Archive - Mar 16, 2009

• El Salvador’s former rebels take presidency, urge unity
• Red Cross document reveals details on Bush era torture
• AIG bonuses raise the ire of state and federal officials
• Obama administration moves to heal small businesses get loans
• Migrant domestic workers organizing in Lebanon
• India’s flood survivors seek to return home

• Tensions in Madagascar Escalate
• Hospital in Sri Lankan War Zone Stops Surgeries
• G20 Finance Ministers Meet
• Pakistan’s Top Judge Reinstated
• Seattle Post Intelligencer Out of Print
• Morales Takes From the Rich and Gives to the Poor

El Salvador’s Marxist guerrilla movement turned political party has claimed victory at the polls. With about 90 percent of the votes counted, preliminary official results indicate a two percent lead by the FMLN’s Mauricio Funes – who will take the presidency after a 20 year reign by the far-right ARENA party. The Untied States sought to crush the FMLN during El Salvador’s 12 year civil war, which claimed the lives of some 70,000 people. But despite his party’s revolutionary past, Funes campaigned on the need for change and reconciliation, and wants to maintain positive diplomatic relations with the U.S. Aura Bogado speaks to Joaquin Chavez, Fellow at the Department of History at NYU who is in San Salvador.

New details are emerging on the Bush administration’s use of torture. A leaked Red Cross document describes incidents of torture in graphic detail. The organization’s use of the word “torture” implies that the Red Cross believes that the interrogation practices violated international law. Meanwhile, President Obama made another move to distance himself from Bush-era terror policies – but critics say it may just be cosmetic. Tanya Snyder reports.

AIG’s decision to award massive bonuses may result in a subpoena: New York’s Attorney General says the insurance giant’s CEO must make public the names of those getting bonuses, or risk a subpoena for the information. AIG has received $170 billion in bailout funds, and the company’s decision to award bonuses has also garnered President Obama’s attention. He’s urging Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to block the move.

President Obama and the Treasury Department also released plans today to assist small businesses in getting loans.  In an effort to reduce fees and gain access, Treasury Secretary Geithner put pressure on banks to make money available. FSRN’s Leigh Ann Caldwell reports.

After a two-year combined effort by human rights groups and migrant workers, the Lebanese Ministries of Labor and Social Justice promised to enact a unified contact for migrant domestic workers  - a community that numbers more than 200,000 in Lebanon, and are still legally considered servants, rather than employees. Simba Russeau reports.