Newscast for Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Negotiations over climate change bill reach climax
On Capitol Hill, final negotiations are underway for the climate change bill, which will move to the House floor on Friday.  Today, President Obama and environmental leaders called the possible passage of the bill “historic.”  FSRN’s Matt Pearson reports.

Climate change bill proponents make concessions to farm states
The report by FSRN´s Matt Pearson mentions the "concessions to industry and farmers" included in the climate change bill. Yanmei Xie, takes a closer look at this, and the concerns of US farm states about how the climate change bill could affect their economies.

First nations oppose oil drilling in Canada´s tar sands
The environmental group Forest Ethics, protested outside the State Department today, asking Secretary Hillary Clinton to deny permits for pipelines that would bring oil from Canada´s tar sands into the United States.

The tar sands lie under forests to the east of the Rocky Mountains, and they hold up to two trillion barrels of oil, making them the second largest oil deposit in the world after Saudi Arabia.  But getting to the oil means deforesting an area the size of Florida and creating the largest single CO2 contributor in North America.

For the First Nations community of Fort Chipawyan it could also mean burying family and friends.  Tanya Castle reports

US drone attack kills scores of civilians in Pakistan
In Pakistan, the US launched two drone attacks Tuesday, including one that killed between 50 and 100 people.  The second drone bombed a funeral procession, in an attempt to kill Baitullah Mehsud, a top Taliban leader in the South Waziristan district.

Mehsud survived the attack or according to Taliban source, he wasn´t even there. Most of the casualties were civilians according to local sources, angering the Pakistani government, which has repeatedly asked the US to stop these kinds of attacks.

According to information gathered from Pakistani intelligence and government officials, the US has conducted 43 drone attacks since the beginning of last year. In order to take a closer look at Pakistan´s reaction to these continuing attacks, FSRN spoke to Hamid Mir, the executive editor of Pakistan´s Geo Television and a well known journalist and talk show host in Pakistan.

Chile struggles to make public education a competitive choice
In Chile this year, public education teachers went on strike for more than 40 days, demanding payment on a performance bonus for 2007 and 2008.  When teachers returned to classes, public high school students shut down schools for two weeks, demanding public education be managed by the central government and not municipal administrations.

As FSRN´s Jorge Garreton reports, parents are caught in a squeeze when seeking educational options for their children.