Archive - Dec 21, 2009

• Health care legislation clears critical vote in Senate
• Critics say Copenhagen climate deal lacks necessary reforms
• Egypt begins construction of underground barrier with Gaza
• Violence endangers Colombia’s indigenous groups - Part one
  

• Iranian cleric’s funeral turns into protest
• Attack on Syrian bus in Lebanon/meeting between Lebanese and Syrian leaders
• Guantanamo detainees released
• UK will release info on possible torture at Gitmo
• US soldiers in Iraq can now be court-martialed for becoming pregnant
• Protests continue after killing of Papuan independence leader

After months of negotiating, compromising, and arm-twisting, Senate Democrats finally got the sixty votes needed to move health care forward. Some progressives say the bill they ended up with isn’t worth passing. But Democrats are claiming victory. FSRN's Tanya Snyder brings us the story from Washington.

Late Friday, officials in Copenhagen announced a climate change agreement. Some details include limiting global temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius, providing a framework for countries to monitor carbon emissions, and a pledge by rich countries to raise funds to help poor countries face the consequences of climate change. But the agreement isn’t legally binding and critics say it falls short on many of the key issues. There is also widespread criticism of how the deal came about and who was involved.

To assess the agreement that came from Copenhagen, we are joined by Michael Dorsey, an assistant professor at Dartmouth College. He directs the Climate Justice Research Project -- and he just returned back from Copenhagen earlier this morning.

According to Egyptian and Israeli news reports, Egypt's intelligence chief Omar Suleiman was in Israel yesterday to meet with top officials during a low-profile visit to Tel Aviv. Suleiman is leading indirect talks between Israel and Hamas on a prisoner exchange. Some analysts say an estimated 1,000 jailed Palestinians could be swapped for Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, who was captured in Gaza in 2006.

The meeting between Egyptian and Israeli intelligence officials comes just days after Hamas shot at Egyptian construction workers building an underground barrier along the border with Gaza. FSRN's Correspondent Aya Batrawy reports.

In Colombia, There are 87 indigenous groups native to the country. Thirty-four of them are facing extinction according to that country’s supreme court.  Human rights groups say that fighting between the Colombian Army and the FARC rebels is pushing hundreds of indigenous groups into urban areas where they face poverty and where they begin to lose their way of life.

In the first part of a series on Colombia´s endangered tribes, Manuel Rueda visited the Jiw people in the Guaviare province.