Archive - Dec 2012

As 2012 comes to a close, today we look back at some of the stories we brought you this year. We'll do what FSRN does best, bring you the voices of the grassroots as people all over the world fight for social justice. We begin with election night in the US. While much remained the same, we look at the incremental change from marriage equality to women and LGBT Congressional winners to marijuana to immigration.

• Senate extends warrantless wiretapping program with approval of FISA
• Students, poverty advocates call for protection of social services in fiscal cliff talks
• Killings of journalists, detentions rise worldwide in 2012
• In Gaza, women start craft business in response to high unemployment, uncertainty

• Mexico releases last of Inauguration Day protest detainees
• India continues to struggle with rape as news of new tragedy emerges
• Putin signs bill banning US adoptions of Russian children
• China cracks down on internet freedoms
• US pulls Embassy staff from Central African Republic
• LAPD to crack down on celebratory gun firing

Today, the US Senate extended the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, for five more years. The controversial law allows the government to secretly monitor phone calls and emails that involve at least one party believed to be outside the US.  The Act was approved despite concerns from privacy rights advocates and some lawmakers that the broad surveillance powers could violate the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches and requires probable cause.

President Obama and Congressional leaders are meeting at the White House today in an 11th-hour attempt to avert the New Year’s Day tax hikes and spending cuts known as the “fiscal cliff.” Though some of the effects wouldn’t kick in for years, some would hit immediately—including the expiration of unemployment benefits and yearly increase in taxes of about $2,000 for the average middle class family. But many progressive advocates and lawmakers say they’d rather leaders miss Monday night's deadline than sign a deal that slashes benefits for the sick, elderly and poor. In Washington, D.C. FSRN’s Alice Ollstein reports.

In 2012, journalists worldwide faced an increasing amount of hazards: killings, threats and detentions. The number of journalists killed in the line of duty rose by more than 40 percent from the previous year. According to the annual report from the Committee to Protect Journalists, the war in Syria, violence in Somalia and Pakistan and targeted murders in Brazil contributed to the 67 people killed in 2012, making it one of the deadliest years since the group began keeping records two decades ago. The number of journalists detained, especially in Turkey and Iran, also increased.  For more, we’re joined by Robert Mahoney. He’s deputy director for the Committee to Protect Journalists and he joins us from New York.

More than a month after Israeli forces launched an air assault against the Gaza strip and armed militants returned rocket fire into Israel, residents of Gaza are struggling to recover and one persistent problem is unemployment.  In the Gaza Strip, the unemployment rate among the labor force is high. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, nearly one out of every three residents is unemployed for both Gaza and the West Bank, about 20 percent of males and nearly 30 percent of females can’t find jobs. With few options,  some Palestinians are pursuing their own businesses. One group of women, all sisters, launched "Six Flowers" to make and sell hand-made folkloric works. FSRN's Rami Almeghari has more.