Archive - Feb 6, 2008

• Super Tuesday Leaves Us Hanging
• Bush's Budget Puts Medicare and Medicaid on Chopping Block
• Officials Say Al-Qaida Still the Greatest Threat to National Security
• Israel Strikes Following Hamas' First Suicide Bombing in over a Year
• Ecuador Revokes Mining Concessions

13 Meg Version Click Here
Dial-Up Listeners Click Here

• Tornadoes Kill Dozens in Southern US
• Govt Argues Against Veteran Entitlement to Mental Health Care
• UK Commits 3 More Battalions to Afghan Mission
• Case Against Aviation Company Linked to Extraordinary Rendition May Be Dropped
• Federal School Lunch Meat Provider Found in Violation of Laws
• 24 Hour Shutdown Strike in West Bengal

Super Tuesday has come and gone, but the Democratic Presidential
race has no clear frontrunner, and Republican John McCain still has a
long road ahead of him before he captures his party's nomination.
Meanwhile, scattered complaints around the country of voting machine
failure and poll accessibility leave election watchdogs concerned for
those unable to cast their vote, but pleased that no major nation-wide
meltdown occurred. FSRN's Leigh Ann Caldwell reports.

The President's $3.1 trillion budget proposal is stirring debate on
Capitol Hill. The proposal includes over half a trillion dollars for
defense, but cuts all or part of at least 150 federal programs.
Medicare, Medicaid, and other social programs are on the chopping
block. Tanya Snyder has more from Congress.

Intelligence Officials in a hearing before the Senate yesterday gave
their analysis of the main threats to National security. Al-Qaida
remained at the top of the List. Naji Mujahid reports from Capitol Hill.

Violence continues along the Gaza Strip. Today Israeli airstrikes
wounded at least four Palestinians, as Hamas continued firing rockets
into Southern Israel. The Israeli army killed 9 Hamas-affiliated
fighters and police yesterday in southern Gaza, just after the ruling
Islamist movement claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in the
southern Israeli town of Dimona. Hamas says the bombing was in response
to continued Israeli attacks on Palestinians. FSRN's Rami aL-Meghari
goes inside the story.

In a bold move to take back national territory from private
interests, the Ecuadorian government declared last week that it's
revoking hundreds of mining concessions across the country. Though the
decision spares most transnational mining companies with large scale
investments, at least one community in northwestern Ecuador is
celebrating. The foreign Ascendant Copper Corporation will lose two
important concessions from a project in Intag—one of numerous
communities resisting large scale metal extraction. Residents see the
move as positive, but would like things to go much further. Jennifer
Moore reports from Quito.