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> Fri., Aug. 1, 2003
FSRN
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Today's lead stories:
UN on Liberia
Democrats: Save Davis. What about McKinney?
Protests of Racist Police Killings in Texas
Day Laborers Fight for Rights
Part 2: US War Games in South Korea
3 Irishmen on Trial in Bogotá
Free Speech Radio News Headlines
PM Blair to testify at inquiry -- Charlotte Parsons
1100 Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike -- Mohammed Ghalayini
Immigrant student registration deadline -- Nell Geiser
Unocal trial to go forward in CA -- Jordan Davis
[top]
UN on Liberia (3:18)
In Liberia’s embattled capital Monrovia, guns were
silent today for the first time in two weeks. Residents celebrated
the end of rebel mortar attack that have killed hundreds of
people and caused thousands to flee. West African leaders
today pressed president Charles Taylor, an accused war criminal,
to go into exile into Nigeria within three days of Monday’s
schedule arrival of Nigeria “peacekeeping troops. Taylor’s
departure is a key demand of the United States, which this
week presented a draft resolution to the United Nations Security
Council, authorizing West African intervention in Liberia
and calling for a future UN peacekeeping force. The draft
resolution does not spell out a role for the US, disappointing
some at the UN and elsewhere who have called on the US to
take the lead, because of its historic ties to Liberia. More
from Susan Wood at the UN.
[top]
Democrats: Save Davis. What about McKinney?
(2:37)
As California Governor, Gray Davis continues to fight for
his political life amidst the states first-ever voter recall
of a statewide officeholder – another Democrat of national
importance, New York Senator, Hillary Clinton – has
decided to travel to California to campaign for Davis next
week. This in a bid to maintain what political analysts have
described as a key Democratic state in the 2004 Presidential
election. But former Democratic Congresswoman from Georgia,
Cynthia McKinney who last year lost her own re-election bid,
says there’s a double standard in the Democratic Party.
She spoke in New York last night with other prominent Black
activists and media figures on what they say is the continued
disenfranchisement of black voters in the United States. From
Pacifica station WBAI in New York City, Ian Forrest reports.
[top]
Protests of Racist Police Killings in Texas
(3:22)
Texas is known internationally not only as the state that
leads the way in killing African American men on death row,
but it is fast gaining the reputation as the lead state in
killing African Americans at the hands of the police. NAACP
and community members demonstrated outside of the Austin police
headquarters to protest the recent shooting deaths of 3 African
Americans—all of the shootings involved white officers.
Stefan Wray reports from Austin.
[top]
Day Laborers Fight for Rights (3:44)
Roughly a thousand corner day laborers gather each morning
at a dozen open air sites across Chicago to seek short-term
manual labor. The work is often backbreaking, workers have
no healthcare or benefits, and employer abuses are common.
Today, workers celebrate a one-month anniversary in preventing
their displacement from an open-air site that also serves
as an informal workers' center. Chris Geovanis reports from
Chicago.
[top]
Part 2: US War Games in South Korea (3:46)
While North Korea today agreed to President Bush's planned
six way talks on ending its stand-off with the United States,
the US military carried out large scale war-games just a few
miles from the Demilitarized Zone that separates North and
South Korea. The US Army's Stryker Brigade Combat Team was
in action today, firing live rounds of ammunition in the direction
of North Korea, drills the army says is necessary to "give
the troops familiarity with the conditions and terrain of
the Korean peninsula." The U-S military has been using
South Korea as a training ground for war for more than 50
years, with no better example than the military's practice
bombing range at Meyhan Ni. In this second of Free Speech
Radio News' special series on U-S war games in South Korea,
correspondent Aaron Glantz looks at the economics of the Meyhan
Ni bombing range.
[top]
3 Irishmen on Trial in Bogotá (3:13)
Yesterday in Bogotá, the 9-month trial of three Irishmen,
alleged to be members the Irish Republican Army, the IRA,
and accused of instructing Colombia’s left-wing guerrilla
on explosives techniques, reached a climax as the trio made
their first court appearance. The three were arrested by Colombian
authorities in Bogotá in August 2001 as they stepped
down off a plane from the demilitarized zone controlled by
the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the FARC. They
were found using false passports, a charge to which they plead
guilty. But they declared their innocence to charges of terrorism
and teaching bomb making to the guerrillas, stating they traveled
to Colombia to learn about the now defunct peace process.
This case has effected the frail peace process in Northern
Ireland because despite declarations from the IRA that they
had no involvement in Colombia, Protestants view the allegations
as a sore point. From Bogotá, Nicole Karsin has more.
[top]
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