Associated Press: A new system for mapping destruction of Brazil’s Amazon rainforest is reporting a surge in areas that have been partially cut but not yet cleared. Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research said the system shows that an area roughly the size of Belize or the state of Vermont was partially knocked down this year. The institute tracked 9,600 square miles of partially decimated forest this year, up 67 percent from 5,750 square miles in 2007, according to statistics on its Web …