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> Fri., Mar. 10, 2006
FSRN
FREE SPEECH RADIO NEWS
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Today's lead stories:
How Many Ports are Foreign Owned?
Feds Team Up with Locals to Enforce Immigration Laws
African Union To Stay In Darfur
A Fifth of World's Population Lacks Clean Drinking Water
China & Migrant Workers
Day Laborer Hotline
The Passing of Gordon Parks
FSRN Headlines
AFRICAN UNION TO EXTEND MISSION IN DARFUR
The African Union today voted to extend its peacekeeping mission
in Sudan's troubled Darfur region until September 30th. The
decision comes after intense lobbying by the U.S. and European
countries to transfer the operation to United Nations control.
Haider Rizvi reports from the UN.
Under pressure from Western nations, including the United
States, the UN wanted to replace the African Union force in
Darfur with its own peacekeepers. But the Sudanese government
strongly opposed this move by saying that the UN should rather
help African peacekeepers who are running out of money. Currently,
there is a 7,000 strong African Union force in Darfur to mitigate
the ongoing bloody conflict between the Sudanese Arab militia
and the indigenous rebel forces. The Sudanese government has
been accused of backing the militia, which is seen as responsible
for mass killings and uprooting millions of indigenous civilians
in the Darfur region. For FSRN, I'm Haider Rizvi, at the United
Nations.
KOREAN FARMERS RESIST FORCED REMOVAL FROM LAND
In South Korea, hundreds of rice farmers in the Pyeongtaek
region are rejecting a government order to vacate some 2,000
acres of ancestral lands to allow for the expansion of a nearby
U.S. military base. Military newspaper, Stars and Stripes,
is reporting that area residents are determined to resist
the forced removal and have set up barricades around the local
elementary school.
DOCTORS CONDEMN FORCE FEEDING AT GUANTANAMO
More than 260 medical professionals have called on the US
military to stop force feeding hunger striking detainees at
Guantanamo Bay. In a letter published in the current edition
of the British medical journal, The Lancet, the 263 co-signatories
say that the practice of force feeding hunger strikers runs
counter to established international medical ethics. The letter
states, "We urge the US government to ensure that detainees
are assessed by independent physicians and that techniques
such as force feeding and restraint chairs are abandoned forthwith
in accordance with internationally agreed standards".
The World Medical Association, which includes the American
Medical Association, specifically prohibits force feeding.
THE FUTURE OF FOOD SAFETY
In the U.S., The House of Representatives has approved a bill
that would strip states of the power to regulate food quality,
obliterating over 200 existing laws. From KPFA in Berkeley,
Brian Edwards-Tiekert has more.
The National Uniformity for Food Act could bring sweeping
changes. In many states, it would strip food containers of
labels indicating toxic ingredients. Citizen groups and state
governments would be unable to sue food companies that don't
label their products correctly. Proponents of the bill say
they want uniform national food standards. Opponents point
out that federal regulations are frequently weaker than those
at the state level and approved much later. Mike Green, the
director of the center for environmental health, says taking
away states' rights to impose more stringent food labeling
rules would let protections default to the lowest common denominator.
[Green 00:11] "It is designed to protect large corporations
in the food sector from having to warn people about the health
impacts of their products." The attorneys general of
39 states are opposing the legislation, and issued a letter
last week saying it would undercut consumer protection...but
the bill passed the House by a margin of nearly two to one,
with enough co-sponsors to avoid a hearing. Analysts call
that a sign of the strength of well-funded and increasingly
sophisticated food industry lobby. In Berkeley, I'm Brian
Edwards-Tiekert for Free Speech Radio News.
KARNI CROSSING RE-OPENS
After weeks of closure, Israel has re-opened Gaza's main commercial
crossing for humanitarian goods. Trucks carrying food and
medicine began to cross into the Gaza Strip yesterday but
distribution of the goods in Gaza City has been slow. The
crossing remains closed to exports from Gaza. A United Nations
report published on Wednesday found that the Karni crossing
has been open for less than 12 full days since the start of
the year.
BACHELET INAUGUATION
Chile will inaugurate its first female president tomorrow.
From Santiago FSRN's Jorge Garreton explains what to expect
from the incoming president.
Michelle Bachelet will become this Saturday Chile's first
female president. She is promising a new style of government
and has already appointed an equal number of women and men
to her cabinet and to other high-level positions. Bachelet
says her government will focus on three key points. First
the construction of a new safety net, that includes mandatory
early childhood education and a reform to the private pension
plan system. Second: government investment in creative entrepreneurship
particularly for small-scale business owners. And her third
point is to actively involve Chileans in public policy decisions
by institutionalizing formal citizen consultation for specific
policy making. Over 30 heads of state are expected to attend
Bachelet's inauguration ceremony tomorrow.
[top]
How Many Ports are Foreign Owned? (2:17)
President Bush expressed disappointment today about the
withdrawal of the United Arab Emirates company from a controversial
port management deal. He said it could disrupt a good relationship
that United States has with that country. And as Leigh Ann
Caldwell reports, foreign management of US ports is common,
but the depth of it is still unknown.
[top]
Feds Team Up with Locals to Enforce Immigration Laws
(2:12)
The Department of Homeland Security announced that 375 gang
members and associates were arrested over the last two weeks
in an unprecedented partnership between local police and federal
immigration officials. That partnership is alarming to immigrant
rights supporters. Ingrid Drake has more from DC.
[top]
African Union To Stay In Darfur (3:02)
Sudan today agreed to allow United Nations peacekeepers
into Darfur, but only after the government reaches a peace
deal with the troubled region's rebels. The African Union
today proposed extending its mission to Darfur until the end
of the year to allow for the transfer of peacekeeping duties
to the UN. Sudan is strongly opposed to any switch, and thousands
have marched through Sudan's capital of Khartoum threatening
"Holy war." Joshua Kyalimpa reports.
[top]
A Fifth of World's Population Lacks Clean Drinking
Water (3:31)
A new United Nations report says that almost 1/5th of the
world's population still lacks access to safe drinking water
and 40% lack access to basic sanitation. As could be expected,
it is the world's poor who are effected the most: half of
all people counted in the report live in China and India.
Also, regions such as sub-Saharan Africa will not meet the
UN Millennium Development Goal of halving, by 2015, the proportion
of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water.
The report comes The UN report comes on the eve of the 4th
World Water Forum that begins next week in Mexico City. To
talk about the report is Claire Hajaj, with the UN Children's
Fund, UNICEF.
[top]
China & Migrant Workers (3:34)
The annual session of China¹s national people¹s
congress, that focuses on the wealth gap between rich cities
and poor countrysides is underway in Beijing. The Chinese
government pledges to increase its investments in rural areas
by 14% so reduce the amount of migrant workers settling in
the cities. But hundreds of millions of them are already there.
Severine Bardon reports from Beijing.
[top]
Day Laborer Hotline (2:58)
Law enforcement in Santa Cruz, CA this week, launched a
24-hour Spanish language hot line for day laborers to anonymously
report abusive employers. FSRN reporter Vinny Lombardo has
more.
[top]
The Passing of Gordon Parks (2:00)
And finally this week, the nation mourns the passing of
Gordon Parks, who was the first black cinematographer in Hollywood.
Parks was also an acclaimed photographer for Life magazine
from the late 40's through late 60's. In 1971 he directed
the film SHAFT. And in 1969 he directed The Learning Tree,
which was, among the first 25 films, to be selected by the
U.S. Library of Congress to be preserved in the National Film
Registry. Here is an excerpt from a speech given by Gordon
Parks. Gordon Parks died on Tuesday at the age of 93.
[top]
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