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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Headlines from IMC News--11 June 2001 |
Current rating: 0 |
by IMC Staff
Email: omarricks (nospam) hotmail.com (unverified!) |
12 Jun 2001
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news summaries from worldwide IMC print pub |
IMC News Headlines
Monday 11 June 2001
(A) From print.indymedia.org
The future of democracy movements in Nepal looks tenuous as more facts emerge about June 1st slaying of the royal Nepalese family. The Nepalese administration\'s present story suggests that two Fridays ago the crown prince murdered the group of more than 30 people before killing himself. An earlier story had it that an accidental weapon discharge was responsible for the killings. Several facts that have come to light since the killings cast doubt on the stories now coming from the throne.
(1) Unusual occurrences: The speed with which events have proceeded following the massacre suggests careful orchestration. The victim\'s bodies were cremated much sooner than usual, preventing any autopsy. A new king was crowned one hour after the old king was pronounced dead. Also, estranged members of the royal family--one a known killer-- were present in the palace that night.
(2) Political interest of presently empowered persons: The present king, Gyanendra, was vehemently opposed to even the few democratic reforms made by his brother, the late King Birendra.
(3) Factual inconsistencies: The accidental discharge story is weakened by the fact that some of the victims were not in the same room.
Protests against King Gyanendra have since rocked Kathmandu. The king has also arrested the editor of a newspaper that was critical of official accounts of the fateful night.
(B) From National Public Radio
Convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh was pronounced dead this morning at 7:14am Central Daylight Time. Warden Harley Lappin of the federal prison in Terre Haute, IN, answered some press questions this morning shortly after the execution. McVeigh was killed by lethal injection. One intravenous needle conveyed the poison through his leg. Lappin said that McVeigh had no final words except for a written press release, the poem \"Invictus\" by W.E. Henley. Lapping said that the only departure from standard execution procedure was a transmission difficulty with the closed circuit to Oklahoma City viewers. This implies that McVeigh was not one of as many as 40% of US executed prisoners who experience painful complications with the lethal injection method of execution. McVeigh\'s body will be examined by his lawyers, cremated, and scattered at an undisclosed location.
Statements of press witnesses released on National Public Radio at 7:45am say that McVeigh didn\'t say a word and died with his eyes open, staring at the ceiling, where there was a camera connected to witnesses in Oklahoma City. One witness described the last image she had of McVeigh alive as \"paler and thinner\" than he had been before. Another described him as having his lips tightly pursed. Witnesses say that he looked each of them in the eye and then stared up at the ceiling for the remainder of the execution.
More than 1000 witnesses in Oklahoma City were offered the opportunity by the Federal Bureau of Prisons to view the execution on closed circuit television. About 320 had indicated that they would watch. Only 232 actually decided to watch the execution this morning.
McVeigh was convicted of the 19 April 1995 bombing the Murrah Federal Building, in which 168 people died. He admitted to planning the attack, intending to kill many more people. It is not known whether he acted alone. He said that his action was inspired by \"The Turner Diaries,\" a 1970s racist apolocalyptic novel whose author supports action against the federal government and the killing of anyone not considered white.
(C) From print.indymedia.org
Last Wednesday, 12,000 miners marched on the Bolivian capital of La Paz demanding that the government take a more active role in revitalizing their industry. Specifically, the marchers demand that the government put $100 million into the mining sector of the economy. The miners, known for being one of the more activist job sectors in Latin America, have vowed to continue to block the streets of La Paz until their demands are met. Peasant farmers, retirees, and transportation workers in Bolivia are among the groups that have announced their solidarity with the miners. Government officials were in negotiations with the miner\'s leaders, but police used batons, tear gas, and rubber bullets to weaken the miners, and government officials have threatened to use miliary force to suppress the miners.
(D) From print.indymedia.org
The Pentagon is paying several private corporations to carry out secret and often dangerous activities in its billion dollar war on drugs in Colombia. US Representative Janice Schakowsky of Illinois is one of several people in the US who have raised questions about this military outsourcing. She has introduced a bill that would end funding for military corporations in the Andes region. DynCorp and Military Personnel Resources, Inc. of Virginia, Aviation Development Corporation of Alabama, and AirScan of Florida are among the largest private recipients of hundreds of millions of dollars a year from the State Department for consulting, surveillance, and crop eradication. DynCorp, which advertises itself as an Internet Technology firm, receives $200 million for flight personnel, troop transport, and aerial crop eradication. Their \"security\" personnel have been involved in combat with leftist guerillas, and have lost three pilots in action. DynCorp contracts to a company that was involved in the 1980s Iran-Contra scandal.
(E) From print.indymedia.org
In May, the World Bank released a report recommending major revisions in Mexico\'s labor policy. In short, it says that for the Mexican economy to attract investment from American and Canadian corporations and help the poor, it must increase the \"flexibility\" of its working people. To accomplish this goal, the World Bank recommends the elimination of numerous labor laws, including those that guarantee workers severance pay and collective bargaining. Mexican President Vicente Fox expressed agreement with the report\'s recommendations. However, the leader of a prominent Mexican business group said that these recommendations were too drastic and did not make sense in an emerging country like Mexico. when they had not been tried in developed countries.
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