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> Mon., Mar. 20, 2006
FSRN
FREE SPEECH RADIO NEWS
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Today's lead stories:
Special Nationwide Coverage On 3-Year Anniversary of Invasion:
Protestors and Lawmakers in DC Speak Out Against War in Iraq
War Veterans Make Economic Connection Between Iraq and New
Orleans
Connecticut Stages 2 Anti-War Demonstrations
South Dakota Residents Gather at Lawmaker's Office Calling
for Presidential Impeachment
New and Veteran Activists Gather at Vigil Against the War
Niger Delta Faces Water Borne Diseases as a Result of Exxon-Mobile
Environmentalists Denounce Bush's Pick to Lead Department
of the Interior
FSRN Headlines
Spending More On War
This weekend thousands of people across the globe took to
the streets to mark the 3rd year anniversary of the invasion
of Iraq and demonstrated against the continued US presence
there. Meanwhile in Washington, a new report by the Congressional
Research Office shows that the US will spend 44% more on the
war this year than last. Darby Hickey reports.
Spending on war and occupation will average almost 10 billion
dollars a month for this fiscal year, according to a new report
by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service. A substantial
portion of that money will go to replace and repair military
equipment and vehicles, the report says. Very little of these
funds will go toward oversight of the billions spent on war
says Anita Dancs of the National Priorities Project.
"Congress could demand that there's much better mechanisms
put into place to see where the money is going, where it's
being spent. We have stories about money in Iraq being moved
around in wheelbarrows. So Congress needs to put some institutional
oversight into place beyond what's being done so far."
Last week, the House of Representatives approved 72 billion
dollars for war costs. If past by the Senate, that will bring
the total to over 400 million spent since 2001.
Belarus Elections In Question
Thousands of people took to the streets in the eastern European
country of Belarus after President Alexander Lukashenko was
announced the winner in the Presidential election. Results
say Lukashenko received 82.6% of the vote. The European Union
and the United States say they do not accept the outcome.
Main opposition candidate Alexander Milinkevich called for
street protests. Lukashenko said the vote was fair and denounced
foreign pressure. Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his
congratulations.
French Students & Workers Protest
After about a half a million people demonstrated in France
over the weekend, a one day general strike has been called
to protest the government's youth employment plan. In Paris
Tony Cross reports.
Workers', students' and school students unions meeting in
Paris this evening have called a general strike for Tuesday
26 March, in a new challenge to prime minister Dominique de
Villepin's youth employment scheme, the C-P-E. That's after
protests this weekend mobilized up to a million-and-a-half
all over the country. Demonstrators on Saturday's march in
Paris chant "free our comrades!" That was after
arrests made in violence which followed Thursday's demonstration.
But by Sunday morning another 70 people were in jail ... and
52 people, most of them police, injured in violence after
the Paris protest. This afternoon postal-workers' union, Sud-P-T-T
announced that one of its members is in a coma. It says that
he was trampled underfoot by riot police on Saturday evening.
And there were local protests today, including fighting with
police after a school-students' demonstration in the outskirts
of Paris. Today the unions refused de Villepin's offer of
dialogue, saying that the C-P-E must be scrapped. Only minor
students' groups turned up to a meeting with the prime minister
this afternoon. Tomorrow, school students will stage a day
of action and there will be more protests Thursday, along
with a strike by utilities workers against gas privatization.
And unions seem confident that they can launch an even bigger
protest next week ... if the government hasn't backed down
by then.
Fatah In Gun Fight
In Palestine, a firefight broke out today between gunmen loyal
to the Fatah party, demanding jobs and wages, and Palestinian
police forces in the Gaza Strip. Laila El-Haddad has the story
from Gaza.
The gunmen-who belonged mainly to Fateh's al-Aqsa Martyrs
Brigades blocked off the main road leading to the Erez border
crossing into Israel, exchanging fire with security forces
in a two-hour long gun battle. Palestinian President Mahmud
Abbas's motorcade was on it way to Tel Aviv at the time for
a follow-up meeting with Americans, European, and Israeli
representatives on the humanitarian situation in Gaza. Later,
they took the battle to the city, shooting at a police station
and in front of the foreign ministry, and briefly storming
a military hospital, wounding 4 people in the process. Machinegun
fire echoed throughout Gaza, ricocheting off buildings and
shops, as police sirens whistled frantically up and down the
streets. The gunmen were demanding unpaid wages and jobs,
and though this is not the first time for them to do so, the
latest episode comes at a critical time. The cash-strapped
authority is increasingly finding it difficult to pay the
salaries of the some 70, 000 security forces it employs, especially
in the face of economic sanctions and isolation. Much-needed
foreign aid has been recalled by the United States, with other
government threatening to do the same, and Israel is withholding
tax revenues owed to the Palestinian Authority amounting to
some $52 million a month. The latest turmoil comes during
an ongoing Israeli closure of Gaza that has resulted in the
depletion of wheat and flour and a shortage of other staples
in the impoverished strip of 1.5 million, where 65% of the
population live on under $2 a day. A temporary deal was reached
that would allow the entry of some humanitarian aid into Gaza,
though no exports will be allowed out of Strip and a permanent
solution to the border crisis has yet to been reached. International
Middle East envoy James Wolfensohn recently warned that as
a result of the sanctions, the Palestinian Authority faces
imminent collapse.
