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> Mon., Aug. 18, 2003
FSRN
FREE SPEECH RADIO NEWS
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Today's lead stories:
War Games on Korean Peninsular Begin
Power Restored – Who Will Foot the Bill?
Women Protest Shell in Nigeria
Part 1: Future of the Internet Series
The Blackout: Voices from NYC Streets
FSRN Headlines Produced by Randi Zimmerman
Latinos on the CA Recall - Jordan Davis
Reuters JOurnalist Killed in Gaza Strip - Mohammed Ghalayini
Turkey's Oil Flow - Ezgi Sertage
Poverty on the Rise - Robert Flaxman
Anniston Protests Military Incineration - Jim Hickey
War Games on Korean Peninsular Begin
The Bush Administration may be moving toward talks with
North Korea, but that hasn't stopped the Pentagon from launching
a number of dramatic military maneuvers which the North Korean
government calls preparations for a pre- emptive war. The
New York Times reports today the US Navy will carry out war
games in the Coral Sea off Australia where American soldiers
will practice intercepting and boarding enemy vessels. Also,
today, the American and South Korean armed forces launched
their biggest joint exercises ever -- the operation code-named
Ulchi Focus Lens, involves more than 8,000 South Korean soldiers
and close to 15,000 US troops. The US Army is also in the
process of consolidating its 37,000 troop presence in South
Korea in a way that activists say makes it easier for the
Bush Administration to launch an attack. And as Aaron Glantz
reports from Pyon-tech South Korea, the redeployment is also
harming the South Korean people.
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Power Restored – Who Will Foot the Bill?
Electric services have returned to normal throughout the
Northeast and Midwest after last Thursday’s massive
power outage that left millions without electricity for up
to 40 hours. Investigators from the industry group, the North
American Electric Reliability Council, say the power outages
may be attributed to breakdowns near Cleveland, Ohio. Three
energy lines owned by the power conglomerate First Energy
Corp failed an hour before the lights went out. First Energy
is deflecting the blame and saying unusual electric activity
began in the north east earlier in the day. If the Ohio energy
company is found fraudulent, it could face multi billion dollar
lawsuits. Meanwhile, Sunday morning political talk shows paraded
energy officials and political leaders calling for the modernization
of the energy grids which, according to Secretary of Energy
Spencer Abrahams, will be paid for by consumers. However,
as Mitch Jeserich reports, consumer rights activists say Energy
First and other energy companies should be held to pay the
bill.
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Women Protest Shell in Nigeria
Ethnic violence in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region has
left more than twenty people dead. The fighting in the oil
city of Warri, involves youths from the rival Itsekiri and
Ijaw ethnic groups and both sides are known to be using sophisticated
weapons. In the last three days, more than twenty people have
been killed while several houses have been destroyed. Many
people including oil workers have been forced to flee the
areas affected by the fighting. Nigeria is the world’s
sixth largest oil producer and the town is one of the main
operational bases of western oil companies operating in the
Niger Delta region. This as peasant women in a village in
Nigeria's Niger Delta region have forced the Anglo Dutch Oil
Company Shell to suspend its operations in their community.
The women from the Amukpe village have occupied the company's
installations over the last four weeks. As Sam Olukoya reports
from Amukpe, the action is an indication of the growing anger
of women against the activities of western oil companies operating
in the Niger Delta region.
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Part 1: Future of the Internet Series
The rules of the internet are changing. As American consumers
have increasingly turned to high speed so-called “broadband”
portals to the world wide web, the quality of connections
and the way in which the internet is used is evolving. Today
as we begin our three part series on Cyber – surveillance
and the freedom of public access to information on the internet,
Brendan Sweeney reports that many of the regulatory precedents
being set by Congress and the Federal Communications Commission,
could undermine and perhaps effectively privatize much of
the world wide web.
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The Blackout: Voices from NYC Streets
As a sense of normalcy returns to the areas affected by
last week’s massive power outage that rocked cities
stretching from Detroit Michigan in the US to Montreal in
Canada, federal, state and local authorities seem to be nowhere
closer to answers than they were when the incident first occurred.
On Thursday, moments after the loss of power, FSRN’s
Ian Forrest was on the streets of Downtown Manhattan and at
the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge as hundreds of thousands of
New Yorkers made their way home. He brings us this collage
of their voices.
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