Headlines for 9 June 2010

Bhopal verdict

On Monday, an Indian court found seven former managers of the Union Carbide Company guilty of criminal negligence.  In 1984, a gas leak at the Union Carbide Company chemical plant killed thousands of people in the city of Bhopal. 

The seven managers will each pay a fine of about $2,200 and have been sentenced to two years in prison.

Relatives of the victims were outraged by the ruling, calling it "too little, too late," and Indian officials say they will appeal for harsher sentences

The official death toll in the disaster at the Bhopal pesticide plant is 3,500 people.  But activists say that over the years the poisonous gas leak has claimed more than 20,000 lives.  Hundreds of thousands were either disabled or left grappling with chronic illnesses - ranging from kidney and liver damage, to cancer and birth defects.

In 1989, Union Carbide paid a settlement of $470 million to the Indian government, but disabled survivors say that they have only received a small amount of money, not enough to pay medical bills and replace lost income.  Union Carbide was later bought by Dow Chemical, which said its legal liabilities for the disaster ended with that settlement.
 

US border patrol kills teen on Mexican soil

DemocracyNow! reports that a fourteen-year-old Mexican boy was buried today, less than forty-eight hours after being shot by a US Border Patrol agent on Mexican soil. Mexican officials say Sergio Adrian Hernandez Huereca was shot in the head.

The Mexican government has condemned the shooting, saying the use of firearms to respond to boys throwing rocks was a "disproportionate use of force." An eyewitness said Hernandez was clearly on the Mexican side of the border when he was shot.

The shooting comes just weeks after President Obama announced a plan to send an extra $500 million and 1,200 National Guard troops to the border. Two weeks ago, a Border Patrol officer in California shot and killed an undocumented Mexican immigrant with a stun gun.

Teenager challenges judge's "punk" comment

The CBC has reported that a teenager who was called a "punk" by a judge during a court hearing has lost an appeal for reduced jail time. The appeal was based on claims the remark showed bias towards him.

Earlier this year, the teen was given a nine-month youth sentence for brandishing and pointing a loaded, sawed-off shotgun in a public place. The sentence was three months longer than prosecutors were seeking.

That this punk thinks he can walk around, you know, with a sling under his jacket concealing a sawed-off firearm. I mean that – while he's on probation and a weapons prohibition. I mean it's insane."

LUSH cosmetics will campaign against Tar Sands

The Winnipeg Free Press reports that LUSH Cosmetics intends to turn its 44 Canadian outlets into campaign centres against the Alberta tar sands. LUSH plans to showcase images of deforestation, open-pit mining, and oil fields in its shop windows, and will hand out leaflets to store customers encouraging them to support the Rainforest Action Network’s campaign to stop tar sands development.

In Winnipeg today, employees from the LUSH Cosmetics store in the Polo Park Shopping Centre will be will officially launch a national campaign against Canadian tar sands development.  The employees will be scantily clad in oil-barrel costumes, and will encourage passers-by to send postcards to Stephen Harper. 

In a written statement, the company said that

We want our government to stop subsidizing this dirty oil and invest the billions of dollars into fuel efficient cars and clean, renewable energy like wind and solar power instead."