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> Fri., June. 24, 2005
FSRN
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Today's lead stories:
Iraqi Prime Minister Visits Washington
Indian Heat wave Kills Hundreds of People
Thailand Tsunami Relief: Six Months Later
Update in Lebanese Elections
Potential Cuts to Health, Educations and Labor Departments
Dirty Computer Recycling Operations at California Prison
FSRN Headlines
Voter turnout in Irans run-off election is high, but the
outcome is too close to call. Saeedah Jamshidi reports from
Iran.
Sri Lanka's government on Friday signed a controversial tsunami
aid sharing deal with Tamil Tiger rebels despite stiff opposition
from the Marxists who stalled a Parliamentary debate on the
issue. Government minister Maithripala Sirisena said the deal
was signed in the morning by the government's rehabilitation
ministry secretary M S Jayasinghe.
A major street battle erupted yesterday on the outskirts
of Mexico City at a time when municipal authorities are contemplating
the implementation of a massive security operation throughout
the metropolitan area. Shannon Young files this report.
Inmates in prisons around Ecuador are protesting extended
sentencing guidelines and prison conditions through hunger
strikes and self mutilation. Inmates in Guayaquil and Quito
are sewing their lips shut and burying themselves up to their
necks. They are rejecting a law that the Congress annulled
in 2002 that shortens sentences. They also demand better treatment
in prisons with no clean water, no electricity, over crowdedness,
and no medical treatment.
UN Population Control The United States is pressing the United
Nations to stop paying into China's population fund. Because,
they say, Beijing is using the money to promote abortion.
Haider Rizvi has more, from the UN.
[top]
Iraqi Prime Minister Visits Washington
(3:56)
Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari met with President
Bush today at the White House. Afterwards they addressed reporters.
Mitch Jeserich has more from Washington.
[top]
Indian Heat wave Kills Hundreds of People
(2:49)
A severe heat wave in India has killed at least 700 people
over the past few weeks. Most of the victims have been the
poor: small farmers, elderly people, three-wheeler pullers
and street vendors, who succumbed to heatstroke and dehydration
in temperatures that reached 130 degrees Fahrenheit. What
makes things worse in some parts of North and Eastern India
are the terrain changes resulting from mining industry practice.
Vinod K. Jose files this report from Orisa, India.
[top]
Thailand Tsunami Relief: Six Months Later
(3:19)
It has been nearly six months since the December 26 earthquake
and tsunami hit Asian and African countries, killing hundreds
of thousands of people. One of the countries hit hard was
Thailand. Almost 5,400 people were killed in six southern
provinces, just off the Andaman Sea Coast. Nearly half of
the dead were foreign tourists visiting the resort islands
of Phuket and Koh Phi Phi. Nearly 3,000 people are still missing.
FSRN reporter Doualy Xaykaothao traveled back to some of the
tsunami affected areas in Thailand and files this report.
[top]
Update in Lebanese Elections (4:05)
In the shadow of the February 2005 assassination of former
Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, people across Lebanon
went to the polls last Sunday in the last of five rounds of
regional voting for theParliamentary elections in Lebanon.
With a voter turnout estimated by most observers at between
40-50%, Saad Hariri of the Future Movement and son of the
slain former Prime Minster lead the Opposition block to a
majority in the Lebanese Parliament. In Beirut, Lebanon, FSRN's
Stefan Christoff provides this post-election report.
[top]
Potential Cuts to Health, Educations and Labor Departments
(2:03)
The House of Representatives restored the 100 million dollars
originally proposed to be cut from the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting, or CPB yesterday. Though the move restores the
CPB's funding, another 102 million dollars from other public
broadcast programs for basic equipment purchases was not restored.
This CPB funding is part of a larger bill that includes nearly
a 6 billion dollar cut to the federal health, education and
labor departments. The cuts to healthcare pose a challenge
to many state governors, at a time of increased unemployment.
Phil Bredesen, the governor of Tennessee who is in Washington
DC preaching his strategy. Ryme Katkhouda of the DC Radio
Coop reports.
[top]
Dirty Computer Recycling Operations at California
Prison (3:05)
A growing scandal over dirty computer recycling operations
at a prison in California has spread to facilities across
the country. According to one whistleblower, the scandal may
be behind the resignation of a high-level official at the
federal Bureau of prisons. Brian Edwards-Tiekert has the story:
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