News Segments

Human rights advocates are demonstrating in Honolulu, London, and other cities around world today to pressure the US government to end the indefinite detention of nearly 200 men at Guantanamo Bay. The global day of action comes as the military is force-feeding an estimated 30 prisoners, and several have been hospitalized in a hunger strike that started in February.

The Department of the Interior unveiled new rules this week to regulate the extraction of oil and natural gas by hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, on public and Indian land. Oil and gas industry lobby groups have already come out in opposition, saying the rules are unnecessary and that states provide adequate regulations. Environmentalists and some lawmakers are also criticizing the rules, saying they prioritize corporate profit over public health, and calling for a moratorium on all fracking. On Capitol Hill, FSRN’s Alice Ollstein has more.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met with Russian President Vladimir Putin today and said an international conference seeking a peaceful end to the war in Syria should take place soon, though he didn’t confirm a date. Two years of violence has killed at least 80,000.   More than one and a half million people have fled to other countries, according to the UN, and an additional four million are internally displaced. There are also concerns about the use of torture in the conflict.

Nigeria’s armed forces launched air strikes today in Borno state on what they said were camps for Boko Haram fighters.

In a blow to the struggling labor movement, a Federal appeals court recently ruled that the National Labor Relations Board did not have the authority to compel U.S. businesses to put notices in their workplaces informing employees of their right to unionize. Labor advocates are denouncing the Circuit Court’s ruling, saying many workers do not know they have a right to organize under the National Labor Relations Act, and that the ruling could hurt immigrants non-English speakers the most.

Both the Bush and Obama Administrations relied on a single law passed in 2001 to justify tactics used in the so-called war on terrorism, from drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia to the continued detention of nearly 200 men at Guantanamo Bay. The Senate Armed Services Committee questioned military officials and legal experts about that law today, asking if the Authorization for Use of Military Force needs to be limited, amended or abolished. FSRN’s Alice Ollstein attended this morning’s hearing and brings us this report.

In Bangladesh, hundreds of garment factories are set to reopen tomorrow. Industry officials had indefinitely shuttered the plants after nearly two weeks of protests. Workers at more than 300 factories in Ashulia, near Dhaka, demanded pay increases, benefits and workplace safety at the plants that produce nearly 20 percent of the country's more than $19 billion dollar garment export industry. The protests followed the collapse of Rana Plaza factory complex, where authorities ended search and rescue efforts earlier this week. They removed more than 1100 dead bodies from the site.