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> Tue., Aug. 30, 2005
FSRN
FREE SPEECH RADIO NEWS
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Today's lead stories:
Growing Opposition Towards John Roberts Nomination to Supreme
Court
Luis Posadas Carriles' Immigration Case
Philippines President Faces Possible Impeachment
A New Wave of Haitian Massacres Ahead of Presidential Elections
More African Immigrants Dead in New Paris Housing Blaze
FSRN Headlines
Rescue teams are beginning to deploy along the gulf coast
in the wake of hurricane Katrina. Floodwater is still rising
in New Orleans, and the death count is expected to number
in the hundreds. From Houston, Smiley Maddox has more.
In Iraq today U.S. warplanes launched three airstrikes near
the Syrian border. The military says it killed a known Al
Qaeda militant. A local hospital official says at least 46
other people were killed as well. Meanwhile insurgent attacks
killed two Iraqi police colonels in Baghdad and Kirkuk, and
a suicide car bomber killed two officers in a police patrol
in Samarra. The U.S. military is still holding a cameraman
for the Reuters news agency, two days after an incident in
which U.S. troops shot and killed his cameraman.
The Bush administration and Arab League diplomats are urging
Iraqis to amend the constitution that Shiite negotiators have
presented as a final offer. Prominent Sunni leaders are calling
on their followers to reject the proposed constitution in
an October 15 referendum, citing measures that crack down
on the Baath party and a proposed federal system that could
cut Sunnis off from the nation's oil wealth.
A U.S. army whistleblower has announced she'll sue the army
for demoting her. Bunny Greenhouse, the army corps of engineers'
top contracting official, exposed contract abuses involving
Halliburton subsidiary Kellog, Brown, and Root.
In India, a coalition of Muslim organizations has come together
to speak out against growing problems of discrimination. From
New Delhi, Vinod K. Jose reports.
In what is being called the largest criminal tax case ever
filed, KPMG has admitted to helping its clients evade billions
of dollars in capital gains and income taxes. The accounting
firm brokered a deal to pay $456 million in fines, restitutions
and penalties to keep the Justice Department and the Internal
Revenue Service from shutting it down. From the nation's capital,
Wendy Wang has more:
New census data shows the U.S. poverty rate rose for the
fourth year in a row during 2004. The number of people living
beneath the poverty line rose 1.1 million to 12.7 % of the
population. This despite the fact that the economy has been
in a recovery since 2001--analysts say that's because rising
inequality is leaving low-income Americans worse off. Chris
Tilley is a professor of regional economic and social development
at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell.
Tilley: "Wages are stagnating. The kinds of income support
programs that we used to have--at least up until the 1990s--are
gone. The minimum wage is at a level we haven't seen consistently
since the 1950s-it's that low once you control for inflation.
So all the things that might help people get ahead are not
really helping them at this point."
The census data also shows the number of people without health
insurance grew by 800,000, but did not increase as a percentage
of the population.
[top]
Growing Opposition Towards John Roberts Nomination
to Supreme Court (3:21)
Liberal advocacy group Alliance for Justice and the disability
rights group A.D.A. Watch added their names to the growing
list of groups opposing the nomination of John Roberts to
the Supreme Court today. Both the NAACP and the National Women's
Law Center are expected to announce similar positions tomorrow.
The organizations join several other groups who have also
announced their opposition to Roberts, including the gay rights
group Human Rights Campaign, the Leadership Conference on
Civil Rights and NARAL. The announcements come just one week
short of Roberts' confirmation hearing. Mitch Jeserich has
more from Washington.
[top]
Luis Posadas Carriles' Immigration Case
(3:00)
The immigration hearing of alleged terrorist and former
CIA agent, Luis Posada Carriles continues in El Paso, Texas
today. Posada Carriles has been under detention since May
after he was apprehended while attempting to leave the United
States. He escaped from a Venezuelan prison in 1985 while
awaiting sentencing after being tried by a civilian court
for masterminding the bombing of a Cuban airliner in 1976
that killed 73 people. On Monday, Judge William Lee Abbott
agreed that if deported, Posada Carriles will be sent to Venezuela.
FSRN's Dolores M. Bernal attended the immigration hearings,
where several protestors rallied outside the immigration courthouse
to demand Posada Carriles' extradition to Caracas.
[top]
Philippines President Faces Possible Impeachment
(2:34)
A bid to impeach Philippines President Gloria Macapagal
Arroyo headed for defeat in the House of Representatives after
opposition lawmakers walked out of the hearings. Arroyo's
opponents vow to take the fight to the streets if her allies
succeed in blocking the efforts to unseat her. Girlie Linao
reports from Manila.
[top]
A New Wave of Haitian Massacres Ahead of Presidential
Elections (4:04)
A bloody crackdown carried out by police and machete-wielding
civilians in Haiti at a U.S.-government sponsored event is
fueling fears of state-sponsored terror as presidential balloting
in November draws near. The killings appear to be a new and
more terrifying tactic employed by the Haitian national police,
which has been accused of summary executions and other human
rights abuses in the poor neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince
since interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue assumed office
in March 2004. No police officer has been brought to justice
for these crimes and a United Nations peacekeeping mission
mandated with protecting human rights has done little to investigate
alleged violations. Reed Lindsay reports from Port-au-Prince,
Haiti.
[top]
More African Immigrants Dead in New Paris Housing
Blaze (4:35)
A fire in a Paris tenement killed seven African immigrants
- including one child, last night. It's the second such tragedy
in four days.17 Africans, 14 of them children, were killed
when the building they were living in went up in flames last
Friday, leaving about 110 survivors. Last night's fire struck
a building housing 40 people from the West African country
of Côte d'Ivoire. Both blazes seem to have been the
result of the rundown buildings and have led some to consider
the way France's housing policy affects its immigrants. Tony
Cross reports from Paris.
[top]
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