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> Mon., Nov. 22, 2004
FSRN
FREE SPEECH RADIO NEWS
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Today's lead stories:
Update from Baghdad
Controversial Spending Bill Passes Congress
Ohio Elex Results goes Before Courts ~ FSRN Questions Kerry
Ohio Elex Full of Fraud and Disenfranchisement
End in Site for Locked Out Hotel Workers?
Bush Visits Colombia
FSRN Headlines
More than 10-thousand Ukrainians went to Independence Square
in Kiev today to demonstrate against the pending election
results. According to officially released numbers, the current
Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, backed by Russian leaders,
is in the lead for the presidency. However, supporters of
Viktor Yushchenko say the elections were rigged and refuse
to leave the square until their candidate is declared the
winner. International election observers including contingents
from the European Parliament, NATO and a U.S. delegation led
by Senator Richard Lugar, agree that the incumbent government
helped rig the vote in favor of the Prime Minister.
Israeli officials say they will remove travel restrictions
and other obstacles to Palestinian elections in the occupied
territories. Officials in Ramallah and elsewhere in Palestine
are preparing for the upcoming elections. Awad Duadabes has
more.
More than 20-thousand people, many of them Muslim, took to
the streets in Germany to protest against violence directed
against Muslim communities and terrorism. Guy Degen reports
from Cologne.
16-thousand protestors marched in front of what is commonly
called the “School of the Assassins” at a U.S.
military base in Georgia. At least 20 peaceful demonstrators
were arrested. WZRD’s Johnny Hap was there.
California's Attorney General stands ready to sue the Bush
Administration if the US Forest Service does not change it’s
plans to allow more logging in the Sierra Nevada. More from
Kellia Ramares in Oakland.
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Update from Baghdad
An influential member of the Sunni clerics' group the Association
of Muslim Scholars (AMS) was assassinated just a day after
Iraqi officials announced elections would take place on January
30th. The AMS had called for a boycott of national elections.
Shaikh Faidh Muhammad Amin al-Faidhi was reportedly leaving
a place of worship when he was killed in Mosul. The AMS says
it is the target of US and Iraqi forces and has armed Sunni
fighters to strike back. Meanwhile, US-installed Prime Minister
Ayad Allawi said that media in Iraq is failing to report the
real situation in Fallujah. FSRN correspondents Salam Talib
and Dahr Jamail report from Baghdad.
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Controversial Spending Bill Passes Congress
On Saturday negotiations on the 9/11 Intelligence reform
bill fell apart due to objections of the House Armed Services
Committee and the Pentagon, even after President Bush asked
for its approval. Also on Saturday Congress passed an omnibus
spending bill that makes significant cuts to education, environmental
protections, and low income housing assistance. Another provision
stuck in the 3,000 page bill, that lawmakers had less than
24 hours to review, allows health care providers to mandate
its doctors and hospitals to deny abortion services. Mitch
Jeserich reports from Capitol Hill.
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Ohio Elex Results goes Before Courts ~ FSRN Questions
Kerry
The official results of the 2004 presidential race are hanging
in the balance while vote counting in Ohio continues amid
widespread controversy over whether the election was fair.
Questions still remain as to whether the votes of many Ohioans
were accurately recorded. Several lawsuits are being filed,
including one by a coalition of public-interest lawyers which
will go before the state’s Supreme Court, challenging
Ohio's reported vote tally. The Democrats have come under
fire for not leading the charge to uncover what happened on
election day and FSRN’s Mitch Jeserich caught up with
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.
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Ohio Elex Full of Fraud and Disenfranchisement
Numerous investigations in to possible fraud and voter disenfranchisement
are also currently underway. Evan Davis investigates from
Columbus.
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End in Site for Locked Out Hotel Workers?
An end to the long running labor dispute that has locked
out hotel workers in California looks likely. About 4,300
UNITE HERE, Local 2 members, who've been locked out since
October 1, will be returning to work while contract talks
continue. On Saturday, as hundreds gathered in San Francisco's
Union Square for a rally in solidarity with the locked out
workers, Mayor Gavin Newsome announced, at his office across
town, that a deal had been reached to suspend the stalemate
for a 60 day cooling off period. FSRN's Vinny Lombardo has
more.
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Bush Visits Colombia
Today President Bush visited Colombia to meet with his staunchest
Latin American supporter in the war against terrorism, President
Alavro Uribe. Among other topics, Uribe and Bush discussed
the Free Trade Agreement currently being negotiated, the extension
of the Plan Colombia, and the counter-drug program that uses
aerial fumigations -- due to expire in 2005. Meanwhile, analysts
say the 10-month-old counter-insurgent offensive being supported
by US military against Colombia's 40-year-old rebels is doomed.
From Bogotá, Nicole Karsin has more.
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