October 30, 2001

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CLUSTER BOMBS AND FOOD PACKETS 3:26
The World Food Program warned today its only been able to deliver eight percent of food aid urgently needed to sustain half a million starving Afghans through the looming winter. They are the most desperate of more than six million Afghans dependent on international aid but the World Food Program says even the luckier ones — about two million people — have enough food to last just one month. Meantime, Pentagon radio broadcasts into Afghanistan warn civilians to be careful when approaching US- dropped food packets — because they look almost exactly like unexploded cluster bombs. Jeremy Scahill has more.

THE BORDER ECONOMY AND THE SEPTEMBER 11th ATTACKS 5:00
Stepped up security measures are having an unexpected victim – residents of cities along the US-Mexico border… Waiting times at border crossings have ranged from 30 minutes to three hours since the U.S. Customs Service and the Immigration and Naturalization Service went on a heightened alert status. The long lines also have discouraged cross-border shoppers from venturing across the bridges, causing El Paso retail businesses to lose as much as 50 percent in sales because of reduced traffic from Juárez. An d as Kent Patterson reports from Juarez, the economy of the Mexican border city has ground to a halt.

4,000 ACTIVISTS CALL FOR PEACE IN INDIA 5:37
Several thousand people marched through central Delhi today to protest against the US war against Afghanistan and the Indian government’s endorsement of the so-called war against terror. Sputnik Kilambi was at the demontsration and sent this report:

EXAMINING ISRAEL’S MILITARY TACTICS 2:51
Israel maintained its grip on Palestinian areas in the northern West Bank  today. In the West Bank city of Jenin, Palestinian gunmen prepared for a deeper Israeli incursion and said they had placed home-made mines around the West Bank city and its refugee camp. The United States, keen to bolster Arab support for its anti-terror coalition, has demanded Israel withdraw from all Palestinian areas … But Israel has refused. Rafael Krafft has more from Jerusalem.

SOVIET AIRCRAFT CARRIER OR CASINO? 2:40
A giant relic of the cold war is set to pass through the Turkish straits. The 1,000-foot Varyag was to be the Soviet Navy’s largest aircraft carrier, but it was never finished. Now a Chinese company wants to turn it into a floating casino. But the Turkish government has held up its passage for over a year citing safety concerns in the Bosphorous straits. Free Speech Radio News’ James Smoot has more from Istanbul.