Archive - Mar 26, 2009

• Treasury Secretary Geithner unveils a proposal to regulate the financial industry
• Senate Foreign Relations Committee takes up nomination for new ambassador to Afghanistan
• Obama holds online town hall meeting
• Mexico's Drug War strategy shifts power from civilian institutions to unaccountable military
• State secrets and the case of Al-Haramain
• Firefight near Kashimir's Line of Control kills 25

• Police to investigate Gitmo detainee claims of MI5 torture complicity
• UN urges legal protection of rights for Afghan detainees
  
• Farmers strike in Argentina
• Border Defoliation on Hold
• Maryland Restricts Use of the Death Penalty

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has unveiled a broad proposal to bring the financial firms that escape government oversight into a new regulatory framework.  As FSRN’s Leigh Ann Caldwell reports, Geithner is calling for a comprehensive plan to revamp the governments ability to regulate runaway firms.

Twenty five people have died in a six day long gunfight between Indian troops and Muslim guerrillas in a forested area of Indian-administered Kashmir.  While the fighting has stopped, the army said it was still scanning the area. Shanawaz Khan has more.

Lawyers for an Oregon charity have accused the Obama administration of maintaining the Bush administration status quo with regards to secrecy.  FSRN's Jenka Soderberg has more from Portland:

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton continues her visit to Mexico today on the heels of new plans to beef up the US law enforcement presence along the border with Mexico. Clinton announced plans to establish a new office in Mexico, staffed by Mexican and US officials. The office would monitor the implementation of the Merida Initiative, often called "Plan Mexico" due to its similarities with Plan Colombia. Plan Colombia is a multi-billion dollar counter-narcotics strategy developed during the presidency of Secretary Clinton's husband.

At the White House today, President Obama held a new kind of town hall meeting - asking the public to participate and interact online. The event drew more than 92,000 text and video questions from people across the country, which were then ranked by more than 3.5 million votes. People could stream the meeting live, and watch the President repond to their questions. One topic was pushed to the top by online voters - legalization of marijuana and whether that could jumpstart the economy. The President didn't think so.