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> Fri., June 4, 2004
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Today's lead stories:
Another CIA Defection
IDF Soldiers Speakout
Inequality Matters – A Conference on the Gap between
the Rich and the Poor
Tiananmen Square – 15 Years Later
Denmark Allows GMOs
Voting Machines – Part 3: E-Voting
FSRN Headlines
Another CIA Defection
Following yesterday's announced resignation of CIA Director
George Tenet, CIA Deputy Director of operations James Pavitt
is also reportedly stepping down today. For the time being
CIA Deputy Director John McLaughlin will serve as the acting
director. While it is unclear whether President Bush will
appoint a new director before the November elections, both
Congressional Democrats and Republicans are calling for Republican
Representative Porter Goss of Florida to get the post. Mitch
Jeserich reports.
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IDF Soldiers Speakout
Israeli Soldiers Speakout in a "Breaking the Silence"
Exhibit. FSRN speaks with a former IDF soldier who served
in Hebron during the first Intifada.
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Inequality Matters – A Conference on the Gap
between the Rich and the Poor
U.S. Labor statistics for May released today show employers
added almost a quarter million jobs last month. While the
overall jobless rate stayed at 5.6 percent, it was much higher
among blacks, at 9.9 percent and Hispanics, at 7 percent.
Critics of the Bush administration's economic policies are
gathering in New York City this weekend for a conference called
Inequality Matters. The are discussing what the Congressional
Budget Office says is the largest income gap between rich
and poor in the United States since the Hoover Administration,
75 years ago. Jackson Allers reports from Pacifica station
WBAI in New York City.
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Tiananmen Square – 15 Years Later
Fifteen years ago, China violently ended pro-democracy demonstrations
in and around Biejing. The Chinese Army crushed down the students
in Tiananmen Square on the 4th of June 1989. Yesterday the
police detained at least 16 demonstrators in Beijing and forced
others to delete pictures from their digital cameras. While
few in the capital dared to commemorate the massacre publicly,
tens of thousands gathered in Hong Kong to light candles in
an annual event to remember those who died. Fifteen years
after the slaughter, the student’s spirit has largely
disappeared in China, a country mainly focused on economic
development. Severine Bardon reports from Beijing.
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Denmark Allows GMOs
Europe is known for resisting the introduction of genetically
modified organisms, or GMO's, especially at the consumer level.
But the European Commission recently pushed through an approval
of BT 11 corn for human consumption, breaking a five-year
moratorium on GMO's. There is an ongoing debate at the European
Union level on acceptable levels of GMO seed contamination
in conventional and organic seed, which critics say could
be a back door entryway for GMO crops in Europe. And now Denmark,
which has a history of opposition to GMO crops, has passed
legislation regulating the coexistence of GMO, conventional
and organic crops. From Copenhagen, Patrick Beckett has the
story.
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Voting Machines – Part 3: E-Voting
Electronic voting systems, such as touch screens and optical
scanners have been touted as the answer to the “hanging
chad” controversy that plagued the 2000 presidential
election. But they have come under fire for everything from
lack of computer security to lost or miscounted votes. In
the last of our series on electronic voting, Kellia Ramares,
looks at various attitudes people have about e-voting and
what they are doing about it.
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