10,000 Rally At Home of Argentina's Dictator
In Argentina, about 10,000 people participated in a massive
protest this weekend in front of the home of former military
dictator Jorge Rafael Videla, who is living under house arrest.
This Friday is the anniversary of the beginning of a dictatorship,
in which 30,000 people disappeared, and thousands more detained
and tortured.
Google & the DOJ
Google will have to hand some of its records over to the government
Eric Klein has the details.
The Department of Justice is getting a tiny fraction of what
it originally requested. Google can keep the terms entered
into its search engine a secret, but a judge ordered it to
hand over 50,000 URL (or web addresses) from it's databases.
Google lawyers are calling the ruling a clear victory, but
warn that future subpoenas for the data it keeps are always
a possibility. For FSRN I'm Eric Klein.
Supreme Court Round Up
And finally the US Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal
brought by the Tobacco company Phillip Morris in which it
has to pay 50 million dollars in punitive damages in a case
of a longtime smoker who died of lung cancer. The Supreme
Court also declined to hear an appeal by the state of New
Jersey to reinstate the death penalty for Robert Marshall
for killing his wife. An appeals court earlier ruled that
his lawyer did not adequately represent him.
[top]
Special Nationwide Coverage On 3-Year Anniversary
of Invasion:
Protestors and Lawmakers in DC Speak Out Against
War in Iraq (4:29)
Today marks the 3-year anniversary of the start of the US-led
war on Iraq, and protestors have gathered around the world
to oppose the US-led occupation there. Washington DC was the
site of a solemn march to the Pentagon, to illustrate the
impact of the war to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Meanwhile,
lawmakers on Capitol Hill are indicating a deepening divide
from the Administration's description of the war. Leigh Ann
Caldwell reports.
[top]
War Veterans Make Economic Connection Between Iraq
and New Orleans (1:42)
As demonstrators and lawmakers weighed in on the effects
of war in the nation's capitol, 150 war veterans and their
supporters marched into New Orleans on Sunday to make the
economic connection between military efforts in Iraq and the
failure to rebuild the gulf coast. The rally marked the conclusion
of a 5-day march from Mobile, Alabama to New Orleans, through
some of the areas most devastated by Hurricane Katrina. FSRN's
Christian Roselund has more.
[top]
Connecticut Stages 2 Anti-War Demonstrations
(1:32)
Demonstrators in Connecticut held two large anti-war demonstrations
in their state to mark the anniversary of the US invasion
on Iraq. FSRN's Melinda Tuhus was at both events and files
this report.
[top]
South Dakota Residents Gather at Lawmaker's Office
Calling for Presidential Impeachment (2:08)
Members of South Dakota Peace and Justice met at the Rapid
City office of Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth last Friday
to call for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice-President
Cheney in connection to the ongoing war in Iraq. FSRN's Jim
Kent spoke to activists to examine their views on the Bush
administration, the war in Iraq and its impact on people living
in the US.
[top]
New and Veteran Activists Gather at Vigil Against
the War (2:18)
Washington residents began their protest against the war
on Friday, with a modest but persistent vigil, which was bolstered
by other recent actions. FSRN's Matthew Bradley reports from
DC, where the days leading up to the anniversary of the invasion
on Iraq brought new and veteran activists together calling
far an end to the war.
[top]
Niger Delta Faces Water Borne Diseases as a Result
of Exxon-Mobile (2:36)
One of the objectives of the ongoing Fourth World Water
Forum in Mexico City is to find a sustainable solution to
obstacles facing the precious liquid - and some point out
that those of those obstacles are created by multinational
companies. In Nigeria's Niger Delta region many people are
dying of water borne diseases because western oil companies
are polluting clean water in the area. Some of the worst affected
communities are those near the m! ain operating area of US-based
Exxon-Mobil. Sam Olukoya reports from the Niger Delta.
[top]
Environmentalists Denounce Bush's Pick to Lead Department
of the Interior (4:03)
Environmentalists see President Bush's nomination of Idaho
Governor Dirk Kempthorne to head the Department of the Interior,
as an extension of Secretary Gale Norton's Blueprint. They
cite that under Norton's policy, extractive industries are
able to get everything they seek from federal lands. FSRN's
Leigh Robartes takes a look at the record of the man who will
likely be confirmed to run the Interior Department.
[top]
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