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| Wed, 03/19/2008 - 15:34 |
Calls From EU Members to Boycott Olympics Over Tibet Crackdown
As China continues to crack down on pro-independence demonstrators in Tibet, European activists are calling on EU leaders to boycott the Olympic games to be held in Beijing later this year. Cinnamon Nippard has more from Berlin.
The President of the European Parliament has suggested that political leaders should consider boycotting the Olympics opening ceremony if the Chinese crackdown continued. The Italian government called for the EU to send a team to discuss the situation with China. However Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have criticized the EU's stance saying China must be held accountable for the violence and must adhere to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the UN Convention Against Torture. Amnesty is calling for the EU to support it's demands for China to allow the United Nations to conduct an independent investigation into allegations of human rights abuses. Since 12th March, Chinese authorities have refused to allow foreign journalists into Tibet and at least 25 journalists have been ejected from Tibet or Tibetan areas. Cinnamon Nippard, reporting for Free Speech Radio News in Berlin.
British Court Rules Against ExxonMobil in Venezuela Case
A British judge has annulled a court order that froze 12 billion dollars of assets belonging to the Venezuelan state energy company, PDVSA. The frozen funds were the result of a lawsuit brought by ExxonMobil in which the oil giant claimed that Venezuela had acted unjustifiably in the process of nationalizing of its oil fields. The Venezuelan assets had been frozen as possible compensation for ExxonMobil ahead of pending international arbitration.
DoJ Inspector General Report Finds Irregularities in Terror Watchlist
A new report released by the inspector general of the Department of Justice concludes that the government has for 3 years received inaccurate and incomplete information for the nation's terrorism watchlist. Africa Jones reports.
The report found that failures by the FBI allowed the names of innocent people to remain on the watchlist and the names of those who potentially posed a real threat to be left off. The National Counterterrorism Center uses reports released by the FBI to compile the watchlist, but the DoJ's Inspector General found the FBI did not provide regular updates to remove or add names. The Inspector General also says a large numbers of names were added to the list without proper vetting. For years, privacy advocates have complained that the terrorism watchlist contains too many errors and is poorly managed. The FBI says some of the problems with the system have been fixed and that the agency is working to integrate the inspector general's recommendations. The American Civil Liberties Union estimates that the terror watch list currently contains over 900,000 names. For Free Speech Radio News, I'm Africa Jones.
University of Texas System in Legal Battle Over Border Fence Issue at Brownsville Campus
Representatives of the University of Texas at Brownsville and the Texas Southernmost College are due in court today for a hearing on a federal lawsuit to force the schools to grant access to their property in preparation for the construction of border fence. It's the second round of hearings this week before U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen. Twenty-eight related cases were heard on Monday. Defendants in the lawsuits include large and small individual property owners, schools, water districts and local governments.
(clip1) "It does cut across a pretty big section of landowners... and all of them have basically been treated the same way with regard to negotiation and contact by the government prior to suit."
Celestino Gallegos is a staff attorney with Texas RioGrande Legal Aide. He represents small landowners in the McAllen area. Gallegos says the judge wants to see evidence of an effort on the part of the government to negotiate access. Although an offer has been made in some cases, many landowners aren't satisfied.
(clip2) "In this case, what the government offered was $100. They said that their right to access your property for 6 months or a year with pretty much free reign to do all these other sort of things in the context of investigatory work and surveys; that's worth 100 bucks."
If the judge later rules that the $100 offer constitutes negotiation, landowners who continue to refuse access may have their property condemned and seized by the federal government.
Arthur C. Clarke Dies in Sri Lanka
Visionary science fiction writer Arthur C.Clarke died this morning in a private hospital in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, after he was admitted for respiratory problems. He was 90 years old. Arthur C.Clarke wrote more than one hundred books on space, science, and the future over the course of his long and critically-acclaimed career. His most famous work is 2001: A Space Odyssey. Clarke was credited with the concept of communications satellites in 1945, decades before they became a reality. He moved to Sri Lanka in 1956. His adopted homeland has honored him with three of its most esteemed awards. Clarke is to be buried in Colombo on Saturday.
