In the News: Jan-06

Blackwater guards plead not guilty to Iraqi deaths - 6 Jan 2009 at 2:57pm - WASHINGTON -- Five Blackwater Worldwide security guards have pleaded not guilty to manslaughter charges in the 2007 shooting deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad.

Judge: Gov't hiding evidence in Gitmo case - 6 Jan 2009 at 2:41pm - WASHINGTON -- A federal judge has accused the Bush administration of hiding evidence in the case of a Yemen man who has been held as a terror suspect at Guantanamo Bay for six years.

Feds plan to charge Seattle man for Iraq death - 6 Jan 2009 at 1:56pm - SEATTLE -- Federal prosecutors intend to charge a former security contractor for Blackwater USA in the killing of an Iraqi guard in 2006, his lawyer said Tuesday.

Israeli tank fire kills 40 at U.N. school: medics - 6 Jan 2009 at 11:54am - GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli tank shells killed at least 40 Palestinians on Tuesday at a U.N. school where civilians had taken shelter, medical officials said, in carnage likely to boost international pressure on Israel to halt a Gaza offensive.

Burris denied seat in US Senate to succeed Obama - 6 Jan 2009 at 11:35am - WASHINGTON -- Roland Burris announced Tuesday he was rejected for Barack Obama's Senate seat, in a bizarre rainy-day scene on the Capitol grounds as lawmakers awaited the gaveling of the 111th Congress into session.

An Ex-Detainee of the U.S. Describes a 6-Year Ordeal - 6 Jan 2009 at 10:34am - Though never charged with a crime, Muhammad Saad Iqbal spent six years in American custody, during which he says he was secretly taken to Egypt and tortured.

IRAQ: Budget cuts threaten IDP housing projects - January 06, 2009 8:40:23 AM - BAGHDAD, 6 January 2009 (IRIN) - Lack of government funds could force the Ministry of Displacement and Migration to postpone until 2010 some housing projects designed to ease internal displacement, an official told IRIN on 4 January.

Thought for the day:
The whole history of civilization is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards. -Walter Bagehot (1826 - 1877)