Skip to: Content
Skip to: Site Navigation
Skip to: Search

December 2, 2008 9:27:17 AM CST


land mines

land mines news stories

5 Stories

(Newser) - Move over, Rover: Man has a new best friend that is helping to combat two scourges plaguing the developing world. Rats, normally reviled as filthy vermin, are sniffing out land mines and detecting tuberculosis bacteria. "Rats are usually considered pests or enemies of humanity,” said one Mozambican handler, but they’re “helping my country escape the shadow of death.” More »

More about:  United Nations Africa dog Tanzania rats tuberculosis land mines Mozambique

 Scars of War Remain
 for Laotian Farmers 

Land littered with bombs makes subsistence farming a more dire proposition

(Newser) - As if surviving as a farmer in the developing world wasn't hard enough, for those in Laos there is an extra—often deadly—complication. The US littered the Southeast Asian nation with 2 million tons of explosives during the Vietnam War, one-third of which remain precariously unexploded, and responsible for an unquantified weekly death toll, reports Gourmet in a look at the complicated task of removing them. More »

More about:  farming land mines Third World Laos

 Cindy McCain's 
 Soft Talk Masks 
 Deep Resolve  

GOP candidate's wife is quiet on trail, crusader off it

(Newser) - Cindy McCain is reserved on the campaign trail—a marked contrast to the sometimes-pugilistic style of husband John—but outside the public eye she has been a “one-woman philanthropic operation,” reports the Chicago Tribune in a profile. The would-be first lady has brought medical relief missions to Rwanda and Vietnam, land-mine education to Afghanistan, and awareness to Darfur. More »

More about:  John McCain Iraq war Darfur Cindy McCain stroke painkiller land mines

WWII Mines Block Egypt's Access to Oil

4.8B barrels of crude
lie under 22M mines, shells in desert

(Newser) - Millions of land mines and unexploded artillery shells left over from World War II are hampering Egypt's efforts to get at a treasure trove of oil and gas beneath the desert, der Spiegel reports. The ordnance is an unwelcome reminder of the North African conflict between Brits and Erwin Rommel’s Nazi forces. More »

More about:  oil Egypt OPEC World War II natural gas natural resources land mines

Afghan Refugees Flooding Home, Some Forced From Camps

Mass repatriation may be new disaster

(Newser) - Afghan refugees are returning to their post-Taliban nation by the hundreds of thousands, and there are few resources to support them. Much of the repatriation is voluntary, the BBC reports, with newfound stability attracting Afghanis who fled as long as 25 years ago; others have been forced out of Pakistani camps that are shutting down. More »

More about:  Pakistan Afghanistan refugee refugee camp land mines repatriation

5 Stories

Today's Most Popular

Loading...

Premium Articles from HighBeam

Find more articles like this

What is Newser?

2008 Codie Finalist

Face it: there's too much news. At Newser a team of editors and writers culls the most important stories from hundreds of U.S. and international sources and reduces them to a headline, picture, and two paragraphs. It's the Newser guarantee: we can take any report or column or video and pack what you need to know into 120 words or less. Newser's short-form aggregation, visual format, and unique information tools help you get more of the kind of news you want, in a quicker and more entertaining way. And we do it 24/7—you can come back morning, noon, night (and in between) for something new that matters. Read less, know more.

Learn more »