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> Mon., Jan. 16, 2006
FSRN
FREE SPEECH RADIO NEWS
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Today's lead stories:
Al Gore Attacks Bush’s Authorization for NSA Spying
on US Citizens
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf Inaugurated as Liberia’s President
NOLA Residents Defy Authorities and March Traditional MLK
Day Route
Washington State Supreme Court Considers Same Sex Marriage
Vietnamese Workers Win Wage Victory
Indian Government Meets with Kashmiri Separatists
FSRN Headlines
ATTACK ON SHELL FACILITES CONTINUE IN NIGER DELTA
Armed groups continue their attacks on oil installations in
Nigeria's Niger Delta region. Sam Olukoya reports from Lagos.
The oil facility targeted in yesterday's attack is a flow
station belonging to the Anglo Dutch oil company Shell Petroleum.
The company says "The attackers invaded the flow station
in speedboats, burnt down two staff accommodation blocks,
damaged the processing facilities and left." Some reports
indicate that more than ten people, mainly soldiers, died
during the attack. The Nigerian military remains silent about
its casualties. Shell says one catering contractor died while
ten of its workers were injured. Just last week, four foreigners
working for Shell were kidnapped. A group known as the Movement
for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta says it is holding
the hostages. The group is demanding the release of a separatist
leader who wants autonomy for the Niger Delta region. The
group also warned foreign oil workers to leave the Niger Delta
or risk losing their lives. Although Shell Petroleum has evacuated
some employees, the company says it has no plans to completely
withdraw from the region. For Free Speech Radio News, this
is Sam Olukoya in Lagos.
DOCKWORKERS STRIKE IN EU
Dockers from all over Europe took strike action today in protest
of a draft European Union directive which they say threatens
their jobs and working conditions. Tony Cross reports from
Paris.
Ten-thousand workers came to Strasbourg today from ports
as far a part as Gdansk in Poland and the Canary Islands.
Police clashed with some protesters, tear gas was fired and
rocks thrown, and some of the European Parliament's huge windows
were smashed. Meanwhile, ports all over the continent stopped
work for between three and 24 hours. The dockers say that
the draft directive is another attempt to replace hard-won
labour rights with the rules of liberal economics. An almost
identical project was scrapped in 2003. The most unpopular
proposal is to allow a ship's own crew to unload it. The dockers
fear that means they will be replaced by floating cheap labour.
European MPs will vote on the plan on Wednesday. It's unlikely
to pass, since only one bloc of right-wing parties supports
it. For FSRN, I'm Tony Cross in Paris.
OPPOSITION RIFT IN ZIMBABWE
An internal crisis is threatening to cripple Zimbabwe's main
opposition party. Na'eem Jeenah reports.
Zimbabwe's main opposition group, the Movement for Democratic
Change or MDC, is wracked by division and has split. This,
after a faction last week filed a 10 million US dollar defamation
suit against party leader Morgan Tsvangirai. They claim he
had accused them of wanting to assassinate him. A disciplinary
committee set up by this faction expelled Tsvangirai from
the party last week, accusing him of dictatorship. The two
factions have announced separate party congresses for next
month and a battle is looming for control of the movement
name, symbols and property. The MDC was founded in 1999 by
Tsvangirai and has posed the most serious challenge to the
destructive rule of the Robert Mugabe government. That challenge
has diminished over the past few months and threatens quietly
to disappear. The split came to the fore last month when the
anti-Tsvangirai faction fielded candidates for Senate elections
despite the leader's call for an election boycott. With Zimbabwe's
economy facing a crisis marked by three-digit inflation, over
70% unemployment, shortages of foreign exchange and fuel and
a dictatorial government, a weakened opposition will add to
its woes. For Free Speech Radio News, this is Na'eem Jeenah
in Johannesburg.
VOTE ALLOWED, HAMAS CAMPAIGNING BANNED IN JERUSALEM
Israel's Knesset has agreed to allow Palestinians in Jerusalem
to vote in this month's Palestinian elections. Manar Jibrin
reports from the West Bank.
