NYMHM: Japan's nuclear victims, Kosovo independence, Kenya's tourist trap

Wed Nov 28 16:10:32 PST 2007

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 NEWS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED * November 28, 2007 * Vol. 6, No. 48

 Important but overlooked news from around the world.
 NYMHM is a free service of Newsdesk.org.

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QUOTED: 

   "The Chinese government is closely monitoring and is intensifying
   repair work, and I think we can avoid losses as far as possible."

   -- Wang Xiaofeng on landslides and pollution around China's largest
   hydroelectric project (see "Three Gorges Dam," below).  

CONTENTS:

   *Top Stories*
     Japan to expand atomic bomb victim definition
     Kosovo threatens unilateral independence
     Tear gas for ethnic protest in Malaysia

   *Three Gorges Dam*
     Cracks at the seams? China bolsters Three Gorges

   *Kenya*
     Sex on the beach or birds in hand? Kenya's tourist trap

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 TOP STORIES
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 > Japan to Expand Atomic Bomb Victim Standards 

   More than 50 years after the nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and
   Nagasaki, a string of court losses has forced Japan's government
   to create a new standard that will recognize 20,000 new victims of 
   diseases and health problems related to the blasts. 

   The Kyodo news wire notes that nine kinds of diseases, including
   cancer and leukemia, will be recognized among the 250,000 
   registered bomb survivors in  ...

   GET THE WHOLE STORY: 

   http://www.newsdesk.org/archives/004482.html

 > Kosovo Threatens Unilateral Independence 

   Ethnic Albanian negotiators rejected a proposal for increased 
   autonomy for their home province of Kosovo, and threatened a 
   unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia if no deal  
   is struck by a December 10 U.N. deadline. 

   According to Agence France-Presse, the deal would have ensured 
   self-governance in all of Kosovo's economic, legal and "daily" 
   affairs, while Serbia would retain possession of ...

   GET THE WHOLE STORY: 

   http://www.newsdesk.org/archives/004483.html

 > Tear Gas for Ethnic Protest in Malaysia

   Riot police greeted thousands of minority protestors in Malaysia's 
   capital of Kuala Lumpur, turning back their calls for increased 
   social benefits with water cannons and tear gas. 

   The protestors, primarily Tamils, seek business licenses, access
   to scholarships and "other privileges reserved exclusively for 
   native Maylays," reports Asia Times Online. 

   Tamil activists also sought reparations from the United Kingdom
   for relocating their ancestors to Malaysia as indentured ...

   GET THE WHOLE STORY: 

   http://www.newsdesk.org/archives/004484.html

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 THREE GORGES DAM
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 > Cracks at the Seams? China Bolsters Three Gorges

   Everything about the Three Gorges Dam seems larger than life. 

   It was built at a cost of $15.6 billion, caused the relocation 
   of 1.2 million people, and has 19 hydropower generators that are
   expected by 2009 to produce 84.7 million megawatt-hours of 
   electricity each year. 

   And now, with increasing reports of landslides and environmental
   problems around the dam, thoughts of a larger-than-life disaster  
   have come to the fore. 

   China's project director for the dam, Wang Xiaofeng, said in a 
   press conference that the current environmental problems caused
   by the dam have been anticipated and ...

   GET THE WHOLE STORY:

   http://www.newsdesk.org/archives/004485.html

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 KENYA
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 > Kenya's Tourist Trap: Sex on the Beach and Birds in Hand

   Miles of shoreline, coastal forests, mountains, plains and the
   continent-spanning Great Rift Valley all make Kenya a world-class
   tourist destination. 

   But the complications of this burgeoning trade are abundant. 

   Kenya's beach towns, notorious for an illicit sex industry involving
   thousands of regional girls and boys, now have a new wrinkle to
   consider -- older caucasian women seeking uncomplicated dalliances 
   with young African men. 

   Critics say the practice revives a colonial past of white women 
   "serviced" by "black minions," reports the Mail & Guardian of 
   South Africa, and also note the health risks of casual encounters
   in a nation with a high incidence of ...

   GET THE WHOLE STORY: 

   http://www.newsdesk.org/archives/004486.html

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 DEDICATION
.............................................................................

   George "Vernon" Porter, 1941-2007

   This edition of News You Might Have Missed is dedicated to the
   memory of George "Vernon" Porter of Soldotna, Alaska, by his son, 
   Virgil Ward Porter. 

   Obituary, Nov. 4, 2007
   http://tinyurl.com/3bf4lf

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Editor: Josh Wilson
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