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> Tues., Nov. 4, 2003
FSRN
FREE SPEECH RADIO NEWS
Thanks to FSRN.org
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Today's lead stories:
Congress Debates Financial Privacy Laws
Radio For Peace Under Siege
Global Power Exposed: Part 7: West Papua
Resistance to AIDS Drugs a Growing Problem
Ramadan Celebrated Across Muslim World
Free Speech Radio News Headlines by Randi
Zimmerman
No More Combat in Iraq?? -- Ahmed Al-arawi
Today, President Bush rejected claims that the United States
military was again engaged in full-scale combat in Iraq. From
Baghdad, Ahmed Al-arawi reports on the situation.
Arsenic Playgrounds Unregulated – Craig Murphey
The Consumer Product Safety Commission denied efforts to regulate
arsenic treated wood in playground equipment saying the Environmental
Protection Agency was planning to ban the chemically treated
lumber. More with the story in Washington, D.C. is Craig Murphey.
Muslim Students Kicked Off School Bus
Today, a Florida middle school denied responsibility for Muslim
students who say they were thrown off a school bus. The principal’s
office said any and all questions regarding the matter should
go to the bus company First Student. Altaf Ali, a spokesperson
with CAIR the Council on American-Islamic Affairs office in
Florida said the driver put the children in imminent harm.
Last week, about 20 Muslim middle school students were thrown
off a bus on their way home from school. Most of the students
were fasting for Ramadan, yet had to walk 5 miles from where
they were dropped off. The bus company has been unreachable
for comment. Altaf Ali claims that many of the children report
numerous incidents of discrimination. The ACLU and CAIR have
both called for an investigation and are considering legal
action.
Nations Condemn U.S. Embargo – Haider Risvi
Most nation’s of the world agree with Cuba’s condemnation
of the United States imposed embargo of the island nation.
Haider Risvi reports on the latest from the United Nations.
Sri Lankan President Fires Ministers
Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga fired three major
cabinet ministers, suspended parliament for two weeks and
deployed troops and police around the nation to quell potential
resistance. The President rejected the independence seeking
Tamil Tiger’s recommendations for peace. The nation’s
Prime Minister, and the President’s political rival,
brokered the peace deal. The Prime Minister now in Washington,
D.C. is scheduled to talk on Wednesday with George W. Bush
on peace plans in Sri Lanka. President Kumaratunga said her
actions were in the interest of national security and her
rationale would be laid out in “due course.”
[top]
Congress Debates Financial Privacy Laws (4:00)
A bill currently in Congress would disallow states from
enacting their own financial privacy laws. Sharing and selling
personal financial information like bank deposits and credit
card purchases is big business amongst banks and credit card
companies. This information allows companies to create consumer
profiles. The use of such information has not always been
benevolent, as former CitiGroup financial officers admitted
in court depositions of pushing unneeded insurance programs
onto people who spoke English as a second language. Congress
is likely to pass a bill that would trump California's recently
enacted law to allow consumers to tell their financial information
not to share their information. Mitch Jeserich reports.
[top]
Radio For Peace Under Siege (3:31)
Yesterday the United Nation's University for Peace in Costa
Rica began to use aggressive means to shut down progressive
station Radio For Peace International. In July, the university
served an eviction notice to the radio station staff, who
refused to leave. Joining us now is the station’s managing
director James Lathem from inside locked studios.
[top]
Global Power Exposed: Part 7: West Papua
(3:51)
The U-S Senate has voted to continue the US’s ban
on training the Indonesian military. When President Bush visited
Bali recently, he said he wanted to restart such trainings,
which were banned in 1999 after the Indonesian Army destroyed
much of East Timor as it became independent. But the Senate
refused to grant Bush his request pointing to the killings
last year of two Americans near the American-owned Freeport
Gold mine – the largest gold mine in the world. From
West Papua, Meggy Margiyono has the next report in our continuing
special series looking at the effects of the global “war
on terrorism”.
[top]
Resistance to AIDS Drugs a Growing Problem
(4:09)
The British Health Protection Agency says that hundreds
of people in the United Kingdom have been diagnosed with a
strain of HIV that is resistant to all of the commonly prescribed
drugs. Information from the Agency's National Resistance Database
indicates that the percentage of people on medications who
have become resistant to all three classes of AIDS drugs has
grown from 1% in 1996 to 14% in 2001. And during that same
period, the percentage of people who are being initially infected
with a drug resistant strain increased from 10 to 14 percent.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved
T-20, the first of a new class of AIDS drugs called fusion
inhibitors. Developed jointly by pharmaceutical companies
Roche and Trimeris under the brand name Fuzeon, T-20 is showing
good results for those who are becoming resistant to other
drugs. But its cost is high, its availability is limited and
some patients are developing resistance even to this new approach
in treatment. Kellia Ramares has more.
[top]
Ramadan Celebrated Across Muslim World (4:01)
Muslims all around the Arab world welcomed the Muslim holy
month of Ramadan last week, in which practicing Muslims fast
from dawn until dusk to show adherence to Allah’s orders.
But as Oula Farawati reports from Amman, this year Muslims
concur that Ramadan comes as Arab and Muslim nations are in
a worse state than ever before, now adding Iraq to the Arab
states oppressed by occupation.
[top]
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