Newscast for Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Obama plan to stimulate economy faces opposition in election season
President Obama unveiled new ideas today to stimulate the economy and help lagging unemployment. His middle of the road approach includes Republican and conservative strategies to reduce taxes. But in this campaign season, the Congressmembers responsible for passing a plan are talking past each other and disagreeing on ideas they once endorsed. FSRN’s Leigh Ann Caldwell reports.

Clinton outlines US foreign policy successes, challenges ahead
Secretary of State Hilary Clinton addressed members of the Council on Foreign Relations on Wednesday. In her remarks, Clinton outlined the Obama administration’s broad foreign policy strategies and took questions from members on a range of topics. As Michael Lawson reports, the 21st century foreign policy agenda also includes domestic issues.

BP investigation into explosion emphasizes ‘shared responsibility’ and technical fixes
Today BP released findings from its four-month internal investigation into the cause of the April explosion in the Gulf of Mexico that killed 11 workers and led to the worst oil disaster in US history.

The 193-page report, posted on the company's website, finds failings in the work performed on the well leading up to the disaster; it says BP engineers and Transocean rig workers misinterpreted pressure tests; and that the blowout preventer, designed to avert such an accident, failed to operate correctly. BP declined FSRN’s requests for an interview. To find out more, we're joined by Kieran Suckling, the executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental advocacy group that has been critical of the BP response to the disaster.

In related news, a federal study released Tuesday found that oxygen levels in the ocean near the damaged well had dropped by 20 percent, but that the levels weren't low enough to create dead zones. The Houston Chronicle reports that the study drew on 419 locations in the Gulf over three months. Scientists had warned that the extensive use of underwater dispersants could lead to lower oxygen levels which could kill fish and other organisms.

To view the BP report: http://www.bp.com/sectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=9034902&contentId=...

Ban Ki Moon urges Rwanda to keep troops in Sudan; UN updates cases of rape in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo
UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon met with Rwandan President Paul Kagame today and urged the leader not to withdraw troops from a peace keeping mission in Sudan.

Kagame threatened to pull troops out of Sudan, after a draft UN report on the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide was leaked. The report finds that Rwandan troops and Congolese rebels pursued Hutus following the 1994 Rwandan genocide and killed tens of thousands of people.

According to the BBC, the draft report calls the acts “damning” and that, if proven by a court, could be classified as genocide.

Rwandan officials denied the charges and called the report’s findings “malicious.”

Rwanda has 3,500 troops in Sudan, which are seen as key to security ahead of a referendum on independence set for January. The UN has delayed publication of the controversial report until October 1st.

In other news from the region, the head of the UN Department of Political Affairs, Atul Khare, returned from an investigative trip to the Democratic Republic of the Congo saying an estimated 500 people, mostly women and young girls, had been raped in the North Kivu and South Kivu provinces in July and August. Since news of the incident surfaced, the number of cases has steadily risen.

On Tuesday Khare told the Security Council that the UN mission in DR Congo had failed and that quick action should be taken.

"It is essential that the perpetrators of this heinous crime are swiftly apprehended and brought to justice. Rapid and exemplary punishment would deter others who might repeat similar criminal acts."

News of the attacks began to emerge from an aid group in the region treating survivors, but the scale of the rapes did not come out until later.  The UN released in internal email indicating UN agencies knew that rebels were in the area and that one rape occurred. But UN workers did not reach the area until August.

Margot Wallstrom, the top UN official dealing with sexual violence in conflict said that the incidents are part of a disturbing trend.

"It is evident that rape is increasingly selected as the 'weapon of choice' in Eastern DRC, with numbers reaching endemic proportions. The sad reality is that incidents of rape have become so commonplace that they do not trigger our most urgent interventions."

Wallstrom added that she is planning a trip to the DR Congo next month to listen to survivors and to address the issue in person.

Argentina plan to increase computer access draws corporate competition
Four years ago, a US-based non-profit set out to expand educational opportunities for poor and low income children by creating low-power, durable and internet connected lap-tops. The first One Laptop Per Child  units were delivered to Uruguay and Birmingham, Alabama. Over the last few years, Massachusetts-based One Laptop Per Child has delivered more than one million units. But the new market also caught the attention of computer giants Intel and Microsoft. Now some countries, including Argentina, are contracting with these corporations. FSRN's Marcos Federman reports from Buenos Aires.