Archive - Jun 18, 2009

• Senate committee wrestles with the costs of health care reform
• Treasury Secretary defends plans to regulate financial system
• Mass killings over in Darfur says US envoy to Sudan
• Human rights in Zimbabwe precarious says Amnesty report
• Monsanto soy chemicals could pose health risk

• Romanian families in Northern Ireland go into hiding after string of racially motivated attacks
• Suicide bomb kills Somali security minister
• Drone attack kills 12 in Pakistan; local residents flee
• West Bank Palestinians drive government officials out of neighborhood
• 14 West Virginia activists arrested during anti-mountain top mining action
• Supreme Court rules prisoners don’t have right to DNA tests
• US Senate apologizes for slavery and segregation
• EPA declares a public health emergency in asbestos riddled Libby, MT

Today, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, testifying before the Senate Banking Committee, fended off criticisms of President Obama’s plan to reform the nation's financial oversight bodies.  The plan comes after months of wrestling with lawmakers, regulators, and industry lobbyists, and it seeks to expand the authority of the Federal Reserve.  FSRN’s Matt Pearson reports.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pension Committee otherwise known as HELP, is currently reviewing a massive six hundred page health reform bill.  On day two of the discussions, committee members wrangled over the cost of the bill and what’s known as defensive medicine. FSRN´s  Karen Miller has more

New research released by Argentina’s top medical school has found that a chemical used in soy farming could be harmful to human health.  The study has alarmed policy makers in the South American nation which is one of the world’s largest producers of soy beans.  FSRN’s Marie Trigona reports from Buenos Aires.

Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan has described the human rights situation in Zimbabwe as precarious.  Khan spoke today after meeting government and civil rights groups in a week-long visit to the Southern African country.  Her report comes as police arrest peaceful demonstrators who were commemorating World Refugee Day.  Davison Makanga reports.

According to the United Nations, the Sudanese government war´s  against separatist movements in the western region of Darfur has killed up to 300,000 people over the past six years, displacing over 2.7 million from their homes.

The US has applied economic sanctions on the African nation and has repeatedly accused the Sudanese government of committing genocide. But on Wednesday,  President Obama´s special envoy to Sudan indicated the government there is no longer coordinating a campaign of mass murder.