May 14, 2002
Carter Goes to Cuba
Tonight, Former President Jimmy Carter will deliver a historic address live on Cuban television. Yesterday Carter, visited a biotechnology center at the invitation of the government. His planned visit to the center followed accusations last week by US Undersecretary of State John Bolton that Cuba, along with Libya and Syria, constituted a new axis of evil and that Cuba was using its pharmaceuticals industry to create bioweaponry, allegations which were reiterated yesterday by Secretary of State Colin Powell. The State Department’s accusations that Cuba is developing and exporting weapons of mass destruction have been met with a mixture of incredulity and consternation in a country that has long been the recipient of US-sponsored aggression. Sasha Lilley reports from Havana, Cuba.
No Workers Comp for Exposed Workers at Nuclear Weapons Sites
Department of Energy workers at nuclear weapons sites across the country have been promised compensation for illneses they contracted while working with toxic substances. Two years after Congress passed the Energy Employees Workers Occupational Illness Program Act, almost none of the workers at the Los Alamos National Lab in New Mexico have been paid. As Leslie Clarke reports from KUNM Albuquerque, federal officials were in New Mexico over the weekend assuring workers compensation will be offered to those still alive and to families of workers who have died from radiation exposure.
American Jewish Groups Urge Boycott of Cannes Film Festival
The great and the groovy from the world of cinema will descend on the French Riviera tomorrow for the start of the Cannes film festival. But not if they listen to the American Jewish Congress, which has run advertisements in Hollywood trade journals calling for a boycott of this year’s Tinseltown on the Mediterranean.The organization has compared a rise in anti-Semitic attacks in France this year to 1942, when the French were ruled by the Vichy government which collaborated with the Nazis. And there’s a similar campaign in Israel, provoking French president Jacques Chirac to tell Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon that the charges are unacceptable. Tony Cross reports from Paris.
Independence for Taiwan?
A former president argued for Taiwanese independence from China as thousands of people marched Saturday demanding the island’s official name be changed from the Republic of China to Taiwan. About 8,000 people took part, many wearing purple headbands that said: “The parade for Taiwan’s correct name.” Large banners read, “We are Taiwanese” and “We love Taiwan; we hate the Republic of China.” The issue of renaming the island is extremely sensitive because such a change could provoke China, which has repeatedly threatened to attack if Taiwan should try to move toward independence. Alien Lefkowicz has Chinese reaction from Beijing.
9/11 Detainee sues the INS
Attorneys for Palestinian Professor Mazen Al-Najaar sued the Immigration and Naturalization Service today saying its time for the INS to either deport him or let him out of prison. Last year, the US Supreme Court recognized indefinite detention of undocumented immigrants is not acceptable under the constitution. The former University of South Florida Professor had been free for nearly a year while battling INS plans to deport him after earlier being jailed for over 3 and a half years on government secret evidence where for alleged ties to Middle East terrorist groups. He’s never been charged with a crime. Mitch Perry reports from Tampa.
