Archive - Jul 20, 2009

• Honduras talks fail: Zelaya supporters plan civil disobedience
• Clinton negotiates weapons sales and climate change policies during India visit
• President Obama urges Congress to speed up health care reform
• Latino deaths at work increase
• Ethnic tensions continue in China's Xinjiang region

• As AIDS ravages, funding for research shrivels worldwide
• US demands Israel stop settlement activity, Israel refuses
• HRW urges Nigeria to investigate security officials’ role in Jos killings
• Akwesasne win battle, but not war, over armed border patrol

Negotiations to resolve the leadership crisis in Honduras came to an abrupt end in Costa Rica this weekend, as the de facto government rejected a seven point proposal, that included the re-installment of deposed President Manuel Zelaya.

Meanwhile, several thousand Zelaya supporters gathered in the capital city of Tegucigalpa on Sunday, to hold the second popular assembly, or town hall. They decided to maintain several measures of resistance and civil disobedience throughout the week.  FSRN´s Tim Russo reports.

The US and India have made a weapons deal but have been unable to reach a compromise on carbon emissions.  During Hillary Clinton’s three-day visit to India, she and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced that the US will sell weapons and fighter jets to India and build two nuclear power plants.  A side agreement is intended to ensure that nuclear weapons technology is not shared with other countries.

While the US and India are claiming a success on the weapons issue, the two countries are much farther apart on climate change. Secretary Clinton admitted the challenges.

“We understand the difficulties that each of our countries face in trying to deal with climate change. So now let’s see if we can’t together find some creative solutions.”

The US wants India to sign onto an international agreement to reduce carbon emissions. The rapidly developing country says they have the “lowest emissions per capita” and don’t need to participate. Secretary Clinton responded, saying India´s overall emissions are rising rapidly.

“The US and India can devise  a plan that will dramatically change the way we produce, consume and conserve energy.”   Indian Prime Minister Singh accepted an invitation to the US in November.

In Washington today, the President sent a stern message to Congress on health care reform, urging lawmakers to get it done. This has Republicans ramping up their attacks against the Democrats' plan, but it has also left some Democrats in a tough spot.  FSRN's Karen Miller reports.

The number of Latinos who die in the workplace is rising, even though the overall amount of workplace related deaths is decreasing. According to a report by USA Today, the latest tally by the US Department of Labor shows more than 900 Latinos died in job-related accidents in 2007. That´s a 72 percent increase since 1992.

FSRN spoke to Cristina Tzintzún, the director of the Workers Defense Project, a non-profit that advocates for improved labor conditions for workers in the Texas construction industry.

Over the weekend, the Chinese government admitted that police killed 12 people during ethnic riots in the northwestern Xinjiang autonomous region earlier this month. At least 197 people are believed to have died in Xinjiang after protests by the indigenous Uighur people turned violent.

China recently promised to double compensation for the victims´ families, paying them some $60,000 for each fatality.  The government says the majority of the victims were Han, the ethnic group which makes up most of China´s population.  But Uighur groups counter those claims, saying hundreds of their people were killed.

Xinjiang has long been a tightly controlled hotbed of ethnic tensions, fostered by an economic gap between Uighurs and Han Chinese, as well as government control over the Uighur´s culture and religion.  FSRN reporter Daniel Bastard, visited the regional capital of Urumqi.