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> Tue., May. 9, 2006
FSRN
FREE SPEECH RADIO NEWS
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Today's lead stories:
Lawmakers Consider Extending Voting Rights Act Provisions
House Seeks to Pass Bill to Ban Protests at Military Funerals
Palestinian Medical Services Strapped from Lack of Aid
10 States Files Suit Against the EPA
Tensions in the Solomon Islands
African Teachers Seeking Better Conditions
Coming Up Flowers: Bio-Remediation in New Orleans
FSRN Headlines
ATENCO PRISONERS CHARGED WITH ORGANIZED CRIME
The Attorney General's office of Mexico state has filed charges
against townspeople arrested in last week's raid of San Salvador
Atenco. Some 190 people are charged with organized crime and
disrupting a public road. A handful of people, identified
as leaders of the People's Front in Defense of the Land, have
also been charged with kidnaping. Some of their family members
are now in hiding to avoid arrest.
CHILEAN DEPORTEE TO CHALLENGE MEXICO
Meanwhile, Chilean documentary film maker, Valentina Palma
says that she is planning to take legal action against Mexican
officials for her summary deportation and treatment while
in police custody after her arrest in Atenco. Palma, whose
parents were exiled during Pinochet's regime, gives graphic
testimony in today's edition of Mexico's La Jornada newspaper
of what she experienced and witnessed during her detention.
On reports of police rapes, Palma says, ''I can say with absolute
certainty that various women arrested in Atenco, with whom
I was held for 12 hours in the Almoloyita prison, were raped
in the course of the transfer from the place of arrest to
the jail. More than five, without a doubt,".
ARGENTINA REQUESTS EXTRADITION OF DIRTY WAR ERA OFFICERS
Argentina has petitioned Uruguay for the extradition of six
former officers accused of crimes during the era of the Dirty
War. Marie Trigona has the story.
The five former military officials and one police official
have been placed under arrest in Montevideo for the 1976 kidnaping
and disappearance of Claudia Garcia, who was pregnant at the
time of abduction. The Argentine military abducted Garcia
and her husband and then brought to Uruguay as part of Operation
Condor, a shared plan by regional dictators in Uruguay, Chile,
Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia and Argentina to kill regime opponents
in the 1970s and 80s. Garcia gave birth while in a clandestine
detention center and was then killed. Military authorities
in Uruguay gave the baby girl to a police family to adopt.
A decision on the extradition request could take up to a year.
In March Uruguay's Supreme Court ruled for the first time
to extradite Uruguayan officers to Chile. For Free Speech
Radio News, I'm Marie Trigona.
UNCERTAIN PEACE IN DARFUR
The humanitarian crisis in Sudan's Darfur region is yet to
improve, despite a peace agreement aimed at ending three years
of fighting in the region. Sam Olukoya reports from Lagos.
The peace agreement signed last week in Nigeria between the
Sudanese government and the largest rebel group in the Darfur
region, provides that humanitarian organizations should have
access to the region. But the United Nations top humanitarian
official Jan Egeland says this aspect of the peace deal is
yet to be respected. The Darfur region is facing one of the
world's worst humanitarian crisis. More than two million of
the region's estimated population of six million have fled
their homes. Many of the refugees are facing starvation after
the World Food Programme recently cut food rations in half.
Despite the peace deal, relief may not come to the refugees
any time soon, although the security situation has improved.
An African Union force in the region is ineffective in keeping
peace because it is poorly equipped and lacks sufficient manpower.
The refusal of two rebel groups to sign the peace deal may
also affect the security situation in the region. For Free
Speech Radio News, this is Sam Olukoya in Lagos.
BRITISH COURT BARS UNAUTHORIZED PROTESTS NEAR PARLIAMENT
Britain's longest peace protest outside parliament has lost
the right to remain protesting outside the country's seat
of power. From London, Naomi Fowler reports.
