Archive - Oct 30, 2007

• Congress Questions US Voting Rights Chief Over Racially Insensitive Statements
• FCC Prepares to Hear Testimony on Media Consolidation
• Extremist Attack in India Creates Doubts about Government's Ability to Protect Population
• Fatah and Hamas Violence Lingers in Gaza
• The Law That Promotes Punishment (instead of Education)

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• State Dept Grants Immunity to Blackwater Guards
• Anti-War Activist Faces Charges in Canada
• Striking Dubai Workers To Be Deported
• Indian Govt to Set Up Land Reform Council
• UN General Assembly Condemns the Embargo Against Cuba

With the NAACP and some members of the Democratic Party calling for
his resignation, the Chief of the Voting Rights section of the Justice
Department was in the hot seat today. John Tanner was questioned
before Congress about his leadership - and comments he made. In
particular, he's getting heat for a statement made in early October
before the National Latino Congreso in Los Angeles. In a speech on
voting rights, he talked about how elderly voters are less likely to
have the I-Ds needed to be eligible to vote, but this was less of a
problem in minority communities. He said: "minorities don't become
elderly like white people do, they die first."

Karen Miller has more on today's hearing.

The Federal Communications Commission will examine the effects of
media consolidation tomorrow. This highly anticipated hearing will be
one of the last times the FCC will hear from the public before it
decides how big media companies are allowed to expand.

FSRN's Leigh Ann Caldwell reports that few are on the side of the
major media companies, but those conglomorates have the ears of one
very influential player.

This weekend, Maoist guerrillas launched a midnight attack on tribal
villagers in the Indian state of Jharkhand. As many as 19 people were
killed, including the son of the State's chief minister. The
immediate community launched a bandh – which is a general strike –
closing shops and slowing regional transportation.

The Jharkhand massacre has proven that Maoist extremists can commit
violent acts in the aread with impunity – despite the continuing
offensive from the state government targeting the organizations.

And as FSRN correspondent PC Dubey reports, local law enforcement has
been either unwilling or unable to do anything to curb the attacks.

United Nations' Secretary General Ban-Ki-Moon urged Israel on Monday
to reconsider its sanctions on Gaza . The call came one day after
Israeli defense minister, Ehud Barak, approved cutting off fuel and
electricity supplies in proportion to the number of homemade
Palestinian rockets being fired onto nearby Israeli towns. The UN and
European Union delegegates site that this sort of "collective
punishment" is illegal under international law.

Barak has recently told reporters that – quote- "Every passing day
brings us closer to a broad operation in Gaza." This increasingly
calls into question the potential for success of the coming peace
conference between Israel and Palestine.