The Israeli government yesterday approved the participation
of Jerusalem's Palestinians in the January 25th legislative
elections, but did not authorize Hamas to campaign in the
city. The proposal to allow Palestinians to campaign in Jerusalem
was submitted to the Knesset by the acting Prime Minister,
Ehud Olmert. On Sunday, Israeli soldiers attacked and arrested
three Hamas candidates in the Old City of Jerusalem for campaigning
without permission. The Islamic Jihad Movement called on its
supporters to boycott the upcoming Palestinian Legislative
Council elections saying the elections are based on the Oslo
accords which the group does not recognize. For FSRN from
IMEMC.Org in Palestine, I am Manar Jibrin.
CHILEAN ELECTION RESULTS
The results are in from yesterday's presidential run-off election
in Chile. From Santiago Jorge Garretón has the story.
Chileans made history this Sunday, when they elected Michelle
Bachelet as the country's first female president. Bachelet,
a Socialist, becomes the fourth president of the centre-left
ruling Concertación coalition. The ruling coalition
has won every presidential election since Chile's return to
democracy in 1990. Bachelet defeated conservative billionaire
Sebastián Piñera by a wide margin. A Bachelet
government will continue the free market policies; particularly
with regards to free trade agreements. But Bachelet also intends
to implement major pending social reforms to the education,
labor and private retirement pension systems. She will take
office next March 11. For FSRN this is Jorge Garretón
in Santiago.
[top]
Al Gore Attacks Bush’s Authorization for NSA
Spying on US Citizens
Former Vice President Al Gore attacked President George
Bush today for breaking the law by ordering the National Security
Agency to conduct domestic spying without a court order. Just
yesterday, Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee Arlen Specter
acknowledged that impeachment could be a possibility if the
President did act outside of the law. Mitch Jeserich reports
from Washington.
[top]
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf Inaugurated as Liberia’s
President
Leaders from Africa and around the world made their way
to the Liberian capitol of Monrovia today, to attend the inauguration
of President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. Not only is Johnson-Sirleaf
Africa’s first female President, she is also Liberia’s
first elected president since the end of the country’s
14-year civil war, which ended in 2003. Harvard-educated Johnson-Sirleaf
has pledged to put an end to wide-spread corruption, as a
way to gain the trust of foreign investment in the diamond,
iron and timber-rich West African nation. Assumpta Oturo is
host of KPFK’s Spotlight Africa. She recently spoke
with Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf about the future of Liberia, as
well as the role of young African women.
[top]
NOLA Residents Defy Authorities and March Traditional
MLK Day Route
In New Orleans today, one hundred and fifty people defied
the city’s official change from the traditional Martin
Luther King Day parade route and marched from the Lower 9th
ward through the city’s poorer downtown neighborhoods.
FSRN’s Christian Roselund reports.
[top]
Washington State Supreme Court Considers Same Sex
Marriage
For nearly one year, justices on the Washington State Supreme
Court have mulled over the constitutionality of the 1998 Defense
of Marriage Act, which bans same-sex marriage in the state.
Depending on their decision, the state of Washington may become
the second in the nation, after Massachusetts, to recognize
full marriage rights for same-sex couples. As Ben Tabor reports
from Olympia, Washington, promise and uncertainty hangs heavy
in the air as the public anxiously awaits the state Supreme
Court’s decision.
[top]
Vietnamese Workers Win Wage Victory
More than a dozen strikes by over 40,000 workers in Ho Chi
Minh City’s export processing zones have forced the
Vietnamese government to raise the country’s minimum
wage by nearly 40% – up to $55 a month in Vietnam’s
two biggest cities. Workers elsewhere in the country will
get less. The labor actions were some of the largest and best
coordinated, and show increased frustration among workers
who are only allowed to affiliate with a single, government-run
trade union. From Ho Chi Minh City, Aaron Glantz and Ngoc
Nguyen report.
[top]
Indian Government Meets with Kashmiri Separatists
Indian Prime minister Manmohan Singh held talks with a five
member delegation of the Kashmiri People’s Conference
separatist group, led by Sajjad Ghani Lone over the weekend.
In what the Indian government is calling the broadening of
the dialogue process, authorities also held three rounds of
talks with moderate factions of Kashmir’s main separatists’
alliance, All Parties Hurriyat Conference. FSRN’s Shahnawaz
Khan has more.
[top]
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