Overnight News Digest is brought to by: Moss Burger
Health Care for Responders To 9/11 Remains Piecemeal
Plan for Processing Center On Hold, Funding Uncertain
NEW YORK -- As President George W. Bush gives his State of the Union speech Monday, there will be one man in the audience who plans to sit quietly and watch, his very presence a form of protest.
Joseph Libretti, 51, is sick. He has been diagnosed with chronic lung disease since volunteering after Sept. 11, 2001, to cut through steel to remove bodies from the gritty, smoking pile of detritus of the World Trade Center. Now, too weak to return to his job as an ironworker, he mostly keeps close to his Pennsylvania home.
USA
Hillary's biggest asset? Now Bill is looking like a liability
The interventions of former president Clinton are turning Democrats off his wife and raising constitutional questions
Michael Tomasky in Washington
Monday January 28, 2008
The Guardian
Just three weeks ago, it was an article of faith that was beyond questioning: Bill Clinton was his wife's greatest asset in her presidential campaign. The former president was loved by all Democrats. Practically all he had to do was walk into any roomful of Democratic voters, remind them of the prosperity of the 1990s, and the deal would be closed. All but the most truculent would leave the room committed Hillaryites.
Arizona Law Takes a Toll on Nonresident Students
PHOENIX — When Marco Carrillo, a naturalized American and a high school valedictorian, went to meet with his college counselor, her major worry about his future had little to do with his SAT scores or essay or extracurricular activities.
It had to do with his citizenship.
"The very first question she asked me was whether I was a legal resident here," said Mr. Carrillo, 20, now an electrical engineering student at Arizona State University in Tempe. "And I said, ‘Yeah, I am.’ And she said, ‘Oh good, that makes things easier.’ "
Middle East
Israel drops Arab killings case
Israel's attorney general says no policemen will be prosecuted over the killing of 13 Arab Israeli protesters in 2000.
Menachem Mazuz said there was insufficient evidence to pursue a prosecution against officers who opened fire during anti-government riots.
The unrest erupted in sympathy with the Palestinian uprising against Israel.
Relatives of the victims were angry at the decision. One said it "gives the green light for attacks on Arabs".
Egyptian police frustrate stream of Palestinian shoppers
Rory McCarthy in El Arish, Egypt
Monday January 28, 2008
The Guardian
Dozens of policemen in riot gear at Egyptian checkpoints set up in the pouring rain just a few miles from the border with Gaza yesterday failed to halt the relentless flow of Palestinians into Egypt five days after the border was breached.
Taiser Shuber had spent two days in Sheikh Zuwayed, a town about 12 miles into northern Sinai, where he savoured his first trip outside the Palestinian territories. Yesterday he waited for a lift on to El Arish, a large coastal centre to which many Palestinians were headed.
Europe
Rogue trader: The man who saved the world (or not)
Police arrest the French trader whose computer games were felt on stock markets from New York to Tokyo
The five billion euro man, Jérôme Kerviel, emerged yesterday as an unlikely and unwitting hero for the global age: the man who accidentally saved the world from recession.
He was also arrested.
Mr Kerviel, 31, was taken into custody by police in Paris on suspicion of three different kinds of fraud. He has reportedly told investigators that he is ready to explain – if he can – how his late-night "virtual" trading on share futures cost his bank, Société Générale, €4.9bn (£3.6bn).
Turkey divided by decision to overturn headscarf ban
A small square of coloured material returns to the centre of Turkey's political stage this week as the government prepares to end the controversial headscarf ban. Fierce battle lines are drawn between supporters of the government, which is poised to allow female university students to wear the traditional Islamic headscarf, and opponents, who see it as a dangerous undermining of their secularism.
The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has its roots in political Islam, has been under intense pressure from its conservative supporters to abolish the ban since it first came to power in 2002. And now it has struck a deal with a right-wing nationalist party over the issue.
Asia
India deprives own poor in bid to be aid donor
Dean Nelson, Delhi
A BRITISH plan to help India become a leading aid donor despite being home to a third of the world’s poor has been fiercely criticised by campaigners in both countries.
Gordon Brown backed the plan during a visit to India last week, when he announced more than £800m in aid over the next three years while praising its growing prosperity.
India now has more billionaires than Britain, Brown said, and the time was right for the two countries "to use our combined knowledge and resources to expand this partnership to tackle poverty globally"
Prince Charles will not attend Olympic games: Tibet rights group
LONDON (AFP) - Prince Charles will not be attending the opening ceremony of this year's Olympic Games in Beijing, he told a group that campaigns against human rights abuses in Tibet in a letter disclosed Monday.
A spokeswoman for the prince at Clarence House declined to comment, saying only: "We would not be able discuss any private correspondence."
According to the Free Tibet campaign group, it wrote to Charles, the heir to the throne, calling on him not to attend this summer's games in the Chinese capital.
Africa
Fighting spreads in western Kenya
At least 17 people are reported to have been killed in another day of violence in western Kenya, apparently linked to last month's disputed elections.
The victims are said to have been beaten, hacked or burned to death by mobs as fighting spread to Naivasha.
The town is about 60km (37 miles) south of Nakuru, also the scene of recent inter-ethnic fighting.
David Beckham: Show me the worst you've got
For David Beckham, being a Unicef ambassador is harrowing but also uplifting
On a cloudless Sunday morning a few miles outside Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, a gang of teenage boys is enjoying a noisy kick-about on a dusty pitch when a young white man with a shaven head runs down a dirt track to join them. He kicks the football and the boys nearest him stop in their tracks.
"Is it him? It is! It’s David Beckham!" they shriek. "David Beckham! He’s here. With us!"
Beckham smiles his famous dazzling smile; the young Africans whoop with joy and, as the news is shouted around the pitch, the boys run over to touch his head and stroke his tattooed arms. He soon peels off his T-shirt to play in the heat.
Latin America
Chavez calls for anti-US alliance
Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has called on other Latin American and Caribbean countries to form a military alliance against the United States.
The vehemently anti-US leader says Nicaragua, Bolivia, Cuba and Dominica should create one united force.
Mr Chavez, a long time critic of what he sees as US imperialism, made the comments after a summit of its leaders.
Despite constant US denials, Mr Chavez is convinced it poses a serious threat to South and Central America.
Gunmen kill 11 in village massacre
Guyana deployed hundreds of soldiers and police in villages near where rampaging gunmen killed 11 people, including five children, and authorities yesterday launched a manhunt for the gang leader they blame for the slaughter.
Security forces with high-powered rifles searched the forests surrounding Lusignan for gang members following Saturday's attack, in which gunmen stormed the coastal village apparently because their leader was enraged by the abduction of his pregnant girlfriend.
Officials say Rondell Rawlins, the nation's most-wanted fugitive, has accused security forces of abducting his 18-year-old girlfriend and has threatened to launch attacks until she is found. Officials haven't responded to his accustion.