Monday, July 7, 2008

• Unfinished Business in Washington
• Islamabad Blast Kills 20, Injures 40
• G8 Summit in Japan
• Francis Moore Lappe on International Food Crisis
• Violence Against Women in Guatemala

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Unfinished Business in Washington

Congress was out last week, but they left Washington with a large amount of unfinished business. This week lawmakers will try to pass Housing and Medicare bills, and a couple of Senators will try to defeat a foreign surveillance bill. FSRN Correspondent Matt Laslo has details from Washington.

Islamabad Blast Kills 20, Injures 40

Twenty people, including fifteen police officers were killed yesterday at a conference held on the first anniversary of the military operation against the Red Mosque and Hafsa Seminary in Islamabad. Some forty others were injured, most of them police when a suicide bomber attacked a security contingent. FSRN correspondent Rahmanullah has more.

G8 Summit in Japan

The charity Oxfam today accused world powers of backtracking on pledges to double aid for Africa by 2010, describing their progress as "desperately slow." Heads of State from the United States, Canada, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, the UK and Russia are holding their Group of Eight annual summit at a remote luxury resort on Japan's northernmost island. Air force jets buzz overhead, vessels patrol the seas and more than 20,000 police officers prowl the premises. G8 leaders will spend the next two days negotiating and setting priorities on international markets, security and energy matters. International activists have also assembled in Japan to monitor and pressure G8 participants. The G8 has long come under fire from those who say that the eight "most industrialized" nations have no right to create policies that manage the affairs of other countries. From Toyako, Japan, Puck Lo and Handle Kung file this report.

Francis Moore Lappe on International Food Crisis

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization -- 50 million people were added to the millions of the hungry last year due to soaring food prices. The World Bank estimates that more than 100 million people worldwide may yet be pushed into poverty as a result of the food crisis. Some 30 countries have sharply curbed food exports to ensure that their citizens have enough food to eat. We talk today with Francis Moore Lappe -- author of Getting a Grip: Clarity, Creativity and Courage in a World Gone Mad. Lappe also wrote a recent New York Times article examining the international food crisis. Leaders at the G8 summit are focusing on remedies like increased food reserves, easing exports and increased production. How do those goals address – or ignore – the real underpinnings of the crisis.

Violence Against Women in Guatemala

A new cycle of violence is shaking Guatemala. More than 200 women have been murdered so far this year despite a new law approved by the Congress that punishes such crimes with severe penalties. Civil rights organizations have called on the government and the international community to intervene to reduce crimes against women. Ricardo Martinez reports.