Home > Programs
> FSRN
> Tue., Dec. 20, 2005
FSRN
FREE SPEECH RADIO NEWS
Thanks to FSRN.org
for making the daily programs available to Pacifica.org
Today's lead stories:
Lawmakers Question Bush's Authorization to Spy on US Citizens
Iraqis Disagree that Situation is Improving
Israel's Recent Excursion in Gaza Traumatizing Palestinians
The Democratic Republic of Congo's Constitutional Referendum
A Look at Chile's Bilateral Free Trade Agreements
Kashmiris Being Denied Travel for Hajj
FSRN Headlines
Transit Strike in NYC
New York City’s 33,000 transit workers went on strike
this morning leaving millions of residents to rethink their
daily commute. Rebecca Myles reports.
In contract negotiations that went to the wire, the executive
board of the Transport Workers Union voted 28-10 early this
morning to reject the Metropolitan Transit Authority's latest
contract offer and declare the city’s first transit
strike in 25 years. The TWU contract expired on Friday at
midnight, and a partial strike affected two private bus lines
in Queens with workers walking off the job affecting 50,000
riders. Even with the MTA dropping its demand to raise the
retirement age to 62 from 55, they insisted that future transit
workers pay 6 percent of their wages toward their pensions.
Roger Toussaint, president of Local 100 of the Transport Workers
Union said “This is a fight over whether hard work will
be rewarded with a decent retirement….This is a fight
over the erosion, or the eventual elimination of health-benefits
coverage for working people in New York.” Commuters
stayed at home, walked, traveled by ferry or biked. Those
commuting by vehicle were restricted to a maximum of four
per car to enter Manhattan and commercial vehicles were not
allowed to enter Manhattan after 96th street at all. Wall
Street investment companies chartered buses for their employees.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has estimated the strike would cost
the City $400 million a day. For FSRN, I am Rebecca Myles
reporting.
PIPELINE EXPLOSION IN THE NIGER DELTA
A pipeline explosion today has devastated A community in Nigeria’s
Niger Delta region. Local officials say unidentified gunmen
blew up the pipeline. Sam Olukoya reports from Lagos.
A local government official in Andoni in Nigeria's Niger
Delta region says gunmen used dynamite to blow up an oil pipeline
belonging to the Anglo-Dutch company Shell Petroleum. The
official says the explosion has razed the entire community
at the Opobo Channel. Eight people have died while many more
people are missing. Shell Petroleum says it has closed two
oil wells in order to curb an oil spill that resulted from
the explosion. Nigeria is the world's sixth largest oil producer
and all of Nigeria's oil comes from the Niger Delta region.
But there is tension in the area following complaints by local
people that the Nigerian government and western oil companies
are denying them a share of oil proceeds. Many in the region
are calling for autonomy. The leader of a separatist group
leading the campaigning for autonomy is currently facing trial
for treason. For Free Speech Radio news, this is Sam Olukoya
in Lagos.
ACTIVIST'S MURDER PARTIALLY PUNISHED
A prison sentence was handed down today for the murder of
a leading Indonesian human rights attorney. FSRN's Meggy Margiyono
sends this report from Jakarta.
A Jakarta Court today sentenced Pollycarpus Priyanto to 14
years in prison for the murder of Indonesian human rights
activist, Munir Thalib. Munir Thalib died last year during
a plane trip to the Netherlands after eating a meal that had
been laced with arsenic. Although the person who poisoned
the activist's meal was sentenced today, many observers feel
the intellectual author of the crime has escaped punishment.
An independent investigation concluded that the State Intelligence
Agency deputy director, Muchdi Purwopranjono, is behind the
murder. Muchdi Purwopranjono is the former commander of an
Indonesian Elite Squad who was brought to trial and later
fired from the armed forces after being found guilty of the
kidnapping and dissappearance of activists in 1997. Munir
Thalib led that investigation. Although the independent investigation
found records of phone communications between Pollycarpus
Priyanto and deputy director of State Intelligence Agency,
Muchdi Purwopranjono , before the murder of the human rights
activist, the former police official was not questioned during
the trial.
RULING ON INTELLIGENT DESIGN
A federal judge today ruled in favor of eleven parents in
Dover, Pennsylvania who had sued the local school board over
the inclusion of the intelligent design theory in the high
school biology curriculum. Judge John E. Jones III ruled that
the intelligent design theory is based on religion, not science
and it's inclusion in the public school curriculum violates
the constitutional guaranteee of separation of church and
state. The judge called intelligent design "creationism
relabeled". The US Supreme Court banned the teaching
of creationism in public schools in 1987 as the theory was
based on the Biblical account of the origin of life. Members
of the Dover school board who originally mandated the inclusion
of intelligent design in the high school biology curriculum
were voted out in last month's school board election.
[top]
Lawmakers Question Bush's Authorization to Spy on
US Citizens (3:58)
California Senator Barbara Boxer has asked four presidential
scholars for their opinion on whether President Bush's authorization
of the National Security Agency to conduct surveillance on
US citizens is an impeachable offense. This comes as the Republican
Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Arlen Specter, says
he doubts the President acted within the Constitution. Mitch
Jeserich has this update from Washington.
[top]
Iraqis Disagree that Situation is Improving
(2:19)
Using the recent surge in Iraqis voting in the parliamentary
election as proof, the Bush administration continues on the
offensive, and argues that things are going well in the occupied
country. But, as FSRN's David Enders reports from Amman, Jordan,
many Iraqis would disagree.
[top]
Israel's Recent Excursion in Gaza Traumatizing Palestinians
(3:33)
Israel is deploying a terrifying new tactic against Palestinian
civilians in the Gaza Strip, that is causing widespread fear,
traumatizing children, and possibly inducing miscarriages.
Laila El-Haddad and Mohammad al-Ghalayini have more from Gaza
[top]
The Democratic Republic of Congo's Constitutional
Referendum (2:58)
Vote counting is underway across the Democratic Republic
of Congo in a referendum on a new constitution. UN soldiers
have already intervened in fighting in the eastern town of
Goma, where militias opposed to disarmament have been battling
the combined force of the UN and Congolese Army. If approved,
the constitution will pave the way for the country's first
democratic poll next year. And, as FSRN's Joshua Kyalimpa
reports, the new constitution would also limit the power of
the president, give the country's regions more influence and
strengthen the judicial system.
[top]
A Look at Chile's Bilateral Free Trade Agreements
(4:33)
The World Trade Organization did strike a last-minute deal
yesterday, which will halt farm subsidies by 2013. As economically
developing nations seek to export products to the developed
world, the United States and the European Union want to open
developing country's service industries to foreign investment.
One country which has already signed such agreements is Chile.
From Santiago, FSRN's Jorge Garretón explains.
[top]
Kashmiris Being Denied Travel for Hajj (2:54)
Hajj, or the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, is a religious
obligation for all Muslims who can afford the journey. As
the time for Hajj approaches, Muslims around the globe are
traveling to Saudi Arabia to make the Pilgrimage. But, as
FSRN's Shahnawaz Khan reports, in Indian administered Kashmir,
some people have not been allowed to make this religious journey.
[top]
|
Listen
to the show 
Help
stream
download
