Nearly 1,000 refugees were detained on a remote island in December before being towed out to sea and abandoned with little food or water, rights group says.
I look at our new president and hope and pray that those shoulders are sturdy enough to bear the burdens ahead in his first term and that the American people truly understand his message ["Barack Obama's Inauguration Is One for the History Books," usnews.com].
AP - President Barack Obama moved quickly Thursday to reshape U.S. national-security policy, ordering the Guantanamo Bay prison camp closed within a year, forbidding the harshest treatment of terror suspects and naming new envoys to the Middle East and Afghanistan-Pakistan. "We have no time to lose," he said at the State Department as he welcomed newly confirmed Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to help him forge what he called "a new era of American leadership" in the world.
AP - Hillary Rodham Clinton took charge of the State Department on Thursday, proclaiming the start of a new era of robust U.S. diplomacy to tackle the world's crises and improve America's standing abroad.
AP - Caroline Kennedy withdrew her Senate bid because of a personal matter unrelated to her ill uncle, rejecting the governor's attempt to get her to reconsider, a person who worked closely with her said Thursday. Kennedy discussed withdrawing from the race with Gov. David Paterson on Wednesday, and Paterson asked her to reconsider for 24 hours, the person said.
Former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell was named special envoy for the Middle East during an event at the State Department today. Former U.N. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke was named special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan on Hillary Clinton's first full day in charge at the State Department.
A U.S. Army Criminal Investigations Division investigator has recommended changing the official manner of death for a soldier electrocuted while showering at his base in Iraq from "accidental" to "negligent homicide," according to an e-mail from the investigator obtained by CNN.
Forests in the Pacific Northwest are dying twice as fast as they were 17 years ago, and scientists blame warming temperatures for the trend, according to a new study.
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