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> Fri., Mar. 7, 2003
FSRN
FREE SPEECH RADIO NEWS
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Today's lead stories:
UN Security Council Hears Blix Report
UK Has Weapons of Mass Destruction
Workers Respond to Gov. Sector Privitization
Yale Employees Strike
Rape Brings up Women's Rights Issues in Central America
UN Security Council Hears Blix Report (4:10)
North Korea today has signaled it may test a missile as
it has moved to zone off the coast off the Sea of Japan which
a Navy official indicated is "typically a precursor to
a missile test." This as Chief weapons Inspectors today
delivered another progress report to the United Nations Security
Council. Hans Blix said inspectors needed more time to check
Iraq has fully complied with its disarmament obligations,
but applauded steps already taken by Iraq to disarm. This
on the heels last night of a rare prime-time televised press
conference which saw President Bush attempt to set the agenda
of the upcoming Security Council vote. Nadja Middleton files
this story.
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UK Has Weapons of Mass Destruction (4:01)
Gen. Mike Jackson, the British Chief of Staff today said
that the First Battalion Royal Irish Regiment, currently in
Kuwait, would be ready to invade Iraq in one week. This as
the case for war continues to be made strongly by British
PM Tony Blair who appeared yesterday on MTV where he received
a grilling. However critical the British press has been on
the subject of war, one subject that is not brought up regularly
is Britain's own breaches of treaties governing weapons of
mass destruction. Anastasia Kershaw has this report from London.
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Workers Respond to Gov. Sector Privitization (4:14)
The administration's plan to privatize up to half the federal
workforce, announced last November, is at a critical stage.
Unless government workers can demonstrate that the plan not
only puts a contract out on their jobs, but represents a tectonic
shift of public sector monies to the private sector, with
little or no oversight, their numbers will continue to decline.
Private industry take-over of government programs is not a
new phenomenon. 2/3 of all federal contract dollars are rewarded
to the Department of Defense. Billions were transferred to
private contractors to administer welfare- related services
without setting any federal standards for privatization under
Clinton. But Bush's plan is the most far-reaching and threatens
a return to the spoils system that ruled the day before the
civil service was created in 1883. Martha Baskin has this
story.
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Yale Employees Strike (3:25)
More than 5,000 workers at Yale University are striking
this week to demand what they call a "fair settlement"
from their employer. Yale, with its 10.5-billion dollar endowment,
is one of the richest educational institutions in the world.
The Yale unions are expanding the kind of labor solidarity
they practiced in 1984, when the long-established, mostly
male maintenance workers' Local 35 honored the picket lines
of the fledgling, mostly female clerical workforce. Hundreds
of New Haven clergy, the city's mayor and the area's Congresswoman
have spoken out in support of both the existing unions' demands
and the right of the unorganized workers to hold union elections.
Both the unions and their community supporters point out that
Yale is the area's largest and wealthiest employer. As such,
it sets the standard, and they say it should be higher. Melinda
Tuhus has the story from New Haven, Connecticut.
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Rape Brings up Women's Rights Issues in Central America
(4:16)
The struggle over women reproductive rights has just heated
up in Central America. This month a case of a nine year old
girl who was raped and impregnated demonstrated how the Catholic
church is successfully crusading for the rights of the unborn
child at the cost of the rights of women and even girls. Nan
McCurdy has more on the controversy from San Jose, Costa Rica.
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