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> Tue., Oct. 31, 2006
FSRN
FREE SPEECH RADIO NEWS
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Today's lead stories:
Philip Morris Makes Their Case against Punitive Damages
John Kerry Responds to Republican Criticism
International Community Calls for Peaceful Resolution to Conflict
in Oaxaca
Women Underrepresented in World Peacekeeping Missions
Oil Corruption in Nigeria
U.S. Partially Lifts Arms Embargo on Haiti
FSRN Headlines
NORTH KOREA TO RETURN TO NUKE TALKS
Negotiations to end the nuclear crisis on the Korean peninsula
will soon resume. Jason Strother has more from Seoul.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry says that North Korea will return
to the Six Party Talks. The announcement was made following
a meeting today between negotiators from the US, China and
North Korea in Beijing. The talks, aimed at stopping Pyongyang's
nuclear weapons program, have been stalled for over a year.
Nations participating in the rounds also include South Korea,
Japan and Russia. Tensions have risen in the region since
the reclusive state test fired a nuclear device on October
9th. The United Nations Security Council soon after imposed
sanctions on Kim Jong Il's regime. Officials here in Seoul
hope the resumption of talks will bring an end to the standoff.
There's no word yet on when the new round of negotiations
will get underway. Reporting for Free Speech Radio News in
Seoul South Korea, I'm Jason Strother.
CONVICTED BOMBERS ACQUITTED
Four Pakistani men have been acquitted of all charges in connection
with a 2002 bomb blast near the American consulate in Karachi.
An earlier trial at an anti-terrorism court had sentence two
of the accused to death. The other two were sentenced to life
in prison. At today's acquittal, appeals judges reportedly
said the original trial was deeply flawed and ordered the
men to be released if not wanted in other cases.
INDIA BOYCOTT
Hundreds of thousands of shops across the Indian capital Delhi
remain closed today as part of a three-day strike to protest
the sealing of unauthorized commercial establishments. Vinod
K. Jose reports.
India's highest court has asked asked the government to demolish
all properties which are illegally built. And when government
started its demolition drive, thousands of traders hit the
streets. The traders are on a three-day strike calling the
city government to stop sealing their shops. They say it would
mean losing livelihood for thousands of them. Demonstrators
scuffled with the policemen as they tried to breach steel
barricades to register their protest. Police fired tear gas
and used water cannons to disperse the crowd. Last month a
one-day token strike ended up with chaos killing four people
in the violence. The capital's business community is expected
to lose over 15 billion rupees - the equivalent of approximately
334 million dollars - due to their three-day shutdown. For
FSRN, from Delhi, this is Vinod K. Jose.
CONGO
Rioting mobs rampaged through a northeastern Congo town yesterday,
destroying 43 polling stations after a soldier killed two
electoral workers in violence that came after Sunday's presidential
runoff vote. Individual polling places began to post results
– but the official overall outcome isn't expected for
days. FSRN's Joshua Kyalimpa reports.
President Joseph Kabila faced ex-rebel Jean-Pierre Bemba
in a run-off Sunday. Some 9,000 candidates also vied for 500
seats in the country's new parliament. Kabila enjoys enormous
support in the east of the country while Jean Pierre Bemba
has consolidated support from the west of the country. Both
Kabila and Bemba have said they will accept the results, even
if they lose. But Bemba's camp have already complained of
some irregularities. Bemba's supporters have alleged that
the international community wants Mr. Kabila to win to protect
European and American interests in the mineral-rich country.
At least one person died on the election day in protests over
alleged fraud in the north-east of the country. Joshua Kyalimpa,
FSRN, Kampala.
SMARTMATIC
Just over a month since Venezuelan President Chavez' speech
at the UN, and one week before this fall's Congressional Elections,
the US government is now investigating rumors of supposed
links between the Venezuelan government and one of the largest
and oldest voting machine manufacturers in the United States.
Michael Fox has more from Caracas.
The US investigation comes after months of rumors of a supposed
link between Smartmatic and the Venezuelan government. Smartmatic
is the privately-owned Venezuelan parent company of Oakland-
based Sequoia Voting Systems, whose equipment will be used
in next week's Congressional Elections in more than 16 states.
Both Venezuelan and Smartmatic officials have denied any Venezuelan
state involvement in the company. Smartmatic and Sequoia announced
on Sunday that the companies had filed voluntarily with the
U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States
to dispel any doubts that may exist regarding the independence
of the company. Rumors to the contrary appear to be based
on a Miami Herald article from 2004, which claimed that at
one point the Venezuelan government was part-owner of a software
company in which two Smartmatic owners also held large shares.
According to Sequoia, this part "ownership" was
actually just collateral for a routine loan received from
the Venezuelan government. Sequoia was the first voting machine
manufacturer in the US to implement Voter Verifiable Paper
Audit Trail technology during the 2004 Presidential elections.
Smartmatic acquired Sequoia in March of last year. This is
Michael Fox, FSRN, Caracas.
[top]
Philip Morris Makes Their Case against Punitive
Damages (3:23)
The Supreme Court heard a case that could better define
the scope of punitive damages. The debate on the award given
to people on no basis of tangible loss has been debatable
in U.S. courts for 200 years. Philip Morris brought their
case before the high court today, seeking to reverse a nearly
$80 million punitive damage award handed down by an Oregon
court. As Washington Editor Leigh-Ann Caldwell reports, the
case could impact the amount of damages a company would pay
for their negligent behavior.
[top]
John Kerry Responds to Republican Criticism
(1:45)
[top]
International Community Calls for Peaceful Resolution
to Conflict in Oaxaca (3:20)
While Mexico's Federal Preventative Police occupy key parts
of downtown Oaxaca City, residents in outlying neighborhoods
continue to put up barricades and otherwise maintain control
of the majority of the metropolitan area. Meanwhile, calls
for a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Oaxaca have expanded
beyond state lines, to the national and international level.
Shannon Young reports.
[top]
Women Underrepresented in World Peacekeeping Missions
(4:35)
Today marks the 6th anniversary of the adoption of the ground
breaking U.N. Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women and
Armed Conflict, which called for greater involvement of women
in peacekeeping operations worldwide. But half a dozen years
after its adoption, critics point out that peace support operations
continue to be an area where women are still underrepresented
at all levels, particularly at the top. FSRN’s Danuta
Szafraniec reports from New York.
[top]
Oil Corruption in Nigeria (3:00)
Nigeria's anti corruption body says more than $380 billion
has been either stolen or wasted in the country since independence
in 1960. The bulk of the money is from oil proceeds. While
critics maintain that billions of dollars earned yearly from
oil sales only benefit western oil companies and Nigeria's
corrupt ruling class, local communities in the oil bearing
Niger Delta region remain desperately poor. The communities
say this inequality is partially responsible for the insurgency
against western oil companies operating in the region. FSRN’s
Sam Olukoya reports from Lagos.
[top]
U.S. Partially Lifts Arms Embargo on Haiti
(3:15)
The U.S. government announced the partial lifting of its
15-year arms embargo on Haiti this month, which was intended
to quell the violence that followed the 1991 coup d’etat
of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. But current leader
Rene Preval claims it was preventing the Haitian police from
obtaining the firepower they needed to combat armed gangs.
Katie Sosin reports from Port-au-Prince.
[top]
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