Protests in Haiti over Low Minimum Wage Turn Violent

Al Jazeera English - Americas - Haiti protesters clash with police

Haitian police have clashed with protesters calling for an increase in the minimum wage outside the country's parliament.

As politicians prepared to vote on the issue in Port-au-Prince on Tuesday, some of the 2,000 protesters threw stones at police officers, who responded by firing tear gas to disperse the crowd.

One person was reported to have been injured in the clashes but no arrests were made.

The demonstrators said the minimum wage was insufficient and that they could not provide adequate food and shelter for their families on less than $2 a day.

"Seventy gourdes, that doesn't do anything for me," said Banel Jeune, a clothing factory worker taking part in the protest, referring to his current minimum-wage salary.

"I can't feed my kids, and I can't send them to school."

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Beehaus Designed for City Slicker Bees

New plastic beehive designed to encourage honey-making in the city - Times Online

Honeybees are suffering from an undiagnosed disease causing colony collapse disorder. The varroa mite and various viruses have also destroyed thousands of apiaries. The number of honeybees has fallen by 10-15 per cent over the past two years. More than half of Britain’s 250 species of bee are in decline.

To appeal to city dwellers’ tastes, a new beehive has been created and was unveiled by Tom Tew, the chief scientist for Natural England. The Beehaus is like a giant coolbox standing at waist height and has an easily removed lid that allows the whole hive to be exposed for inspection and maintenance. It is twice the size of a traditional hive, meaning that there is plenty of space for the colony to grow and therefore less risk of swarming. The plastic structure is easily cleaned and impervious to woodpeckers, which frequently damage wooden hives. Three layers of plastic, separated by air pockets, help the bees to maintain the stable 35C (95F) they need to multiply.

The Beehaus was designed by the same company that created the Eglu, a plastic chicken house that encouraged a new fashion for urban chicken keeping and has been installed in 30,000 homes since 2004.

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