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> Mon., Mar. 29, 2004
FSRN
FREE SPEECH RADIO NEWS
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Today's lead stories:
French Left Sweep Regional Elections
Senate Debates Welfare Reauthorization
Richie Perez Dies – Puerto Rican Community Mourns
Poland on it’s Own with the EU Constitution?
UC Campuses to Stop Student Based Fundraising?
Mumia Abu Jamal Commentary on Haiti
FSRN Headlines
U.S. soldiers shut down a newspaper in Baghdad, justifying
the action as a much-needed part of creating a free Iraq.
Reporting from Baghdad, Aaron Glantz has more.
A United Nations report, critical of UN operation in Iraq
leading up to the bombing that killed 22 people last summer,
may lead to firings and demotions at headquarters. Haider
Rizvi reports from the U.N.
Arab League summit plans to work towards stability in Iraq
and Israeli-Palestinian relations dissolved amidst controversy
over too much U.S. influence in the region. Oula al-Farawati
reports from Amman, Jordan.
Today, judges in New York City, Lincoln, Nebraska and San
Francisco are considering the constitutionality of the ban
on late term abortions. More from Kéllia Ramares at
KPFA in Berkeley.
Companies poised to handle the Medicare drug discount cards
also have close ties to the Bush administration. Darby Hickey
from the D.C. Bureau reports.
[top]
French Left Sweep Regional Elections
The French Left dealt the conservative French government
a serious blow yesterday in regional elections as it won nearly
50 percent of the votes gaining the presidency in 20 out of
the 22 regions in mainland France. The National Front, the
extreme right wing party gained only 12% of the votes. And
as Raphaël Krafft reports from Paris, the results of
this election send a clear message to the French leadership
that their hard-line policies are not popular.
[top]
Senate Debates Welfare Reauthorization
Today the U.S. Senate begins debate on the reauthorization
of the controversial welfare act, known as TANF. Provisions
within the reauthorization would increase the number of hours
that welfare recipients must work, and the Bush administration
wants to include over a billion dollars to encourage poor
people to marry. The fate of the reauthorization is uncertain
as Senate Democrats try to attach amendments to it that would
raise the minimum wage and extend unemployment benefits. Mitch
Jeserich has more from Capitol Hill.
[top]
Richie Perez Dies – Puerto Rican Community
Mourns
The Puerto Rican activist community is today mourning the
passing of one of its greatest leaders, a life-long campaigner
for peace, justice and independence for Puerto Rico, Richie
Perez. This past Saturday the former Puerto Rican Young Lord
and community activist died in a New York hospital from Cancer.
WBAI’s Sally O’Brien brings us this audio obituary,
remembering Richie Perez.
[top]
Poland on it’s Own with the EU Constitution?
At the EU summit which just wrapped up, leaders of European
member states agreed to finalize an EU constitution by mid
June. One of the sticking issues in coming to agreement on
a common constitution is the issue of voting rights. Going
against the other EU countries, Spain and Poland had wanted
the voting system that was adopted at the Nice 2000 meetings
as part of the Nice Treaty. However, after the Madrid bombings
and with the new Spanish government about to take power, there
are signs that Spain is willing to compromise. And as Danuta
Szafraniec reports from Warsaw, it seems Poland is now facing
the heat alone.
[top]
UC Campuses to Stop Student Based Fundraising?
A new University of California proposal may disallow the
funding of campus groups that organize around specific issues.
The new fee proposals, which could take effect during spring-break
across University of California campuses, would eliminate
the ability for student groups to go to the student populace
for more money, effectively stopping the fundraising ability
of issue-based groups. These proposals are pushed forward
in the wake of much campus organizing for the defeat of Proposition
54, which was the so-called Racial Privacy Initiative. The
UC Office of the President holds the final decision making
power with regards to the fee proposal. Katie Jarmul from
Pacifica Affiliate KCSB in Santa Barbara reports.
[top]
Mumia Abu Jamal Commentary on Haiti
[top]
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