Stories*
Pesticide politics and the light brown apple moth
From bike lanes to “wildlife highways”
Comfort sought in Philippines for WWII sex slaves
*Law & Justice*
South Africans march as crime wave peaks
*Pop & Politics*
Communist chic in the former Eastern Bloc
TOP STORIES
* Pesticide Politics and the Light Brown Apple Moth
California’s nine-county Bay Area is now on a federal quarantine list — to which Mexico has added Los Angeles and Napa counties — as state and federal officials ponder billions of dollars in losses and a massive pesticide campaign to combat the light brown apple moth.
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
Important but overlooked news from around the world. QUOTED:
“My goal is to really represent Islam. It’s not a religion that oppresses women. Of course it’s very risky. I may lose my life during this process.”