Archive - Jan 2009

• President Obama reverses Bush-era labor policies
• "Buy American" provision meets free trade opposition
• Iraqis head to polls Saturday
• Did Israel use "cancer bombs" in recent Gaza attack? - Special Web Version Here
  
• Lawsuit filed in tax office raid
• Tasers causing increased in-custody deaths

• Myanmar Denies Citizenship of Rhingya Boat People
• Sri Lanka Sees Unofficial Ceasefire while Civilians Leave War Zone
• Tsvangirai Officially Agrees to Take Role in Unity Government
• Taliban in Pakistan Allows Girls to Go Back to School Through Grade Four
• Two Big Court Rulings in California

President Obama launched a task force on the middle class today. The news comes alongside more dire economic data: the nation's GDP sank the most in the fourth quarter since 1982. But in Obama's announcement today, he said that organized labor is not part of the problem, but part of the solution. The President reversed three Bush-era labor policies, which will help workers stay informed, keep their jobs and protect them from outside interests. FSRN's Karen Miller is in Washington.

One provision in the stimulus would ensure that projects built with stimulus funds use U.S.-made products – and that stipulation has ignited a debate in the Senate. As Tanya Snyder reports, free trade supporters say that kind of help is no help at all.

Iraqis go to the polls tomorrow, in an election where some 14,000 people are competing for provincial 440 seats. Violence has already marked the run-up to these elections, which marks the first time Iraqi voters can pick specific individuals on a ballot since the U.S. invasion in 2003. Three Sunni Arab candidates running for provincial council seats were assassinated this week, bringing the death toll of Sunni candidates to four. Some Iraqis say the murders are an effort to intimidate people before Election Day. Sunni Arabs boycotted provincial elections in 2005 – and Shiites and Kurds ended up with disproportionate control, even in areas with larger Sunni populations. Raed Jarrar is an Iraqi blogger and consultant for the American Friends Service Committee, he spoke to KPFA's Mitch Jeserich about what might change in Iraq's political landscape this time.

Doctors treating survivors of Israel's recent attack on Gaza say they have never seen certain kinds of injuries before: a Norwegian doctor described wounds that appear to have been caused by a mine detonating – yet there is no shrapnel. A German doctor treating survivors in southern Gaza says that tiny particles can be found eating away at organs, rendering treatment ineffective. So what kind of weapon caused these injuries?  Conn Hallinan is an analyst at Foreign Policy in Focus, and next week, he will publish a piece outlining what he says is Israel's use of so-called "focused lethality" weapons – that is, a type of weapon that causes shattering injuries on its victims with minimal explosive damage. Israel has so far denied allegations that it's used these focused lethality weapons. It also initially denied using white phosphorus during its recent incursion into Gaza – citing their adherence to international law. Israel was later forced to admit that they did, in fact, use the devise after eye-witness accounts confirmed it. In this FSRN exclusive, Hallinan talks about the destruction the weapon causes.

Doctors treating survivors of Israel's recent attack on Gaza say they have never seen certain kinds of injuries before: a Norwegian doctor described wounds that appear to have been caused by a mine detonating – yet there is no shrapnel. A German doctor treating survivors in southern Gaza says that tiny particles can be found eating away at organs, rendering treatment ineffective.