2005 NEWS HISTORY ARCHIVES

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- Secret - Government - Intelligence - Civil Liberties - Privacy - Politics - Media
"Justice Dept. Opens Inquiry Into Leak of Domestic Spying." ... "The Justice Department said today that it had opened a criminal investigation into the disclosure of classified information about a secret National Security Agency program under which President Bush authorized eavesdropping on people in the United States without a court warrant." ... "The investigation apparently began in recent days following a formal referral from the agency regarding the leak, federal officials said on condition of anonymity." ... "The program, whose existence was revealed in an article in The New York Times on Dec. 16, has provoked sharp criticism from civil liberties groups, some members of Congress and some former intelligence officials who believe it circumvents the law governing national security eavesdropping." -By Scott Shane -NYTimes

- Pakistan - Religious - Schools - Politics - Terrorism - London bombings - UK
"Pakistan's Islamic schools resist expulsion order: · Ban on foreign students followed London bombs · Leaders claim Musharraf ruling is discriminatory." ... "Leaders of Pakistan's 13,000 madrasas have vowed to defy a government deadline to expel foreign students by December 31, saying the regulations discriminate against religious schools." ... "President Pervez Musharraf required Pakistan's madrasas to expel about 1,800 foreign students after the July 7 bombings in London highlighted the extremist links of some schools. Three of the London bombers were of Pakistani descent, and the Aldgate bomber, Shehzad Tanweer, attended a Lahore madrasa that has since been linked to Islamist militants." -By Imtiaz Gul -Guardian.co.uk

- Indonesia - US- Business - Police
"Indonesian military admits being paid by US mining firm." ... "Indonesia's military admitted yesterday that officers received payments from a local subsidiary of the American mining giant Freeport-McMoRan to guard its huge Grasberg copper and gold mine in Papua, the western, Indonesian, half of New Guinea island." ... "The admission comes after a report in the New York Times claimed that Freeport Indonesia paid military and police officers, and several army units £11.7m from 1998 to 2004. Some officers allegedly received tens of thousands of pounds. If they kept any of the money themselves, it would be a criminal offence." -By John Aglionby -Guardian.co.uk

- Ukraine - Russia - EU
"Ukraine rejects Moscow gas loan offer." ... "President Viktor Yushchenko of Ukraine last night rejected an offer of a $3.6bn (£2bn) loan from Russia to pay for a big increase in gas prices by Gazprom, the Russian energy company." ... "The move has provoked the biggest rift between the two neighbours since last year's "Orange Revolution" in Kiev. Mr Yushchenko has turned Ukraine towards the European Union and Nato and wrenched it out of Russia's orbit." ... "The dispute could cause shortages in western Europe if Russia carries out a threat to reduce the gas it pumps into the huge export pipeline that crosses Ukraine from January 1. By doing so, however, Russia would risk damaging its claim to be a reliable energy supplier, just as it takes over the presidency of the Group of Eight industrialised nations with energy security as a main theme." -By Neil Buckley -FT.com

- Ukraine
"Turkmenistan agrees to export 40 bln cu m gas to Ukraine in 2006."-AFXNews via -Forbes

- Hackers - Music - Entertainment - Computer - Business - Technology - Consumer - Privacy
"Sony BMG tentatively settles CD software suits." ... "Sony BMG Music Entertainment has reached a tentative settlement with consumers who filed a class action lawsuit over the music company's copy-protection software on CDs, court papers show." ... "Consumers complained that the technology -- known as XCP -- violated their rights by potentially leaving computers vulnerable to hackers and allowing the company to track listening habits." -Reuters

- Auto - Company - Retiree - History - Government
"How Bedrock Promises Of Security Have Fractured Across America: Companies are discarding traditional pensions -- or making government foot the bill. Delphi workers struggle with the changing landscape." ... "[Oct. 8,] That's when Delphi Chief Executive Robert S. "Steve" Miller, citing global competition and crippling "legacy costs," ushered the $28.6 billion-a-year company into one of the largest industrial bankruptcies in U.S. history. In short order, Miller called for slashing workers' compensation by almost two-thirds, threatened to void the company's union contracts, and hinted broadly that he would follow the playbook he had used elsewhere of pushing responsibility for paying the firm's pensions to the federal government and dumping its retiree health benefits altogether." ... "Delphi is at the cutting edge of a crisis that's engulfing the U.S. auto industry, much as it did steel and airlines. Its actions are adding to a gathering trend, a shift of economic risks once largely borne by business and government to the backs of working families." ... "Before the trouble is over, some believe, a corporate icon such as Ford Motor Co. or GM could be swept from the American landscape. So too could much of what remains of the already frayed relationship between millions of working people and their employers." -By Peter G. Gosselin -LAtimes

