June 22, 2004

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Headlines

South Korean Man Beheaded in Iraq
A South Korean man, Kim Sun-Il, who was kidnapped in Iraq, has been beheaded. Officials at the South Korean foreign ministry confirmed the report. The 33-year-old Kim worked with a South Korean contractor that provided supplies to the U.S. military forces in Iraq. The kidnappers, reportedly members of the groups Monotheism and Jihad, said Kim would be released if South Korea agreed to stop an expected deployment of 3-thousand additional soldiers to Iraq. Government leaders in Seoul rejected the demand. Video of Kim pleading for his life and wearing an orange jumpsuit in the style of U.S. prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, has sent shock waves throughout the South Korea.

Lynn Stewart on Trial
A well-known civil rights attorney is on trial in New York for issuing statements on her clients’ behalf.  The government charges her actions amount to conspiracy.  From WBAI, Ginger Otis reports.

Bill to Provide Voter Paper Trail
A small band of Congressional Representatives are trying to introduce a bill that would provide voters with a paper trail, but the lawmakers are getting no where. Amrutha Nanjappa reports from D.C.

Sex Discrimination Suit Against Largest Retailer
The largest retailer in the United States is now facing the largest sex discrimination lawsuit in U.S. history. Kellia Ramares explains.

Anti Depressants in Nigeria
A multi-national pharmaceutical company is set to launch an anti-depressant drug in Nigeria. The drug Paxil was pulled off the market in the United States. And, the New York State attorney general is suing the company for concealing drug trials showing the drug could harm children and teens. Sam Olukoya reports from Lagos.

Features

Wolfowitz Testifies on US Role in Iraq Post June 30th    (4:07)
As senior coalition official says the United States will hand legal, but not physical, custody of Saddam Hussein to the interim Iraqi government as soon as Iraqi courts issue an arrest warrant and request the transfer. In Washington today, the White House and Pentagon are expected to release a series of memos  on the U.S. policy for prisoner interrogations from Guantanamo Bay to the Iraqi Abu Ghraib detention facility. The memos reportedly indicate that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approved interrogative procedures that include mild, non-injurious physical contact. They purportedly disprove a CNN report that claimed Rumsfeld approved a controversial method in which detainees were made to feel as though they were drowning. And Mitch Jeserich reports that on Capitol Hill today, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz testified on the U.S. role in Iraq after June 30th.

Iraqi School Reconstruction  (3:36)
United Nations-mandated auditors have sharply criticized the US occupation authority for the way it has spent more than $11 billion in Iraqi oil revenues and say they have faced “resistance” from coalition officials. An interim report, obtained by the Financial Times says the Development Fund for Iraq, which is managed by the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority and channels oil revenue into reconstruction projects, is “open to fraudulent acts”. In just 8 days, some powers will be transferred from the occupation authorities to the interim Iraqi government, but as David Enders reports from Baghdad’s schools, things are in many cases no better than they were when the occupation authority set up shop last April.

HIV/AIDS — Tanzania  (4:04)
In April, the U.S. government disbursed the first 350 million dollars of an unprecedented foreign aid package to fight HIV/AIDS. But skepticism abounds among health care experts and professionals in Sub-Saharan Africa, the epicenter of the pandemic and the focus of the U.S. assistance. Reed Lindsay reports from Arusha, Tanzania.

Guantanamo Detainee Sues Bush and Rumsfeld  (3:34)
Yesterday, a military court ruled that the top American commanders in Iraq must testify in the case of two servicemen accused in the Abu Ghraib prison torture scandal. Defense lawyers say they would also like to put President Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on the stand. And in Seattle, a high profile law firm has joined forces with a military lawyer to challenge the power of the president to indefinitely hold a prisoner at the US Naval Base at Guantanamo. The case pits a Yemeni prisoner, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a driver for Osama bin Laden; against Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, commanders at Guantanamo and President George Bush. The issues at stake are nothing less than the balance of power between the president, Congress and federal courts; the equal protection clause of the Constitution and military versus civilian justice. The case has “monumental significance”, wrote US District Judge Robert Lasnik in a recent ruling, and is reminiscent of the Japanese interment cases decided six decades ago in the same courtroom.

Youth Issue Report Card on Adults  (3:54)
While young people across the country have finished up school for the summer, some youth took this time to issue a report card on adults. Selina Musuta reports adults were graded on key subjects like education, violence and abuse, and terrorism.

 

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