Associated Press: Amazon deforestation jumped 69% in the past 12 months – the first such increase in three years – as rising demand for soy and cattle pushes farmers and ranchers to raze trees, officials said Saturday. Some 8,147 square kilometers (3,088 square miles) of forest were destroyed between August 2007 and August 2008 – a 69% increase over the 4,820 square kilometers (1,861 square miles) felled in the previous 12 months, according to the National Institute for Space Research, or INPE, which …