-Guantanamo Bay - Cuba - US - Military - Prisons - Food
"Guantanamo Hunger Strike More Than Doubles; 84 Inmates Involved." ... "The number of detainees on a hunger strike at the U.S. naval base at Cuba's Guantanamo Bay has more than doubled in the past week, the U.S. military said." ... "Forty-six detainees joined existing hunger strikers on Dec. 25, to bring the total number of prisoners refusing food to 84, the military said yesterday on the Southern Command's Web site. That's about a sixth of the internment center's inmates." ... "The military said the detainees are trying to put pressure on the U.S. to release them. Detainees' lawyers have said the hunger strikers are protesting their continued detention without trial and conditions at the base." -By Alex Morales -Bloomberg

- Egypt - Sudan -UN - Politics
"10 dead in Cairo protest camp clearance." ... "Ten Sudanese refugees, including a young girl, were killed today when Egyptian police fired water cannon and beat migrants with clubs to break up a protest camp in Cairo." ... "Up to 2,000 refugees had lived in the camp for three months, demanding that the UN refugee agency resettle them." ... "The sit-in began in September after the UN high commissioner for refugees stopped hearing the cases of Sudanese asylum seekers, a decision which followed the signing in January of a peace accord that ended Sudan's 21-year civil war." -Guardian.co.uk

- EU - Global - Russia - US - Military - Technology
"Sky-High Ambitions: Europe attempts to find its own place in the world of satellite navigation with the launch of GIOVE-A." ... "Europe has moved one giant step closer to operating its own long-awaited global navigation satellite system, Galileo, designed to challenge the domination of the U.S. military's GPS, or Global Positioning System." ... "GIOVE-A (or Galileo In-Orbit Validation Element) will be testing new technologies — including atomic clocks, signal generators and user receivers — for what has been a dream of the European Union since the early 1990s: a wide-ranging navigation system that is faster and more precise than GPS, provides an uninterrupted service under civilian control, and offers a commercial alternative to the U.S. system and its Russian counterpart, GLONASS (Global Navigation Satellite System)." -By Maryann Bird -TIME.com

- EU - Global - Russia - US - Military - Politics
"EU sends up 1st of 30 satellites in GPS network." ... "The European Union on Wednesday launched the first satellite in its $4.5 billion Galileo global positioning system, a bid to enhance the world's growing reliance on satellite navigation and to break the U.S. monopoly on networks in space." ... "Many Europeans see political significance in the project too: The world's only civilian-controlled system will give Europe and its partner nations self-sufficiency from the United States, which has warned it could diminish or cut off GPS satellite coverage to countries considered enemies in times of national emergency." ... "The launch comes at a time when Russia is moving forward with a positioning system known as GLONASS. On Sunday it put into orbit three new satellites for the network, which is scheduled to be operational in 2010." -By Molly Moore-WashingtonPost via -ChicagoTribune

- Iraq
"Iraqi protests continue in Kirkuk." ... "About 350 Arab and Turkmen demonstrators took to the streets of Kirkuk on Thursday, protesting preliminary results of the Dec. 15 parliamentary election and condemning what they claim are Kurdish attempts to control the city, according to Kirkuk Police Chief Torhan Abdul Rahman." ... "The protest is only the latest of widespread demonstrations across the country, including one on Wednesday in Samarra, north of Baghdad in the Sunni heartland." ... "There has also been uproar among Sunni Arabs, secular Shiites and others over what they say is fraud in the polling process." -Contributed to by Mohammed Tawfeeq -CNN

- Military - Auto - Airplane
"Corps pays $100K for retooled jeep." ... "The Marine Corps is paying $100,000 apiece for a revamped Vietnam-era jeep as part of its program to outfit the hybrid airplane-helicopter V-22 Osprey, Pentagon records show." ... "That's seven times what a deluxe commercial version of the vehicle costs. It's also three times what U.S. Export-Import Bank records show the Dominican Republic paid four years ago for a military version of the vehicle, called the Growler, a recycled version of the M151 jeep." -By Steven Komarow -USATODAY

