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Aggregation and analysis of important but overlooked news from around the world. NYMHM focuses on local and regional news stories with national and global resonance, and strives to source exclusively from local, regional and non-mainstream outlets.
How shall the Internet come to an end? Let us count the ways. GigaOm.com, an online media service focusing on emerging technology, outlined 10 specific ways in which the Internet as we know it could conclude. These include everything from hostile lawyers and the end of net neutrality, to technical problems, such as a hacker-assisted virus that disrupts the “self-healing” mechanism of Internet routers. And what about all those spam emails?
Rhode Island’s lead cable TV regulator has agreed to keep secret previously open data about the business operations of the three cable providers in the state. Cox Communications, Verizon Communications and Full Channel TV successfully lobbied the Division of Public Utilities and Carriers to prevent public access to details from their annual reports, including how many customers they have and financial information. The Providence Journal newspaper has filed a request with the state to review the secrecy decision. According to the Journal, Eric Palazzo, the state’s lead cable regulator, said, “we do not want to do anything that the companies feel would be negative in their competitive environment.” Linda Lotridge Levin, a journalism professor at the University of Rhode Island, said the move goes against open-government practices, and could negative effect on consumer choice and rights.
Pondering a donation to a presidential candidate? Looking for the right choice given the needs of your special-interest group? Friends — look no further than Opensecrets.org, a data-rich Web site published by the Center for Responsive Politics. Using a handy drop-down menu, Open Secrets provides a quick and easy reference guide to which special interest groups and which candidates are most copacetic. Lawyers and lobbyists prefer Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, with more than $15 million and $13 million in donations, respectively, as of March 20.
To much environmentalist acclaim, the Navajo Nation has announced plans to create a new wind-power plant on a reservation in Arizona. But Navajo leadership is still trying to win approval for a coal-fired power plant that environmentalists have bitterly opposed. The wind project, a joint venture with Boston’s Citizens Energy Corp., would produce 500 megawatts of power and provide jobs and up to $100 million in revenue for the Navajo Nation. Plans call for hundreds of windmills reaching as high as 400 feet, the Arizona Republic reported. In an interview with Reuters, Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley also discussed his continuing attempts to develop a $3 billion, 1,500-megawatt coal-burning plant on Navajo land.
While China, confronted with violence in Tibet, was shutting down some parts of the Internet, it opened access to one long-unavailable site. The BBC reported last week that, after years of being blocked by Chinese authorities, its English language news Web site was suddenly available to the Chinese public. Under a policy that has been called the “Great Firewall of China,” the communist government routinely blocks foreign news sites and other sites that it deems objectionable. China has never openly stated that it was interfering with access to the BBC, but the news site reported that it had been unavailable in China for years until recently. The BBC’s Chinese-language site remained blocked in most of China when the English site reported the news.
A Spanish judge has issued indictments against 40 Rwandan Army officers — and the nation’s president, Paul Kagame — over the slaying of four Spaniards working for Doctors Without Borders between 1990 and 2002. Kagame was the commanding officer for all 40 officers, and the general of the ultimately victorious rebel forces during Rwanda’s civil war and culminating genocide. Speaking a news conference, Kagame angrily declared that the indictments “mean nothing,” and said the judge, Fernando Andreou Merelles of the Spanish Central Instruction Court, should “go to hell.” Source:
“Rwanda: Kagame Tells Spanish Judge ‘Go to Hell’ Over Summons”
The Nation (Kenya), April 2, 2008
The World Health Organization said preventable deaths almost doubled in the Gaza Strip between 2006 and 2007, following the Hamas takeover and a corresponding ban by Israel on most cross-border travel. The number of travel permits denied to sick Gazans seeking medical care in Israel more than quadrupled, from 8.5 percent in December 2006 to 36 percent one year later. Israel said it was concerned about suicide bombers using health issues as a cover story, while critics said the policy amounts to collective punishment of the Palestinian population for rocket launches against Israel by Hamas militants. Medical care in Palestinian territories is in decline due to shortages in equipment, pharmaceuticals and trained personnel. An Israeli defense official told Reuters that tight control of Gaza’s borders has not caused unnecessary deaths, but a WHO spokesman said 100 Gazan patients have died since June after being denied travel permits.
Firmly established in power, Australia’s Labor Party has opted to reinvigorate a plan from the previous government to expand uranium mining. According to The Age, Labor’s resources minister, Martin Ferguson, is an “enthusiastic” advocate of the industry, and has reconvened the Uranium Industry Framework, an advisory board appointed by the government of former Prime Minister John Howard of the conservative Liberal Party. Among other things, the advisory panel will undertake a publicity campaign, funded by the uranium industry,to address public concerns about the health and safety issues of mining uranium. The panel also has proposed a number of new regulations to improve training and safety, as well as the “economic fortunes” of indigenous communities and mine owners. The Labor Party overcame strong opposition to narrowly overturn a ban on developing new mines, but opted to leave state-level bans in place in Queensland and Western Australia.
Almost 100 Indian guest workers at a Mississippi shipyard stormed off from their jobs one day earlier this month, claiming their employer had treated them like slaves. Now the group is suing the company and marching from New Orleans to Washington, D.C., to demand a meeting with the Indian ambassador. The men were part of a group of 500 Indians who were brought into the United States after Hurricane Katrina to work as welders and pipe fitters for Signal International, a company that makes marine oil platforms and other equipment in Mississippi and Texas. The company housed them in trailers where 24 men shared a room, paying $1,050 in rent, India-West reported. According to the Web site of the AFL-CIO, the workers say they were also pressured into paying other fees by Signal and forced to live like “pigs in a cage.”
Small and marginal farmers in India will get almost $15 billion in debt relief, thanks to legislation orchestrated by the populist son of the Nehru-Gandhi political family. Rahul Gandhi, whose family includes several former prime ministers and a turbulent history of assassination, said the farmers deserved the same treatment as “industrialists” who default on billions of rupees borrowed from banks, and then have their obligations waived. While some farmers complained that they were excluded from debt relief, critics said Gandhi was playing at being “Santa” for the sake of political populism, without concern for the economy, and praised his decision to limit loan waivers. Taking a cue from Gandhi’s actions at the federal level, state officials in Andrha Pradesh are moving forward with their own debt relief plan, aimed at more than 4 million women and minorities. Sources:
“Can’t play Santa beyond a point, realises Rahul”
Economic Times (India), March 26, 2008
“When industrialists dont pay, why should farmers: Rahul”
Deccan Herald (India), March 26, 2008