Archive - Jul 23, 2009

• FSRN scrutinizes President Obama's meetings with health industry executives
• Housing advocates critical of Obama's loan modification program
• Iranian democracy activists stage hunger strike at UN headquarters
• International tribunal redefines borders between north and south Sudan
• Peace accord jeopardized by status of Maoist combatants in Nepal

• Kyrgyzstan opposition leader drops out before national polls close, claims election fraud
• Anti Government protests in South Africa met with force from police
• Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki visits US ahead of Kurdish elections
• Georgia tries to secure water rights to pull Atlanta through drought
• Housing advocates set up a tent city in Harlem

President Obama released a list of meetings he held with top executives of the health care industry.   He did so an hour before his prime time televised news conference last night in response to a lawsuit seeking the information. But as FSRN’s Leigh Ann Caldwell reports, the list tells only part of the story.

Earlier this year, the Obama administration announced a new aspect of the Making Home Affordable program. It was a loan modification program intended to reduce monthly mortgage payments for homeowners slipping towards foreclosure. But the program´s not working according to lawyers and consumer protection experts who testified before lawmakers on Capitol Hill.  Housing advocates say a better solution is for primary home mortgages to be modified in bankruptcy court. FSRN´s Karen Miller has more.

A three-day hunger strike against the violent crack-down on protestErs in Iran moves into a second day outside the United Nation’s headquarters in New York.  The protest is being staged by Iranian exiles and intellectuals and it has also received the support of Hollywood actors Sean Penn and Robert Redford.

Protesters say they want to mobilize civil society in Iran. They also want the UN Secretary General to pressure the Iranian government to release the people who have been arrested for demonstrating against the outcome of last month´s presidential elections.  FSRN’s Ari Paul reports from New York.

An international tribunal redefined the borders between northern and southern Sudan Wednesday, in a historic decision that may pave the way for peace in the war torn country.

The international arbitration court in The Hague defined the new borders for Sudan´s Abyei region.  The agreement grants most of its oil fields to the northern government in Khartoum, while giving the south control over the much of the surrounding territories.

The Sudan People´s Liberation Army, which controls the semi-autonomous south, accepted the decision, as well as the northern government in Khartoum.  To learn more about this ruling and its impact on the peace process in Sudan, FSRN spoke to Fabienne Hara, the vice president of multilateral affairs at the International Crisis Group.

In May, Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal resigned his post after a dispute with the country´s president over the dismissal of the army chief.  

Dahal is a former commander of Nepal´s Maoist rebels.  With the removal of his Maoist party from government, the country is mired in a political deadlock and many fear a collapse of the peace process brokered in 2006, after a decade of fierce fighting.

The accord relies heavily on the integration of almost 20,000 disarmed Maoist rebels, who have been staying for almost three years in UN-monitored camps.  And the current term of a UN mission monitoring the peace process expired Thursday. From Khatmandu, FSRN´s Rachel Ingersoll reports.