- People - Government - Military - Terrorism - Civil Liberties - Politics - Illinois - Florida - Virginia
"U.S. Defends Conduct in Padilla Case: Supreme Court Asked To Overrule 4th Circuit." ... "A federal appeals court infringed on President Bush's authority to run the war on terror when it refused to let prosecutors take custody of "enemy combatant" Jose Padilla, the Justice Department said yesterday, as it urged the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene." ... "The sharply worded Justice Department filing was the latest salvo in an increasingly contentious battle over Padilla, a U.S. citizen arrested in Chicago [Illinois] in 2002 and initially accused of plotting to detonate a radiological "dirty bomb." Padilla was held for more than three years by the military before he was indicted last month in Miami [Florida] on separate criminal terrorism charges." ... "The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit refused last week to allow prosecutors to take custody of Padilla from the military and rebuked the Bush administration for its handling of the high-profile case. The Bush administration took strong issue yesterday with the Richmond-based [Virginia] court's decision and appealed it to the Supreme Court." -By Jerry Markon-WashingtonPost

- Russia -Political - Business
"Russia threatens to cut off Ukraine's gas." ... "Ukraine's natural gas company declared Thursday that it has enough gas in storage to see the country through the winter if Russia halts shipments in a standoff over prices." ... "Russia's state-run natural gas monopoly, Gazprom, which provides about a third of the gas used in Ukraine, says it will stop selling gas to the country on Jan. 1 unless it agrees to a fourfold price increase." ... "Ukraine currently pays $50 (U.S.) per 1,000 cubic meters of gas. Gazprom is demanding that the price in 2006 rise to $220 to $230, saying that is more in line with world markets." -By Henry Meyer -AP via -GlobeAndMail

- Russia - Business
"Russia to significantly up gas imports." ... "Russia on Thursday agreed to significantly increase its imports of natural gas from Turkmenistan in 2006, buying 30 billion cubic meters at US$65 (euro52) per 1,000 cubic meters, the state-controlled gas monopoly Gazprom said in a statement." -AP via -BusinessWeek

- Business - Accounting - Law
"SEC calls for clarity in executive pay." ... "Public companies in the US could have to provide investors with valuations of the pensions and stock options of senior executives as part of a far-reaching overhaul of the disclosure rules on executive pay by the Securities and Exchange Commission." ... "The chief US financial regulator is preparing the first update of its disclosure rules on executive pay in more than a decade, because of concerns that investors do not receive adequate information about compensation. An important requirement could focus on executives' pensions and options." ... "The median total pay of chief executives increased by 30 per cent in 2004, according to a survey of 1,522 chief executives by the Corporate Library, a corporate governance watchdog, published in October." -By Andrew Parker -FT.com via -MSNBC

- Labor
"Executive pay to be new year's hot topic." ... "Investors plan to make executive pay the number one issue at companies' annual meetings this spring." ... "New evidence suggesting that executive pay growth is accelerating, coupled with outrage at big severance packages for some bosses, has pushed the issue to the top of investors' concerns." ... "The AFSCME union, whose pension fund is worth $800m, is calling for UK-style votes by shareholders on executive pay at the 2006 annual meetings of US Bancorp, Merrill Lynch, Bank of America, Home Depot and Countrywide Financial." ... "The union claims to have identified excessive compensation at these companies and warns it may try to oust directors on their compensation committees if they do not take steps to align bosses' pay with company performance." -By Andrew Parker -FT.com via -MSNBC

- Hawaii - History - Museum
"Group hides native Hawaiian artifacts: Judge jails leader, holds three others in contempt of court." ... "Leaders of a Hawaiian group vowed not to divulge the location of a cache of native artifacts obtained from a museum and then buried, despite the jailing of their director." ... "One of the four, executive director Edward Halealoha Ayau, was taken into custody after refusing [Chief U.S. District Judge David] Ezra's order to reveal the exact location of the 83 artifacts from the Bishop Museum." -AP via -CNN

- Texas - Oklahoma - Homes - Disaster
"Five die in wildfires sweeping US: At least five people have died in the wildfires which have swept across parts of the US states of Texas and Oklahoma." ... "The fires, fanned by strong winds and dry weather, have destroyed nearly 200 homes and scorched thousands of acres of land in the past two days." ... "An estimated 124 homes were destroyed in Texas and 50 in the neighbouring state of Oklahoma." ... "Worst hit was the central Texan town of Cross Plains, where the fires forced its 1,000 inhabitants to leave."-BBC /News

