Roundup

Sharia debated by Iraqi constitution framers (8min)

As the Monday deadline approaches for Iraq's constitution to be finalized, an issue being debated is the role Islamic law should play. Women's rights activists worry that women could suffer under Sharia -- possibly losing rights such as divorce, child custody, and inheritance. Melissa Block talks about the issues with Rend Al-Rahim, executive director of the Iraq Foundation.

Israeli Amb. Daniel Ayalon on Gaza disengagement (48min)

As Israel prepares to withdraw from Gaza, Daniel Ayalon, the Israeli Ambassador to the USA, gives an overview of the issue at a National Press Club News Conference. Ambassador Ayalon describes the number of settlers, costs and other details of the disengagement, which begins on Monday August 15th.

Gaza pullout deadline approaches (6min)

On Monday, the Israeli government's pullout from Gaza will officially begin. Some Jewish settlers are getting ready to leave their homes. Others are getting ready to resist Israeli forces. Host Tony Kahn talks to The World's Aaron Schachter, who's in Neve Dekalim, the biggest Jewish settlement in Gaza.

Israeli's withdrawal from Gaza Strip divides Israeli society (9min)

Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip beginning next week will uproot some 8,000 Jewish settlers. The planned pullout has provoked deep divisions within Israel. Among Palestinians, the move brings much confusion and uncertainty about what the withdrawal will mean. Some Jewish settlers vow to resist the withdrawal, saying it's against God's will to give up one inch of land to the Palestinians. And more than 1,000 supporters have infiltrated the settlements in recent weeks to bolster the ranks o

Is Catholic doctrine evolution or intelligent design? (13min)

Host Ira Flatow asks physicist Lawrence Krauss where the Catholic Church stands on evolution. An op-ed piece in The New York Times earlier this year, written by Cardinal Christoph Schonborn, seems to favor the view that an "intelligent designer" must be at work in the evolutionary process. Krauss is Ambrose Swasey Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio.

FDR’s grandson: Social Security will be "successful right through the 21st century" (24min)

This weekend marks the 70th anniversary of the signing of the Social Security Act by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The program remains the most successful social program of the century. Host and executive producer Amy Goodman speaks with James Roosevelt, Jr., grandson of FDR and president and CEO of Tufts Health Plan.President Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law on August 14th, 1935. Social Security was the centerpiece of his New Deal Program and include

Harriet Tubman ancestors welcomed in Ghana (4min)

Two great grand-nieces of Underground Railroad heroine Harriet Tubman are heading to Ghana, where their ancestor will be honored with a festival, statue dedication and street re-naming in the capital, Accra.

Frances Perkins, Social Security's forgotten shepherd (7min)

The Social Security program is one of President Franklin Roosevelt's most enduring legacies. On August 14 it will be 70 years since he signed the bill that brought Social Security to life. Standing right behind him that day was Frances Perkins, the secretary of labor and the first woman to hold a Cabinet-level post. She was more than just window dressing for the ceremony. Perkins was the driving force behind this landmark legislation.Biographer Penny Colman says Perkins -- l

Who owns Hans Island? (4min)

For 20 years, Canada and Denmark have disagreed over who owns Hans Island. It's a small, uninhabited territory with no reliable natural resources. But when Canada's defense minister raised a Canadian flag there, Denmark sent a warship to the island.

The fire this time: The Watts rebellion at 40 (13min)

This week marks the 40th anniversary of the Watts uprising in Los Angeles. Today, many of the same economic inequalities persist for African American residents of South Central. Host Juan Gonzalez speaks with Gerald Horne, author of Fire This Time: The Watts Uprising And The 1960s.Forty years ago yesterday, the South Central neighborhood of Watts, Los Angeles erupted into six days of rioting after white traffic police stopped a black man, accused him of drunk driving and cro

The West as Russia's scapegoat (5min)

Russia has marked the the fifth anniversary of the Kursk submarine disaster. Immediately after the accident, officials accused a western submarine of crashing into the Kursk. Many Russians hold the West responsible for a whole list of problems. And, as the BBC's Steve Rosenberg explains, using the West as a scapegoat is on the rise.

Opposition to Gaza evacuation (11min)

Correspondent Richard Crowley looks at the bitter divisions in Israeli society over the proposed withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

Shades of disengagement (10min)

The Rev. Dr. Elwood McQuaid -- founder of Friends of Israel Gospel Ministries, for which he is editor-in-chief of the magazine Israel My Glory and host of its radio programs -- meditates on the upcoming pull-out from Gaza. He is asked what the competing arguments are, and what do all those colors mean, by host Elliot Jager, literary editor of the Jerusalem Post.

Many settlers resist leaving Gaza & West Bank (4min)

As the August 17th deadline for Israeli settlers to leave Gaza and parts of the West Bank approaches, Israel has become more polarized and tensions are running high as some settlers have vowed not to leave. In the first of two reports, Jeff Swicord looks at the resistance to the withdrawal from Gaza.Mid-July on a farm in the Negev region of southern Israel: nearly 20,000 demonstrators gather under the hot sun. Their plan is to march to Gush Katiff, one of the Gaza settlement

August 12th 1945 (4min)

In the 10th of a 12-part series marking the 60th anniversary of VJ Day, correspondent Chris Lowe reports on the desperation of Japanese civilians and the hopes of Allied POWs as the war enters its final stages.

My father the spy (52min)

Investigative journalist John Richardson, Writer-at-Large for Esquire and author of In The Little World, pieces together his father's rise through the ranks of the CIA from post-war Europe to Vietnam and Korea. He recounts his adolescent rebellion against what his father represented and how he's come to understand his humanity.

Veterans remember tragedy of war in Pacific (4min)

The Japanese military had waged war in the Pacific since 1931. But throughout the 1930s, the United States remained at peace with Japan. In 1940, President Franklin Roosevelt moved the U.S. fleet to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, to deter Japan from attacking. What happened later was to change history. VOA Chinese Branch Reporter Yi Suli interviewed some U.S. veterans of World War Two in the Pacific. Leta Hong Fincher narrates.

Coming out of Watts, moving ahead (4min)

Saturday is the 40th anniversary of the Watts riots that destroyed whole blocks of a Los Angeles neighborhood. Commentator Askia Muhammad grew up in Watts, and was in college in Los Angeles 40 years ago.

Back to Watts, 40 years later (5min)

The Watts Riots began in Los Angeles 40 years ago Thursday, a six-day eruption of racial frustration that left 34 people dead, hundreds more injured and scores of buildings damaged, looted or destroyed. Karen Grigsby Bates visits the 77th Street police station in the heart of Watts with writer Karl Fleming, who witnessed the riots as a reporter for Newsweek magazine.

AARP's Social Security 70th anniversary rally (29min)

AARP and others hold a rally on Capitol Hill to mark the 70th anniversary of Social Security. Particiapants include Brent Wilkes, executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens; Jehmu Greene, president of Rock the Vote; Romaine Thomas, an AARP volunteer; and Ethel Zelenske, co-chairman of the Coalition for Citizens with Disabilities.