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> Thur., Oct. 6, 2005
FSRN
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Today's lead stories:
NOLA PUBLIC HEALTH ADVOCATES IN D.C.
PROTEST TODAY AGAINST ARROYO'S PRE-EMPTIVE ABILITIES
A LOOK AT SERBIA FIVE YEARS AFTER MILOSEVIC
CHILD TRAFFICKING IN SIERRA LEONE
PEAK OIL CONFERENCE
POLLUTION AT SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA PORTS LEADS TO INCREASED
CANCER RISK
FSRN Headlines
UK-IRAN DIPLOMATIC ROW
A senior British official has directly accused the Iranian
Revolutionary Guard of supplying Iraqi insurgents with sophisticated
roadside bombs that have killed eight British soldiers and
two security guards. From London, Naomi Fowler reports:
This confrontation marks a hardening of relations between
Britain and Iran. Since 1997 the British Foreign Office has
been energetically engaged in trying to improve ties with
the oil-rich nation, even going as far as to proscribe Iran’s
pro-democracy opposition in exile, the People's Mujahedin
Organisation of Iran. The infra-red bombs in question have
created havoc among British forces in southern Iraq. They
release a projectile capable of penetrating armoured vehicles,
against which the British army has virtually no defence. The
British say the bombs were designed and manufactured by the
Iranian-funded militant group Hizbullah, and were channelled
to Iraq via Iran. A destabilized Iraq is of clear advantage
to Iran’s theocratic regime, and its desire to preserve
and maintain its domestic power base. Iran has denied the
British accusations. Anti-war campaigners have said today
that it was predictable that military action and occupation
in Iraq would provoke more problems than it would solve and
make it harder for indigenous democratic movements to succeed
in the Middle East. This is Naomi Fowler in London for Free
Speech Radio News.
SENATE ON DETAINEES
In a 90 to 9 vote, the United States Senate, has approved
a measure to limit interrogation tactics of detainees. Selina
Musuta reports from Washington, DC
In a defiant move against the White House, Congress voted
last night on a bill that would affect the treatment of detainees
held in U.S. custody in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay
and potentially in other undisclosed facilities. The Senate
overwelmingly adopted a measure to require the Military to
follow its own Army field manual that is compliant with the
Geneva Accords. Republican Senator John McCain, a former prisoner
of war, sponsored the bill. (John McCain audio) "A strange
legal determination was made that the prohibition in the convention
against torture against cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment
does not apply against foreigners held outside of the United
States. They can apparently be treated inhumanely. What all
this means is that America is the only country in the world
that asserts a legal right to engage in cruel and inhuman
treatment."
President George Bush has previously stated he would veto
the entire military spending bill, which the measure is attached
to, if there is any language in the bill concerning the handling
of detainees. Selina Musuta, FSRN, in Washington DC.
IMMIGRATION ISSUES IN WEST HAVEN
Over a hundred people rallied outside the American Legion
Hall in West Haven, Conn. last night to protest a meeting
of a group opposing illegal immigration. Melinda Tuhus reports
Outside the meeting, West Haven resident Stanley Heller said
the US economy has lots of problems, but immigrants aren't
to blame. They're welcome to it.
"There's globalization, privatization, out-sourcing.
Immigrants have nothing to do with that. They come here because
the global economy is ravaging their country. They're welcome
to it. We're a nation of immigrants, ex-slaves and Indians,
and we should all live together in peace."
Inside the American Legion hall, about a dozen people attended
the meeting of Connecticut Citizens for Immigration Control.
One West Haven resident said he was gathering support on a
petition to have his city declared a zero tolerance town for
illegal immigration. This in response to actions such as neighboring
New Haven's proposal to issue identity cards to undocumented
immigrants, something immigrants' rights groups had pushed
for. Although they are small, state and local anti-immigration
groups are proliferating around Connecticut, which is home
to 75,000 undocumented immigrants, according to the Pew Hispanic
Center. Rally organizer John Jairo Lugo came to the US as
an undocumented immigrant but is now a US citizen. (John Jairo
Lugo audio :07) "I don't feel that I'm less than any
other American who was born in this country. All humans are
equal." For FSRN, I'm Melinda Tuhus in West Haven.
HURRICANE STAN DEVASTATION
Hurricane Stan has claimed the lives of over 160 people in
Central America and southern Mexico. Three days of intense
rains caused major flooding and numerous landslides throughout
the region. Guatemala suffered the majority of the registered
fatalities and the death toll is expected to rise as rescue
teams gain access to remote areas affected by the storm.
[top]
NOLA PUBLIC HEALTH ADVOCATES IN D.C. (2:31)
Acting Director of FEMA, David Paulison, told Congress today
that approximately $1.5 million in no-bid contracts given
out for hurricane relief will be re-bid. Environmental justice
activists from the Gulf Coast traveled to the DC to ask lawmakers
to rewrite legislation they say will further jeopardize public
health in the region. Ingrid Drake spoke with New Orleans
residents in DC- Pam Dashiell works with the holy cross neighborhood
association in New Orleans.
[top]
PROTEST TODAY AGAINST ARROYO'S PRE-EMPTIVE ABILITIES
(3:56)
Various civil right groups in the Philippines are up in
arms against recent directives by President Gloria Macapagal
Arroyo that they say curtails certain rights guaranteed by
the country’s constitution. Girlie Linao reports from
Manila.
[top]
A LOOK AT SERBIA FIVE YEARS AFTER MILOSEVIC
(4:03)
This week marks the five year anniversary of the peaceful
overthrow of former Yugoslav premier, Slobodan Milosevic,
who is now at the international criminal court for war crimes
in The Hague. Serbia-Montenegro has since gone through massive
restructuring of its former socialist institutions and industry,
embracing a market economy that political and economic analysts
say is steering the country towards more solid Euro-Atlantic
relations that were all but severed during the Balkan wars
of the 1990s. Last week, the European Parliament voted to
begin ascension talks into the European Union, a move hailed
by western-leaning politicians and business leaders in Serbia
as the way forward. But as Zoran Culafic and Jackson Allers
report, there is growing instability in this fledgling democracy
as issues like unemployment, corruption, a rise in Serbian
nationalism, and the unresolved status of Kosovo continue
to plague it.
[top]
CHILD TRAFFICKING IN SIERRA LEONE (4:08)
Countries which have been affected by conflict and economic
collapse are especially vulnerable to the global problem of
human trafficking. The West African nation of Sierra Leone
is no exception. With the country only now rebuilding after
suffering civil war throughout the 1990’s, many Sierra
Leoneans are increasingly attempting to beat the scourge of
human trafficking. Rupert Cook reports.
[top]
PEAK OIL CONFERENCE (2:13)
Peak Oil is the scientific description coined by a US geophysicist
in 1956 that global oil production would peak in 2000, dropping
off slowly at first and then declining rapidly after about
2005. The term refers to the point when production reaches
its peak, then declines, as costs begin to rise. What this
means for oil is that supply will not be able to meet future
demand because it will be scarcer and more costly. A group
of scholars concerned about this phenomenon hosted the first
Petrocollapse Conference in New York City. Rebecca Myles reports.
[top]
POLLUTION AT SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA PORTS LEADS TO INCREASED
CANCER RISK (3:14)
According to a preliminary study on air pollution, diesel
fumes from the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports poses an increased
cancer risk to residents in neighboring cities, as well as
inland areas. From KPFK, FSRN’s Leilani Albano has more.
[top]
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