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.

World

Renewable Energy Gets Global Boost

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A lot of global energy went into the creation of a new international agency that aims to promote a clean and green world — but many environmentalists fear the effort may not be enough. Inter Press Service reports that some 75 nations endorsed the creation of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) in January — excepting China and the United States, the world’s biggest polluters. Funding and staffing is also a concern. IRENA’s $25 million budget is just a tenth of that of Greenpeace International, according to the environmental advocacy group. There is also a question about how much clout IRENA can have without official status as a United Nations organization.

Environment

Salmon Imports May Bring Banned Chemicals

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The Pew Environment Group recently obtained documents from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration showing that Chilean salmon farmers are using chemicals and medications banned by regulators in the United States and Europe. Chile is America’s biggest suppliers of salmon and the second largest exporter of salmon in the world, reports PR Newswire. The farms — including Chile’s two largest salmon producers — are using the antibiotics flumequine and oxolinic acid, plus emamectin benzoate, a pesticide, to treat salmon destined for foreign markets. People who eat fish treated with antibiotics may develop resistance to the drug, making them vulnerable to certain types of bacterial infection, according to the report. Emamectin, the pesticide, is known to be “very toxic to aquatic organisms” and harmful to the environment.

World

Kosovo: A Brittle Peace?

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One year since Kosovo’s secession from Serbia, the fledgling country is at peace but struggling with severe poverty and unemployment. Economic challenges, corruption and lawlessness persist, especially in the mostly Serbian north. While interactions between Serbs and majority Albanians have remained non-violent, Deutsche Welle reports that “ethnic tensions and conflicts are still bubbling below the surface.” On February 10, thousands of Serbs gathered in Mitrovica to protest Kosovo’s mostly Albanian security forces. Pieter Feith, the EU’s representative to Pristina, said the protest “highlights the continued fragility of the situation on the ground.”

World

Russia Plans New Military Bases Near Georgia

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A plan to open military bases in the contested province of Abkhazia could threaten Georgia and extend Russian military power abroad, reports Eurasianet.org. Russia is working to restore an old Soviet air base in the breakaway Georgian region, and plans to open a naval base on the Black Sea as well. Abkhazia’s separatist government welcomes the bases due to what Russian military officials call the “threat of … terrorist attacks by Georgian special services.” Yet the new bases shine a more strategic light on Russia’s support for Abkhazian independence.

Economy

An Asian Tiger Comes (House) Hunting

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A group of Chinese tourists in America may go home with the ultimate souvenir: a house. The China Daily, published by China’s Communist Party, reports that more than 300 Chinese have signed up for a 10-day house-hunting trip organized by real estate Web site, Soufun.com. Potential homebuyers are capitalizing on low prices following the U.S. sub-prime mortgage crisis and the current global recession. The trip costs roughly 25,000 Yuan, or $3,500 and will target houses in the $400,000-$700,000 range, focusing on metropolitan areas with large numbers of ethnic Chinese in states such as California, Nevada and New York. Those interested include real estate professionals looking for cheap investment opportunities and parents of children studying in the United States.

Economy

Detroit's Got the Slow-Selling Hybrid Blues

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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

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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.

Environment

Lebanon: Water Shortage May Renew Feud

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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.