A military panel found a 101st Airborne soldier guilty of three counts of negligent homicide but not guilty of premeditated murder in the deaths of three Iraqi detainees.Staff Sgt. Ray Girouard, 24, smiled as he hugged his defense lawyer and family members after the verdict was read Friday. He faced up to life in prison had he been found guilty of premeditated murder.The panel, which deliberated for four hours, also found Girouard guilty of obstruction of justice for lying to investigators, of conspiracy for trying to conceal the crime and of failure to obey a general order.Girouard could be sentenced to a maximum of 21 years in prison, said his lawyer, Anita Gorecki. He could get a maximum of three years for each negligent homicide charge, five years for the conspiracy charge, five years for obstruction of justice and two years for failure to obey a general order. The sentencing portion of the trial begins Monday....
http://www.cnn.com
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Editor - 09:36:00 03-17-07
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 $4.4bn debt relief for L America |
Five of the poorest countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are to have their national debts cancelled by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Bolivia, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras and Nicaragua owe a total of more than $4bn (£2bn). The debt relief initiative is part of the IDB's goal to cut poverty in half in Latin America by 2015. Some pressure groups have called for more measures to help these nations improve education and health systems. The draining burden of debt has immobilised the ambitions of the region's poorest nations for years. But now the IDB is to write off a total of $4.4bn (£2.3bn). Honduras and Bolivia alone are at least $1bn (£500m) in debt to the bank. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6461277.stm
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Editor - 09:30:00 03-17-07
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| McCain's Straight Talk bus rolls through Iowa. But is this so-called straight talker running as a Democrat or a Republican? |
Struggling Republican presidential candidate John McCain dusted off the "Straight Talk Express" bus and rolled through Iowa this week looking for the freewheeling magic that drove his first White House bid. The bus was big, blue and hard to miss on the rural highways of a state McCain bypassed in 2000 before losing the Republican nomination to President George W. Bush. At each stop, he worked hard to recapture the maverick spark from seven years ago. In 2000 he was the unpredictable "Happy Warrior" but this year he is the establishment contender. "Hey, I'm still the same candidate," McCain told reporters in Des Moines on Thursday as he kicked off the tour. "I'm a little older but I'm still having fun, convinced we're doing fine and that we'll win."...
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2959724
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Editor - 09:26:00 03-17-07
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| Odd items found on city trains, buses |
When transit supervisor Eulette Stewart-Graham received a letter from the parent of a distressed child, it wasn't the boy's lost bag that was important — it was the contents: his goldfish, Slurpy. The boy's pet never turned up, but Stewart-Graham responded to the letter anyway. As station supervisor of New York City Transit's lost property unit, she and her staff are used to questions that range from the mundane to the quirky and even bizarre. Take, for instance, the woman who called to say she lost her daughter."She was serious," Stewart-Graham says. "She wouldn't get off the phone."The woman called the center to know if any of her daughter's belongings were found, Stewart-Graham said....
http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2007-03-17-odd-items_N.htm?csp=34
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Editor - 09:22:00 03-17-07
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| Four years on, war costs Bush at home and abroad |
Four years after he began the Iraq war, a diminished Bush has sacrificed much of his domestic agenda and eroded US credibility abroad in pursuit of the sort of nation-building he once scorned, analysts say. The president's job approval ratings have fallen from 90 % shortly after the Sept 11 attacks to just over 30 %. He forfeited the dream of cementing Republican control over Congress and his administration is increasingly under fire from Democrats and Republicans alike. "There is simply no question in my mind that the Iraq war has substantially undercut Bush's ability to get other things done domestically or internationally," said Richard Eichenberg, a professor at Tufts University who has studied Bush's approval ratings. "When he was re-elected in the fall of 2004 he interpreted the election ... by saying that 'I have political capital. I'm going to spend it.' But the fact of the matter is he's spent it all on Iraq and he's got precious little left," Eichenberg said....
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070317/pl_nm/iraq_usa_bush_dc
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Editor - 09:15:00 03-17-07
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| Three chlorine gas attacks in Iraq are reported to have killed eight people and left hundreds injured, including six US troops. |
Two of the attacks were near the city of Falluja, the third near Ramadi, west of Baghdad. Both areas are hotbeds of al-Qaeda militants. Chlorine gas can cause severe burns to the throat and lungs and can kill after only a few breaths. There were at least three such attacks in Iraq in February. The heaviest casualties were in a suicide attack on Friday evening at the entrance to a housing estate south of Falluja in which six people were reported to have been killed. The injured included at least 27 children. Shortly before that another attack in the same area killed two Iraqi policemen. Officials say that in both attacks the assailants drove dumper trucks containing the bombs at their targets. One of the trucks is reported to have contained a 200 gallon (900 litre) tank of chlorine and explosives. The third attack was at a checkpoint near Ramadi. "Approximately 350 Iraqi civilians and six coalition force members were treated for chlorine gas exposure," ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6461757.stm
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Editor - 09:10:00 03-17-07
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