Public Health

HIV Evolution Challenges Vaccine Push

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An international study found that HIV is evolving rapidly, targeting different populations and challenging efforts to create a universal vaccine. According to the Los Angeles Times, researchers found that the virus has developed an “escape” mutation that enables it to evade key defensive molecules, and becomes less recognizable to some human immune systems, depending on national origin and genetic heritage. The study, published in the journal Nature, was an international collaboration and involved 2,800 participants. Though the news sounds discouraging, one researcher said that frequent mutations can make a virus weaker. Another told the BBC that future HIV vaccines would be constantly changing to keep up with viral evolution, much like the flu vaccine today.

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.

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.

Environment

Wolves: Their Own Worst Enemy?

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Wolves may be in the crosshairs as the Alaska Board of Game debates predator control measures statewide — but a new report finds that the controversial carnivores may be their own worst enemy. A wolf cull is, for some, “a good thing,” notes the Anchorage Daily News; “for others, it is very bad.” Alaska’s aerial predator-control program, not to mention hunting and trapping by licensed citizens, claim about 1,250 wolves annually, reports the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. However, studies by wildlife biologists in Denali National Park show that “at least” 60 percent of dead wolves are killed, and sometimes cannibalized, by other wolves from rival packs. The National Park Service monitors the area’s 18 wolf packs with the help of radio collars placed on the alpha male and female pairs of each pack — the animals most likely to be killed in a territorial battle.

Economy

Diamond Dilemma in Botswana

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Botswana is moving ahead with plans to build a state-of-the art diamond cutting facility — at a time when declining diamond sales are threatening the jobs of thousands of miners. Government officials see the facility, which will expand the types of diamond processing in Botswana, as a path to economic diversity, reports The Voice of Francistown. Even as the officials rave about the possibilities of the high tech diamond park, its Debswana Diamond Company — a joint venture with South Africa’s De Beers Group — is meeting with the mine workers union to discuss mine closings and layoffs throughout the country. Worldwide diamond sales are down in the face of the global recession, and Botswana’s economy is hurting. Diamond mining is Botswana’s economic mainstay, and the source of most of the country’s funding for development and public health.

Nation

L.A. Targets Health Insurance Revocations

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The Los Angeles City Attorney’s office is investigating whether insurance companies have unfairly or illegally revoked the health-insurance policies of more than 8,000 Californians. California Lawyer Magazine reports that the practice may also threaten about 3 million middle-class Californians. In some cases, sick and dying patients lost their health insurance due to alleged “misstatements” made on already-approved applications. These include weight changes or the omission of prior conditions sometimes unrelated to a patient’s costly illness. Insurance companies said they are protecting their businesses against consumer fraud, and that their side of the story is not well publicized due to privacy laws for patients.

Environment

Health Fears for Navy Dolphins, Sea Lions

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The United States Navy plans to use dolphins and sea lions — which can detect underwater saboteurs at night — to protect submarines at a base near Seattle. The Los Angeles Times reports that animal activists are concerned that the Atlantic bottle-nosed dolphins, which are unused to such cold water, will suffer in the Puget Sound. Dolphin biologist Toni Frohoff told the newspaper that some of the Atlantic dolphins were captured in the Caribbean and that “they don’t have the physiology to adapt” to 45-55 degree water. At one of two public hearings in Seattle, the Navy offered to heat the dolphins’ holding pens, but critics said the temperature fluctuations might compromise their health in the long run. The Navy has a total 78 dolphins, 27 sea lions and one beluga, all of which are highly trained and can physically help capture trespassers.