Biggest Stories You Didn't Hear in '08

Catching up on the stuff blotted out by the election and financial crisis
By Amelia Atlas,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 17, 2008 7:40 PM CST
Biggest Stories You Didn't Hear in '08
Family of soldiers in the Sri Lankan army, who lost their lives fighting separatist Tamil rebels. The story has been undercovered because the country has banned journalists and most aid groups.   (AP Photo)

Election coverage and reports on the financial crisis ate up much of the media's attention in '08—while some major news stories went under-reported. Time runs down the biggest:

  1. A Pentagon gaffe accidentally sent nuclear warhead fuses to Taiwan in 2006; the mix-up was noted this year—by the Taiwanese.
  2. The Congolese civil war steadily intensifies, displacing 1 million people; cholera epidemics and refugee camp overcrowding are concerns.

Also making the cut were: 

  1. Rising violence in Sri Lanka takes more lives than fighting in Afghanistan this year.
  2. Bailout bill slips in a provision—12 years in the making—that forces insurers to cover mental health as equally as physical health.
  3. FDA guidelines for genetically engineered meat (omega-3 stuffed pigs, anyone?) favor food companies over consumers, and fail to demand labels identifying the meat's origins.
For more, click the link below.
(More Pentagon stories.)

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