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> Wed., May 12, 2004
FSRN
FREE SPEECH RADIO NEWS
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Today's lead stories:
Rumsfeld Under More Fire
Can the New Najaf Governor End the Siege?
Haiti’s PM Visits the UN
Mexican UNAM Activist Victim of Hate Crime?
Lori Berenson's Last Trial: Will She Be Freed?
FSRN Headlines
MORE VIOLENCE IN GAZA
An explosion in the southern Gaza Strip today hit an Israeli
occupation forces vehicle, killing five Israelis inside. Earlier
today, Israeli soldiers swept through the southern Gaza City
neighborhood of Zeitoun searching for the remains of the six
soldiers killed yesterday. The searches prompted frequent
gun battles and Israeli missile strikes that killed at least
three Palestinians and injured about 50, Palestinian hospital
officials said.
NO PARENTAL RIGHTS FOR LESBIAN MOM
The San Francisco Court of Appeals has denied parental rights
to a lesbian mother of twins, even though she’s the
genetic parent. Kellia Ramares as the story.
Cuba Restricts Dollar Buying
Cuba closed many of it's dollar stores and reduced the number
of items for sale in US currency. FSR's Havana correspondent
Joseph Mutti reports.
No Child Left Behind Act
A report released today by the Citizens’ Commission
on Civil Rights says tens of thousands of students took advantage
of the provision of the No Child Left Behind Act that allows
transfer to better schools. Sogomon Torontsi reports form
DC.
W.H.O. on HIV/AIDS
The World Health Organization says in its annual report that
three million people worldwide died of AIDS last year, making
it the top single cause of death among people ages 15 to 59.
The predicts 6 million people will die in the near future
if they don't receive treatment with antiretroviral drugs.
It's thought that fewer than 7 percent of those people --
mostly in developing nations -- have access to the drugs.
Phillipine Elections
Accusations of cheating are swirling around in the Philipines
as votes in the country’s presidential and national
elections are tediously counted by hand. Girlie Linow reports
from Manila.
Prisoner Abuse Complaint in Afghanistan
An Afghan police colonel who says he was tortured last year
by American and Afghan interrogators has described his alleged
ordeal. Sayed Nabi Siddiqui says he was held for almost 40
days last summer, and was beaten, stripped naked, sexually
abused, and humiliated. He says his interrogators threatened
to send him to Guantanamo Bay. Siddiqui says he was an honest
policeman who was in favor of the American invasion. He believes
an enemy of his family denounced him as a Taliban agent. The
US military says an investigation began yesterday.
[top]
Rumsfeld Under More Fire (4:01)
Today U.S. lawmakers got their first glimpses of additional
photos of Iraqi detainee abuses at Abu Ghraib. Those pictures
are still unavailable to the public even though some groups
have submitted a Freedom of Information Act request seeking
the photos and videos. This comes as Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld fielded additional questions at Capitol Hill today
on the abuses and the overall condition of the Iraqi occupation.
Mitch Jeserich reports.
[top]
Can the New Najaf Governor End the Siege?
(3:22)
In Iraq, Moqtada al-Sadr’s support appears to be waning
as other Shiite groups hold demonstrations against him. Meanwhile,
the new governor of Najaf, installed by US troops last week,
says he hopes negotiations with local sheikhs will end the
standoff between Sadr’s militia and US troops. David
Enders files this report from Najaf.
[top]
Haiti’s PM Visits the UN (3:33)
Gerard Latortue, Haiti's US-installed Prime Minister, paid
an unannounced visit to the United Nations this week to meet
with UN secretary-general Kofi Annan. Latortue's visit comes
as the UN prepares to send military and police forces to the
Haitian capital ahead of an 8,000-strong UN stabilization
mission. That mission, authorized by the Security Council,
is due to take over from US-led forces on June 1st. Meanwhile,
legal experts say President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, forced
out in February by what many perceive as a US engineered coup,
remains the lawful head of state. Susan Wood reports from
the UN.
[top]
Mexican UNAM Activist Victim of Hate Crime?
(3:24)
Tension is rising on the campus of a Mexico City University
as violence against activists has become deadly in recent
weeks. One dead student and three others wounded by gunshots
in less than a month are the first serious indications of
increased political tension at Latin America's largest public
university, UNAM. As the violence against activists increases,
various human rights organizations point to what they call
a continuation of mechanisms of the former counterinsurgency
campaign known as the Dirty War. Vladimir Flores reports from
Mexico City.
[top]
Lori Berenson's Last Trial: Will She Be Freed?
(4:41)
After eight and a half years of imprisonment in Peru, the
Inter-American Court on Human Rights has presided over the
case of New Yorker Lori Berenson vs. the Peruvian government.
At age 26, Berenson became the first and only American forced
to suffer Peru’s anti-terrorist measures, created in
1992 under Alberto Fujimori’s regime. She was arrested
in Nov. 1995 for allegedly being a leader of the now defunct,
urban leftist guerrilla group the Revolutionary Movement Tupac
Amaru, and was accused of helping to plan an attack against
Peru’s Congress. If the Inter-American Court decides
that Peru and the anti-terrorist laws used to condemn Berenson
violated her rights to a fair trial, Peru might be obliged
to finally free the New Yorker and revoke the anti-terrorist
measures still intact and currently being used to retry hundreds
of political prisoners. From the Inter-American Court on Human
Rights, in San Jose, Costa Rica, Nicole Karsin has more.
[top]
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