APS Radio News

Activists Arrested on Charges of Conspiracy in Chicago before Protests

According to attorneys for two activists, police lacked a warrant before they raided an apartment before planned demonstrations in Chicago.  The incident took place is Bridgeport, which is part of Chicago.

Another Bombing in Syria

For the past year the number of violent incidents in Syria has increased considerably, even though unrest in that country began in the form of protests against what many Syrians see as authoritarian, albeit secular rule.

U.S. Iran Hawks in Congress in Some Disarray
By Jim Lobe*

WASHINGTON, May 17, 2012 (IPS) - Hopes by Iran hawks here to get the U.S. Congress to wield the threat of a U.S. military attack on the Islamic Republic on the eve of next week's critical negotiations on Tehran's nuclear programme appear to have fallen unexpectedly short.

Hollande Seeks New Policies for Europe

Earlier this year, around the same time nationwide protests and strikes were taking place in Greece over austerity policies, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel reached an agreement that committed Euro zone countries to austerity policies that included imposing penalties on Euro zone countries that exceed debt to GDP limits.

Bank of England Governor Puts Off Quantitative Easing

Even as his counterpart in the United States, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, refuses to rule out a third series of quantitative easing, the governor of the Bank of England said on Wednesday that due, in part, to inflation risks, he will be putting off BOE’s another round of quantitative easing.

Syrian Opposition Divided

In Cairo an Arab League plan to bring together different factions of Syria’s opposition foundered.

According to Reuters, the only participants at the meeting were representatives of international organizations.

(APS Radio News Update)

Greece’s president is pressing political parties to accept technocrats to assume a number of cabinet positions.

However, Syrizia, the leftist party whose popularity is increasing and the party that won the second greatest percentage of votes in last weekend’s parliamentary elections, is rejecting that proposal, saying it likely would lead to austerity measures that would cause the economy to contract further and thus would cause more pain to a country whose official unemployment rate is already at 25%.

IAEA Presses Iran for More Access

For months there’s been much speculation over whether, or even rather when, the U.S. and/or Israel will launch an attack against Iran reportedly over its nuclear program.

Palestinian & Egyptian Representatives Reach Agreement on Hunger Strikers

According to IPS News.com, Palestinian representatives and Egyptian leaders in Cairo reached a tentative agreement that would end most of the hunger strikes taking place by up to 2,000 Palestinian prisoners being held in administrative detention in Israeli jails.

Syrian Government Blames Foreign Powers for Explosions

Syrian government officials blamed foreign powers as being responsible two explosions that left up to 60 people dead and nearly 400 injured in the Qazaz area of the capital.

Global Economic Conditions Affected by World’s Second Largest Economy

By about 2040 China’s economy will take the role as the world’s largest economy.  But even now, before that happens, China’s influence on the world’s economy is substantial.

U.N. Warns of Social Fall-Out from Spain's Austerity Plan
By Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, May 10, 2012 (IPS) - An expert body of the United Nations has warned the Spanish government that the severe budget cutbacks it is applying must not undermine its commitment to upholding the economic, social and cultural rights of the country's people.

Reuters Poll Shows Americans Are War-Weary

A recently conducted poll on whether Americans want to continue spending billions in Afghanistan, much less whether they want to continue military intervention in that country was almost superfluous in the sense that it’s almost intuitively true that a majority of Americans have grown weary of the two wars the U.S. has fought in the past decade.

Israeli Dissent May Create More Space for Iran Nuclear Deal
Analysis by Jim Lobe*

WASHINGTON, May 1, 2012 (IPS) - The threat of a military attack on Iran's nuclear facilities this year appears to have substantially subsided over the past several weeks as a result of several developments, including the biting criticisms voiced recently by former top national security figures of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence minister, Ehud Barak.

U.S. Escalating Drone War in Yemen
By Jim Lobe*

WASHINGTON, Apr 26, 2012 (IPS) - Even as President Barack Obama touts his progress in extracting the U.S. from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, his administration appears to be deepening its covert and military involvement in strife-torn Yemen.