Archive - Jan 2, 2009

• Gaza Crisis Mounts; Israel Plans Ground Assault
• Amnesty: US Position on Gaza "Lopsided, Lackadaisical"
• Afghanistan's Drug Problems Worsen for Women and Children
• US Governors Call For $1 Trillion Economic Recovery Package
• Bush Administration Paves Way for More Logging on Public Lands
• FSRN Homelessness Series Part 3: "Liberating" Foreclosed Homes

• Tamil Tigers Loose De-Fact Capital to Sri Lankan Army
• Khyber People Emerge after 3-Day Curfew
• Bhutan Communists Demand Refugees in Nepal be Allowed to Return Home
• Six Dead in Series of Bombings in Assam, India
• New Water Tests Near Tennessee Coal Ash Spill Reveal Contamination

Over the New Year holiday, thousands protested the Israeli military's continued bombing of Gaza. In the West Bank, there were quiet candlelit vigils and loud street marches. Protests took place in Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Indonesian capitol of Jakarta. And in Israel, joint Arab-Jewish groups are planning several demonstrations on Saturday, including in Tel Aviv. Meanwhile, Israeli officials have dismissed a 48-hour ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, and are moving forward with preparations for a ground assault. In the last 48 hours the continued air raids have killed 31 Gazans, most of them women and children. FSRN'S Rami Almeghari reports.

Human rights groups are urging the United States to take a stronger position on the violence in Gaza, and force Israel to stop their attacks. Amnesty International wrote an urgent letter to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today stating they are "dismayed at the lopsided response by the U.S. government to the recent violence and its lackadaisical efforts to ameliorate the humanitarian crisis." The group also points out that the weapons Israel is using in densely populated civilian areas, have been supplied by the United States. Amnesty is calling on the US to stop sending weapons to the country, and to investigate whether the Israeli military is using U.S. weapons to commit human rights abuses.

In Afghanistan, Taliban militants killed 20 Afghan police serving as bodyguards for a district chief in the Southwestern Helmand province. It's one of the worst attacks in months, and comes as 2008 totals show a deadly year for US troops, Afghan police and civilians. Some 151 US troops died in NATO operations, an estimated 850 Afghan police were killed, and U.S. or NATO troops killed about 370 civilians, according to the Associated Press. As the violence continues throughout the country, Afghanistan's soaring drug addiction rate is increasing by the day, with children and women more frequently becoming drug users. Battling this epidemic is difficult because of the circumstances of war and lack of social services, but also because of cultural taboos placed on drug addicts, especially women. From Kabul, Asma Nemati reports.

One trillion dollars… that's what governors from New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Massachusetts and Wisconsin are proposing for the new President's economic recovery stimulus plan. They say the billions President-elect Obama has promised is a good start, but it does not nearly go far enough to cover the short fall. FSRN Karen Miller has more.

In the last few hours of 2008, the Federal government released what they say is a finalized plan to greatly expand logging on public lands in Oregon.  The plan, known as the WOPR, or Western Oregon Plan Revisions, was pushed through despite two years of campaigning by local groups.  And some of these groups are now planning lawsuits against the Federal government.  FSRN's Jenka Soderberg has more: