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You're Soaking In It
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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
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TOP STORIES * April 19-25
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Iran: Crimes of Fashion
With hotter weather comes the urge to shed layers, leading to the latest crackdown by Iranian police on immodest dress. More than 100 women were arrested in Tehran on the first day of the crackdown, and about 2,000 young men protested new rules forbidding sleeveless t-shirts, even in same-sex dorms.
One judge warned the campaign may backfire, and a lawmaker said the police would be better off fighting drug abuse and poverty, the BBC reports. Malaria Fears Rise on DDT Shortfall
Uganda is short $400 million needed for a DDT spraying campaign scheduled for July. Health officials say malaria is a leading cause of poverty there, where 320 people are killed by the disease every day. The chemical hasn’t been used there since the 1970s due to ecological concerns, but some public health advocates, including the World health Organization, now say it is cost-effective and has minimal health impacts if used carefully.
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News You Might Have Missed * Vol. 6, No. 17
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Important but overlooked news from around the world. THIS WEEK:
Iran faces a pushback over crimes of fashion, DDT has allies in Uganda, U.S. insurers are unprepared for climate change, chlorine attacks and prisoner abuse test our war-crimes conscience, farmland and water supplies suffer from Asian pollution … and free speech is a slippery slope for punks, dissidents and activists worldwide. QUOTED:
“I would rather die so I can save the government the money they are spending on spying on me.” — Gao Yaoijie, a 79-year-old AIDS activist, on China’s crackdown on environment and health activists (see “Dissent,” below).
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Crop Dusting
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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
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TOP STORIES * April 12-18
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A Sunni House Divided
Thousands of Iraqi Sunnis fleeing Shia militias are finding no peace in Sunni districts, where they are threatened by insurgents who seek to create “pure pro-insurgency neighborhoods” and suspect the newcomers of being spies or criminals, according to the Institute for War & Peace Reporting. Insurgents also target fellow Sunnis who question the violence, as well as people in mixed Sunni/Shia marriages, of which there are 6.5 million in Iraq today. Abortion’s Rhetorical Question
A federal appellate court is hearing arguments over a 2005 South Dakota abortion law that requires doctors to tell patients they will be terminating “the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being” and that they are “ending the mother-child relationship.” A judge called it “ideology,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports, but proponents say the language defends the “right” to motherhood.
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News You Might Have Missed * Vol. 6, No. 16
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Important but overlooked news from around the world. THIS WEEK:
Iraqi Sunnis find no haven among their kin, a South Dakota court hears abortion’s rhetorical question, the BIA may intervene in the Cherokee “freedman” vote, the outsourcing boom tests U.S. schools and labor unions, crops are threatened as pollinating honeybees die out … and a French extremist gains in the polls over (and among) Arab immigrants. QUOTED:
“Above everything it’s his family values we share. When we’re eating our dinner, watching TV at night and we see two homosexual men kissing, it upsets us.
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Nuclear Fallout
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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
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TOP STORIES * April 5-11
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U.N. Fund Fails Pakistani Gulf War Refugees
Thousands of rural Pakistanis displaced from Kuwait by the first Gulf War never found out about a $263 million compensation fund set up by the United Nations. Now the program has closed, after 95 percent of claims were rejected as duplicates or false. Critics say a third-party foundation mismanaged the funds, and many war victims were never allowed to submit their claims.
Bigotry Stalks Gays in Chile
Two transgender prostitutes were murdered in Chile in March, the latest in a spate of killings dating back five years. Activists say that many cases aren’t prosecuted, and that one accused murderer never served time after paying bail of $925 and telling reporters, “turns out it’s cheap to kill a faggot,” the Santiago Times reports. Honor’s Deadly Jordan Toll
A women’s advocate says there is “no political will” to combat the killing of women and girls by their relatives for affronts to family honor.
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News You Might Have Missed * Vol. 6, No. 15
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Important but overlooked news from around the world. THIS WEEK:
A United Nations fund for Gulf War refugees is under fire, gays in Chile face murderous bigotry, “honor” killings take their toll on Jordan’s women, cost-cutting at the Labor Department hit funds for nuclear and chemical workers … and activists use outreach and education to take on child labor worldwide. QUOTED:
“I think they want him to hurry up and die because it’s costing them too much money. How can a doctor in Washington, D.C., determine what kind of help my husband needs?”
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Watching the Inspectors
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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