 The most "inspiring person" this year, in the eyes of 50,000 voters and the staff of multi-faith spirituality website Beliefnet.com, was ultimately a community — the Amish of tiny Nickel Mines, Pa., where five schoolgirls were murdered this fall.Their example of "incredible Christian forgiveness, charity and love" after a neighbor, Charles Carl Roberts IV, shot 10 little girls trapped in their schoolhouse, "made them the overwhelming choice" among 12 nominees, says Steve Waldman, co-founder and CEO of Beliefnet, the Internet's top religion and spirituality site with 3 million visitors last month, according to Web traffic tracker comScore Media Metrix. "The first thing they did was bring food and comfort to the family of the killer. Secondly, one of the little girls reportedly offered to be shot first, hoping to save other lives. And lastly, the community all came together to help each other through their grief. ...
http://www.usatoday.com
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Editor - 16:14:00 12-13-06
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 Judge rules against retrial in Scrushy case |
A federal judge refused on Wednesday to order a new trial for Richard Scrushy, the ex-CEO of HealthSouth, and former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, ruling the jury that convicted them on corruption and other charges had remained impartial.U.S. District Judge Mark Fuller ruled there was evidence that jurors downloaded material from the Internet about the case including the indictment but said it did not breach their impartiality as defense lawyers claimed. "While the jury was criticized for a lack of perfection … they have fulfilled their obligation to their country and this court," he said in the ruling. Siegelman and Scrushy were convicted on June 29 on charges of corruption, bribery, conspiracy and mail fraud relating to a seat on the Certificate of Need board which approved hospital expansions. ...
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2724316
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Editor - 16:07:00 12-13-06
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| Saudi Royal Family, Gov't Split on Iraq Saudi Arabia royal family, gov't leaders are divided over how to handle growing crisis in Iraq |
Saudi Arabia's royal family and government leaders are deeply divided over how to handle the growing crisis in Iraq and other looming Mideast problems like Iran, with some favoring strong aid to fellow Sunnis and others more cautious.The split played a key role in this week's abrupt resignation of the Saudi ambassador to Washington. It also could hurt U.S. efforts to forge a new overall strategy to calm Iraq.More broadly, the internal dispute shows how Arab countries like Saudi Arabia, long key partners in U.S. efforts to stabilize the Middle East, are struggling to decide how to proceed as Iraq boils over and Iran gains influence.The tension in the region is straining Saudi relations with the United States, despite both countries' assertions that all is fine....
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/12/13/ap/world/mainD8M06TFG0.shtml
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Editor - 16:05:00 12-13-06
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| Jack Kevorkian to be paroled in June Assisted suicide advocate, said to be seriously ill, was jailed in 1999 |
After more than eight years in prison, a frail Dr. Jack Kevorkian will be paroled in June with a promise that he won’t assist in any more suicides, a prison spokesman said Wednesday.Leo Lalonde, the corrections spokesman, would not provide further details.Kevorkian, once the nation’s most vocal advocate of assisted suicide for the terminally ill, is serving a 10- to 25-year sentence for second-degree murder in the 1998 poisoning of Thomas Youk, 52, Oakland County man with Lou Gehrig’s disease. Michigan banned assisted suicide in 1998. Youk’s death was videotaped and shown on CBS’ “60 Minutes.”Kevorkian, who claimed to have assisted in at least 130 deaths in the 1990s, called it a mercy killing....
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16191093/
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Editor - 16:02:00 12-13-06
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| Judge: Katrina Program 'A Legal Disaster' |
A federal judge called the Bush administration's handling of a Hurricane Katrina housing program "a legal disaster" Wednesday and ordered officials to explain a computer system that can neither precisely count evacuees nor provide reasons why they were denied aid. U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon, who ruled last month that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had violated evacuees' constitutional rights by eliminating their housing payments without notice, admonished the government for not moving fast enough to restart the program for between 3,600 and 5,500 storm victims. "Let me make this clear," Leon told government attorney Michael Sitcov. "Tell FEMA that I'm expecting them to get going on this. Like immediately." ...
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/12/13/katrina/main2260675.shtml?source=RSSattr=U.S._2260675
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Editor - 15:56:00 12-13-06
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| Iraq panel to shape U.S. policy despite tepid embrace |
Despite a tepid embrace from the White House, the Iraq Study Group's recommendations will help shape President George W. Bush's new policy if only because of their popular support, analysts said on Wednesday. While saying he will take the report "very seriously," Bush has all but rejected its appeal to engage Iran and Syria directly over Iraq and has been cool to the idea of withdrawing many U.S. troops from combat by early 2008 if possible.Bush has not ruled out the group's proposal to organize a regional support group for Iraq but he has made clear he will not be bound by the 10-member panel's recommendations and has commissioned his own internal review of U.S. Iraq policy.Analysts said the White House was, understandably, trying to put some distance between itself and the panel led by Republican former Secretary of State James Baker and Democrat former Rep. Lee Hamilton to preserve Bush's options....
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061213/pl_nm/iraq_usa_group_dc
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Editor - 12:55:00 12-13-06
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