Peace protester Brian Haw has held a 24-hour peace vigil
for nearly five years outside parliament with graphic photos
of Iraqi children dead, dying or deformed as a result of western
actions against Iraq. The government passed special legislation
to get rid of him, banning demonstrations within a mile radius
of parliament without prior police permission. A judge originally
upheld his right to continue his protest, but now that's been
overturned when the Home Office appealed his decision. Peace
protester Brian Haw from outside parliament: (sound) "They
have no water, they have no food in Iraq, they are dying,
they are perishing. I came here because my neighbour's kid
is as precious as mine. They're trying to shut me up! I'm
noisy apparently, I disturb them, yes, I need to disturb them
don't I?" The first recorded demonstrations outside parliament
were in the 1500s. Suffragettes famously won the right to
vote by chaining themselves to Parliament's railings. Unless
this legislation is overturned in the future, Brian Haw's
protest will be the last one to take place here without police
authorization. Naomi Fowler in London for Free Speech Radio
News.
[top]
Lawmakers Consider Extending Voting Rights Act Provisions
(3:50)
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill heard cautionary testimony about
extending Voting Rights Act provisions, because the new make-up
of the Supreme Court could rule it unconstitutional. This
was coupled by lawmakers who say that a full reauthorization
places unnecessary burdens on some states. Washington Editor
Leigh Ann Caldwell reports.
[top]
House Seeks to Pass Bill to Ban Protests at Military
Funerals (1:40)
The House of Representatives is expected to pass a bill
today that would ban protests at military funerals. Anti-gay
protests at service people’s funerals spurred the legislation.
Demonstrators say that soldiers' deaths are divine retribution
for the military's admission of gay people into their ranks.
he legislation would ban protests at all military cemeteries,
would force protesters to remain 500 feet from the sight of
the funeral, and would prohibit protesting one hour before
and one hour after the funeral. But First Amendment advocates
say rights could be violated, and the American Civil Liberties
Union has filed a lawsuit in Kentucky, maintaining that the
ban is a violation of the First Amendment. Chip Berlet is
with Political Research Associates.
[top]
Palestinian Medical Services Strapped from Lack of
Aid (3:11)
The European Union, the United Nations, the US and Russia
are meeting in New York this evening to discuss the impact
of their decision to withhold aid from the Palestinian Authority
following the election of Islamic militants Hamas 2 months
ago. The World Bank warned yesterday of the dire economic
consequences for the Palestinian population. Irris Makkler
visited a hospital in the West Bank city of Ramallah where
staff have not been paid for 2 months, and supplies some medicines
and equipment such as needles and sutures are starting to
low.
[top]
10 States Files Suit Against the EPA (2:56)
Ten states have filed suit against the federal Environmental
Protection Agency for violations of the Clean Air Act. State
Attorney Generals claim the EPA failed to adopt strong emission
standards to reduce air pollution from new power plants across
the nation. FSRN’s Julie Sabatier reports.
[top]
Tensions in the Solomon Islands (3:35)
It’s been a tense few weeks in the Solomon Islands
where locals have seen the resignation of one prime minister,
the resignation of two, and massive riots in the nation’s
capital. From Sydney, Elise Potaka reports on what’s
behind the unrest.
[top]
African Teachers Seeking Better Conditions
(2:33)
Remuneration for teachers was the cause of concern for African
civil society organizations during this year's global week
of action to highlight the plight of educators. Teachers are
some of the least paid laborers in Africa and activists say
this will likely affect government’s visions of attaining
education for all by 2015. The Global week of action is a
worldwide annual activity implemented by NGO'S and teachers
unions in more than 150 countries as part of a broader undertaking
to realize the right to education for all. Joshua Kyalimpa
reports.
[top]
Coming Up Flowers: Bio-Remediation in New Orleans
(2:35)
80% of New Orleans and virtually all of neighboring St.
Bernard Parish flooded when the levees breached after Hurricane
Katrina. The flooding damaged or destroyed more than 100,000
homes, and the land beneath them was awash in toxic discharges
containing heating oil, gasoline, battery acid and various
dangerous chemicals – all of which, before the hurricane,
gave the area around New Orleans the undesirable title of
Cancer Alley. But a pilot project in some of the hardest hit
areas aims to clean up the soil -- by planting flowers. From
New Orleans, FSRN’s Melinda Tuhus reports.
[top]
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