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> Mon., Feb. 16, 2004
FSRN
FREE SPEECH RADIO NEWS
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Today's lead stories:
Gay Couples Rush to Marry in SF
One Year on from Massive Anti-war Protests
Indo-Pak Peace talks Begin: US talks nukes with India
Behind the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement
Lakota Youth Protest Statue
FSRN Headlines
CBS Cancels Bush Advocacy Ad Calling it government-sponsored
advocacy, CBS is rejecting a paid commercial put out by the
Bush administration promoting the just passed Medicare prescription
drug law. Mitch Jeserich reports from DC.
Nigerian Military Attacks Village The Nigerian military,
protecting Western corporate interests, invaded a small village
in the oil rich, cash starved Niger Delta region and killed
twenty people. For Sam Olukoya reporting from Lagos, Terry
Guy.
Venezuelan Petition Count Delayed Venezuelans will have to
wait a bit longer to find out if there are enough people in
the country who want to send populist President Hugo Chavez
packing early. Greg Wilpert has the story from Caracas.
Castro Ribs Bush Cuban President Fidel Castro poked fun at
President George W. Bush in a speech that lasted more than
4 hours before economists in Havana over the weekend. At the
meeting concerning Globalization and Development problems,
Castro claimed that Bush would have trouble debating a Cuban
9th grader and again reiterated his belief that the administration
in D.C. is ready to assassinate him. For nearly 30-minutes
the audience laughed uproariously as Castro read from "Dos
Cabalgando Juntos (Two Men Riding Together)," a book
of malapropisms by Bush and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria
Aznar, who supported the invasion of Iraq. On a more serious
note, Castro also said that many of the more than 1,000 attending
economists from 50 countries -- including some from the United
States -- sharply criticize globalization and the "neoliberal"
economic policies of industrialized nations.
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Gay Couples Rush to Marry in SF
For the forth day in a row, hundreds of same gendered couples
are lining up to get marriage licenses from San Francisco
City Hall. Same-sex couples have been pouring in from around
the country to take advantage of Mayor Gavin Newsom’s
decision to allow same gendered couples to marry in defiance
of state law. The weddings are expected to continue through
today, after a judge on Friday refused to stop them. But as
Glen Reeder reports from Berkeley, while some fear the marriages
may not be worth much more than the paper it is printed on,
advocates are hoping it will set up a legal challenge to the
California ban on same sex marriage.
[top]
One Year on from Massive Anti-war Protests
Thousands marched in Madrid, Spain, yesterday, demanding
an end to the US occupation of Iraq and that Spanish troops
immediately leave the occupied country. The massive Spanish
protests come exactly one year after the people of the world
came out in unprecedented numbers, mounting the largest antiwar
demonstrations the planet had ever seen. One year on, Ian
Forest has this report from New York.
[top]
Indo-Pak Peace talks Begin: US talks nukes with India
Nuclear-armed neighbors India and Pakistan have finished
their first day of peace talks saying they made progress and
that the dispute over Kashmir is high on the agenda. The talks
are seen as "talks about talks" and aim to set the
agenda and timeframe for a formal dialogue process. The newly
conciliatory attitudes of New Delhi and Islamabad comes as
the Bush Administration is sticking its fingers into the fragile
nuclear relationship in South Asian. As our correspondent
Vinod K Jose reports from Delhi, President Bush says he is
going ahead in nuclear cooperation with India.
[top]
Behind the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement
Hundreds of Aborigines showed their outrage today over what
they say is yet another incident of fatal police brutality
after a young man died when police officers in the inner-city
Sydney suburb of Redfern chased him until he fell off his
bike where he died. Community members poured out on to the
streets in what the Associated Press described as a “riot,”
with everyone from young people to elders expressing their
anger at the continued police aggression against Aboriginal
youth. The government of New South Wales has promised an inquiry
into the boy’s death. Meanwhile in other Australia news,
details of the wide ranging free-trade agreement that was
signed last week between Australia and the US are slowly unfolding.
Christine Baker reports from community radio station 2SER
in Sydney.
[top]
Lakota Youth Protest Statue
A group of Lakota high school students is protesting a piece
of art located in downtown Rapid City, South Dakota. The bronze
statue of a bare chested Native American man, by sculptor
Glenna Goodacre who also created the Vietnam Women's Memorial
in Washington, D.C., is being called an insult to the Lakota
and all Native Americans. Free Speech Radio News correspondent
Jim Kent spent time with the students, their parents and a
representative of the retail store that owns the sculpture.
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