NYMHM: Burma Backstory -- How the Junta Stays in Business Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2007 15:20:04 -0700 Dear readers: In light of the ongoing protests in Burma/Myanmar, we bring you a special edition of News You Might Have Missed this week. Instead of several shorter roundups of world news, we're focusing on Newsdesk's previous coverage of the oil industry and the money that keeps the Myanmar junta in power. This special feature also brings together the latest coverage of oil and gas development there, which promises billions more in profits for the junta. It's all the context and depth you're not getting from mainstream media -- a hallmark of Newsdesk.org's journalistic mission. * If you find our work of value, please tell your friends, family and co-workers. They can subscribe for our free newsletter here: http://lists.artsandmedia.net/mailman/listinfo/nymhm/ * Although our expenses are low, and most of our editors work pro bono, we need your support to continue publishing NYMHM throughout 2007. Thank you for your generous donations: https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?id=695 Sincerely, Josh Wilson Editor * Newsdesk.org * 415/861-5302 ============================================================================= NEWS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED * September 20, 2007 * Vol. 6, No. 38 Important but overlooked news from around the world. NYMHM is a free service of Newsdesk.org. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Online this week: http://www.newsdesk.org/archives/004406.html - RSS: http://newsdesk.org/news/atom.xml - Donations: http://artsandmedia.net/contribute/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- QUOTED: "Where do you think that the money is going to go? It's not going to education or health programs -- it's going to the military to build a better command-and-control center to repress the population." -- Activist David Mathieson, on a pipeline that would earn $17 billion for the Myanmar junta (see "Burma Backstory," below). CONTENTS: *Top Stories* Day labor site divides in Texas Agribusiness gets another record harvest -- of subsidies Billboards no more for Brazil's megalopolis *Burma Backstory* Myanmar: How oil funding keeps the junta in business ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- TOP STORIES ............................................................................. > Agribusiness Gets Another Record Harvest -- of Subsidies The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the latest federal farm bill would spend $280 billion on traditional subsidies for corn, cotton and wheat, but virtually ignores burgeoning organic and alternative farming centered in Northern California. The newspaper notes that California's Fresno County produces more food than the entire state of South ... GET THE WHOLE STORY: http://www.newsdesk.org/archives/004407.html > Billboards No More for Brazil's Megalopolis Seventy percent of the residents of Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest city and the nation's economic powerhouse, remain fully committed to a near-total ban on outdoor urban advertising there. Adbusters reports that the city's conservative mayor, Gilberto Kassab, pushed through the new ... GET THE WHOLE STORY: http://www.newsdesk.org/archives/004408.html > Day Labor Camp Divides in Texas A Christian church in Houston is part of an interfaith coalition that has drawn the ire of anti-immigration activists by planning a new center for day laborers, the Houston Chronicle reports. U.S. Border Watch, a civilian group, brought 200 people to a rally opposed to the plan, saying it would undermine ... GET THE WHOLE STORY: http://www.newsdesk.org/archives/004409.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE BURMA BACKSTORY ............................................................................. > Myanmar: How Oil Funding Keeps the Junta in Business Newsdesk.org, Sept. 26, 2007 http://www.newsdesk.org/archives/004405.html Although most of the world's political powers, including the United States, have condemned the Myanmar junta's crackdown on reformist protestors, the military regime's persistent grip on power there has only been strengthened by decades of economic cooperation with the West. Here's a roundup of Newsdesk.org's coverage of the issue, as well as the latest articles from other regional and international news sources. In 2002, Newsdesk.org reporter Jennifer Huang broke ground with an exclusive investigative article on a series of human rights lawsuits filed against international energy corporations working in developing nations with abusive regimes. The lawsuits -- which targeted a number of American oil companies, including California's Unocal -- were filed in federal court under the Alien Tort Claims Act, an 18th century law that gives U.S. courts jurisdiction over some offenses committed overseas. Unocal was sued for its partnership with the French oil giant Total in the construction of the Yadana Pipeline, which carries millions of cubic feet of natural gas every day along a 63-kilometer route through Burma's southern Tenasserim region. Rich with natural resources and dense rainforest, Tenasserim is also home to ongoing ethnic strife, and the construction of the pipeline brought with it ongoing reports of forced labor, rape and murder of local minorities by government ... 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