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> Fri., Dec. 12, 2003
FSRN
FREE SPEECH RADIO NEWS
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Today's lead stories:
Military Contracts to Universities?
Peace Accords Update
Peace at Last in South Asia?
World Bank Development Lottery in DC
Mumia on Nathanial Jones
Free Speech Radio News Headlines by Randi
Zimmerman
Hirosima Survivors Petition Smithsonian
Today the Japan Confederation of A and H Bomb Sufferers Organization
handed in petitions to the Smithsonian National Air and Space
Museum over a new display they say covers the real consequences
of the atomic bomb the United States dropped on Hiroshima.
Keiko Ogura is the Director of Hiroshima Interpreters for
Peace. She was eight years old and living in Hiroshima when
Enola Gay dropped the bomb. The director of the air and space
museum has refused to meet with the group. The U.S. government
just approved funding for the next generation nuclear weapons.
KBR Overcharges US Taxpayer in Iraq
A Pentagon audit finds the Halliburton subsidiary working
for the U.S. military in Iraq is over-billing taxpayers for
their work. From KPFT in Houston, Renee Feltz reports.
CA Strike Over Licenses
Latinos and Latinas in California are being urged to strike,
boycott shops, and keep their children out of school today
protesting a repeal of the short-lived law allowing undocumented
immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses. Kellia Ramares
has more.
Bio-tracking at the Border
A top U.S. official confirms that the government is working
on developing a new technology that will keep track of foreign
nationals while in the United States. Shannon Young reports
from Miami Beach.
Protests in Haiti
Today the United States embassy in Haiti’s capital was
reportedly closed a portion of the day until officials there
could confirm calm in the city. Police fired tear gas and
warning shots yesterday out side the Presidential Palace in
Port au Prince at thousands of students calling for President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide to step down. Other Haitian nationals
charge the protestors are funded by the U.S. government and
represent the elite class who protest Aristides’ more
populist policies. President Aristide has formally condemned
the violence on both sides.
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Military Contracts to Universities? (3:43)
Human Rights Watch said today that scores of Iraqi civilians
were killed or injured needlessly, because Britain failed
in its duty as an occupying power in its use of cluster bombs
and by not securing Iraqi munitions dumps. This as the Bush
administration has delayed the bidding process for the 18.6
billion dollars in reconstruction money for Iraq. It is unclear
however, whether the delay is due to the international outrage
that only corporations from countries that supported the invasion
were eligible for primary contracts. Yet even with the US
there is outrage over the contracts, with residents of New
Mexico wondering why the University of New Mexico, a self-described
research university, is receiving money from military contracts.
KUNM's Leslie Clark reports.
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Peace Accords Update (4:03)
A week after his meeting with the authors of the Geneva
accord, US Secretary of State Colin Powell met yesterday with
Palestinian intellectual Sarri Nusseibah, the co-author of
the popular Campaign for Peace and Democracy, a peace petition
that calls for a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders
and asks the Palestinians to give up the refugees right to
return. Yesterday also marked the 55th anniversary of the
passing of UN resolution 194 which affirmed the right of Palestinian
refugees to return to their homes inside Israel. Mohammed
Ghalayini has more from Gaza.
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Peace at Last in South Asia? (4:26)
It appears that grand overtures towards peace are being
made in South Asia as this week the Pakistani Prime Minister
assured Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee of a grand welcome
when he lands in Islamabad on January 4 to attend a meeting
of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).
The friendly overtures between the nation’s leaders
has also trickled down to the business elite, according to
a Pakistani media report, entrepreneurs are buying land around
an entry point between India and Pakistan which is expected
to become part of a trading zone. This is seen as a clear
sign that the normalization process between the two traditional
enemies is leading towards durable peace in the region. Masror
Hussain reports from Islamabad.
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World Bank Development Lottery in DC (3:36)
Hundreds of people from 27 countries arrived last week at
World Bank headquarters, located in Washington, DC, to compete
for funding of their development projects at the World Bank's
Development Marketplace. Only 47 projects were picked to share
more than 6 million dollars in grant money. EllieWalton reports
from Washington DC.
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Mumia on Nathanial Jones (3:49)
22 years ago this week Mumia Abu-Jamal was arrested for
the fatal shooting of police officer Daniel Faulkner. Mumia
remains on death row in Pennsylvania despite the fact that
another man, Arnold Beverly, has confessed to the killing
of officer Faulkner and has passed two lie detector tests
regarding his testimony. The courts refuse to hear his testimony
and will not arrest him. This weekend there will be mobilizations
around the country calling for justice for Mumia Abu Jamal,
and from his death row cell, Mumia calls for justice for Nathanial
Jones who was beaten to death by police in Cincinnati.
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