NYMHM: India's medical-bill suicide pact, pumping up public water, China's many mutinies

Wed Jul 2 13:10:38 PDT 2008

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   NEWS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED * July 2, 2008 * Vol. 7, No. 26

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

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QUOTED:

    "A common refrain in the messages we have received from members
    since the Web site was shut down is: 'I love my country but my
    country doesn't love me.'"

    -- Lu Jun Lu runs a Chinese Web site for people with hepatitis
    that was shut down by the government over Olympic protest
     concerns (see "China," below).

CONTENTS:

    *Top Stories*
      Medical bills spur India suicide plan
      Pumped up for public water
      For forests under fire, a slight return

    *China*
      A million mutinies now

    *Carbon Tax*
      Canada in heated debate over global warming tax

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  TOP STORIES
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  * Medical Bills Spur India Suicide Plan

    A woman stricken with kidney disease and her husband have
    petitioned a municipal official in Kolkart, Indiam to allow
    them to commit suicide.

    The Times of India reported that Swapna Das and husband Biswanath
    Das wrote to the district magistrate asking permission to die
    together because of health care costs they find staggering.

    She is on dialysis, which costs 6,000 rupees or U.S.$138, and
    cannot afford a kidney ...

    GET THE WHOLE STORY:

    http://www.newsdesk.org/archives/005583.html

  * Pumped up For Public Water

    The tide may be turning for water privatization.

    Water supplies have already fallen out of private hands in
    developing nations such as Mali, Uruguay and Bolivia -- and
    now the French are following suit.

    Paris has pushed the trend forward by announcing that its water
    will go public for the first time in over a century, starting
    on Jan. 1, 2010.

    The move follows similar measures enacted in over 40 other ...

    GET THE WHOLE STORY:

    http://www.newsdesk.org/archives/005584.html

  > For Forests under Fire, a Slight Return

    Forests are disappearing from the Amazon to Afghanistan,
    but the rate has slowed, the Canadian Broadcasting
    Corporation reports.

    A new study by the United Nations found that the world has
    a net loss of 7.3 million forest hectares annually -- down
    from 8.9 million per year during the 1990s.

    Although forest regeneration has slowed the rate of loss,
    the causes of deforestation are ...

    GET THE WHOLE STORY:

    http://www.newsdesk.org/archives/005585.html

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  CHINA
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  > China: A Million Mutinies Now

    After years of brutally suppressing dissent, China has in
    recent months faced violent public unrest in a number of
    different cities and over a wide range of issues, from the
    government's handling of the Sichuan earthquake to calls for
    Tibetan independence to a government crackdown on an
    Internet health forum.

    With the world's attention on the country for this summer's
    Beijing Olympics, the anti-government violence tests the
    Communist Party's leadership and ability in unprecedented ...

    GET THE WHOLE STORY:

    http://www.newsdesk.org/archives/005586.html

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  CARBON TAX
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  > Canada In Heated Debate Over Global Warming Tax

    Environmentalists have long proposed taxing carbon emissions as
    a way of combating global warming -- but if a new Canadian law
    is any indication, implementing such a tax won't be easy in the
    United States.

    The carbon tax, which so far is levied only in British Columbia,
    had not even gone into effect yet last month when politicians
    from other provinces began saying it would fail, and drag
    the whole country ...

    GET THE WHOLE STORY:

    http://www.newsdesk.org/archives/005587.html

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Editors: Will Crain, Josh Wilson | Intern: T.J. Johnston
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