Economy

Detroit's Got the Slow-Selling Hybrid Blues

By |

Automakers, already flirting with bankruptcy, find themselves in another bind when introducing hybrid and fuel-efficient models — consumers aren’t buying if they can afford the gas. The Detroit News reports that small car and hybrid sales surged last year but have since fallen about 2 and 12 percent, mirroring dropping gas prices. Lower gas prices hinder investment in smaller vehicles and more efficient technology — yet in order to meet new emission standards being considered by Congress, automakers will need to spend billions on green technology. Auto sales have hit a 27-year low, and companies are deciding whether to spend limited resources on electric, hybrid, and fuel cell technology that might not sell. By 2012, the North American hybrid market is only projected to increase to 5.3 percent.

Democracy & Civics

'Human Rights Prison' Opens in Australia

By |

Radio Netherlands reports that Australia’s first “human rights” prison is now open in Canberra. The prison, which can house up to 300 co-ed inmates, was designed with “restorative justice” principals in mind, to help prisoners maintain a sense of self-respect to enable their rehabilitation. It boasts bright color schemes, views of nature and reinforced plastic, instead of bars, for the windows. “Prisoners can’t leave the grounds but they don’t have to be treated like animals in a cage,” one official said. Half of the inmates will live in small groups in cottages, while traditional cellblocks for higher-risk prisoners will be somewhat larger, and feature individual toilets.

Featured

The Once and Future Water War

By |

In Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, known for its fertile cropland (right), an old feud between two clans that draw from the same water source is heating up, as resources strain to meet growing populations amid rising temperatures.
Photo: FlickrJunkie

Newsdesk News

Vote for local.newsdesk.org in the WeMedia Pitch-It Finals!

By |

Newdesk.org is one of nine nonprofit finalists out of more than 330 entries from 45 countries in WeMedia’s Pitch-It ’09 contest, developed in partnership with Ashoka’s Changemakers program. Read and rate the local.newsdesk.org pitch on the Changemaker’s Web site; your positive ratings will boost our chances. Learn more about WeMedia Pitch-It 2009
View all the finalists
The prize? $25,000, plus plenty of exposure and access to potential supporters — provided Newsdesk prevails in a live pitching session before a panel of judges and a demanding audience. The main event is in Miami on Feb.

Environment

Lebanon: Water Shortage May Renew Feud

By |

In Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, known for its fertile cropland, an old feud between two clans that draw from the same water source is heating up, according to a United Nations report. Violence between two clans in 1951 saw the Tawk, a prominent Christian family, resettle closer to Oyoun Orghosh springs, where they developed orchards, restaurants and aquaculture that their rivals, the Shiite Amhaz, say violate water rights dating back to the Ottoman Empire. Eleven people were killed in the conflict before the Hizbollah organization established an employment program for the Amhaz in 1991. Now, population growth, outdated infrastructure and increasing temperatures are putting renewed pressures on the springs, leading the government to predict an 80 percent increase in demand for water in the next fifteen years. All this threatens to stability of a region where agriculture employs almost half the workforce.