Newscast for Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Financial agencies reject Obama plan for new banking regulations
On Capitol Hill, financial agencies are opposing a plan by the Obama administration to restructure the banking regulatory system.  At a hearing in the Senate Tuesday, the heads of the FDIC, the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Comptroller of the Currency gave Obama´s plan an enthusiastic thumbs down.  FSRN´s Karen Miller has more.

Senate debates Sotomayor nomination to Supreme Court
Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor has passed several hurdles on her way to the high court.  She now awaits her confirmation by the US Senate, which will go on recess this Friday.  The debate on Sotomayor´s confirmation began on the Senate floor Tuesday.  FSRN’s Matt Pearson reports.

Human rights groups ask Secretary Clinton to focus on Somali refugee crisis
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Kenya today, along with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and US Trade Representative Ron Kirk. The US officials are discussing trade and development, as well as hunger and agriculture. Clinton is also expected to meet with the President of Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government.  Sheikh Sharif Amed is attending a summit on African trade and cooperation in Nairobi. He welcomed the meeting with Secretary Clinton saying “the world is giving attention to Somalia and giving it much-needed help.”

Human rights groups say they want Clinton to address one of the biggest issues facing both Somalia and Kenya, the Dadaab refugee camp in northeastern Kenya. More than 300,000 Somalis, displaced by decades of fighting in their own country, live in Dadaab, which aid workers say is the world's largest refugee camp.

Today, the United Nations said its resources are stretched too thin and refugees are lacking access to basic needs, like water and sanitation. Yusuf Hassan is a press officer with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Hassan said the Dadaab camp was built to host up to 90,000 refugees.

"But now it has nearly 300,000, which is several times the capacity of the camp in handling the needs of refugees, in terms of water, in terms of sanitation, in terms of health, and so there is a lot of pressure on all these facilities…"

Refugees International wants Clinton to pressure Kenya into providing more land for the refugees. Thousands of other Somalis are trying to flee from the other side of the country. According to the UN, some 12,000 Somalis are now in the northern port city of Bossaso, waiting for smugglers to take them across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen.

Chavez supporters attack Venezuela´s Globovision TV, as government shuts down radio stations
In Venezuela, a group of supporters of President Chavez attacked a Television station that is highly critical of the government.

Using clubs and tear gas, more than 20 members of the Venezuelan Popular Union forced their way into the Caracas headquarters of Globovision Monday.  Some threatened TV staff with guns and one policewoman was injured. The Venezuelan government condemned the incident calling on its supporters to wage their politics through peaceful means.  But Globovision President Guillermo Zuloaga blamed the government for the attack.

“They´re not only attacking us in the courts and in the national communications commission. Now these armed groups supported by the government come here to attack us with tear gas."

The physical attack on a media outlet follows government actions that many say will restrict freedom of the press. On Monday, the Venezuelan government revoked the licenses of 34 radio stations, claiming they had failed to comply with administrative procedures related to their licenses.  Many of these stations were critical of the government´s policies and opposition groups have called the move an assault against free speech.

Last week the Venezuelan government drafted a law on media crimes that would set prison terms for journalists whose stories “harm the interests of the state,” “cause panic,” or “disturb social peace.”   The United Nations and several prominent human rights groups have expressed their concerns about this law, with Human Rights Watch calling it a “recipe for censure. “

To learn more about this issue and the challenges faced by the media in Venezuela and other countries, FSRN spoke to Ernest Sagaga from the International Federation of Journalists. The IFJ represents the interests of some 600,000 journalists around the world and Sagaga is their communications and human rights officer.

Nicaragua Supreme Court reviews total ban on abortion
Amnesty International is calling on the Nicaraguan government to overturn a section of penal code that punishes abortions with prison sentences for both the patient and the provider. The law provides for no exceptions, even when a pregnant woman's health and welfare are at risk. The legality of the abortion ban has now become a matter for the Nicaraguan Supreme Court. Nan McCurdy reports from Managua.