Archive - Apr 21, 2009

• Ahmadinejad calls Israeli policies “racist”, causes chaos at conference
• Geithner tries to explain TARP past, present and future
• Congress talks health care, but who’s at the table?
• Landmark suit charges government negligent in Hurricane Katrina disaster
• E-waste: electronic junk threatening health in the developing world

• President Obama suggests door open for prosecution of torture policy makers
• MI5 admits lying to British High Court about “rendition”
• Federal Court hears suit seeking declaration of Iraq war as unconstitutional
• Fighting continues in Sri Lanka – civilians continue to flee in large numbers
• EPA rolls back Bush rule relaxation on toxic chemicals
• Department of Defense “in-sources” Lockheed Martin contract

Participants at the Global Conference against Racism scrambled to respond to a massive walk-out after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Israel's policies "racist."  FSRN's Sacajawea Hall reports.

A bank takes a loan and then wants to pay it back. It sounds like a simple equation but not if you are a bank that receives TARP bailout funds from the government. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner appeared before the Congressional Oversight Panel today to address this issue and others relating to how TARP funds are being distributed, paid back, and what future plans entail. FSRN’s Karen Miller has more.

Congress is back from its spring break, and a top issue on the list of priorities is health care. Lawmakers say they want to craft legislation by June, just over six weeks from now. Back room discussions among health care players are ongoing, but as FSRN’s Leigh Ann Caldwell reports, as the debate becomes public, some health care reform advocates say they are left out of the discussion.

A federal civil suit began yesterday in New Orleans that charges that the Army Corps of Engineers contributed to post-Hurricane Katrina destruction by building and operating a poorly-designed water channel. Six area residents contend that the navigation channel, known as MR-GO, played a catastrophic role in the flooding of New Orleans when the levees broke in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, and they’re seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages. But the suit’s outcome could also mean that some 400,000 New Orleans residents may have a case in their claims as well. FSRN's Melinda Tuhus reports from New Orleans.

Most of us have an old cell phone or computer that doesn’t work anymore, and can’t really be fixed. Once those things get thrown out, where do they wind up? Recent studies indicate that broken gadgets that arrive in developing countries are disguised as second-hand electronic goods, but are in fact electronic waste – which is an open violation of international treaties that ban the trans-boundary movements of hazardous wastes. FSRN's Sam Olukoya reports from Lagos, where defunct items become toxic electronic junk that threatens human health.