Archive - Aug 3, 2010

• Heavy rains, floods in Pakistan affect millions
• Virginia’s attorney general says local police can check immigration status
• Slavery museum brings attention to modern-day practice
• White House summit on African youth leaves out key segments of society
• Federal scientists say BP oil spill is world’s worst

• Tensions rise between Israel and Lebanon
• Five more die in Kashmir protests
• Mosque one step closer to ground zero
• Verdict In JFK terror plot
• Sentencing guidelines
• Kagan confirmation debate begins

In Pakistan, heavy rains and floods have killed more than 1,500 people and destroyed thousands of homes. Aid workers are having difficulties accessing the affected people who are facing shortages of food, shelter and clean drinking water. Many remain missing in the flood's aftermath. FSRN's Gabe Matthews spent three days in the flood-affected areas. He reports from one of the most destroyed areas near Peshawar.

Virginia’s attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli has been at the center of the health care debate for months. He filed a lawsuit to stop reform immediately after the federal legislation passed in March. Yesterday, a judge in Richmond ruled that the challenge could move forward in the courts. Now he’s stepping into the immigration debate. Yesterday Cuccinelli released a legal opinion saying local law enforcement can inquire about immigration status when stopping people for other offenses. FSRN’s Jacob Fenston has more.

Slavery may have been outlawed in the US more than a century ago, but a traveling museum is bringing the reality of slavery's ongoing practice to the public. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers is touring the northeast with their Modern Day Slavery Museum. FSRN's Andalusia Knoll has more from New York.

Today at the White House, President Obama hosted a meeting with some 115 young leaders representing 46 sub-Saharan African nations. It's part of a three-day conference to commemorate the 50 year anniversary of independence for 17 African countries this year. The State Department also says it's a look ahead for policy in the region.

But in this landmark year of African independence, many issues of US policy in Africa have been coming under scrutiny, from military presence to development aid to HIV/AIDS policy, the focus of much criticism at a recent international conference in Vienna.

For more about today's meeting, we're joined by Gerald Lemelle, executive director of Africa Action, an advocacy organization based in Washington DC that focuses on US-Africa relations.

Federal authorities now say that revised estimates of the amount of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico from BP's damaged well make it the world’s largest accidental spill. Scientists said on Monday that close to 5 million barrels have been released since the April 20 oil rig explosion - only 800,000 barrels were captured by BP before the well was capped last month. That makes the spill worse than the 1979 Ixtoc spill in Mexico which sent an estimated at 3.3 million barrels of oil gushing into the Gulf.