Archive - Feb 19, 2009

• Obama and Harper Discuss Long Term Commitment to Afganistan
• Peace Deal in Pakistan Border Tribal Region
• Death Penalty Up for Debate in Georgia
• Hypersonic Air Travel: Green or not? Reality or not?

• Kyrgyzstan's Parliament Votes To Close US military Base
• California Budget Passes But Will Weaken Air Pollution Rules
• Greenpeace Study Says World's Hazardous Waste Ends Up in Nigeria
• Student Sit-in at NYU
• Protest Over Offensive NY Post Cartoon

US President Barack Obama has crossed US orders for the first time as President. He traveled north, to Canada, one of the US's closest allies.  Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper launched a new collaboration on energy and the environment, a promise to create new clean energy options between the two countries, such as an alternative energy power grid.

Another top discussed between the two leaders was Afghanistan.  Canada has 2500 troops in Afghanistan and Prime Minister Harper has promised a 2011 troop withdrawal. As President Obama issued an order this week to send 17,000 more US troops to Afghanistan, Obama said he did not pressure Harper to keep troops in.

Steven Staples, President of the Rideau Institute, a think tank in Ottawa talks to FSRN about Canada's desire to withdraw combat troops in Afghanistan.

Now we go to the Afghanistan- Pakistan border, a region called the Swat Valley. There, a peace deal has been negotiated between a local religious cleric and a Taliban leader. For more than a year, the Tablian has controlled much of this once-popular tourism destination. In addition to a 10-day ceasefire, the deal includes the implementation of sharia law. FSRN's Puck Lo reads for our correspondent in the region, Gabe Matthews.

Forty-two individuals have been executed in the state of Georgia since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. This year, 33 years later, the death penalty could be hotly debated in the State Assembly as there are multiple proposals to alter it. Some of the measures would greatly limit the death penalty as others would make it more accessible.  FSRN's Sacajawea Hall reports from Atlanta.

How would you like to travel from Brussels to Sydney in 4 hours at a top speed of 3,000 miles per hour on liquid hydrogen? If British company Reaction Engines has its way, hypersonic air travel will be a reality 25 years from now. It's technology being billed as green and sustainable. But, it might be a form of false advertising. Naomi Fowler reports, in our latest installment of FSRN's energy series, Running on Empty.