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> Mon., Oct. 20, 2003
FSRN
FREE SPEECH RADIO NEWS
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Today's lead stories:
Bolivian president escapes to Miami
APEC Forum opens in Bangkok
More nominations controversy
FCC seizes equipment of LP FM station
Islamic meetings end amid controversy
Free Speech Radio News Headlines by Nell
Abram
BOMBING CONTINUES NEAR GAZA -- MOHAMMED GHALAYINI Isaeli
airstrikes continue in the occupied Territories - Moahmmed
Ghalayini reports from Gaza.
CALIFORNIA STRIKES CONTINUE -- TERESA WIERZBIANSKA Over
70,000 grocery workers in Southern California continue to
strike in defense of their health and pension benefits while
the Los Angeles public transportation system remains locked
out as transit workers hit the picket line for the second
week today. Teresa Wierzbianska reportsf rom Los Angeles.
TAX CHEATS COST US BILLIONS -- RECARDO GIBSON The Senate
Finance Committee tomorrow will hold a hearing to discuss
how tax shelters have helped corporations cheat the Internal
Revenue Service out of Billions. More from Recardo Gibson
in Washington, D.C.
DRUG GIANT OVERCHARGES FOR ANTI-AIDS DRUGS -- NA'EEM JEENAH.
South Africa’s Competition Board found that Pharmecuetical
Giant GlaxoSmithKline charges excessive prices for anti AIDS
drugs - and recommemded the company pay a fine equal to 10
% of it’s annual South African drug sales. Na’eem
Jennah reports from Johannesburg.
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Bolivian president escapes to Miami (4:15)
This past weekend saw a big victory for the Bolivian people
when, after a month of demonstrations, blockades and strikes
resulting in an estimated 74 deaths, Bolivian President Sanchez
de Lozada resigned his post to vice president Carlos Mesa
and escaped to Miami. The Bolivian middle class joined hundreds
of thousands of indigenous, coca leaf farmers, and youth from
the poorest parts of La Paz to fight against the privatization
of the gas and government repression. Social unrest first
erupted last February when thousands of coca growers protested
Lozada's US backed anti coca laws. At the bitter end, 37 hunger
strikes across Bolivia and 150, 000 people in the streets
of La Paz last Thursday caused a center right coalition of
the government to advice the president to step down -- making
it impossible for Lozada to govern with only the support of
the US government and the army. Sebastian Hatcher is in Bolivia
and has this report with Tomas Eliashev and Pauline Bartolone.
[top]
APEC Forum opens in Bangkok (3:07)
President Bush arrived in Thailand today where he is attending
the annual Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. Terrorism
has dominated the trade and economic forum, along with talks
of North Korea's nuclear ambitions and reconstructing Iraq.
From Bangkok, Doualy Xaykaothao reports.
[top]
More nominations controversy (4:03)
Human rights groups are concerned over President Bush's
nomination of the Pentagon's top lawyer to the 4th Circuit
Court of Appeals. The nominee, William Haynes, is a key figure
in the Defense Department in creating rules guiding the military
in the trials of detainees both in Guantanamo Bay and the
Bagram Air force Base in Afghanistan. The appellate court
he is nominated to happens to be the court that the Pentagon
takes its cases concerning the so called war on terrorism.
Meanwhile, civil rights groups also oppose another Bush nominee,
Justice Janice Rogers Brown, to the California Supreme Court
to an appellate court saying she has used her career to fight
against civil and constitutional rights. Mitch Jeserich has
more from Washington D.C.
[top]
FCC seizes equipment of LP FM station (4:19)
The latest battles between low-power radio activists and
the Federal Communications Commission escalated last week
when, equipped with a warrant titled “the People of
the United States of America, vs. the equipment of San Francisco
Liberation Radio,” the FCC seized broadcast equipment
from San Francisco Liberation Radio, a 100-watt low power
community radio station broadcasting since 1993. This year
alone the FCC has contacted groups around the country including
Radio Free Burlington, Freak Radio Santa Cruz, and Radio Free
Canton, in Ohio. The FCC says stations must have a license
to broadcast, but media activists say that as it is currently
constructed, license distribution puts access to the airwaves
only within the grasp of the wealthy. Sarah Olson has more
from San Francisco.
[top]
Islamic meetings end amid controversy (3:25)
The summit of the Organization of the Islamic Conference
(OIC), the world's largest Muslim bloc, ended this week with
resolutions decrying western domination and supporting Palestinians,
but critics say it failed to lift perceptions that OIC remains
gripped by paralysis. The conference stirred intense controversy
among intellectuals in the Arab World after Malaysian Prime
Minister Mahathir Mohammad made remarks about Jews controlling
the West by proxy. Meanwhile, despite the summit concluding
with numerous resolutions, as Oula Farawati reports, the 57-member
OIC, which drew 37 heads of state, failed to announce the
radical structural changes that members had always talked
about but never implemented.
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