Headines for Thursday, August 6, 2009

Sonia Sotomayor confirmed as Supreme Court Justice
The US Senate confirmed Sonia Sotomayor to the United States Supreme Court, making her the first Latina, and only the third woman ever to join the highest court in the land.
The final vote was 68 to 31, with Democrats unanimously voting to approve.  Idaho Senator Jim Risch was one of the Republicans who voted against Sotomayor.  In explaining his decision, he said he respected the judge as a person, but he equated his decision with then-Senator Barack Obama's votes against confirming both Judges John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court.

“He concluded that when he withheld his consent on those two, that the person did not meet his view of what the vision for what America was.  I’ve reached the same conclusion on this nominee.”

Several Republicans cited Sotomayor’s rulings in cases on gun rights and affirmative action as reasons why they are opposing her, but Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy said those Senators were not basing their opposition on Sotomayor’s record.

“Thirty-six hundred cases.  They only find a tiny handful that they criticize, and they can criticize those only be mischaracterizing them.”

Supreme court justice Sonia Sotomayor will take her seat on the court in early September.

Honduran police raid university
Thousands of students battled riot police in Honduras yesterday, after the police stormed a peaceful demonstration at the National Autonomous University in Tegucigalpa. Tim Russo has more.

5000 students battled riot police in Honduras yesterday, after the police stormed a peaceful demonstration at the National Autonomous University in Tegucigalpa. Tim Russo has more.

Students at the university were staging a peaceful demonstration rejecting the presence of Conservative Presidential Candidate Pepe Lobos when the police began to disperse the crowd with tear gas, rubber bullets and batons. Confrontations between students and the police continued for the next three hours.  Several students were injured.  Among those caught in the initial repression was university rector Julieta Castellanos who until yesterday’s repression was known to have supported the recent Presidential coup. Castellanos was thrown to the ground by the police as she and the President of the University Board of Directors Olvin Rodriguez waved a white flag while escaping the tear gas in attempts to negotiate with the police. Rodriguez vehemently denounced the police’s actions.

Tim Russo, FSRN, Tegucigalpa

US to clear UN peacekeeping debts
After years of being in debt to the United Nations, the US is finally paying up.  Washington’s ambassador to the U-N says the US is prepared to pay about 200 million dollars it owes for peacekeeping missions, and will pay more than $2 Billion for what it owes for 2009 as well.  Former President George W. Bush’s administration had a contentious relationship with the UN, and had fallen behind on numerous payments.  In June, President Obama asked congress to pay the UN what it was owed.  US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice told the UN Security Council yesterday that she has received appropriations from congress to be directed to the UN.

“I was pleased to make the case for UN peacekeeping on capital hill last week.  While acknowledging its shortcomings, and underscoring the US commitment to strengthening the UN's peacekeeping capacities. Because this truly global enterprise serves a shared interest.”

The US is the largest contributor to UN peacekeeping missions, contributing about a quarter of the programs entire budget.

Secretary Clinton threatens Kenya With sanctions/suggests US could join ICC
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says it’s ‘a great regret’ that the US is not a member of the International Criminal Court, an international institution set up to prosecute for war crimes and crimes against humanity when the courts Of individual countries wont do so.  While President Clinton supported joining the ICC, president George W. Bush decided not to in 2002, stating concerns that Americans could be the target of politically motivated prosecutions.

Clinton was speaking in Kenya, part of a 7-nation tour in Africa.  She was also critical of the Kenyan governments failure to prosecute anyone for violence that followed December 2007 elections, which killed more than 1,500 people and led to a power sharing agreement in the government.  Asked during a press conference if the US might impose sanctions on Kenya, Clinton said its possible, if the authorities can't hold the perpetrators of violence accountable.

“I wanted publicly to say that to members of parliament, trying to resolve this issue internally is far preferable to losing control of it and seeing it go to the International Criminal Court.  And finally with respect to any actions that our government might take, those are always available and open to us.  We hope that that doesn’t come to pass.”

Indigenous Mexicans freed in 1997 Acteal Massacre
Mexico's Supreme Court has ruled to overturn the sentences of 40 men imprisoned for the massacre of 45 people in the southern state of Chiapas. Shannon Young has the story.

The court ruled that federal prosecutors fabricated evidence against at least 40 indigenous men sentenced to lengthy prison terms for their supposed participation in what’s known as the Acteal massacre. The men have already served 11 years in prison. On December 22 1997, right-wing paramilitaries opposed to the area's indigenous Zapatista rebels attacked a church in the village of Acteal during a religious ceremony, killing 45 women, children and elderly men. The fact that police at a nearby checkpoint failed to intervene on behalf of the villagers has fueled accusations that the massacre was part of an official counter-insurgency strategy, but only one municipal level official has received any form of punishment in relation to the crime. The 40 men declared innocent will remain in prison until after the Supreme Court justices meet on August 12th to officially validate their ruling. Shannon Young, FSRN, Mexico.