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> Mon., Apr. 5, 2004
FSRN
FREE SPEECH RADIO NEWS
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Today's lead stories:
Shi’te violence in Iraq – report from Baghdad
US to Try Aristide for Drug Trafficking?
Ciudad Juárez Activists: Gov. Must Resign!
Women and AIDS in South Africa
Update from Picket Line: Chicago Hotel Workers Continue Strike
36 Years Since Assassination of MLK Jr.
FSRN Headlines
President George W. Bush is sticking with the party denial
that he or anyone in his administration knew about the possibility
that Al-Queda cells were planning to hijack planes and crash
them into buildings. However, commissioners on the administration’s
hand picked investigation committee say otherwise. Ellen Ratner
reports from D.C.
Four out of nine soldiers, from a New York Army National
Guard company serving in Iraq are contaminated with depleted
uranium poisoning. Ama Buadi has more.
Sri Lankan elections leave the president and the peace process
less secure. Ponniah Manikavasagam reports from Vavuniya,
Sri Lanka.
Over the weekend, the suspects in Spain’s deadly train
bombing from last month were cornered and then reportedly
blew themselves up. David Oancia was there in Madrid.
In major cities across Europe on Saturday, hundreds of thousands
of people took to the streets in a day of action against reforms
to their national welfare systems. Guy Degen has more from
Cologne.
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Shi’te violence in Iraq – report from
Baghdad
After a bloody weekend in Iraq in which more than 10 American
troops were killed and many wounded, the timetable for the
handover of Iraq back to Iraqi’s is today being questioned
by Senate Republicans, while a growing number are questioning
why the US remains in Iraq at all. President Bush said today
that he intends to stick to the June 30 deadline. Paul Bremer
who was due in Washington tomorrow to brief senators at the
Capitol announced today that he has cancelled his trip. And
as Aaron Glantz reports from the streets of Baghdad, with
less than 90 days until the declared hand-over date, the anti-American
sentiment shows no signs of quelling as this latest Shi’te
violence illustrates. (For more reports from Aaron Glantz,
visit Pacifica Radio’s website where Aaron is posting
regular dispatches: www.pacifica.org.
[top]
US to Try Aristide for Drug Trafficking?
Today Secretary of State Collin Powell made his first trip
to Haiti since the overthrow of former Haitian President Jean
Bertrand Aristide. The State Department says Powell will urge
the new Haitian government not to appoint the criminals who
participated in the coup to any government posts. Meanwhile,
speculation is growing that the U.S. government may indict
Aristide on drug trafficking charges. Mitch Jeserich has more
from DC.
[top]
Ciudad Juárez Activists: Gov. Must Resign!
According to a report by the United Nation's Commission
for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, published
in part in the French newspaper "Le Monde", the
Mexican government has falsified evidence and used torture
to obtain confessions in the femicide cases in Ciudad Juárez,
Chihuahua. The report accuses the police of negligence and
complicity. Activists in Mexico's capital are now calling
for the resignation of the governor of Chihuahua. Vladimir
Flores has the story from Mexico City.
[top]
Women and AIDS in South Africa
As we reported late last week, the largest province in South
Africa has began distributing free anti-HIV drugs, raising
hopes of stemming the AIDS pandemic that has devastated the
nation. AIDS in South Africa threatens to overwhelm the efforts
of the post-apartheid government to provide a better life
for all its citizens, including the majority black population
who were excluded from all the benefits of society until a
decade ago. The irony is, in the view of many South Africans
and international health experts, that it is the government
itself that has contributed to the crisis. AIDS in South Africa
is overwhelmingly a heterosexual disease, and women suffer
disproportionately, because men tend to have many sexual partners
and women are often powerless to protect themselves. In Johannesburg,
Melinda Tuhus looks at some of the special challenges women
face in the age of AIDS.
[top]
Update from Picket Line: Chicago Hotel Workers Continue
Strike
Last Friday, Congress Hotel employees held a boisterous
rally in front of the Chicago hotel with other Local 1 members
of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees to mark more than nine
months on the picket line, in what has turned into one of
Chicago's most bitter strikes in recent memory. Local 1 has
stepped up the pressure on Congress' principle investor, apparel
manufacturer Albert Nasser, and will be in court next month
to support a raft of complaints against management by the
National Labor Relations Board. Chris Geovanis reports from
Chicago.
[top]
36 Years Since Assassination of MLK Jr.
And finally, on this, the day after the 36th anniversary
of the assassination of the great civil rights leader, Rev.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jnr, we remember his message of nearly
four decades ago – still so relevant today.
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