-Massachusetts - Computer
"Massachusetts CIO quits amid OpenDocument furore." ... "The man responsible for bringing OpenDocument to Massachusetts has resigned following controversy and personal attacks over the initiative." ... "Peter Quinn has resigned from his post as chief information officer for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to avoid further mudslinging over the state's controversial move to OpenDocument." -By Ingrid Marson -ZDNet.co.uk

- NY - Internet - Messaging - Telecommunications -Patent - Search Engine - Business
"Google Talk faces patent lawsuit." ... "A New York company [Rates Technology (RTI)] is suing Google for patent infringement over the voice-over-Internet portion of its Google Talk instant messaging and voice chat program." ... "It alleges infringement on two of its patents for minimizing the cost of long-distance calls using the Internet."" ... "RTI President Jerry Weinberger returned a call seeking comment on Thursday and said his firm also has sued Vonage and Cablevision over patent infringement." ... ""When a VOIP call can be transferred to the regular PSTN (telephone network), the switching of that call infringes our patents," Weinberger said." -By Elinor Mills -CNET /News

- Language - Computer - Internet - Radio - Media
"`Podcast' is lexicon's Word of the Year." ... "The editors of the New Oxford American Dictionary have validated the sudden spread of podcasting by naming "podcast" the Word of the Year for 2005." ... ""Podcast," defined as "a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player," will be added to the next edition of the New Oxford American Dictionary." ... "The word originated as a play on the word "broadcast" using the name of Apple's popular handheld digital music player, the iPod." -By Nathan Bierma -ChicagoTribune

- Terrorism - Business - Politics
"Sept. 11 loan recipients weren't hurt by attacks." ... "Most companies interviewed about the government-backed Sept. 11 loans they received have told investigators they weren't hurt by the suicide attacks and didn't know they were getting terrorism assistance, an internal government investigation found." ... "The Small Business Administration's inspector general also reported Wednesday that lenders who doled out billions of dollars in such loans failed — 85% of the time — to document that recipients were actually hurt by the terrorism attacks and therefore eligible for the federal aid." -AP via -USATODAY

- Texas - Enron - Accounting - Energy - Business
"Enron's Causey pleads guilty: Judge grants two-week delay to Lay, Skilling trial." ... "Rather than face trial next month, Enron's former chief accounting officer pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal charges stemming from the scandal that brought down the energy company in late 2001." ... "Richard Causey's plea bargain, made in U.S. District Court in Houston [Texas] before Judge Sim Lake, can't be welcome news for Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, the two top ex-Enron executives federal investigators claim were kingpins in one of the biggest scandals ever to rock corporate America." ... "At the same time, the deal requires Causey to cooperate with federal prosecutors honing their case against his onetime bosses and raises the possibility of his taking the witness stand against them." -By Jim Jelter -MarketWatch

- Enron - Accounting - Business
"UPDATE 5-Ex-Enron chief accountant pleads guilty to fraud." ... "Enron's former chief accountant, Richard Causey, on Wednesday pleaded guilty to securities fraud in exchange for a maximum seven-year jail sentence for his role in the financial scandal that led to the 2001 collapse of the power-trading giant." ... "Causey, 45, had been scheduled to go on trial next month with former Enron chief executives Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling, facing the possibility of more than 20 years behind bars, but now may cooperate with federal prosecutors against them in a switch legal experts said could hurt his former bosses." ... "Causey pleaded guilty to a single count of securities related to false filings and statements about Enron's financial performance. He also agreed to forfeit $1.25 million as part of a sentence that [U.S. District Judge Sim] Lake said would be set April 21." (1, 2, 3) -By Jeff Franks with contributions by Deborah Charles and Ben Berkowitz -Reuters

- Government - Terrorism - Intelligence - Florida - Oregon - Ohio - Virginia
"Defense Lawyers in Terror Cases Plan Challenges Over Spy Efforts." ... "Defense lawyers in some of the country's biggest terrorism cases say they plan to bring legal challenges to determine whether the National Security Agency used illegal wiretaps against several dozen Muslim men tied to Al Qaeda." ... "The lawyers said in interviews that they wanted to learn whether the men were monitored by the agency and, if so, whether the government withheld critical information or misled judges and defense lawyers about how and why the men were singled out." ... "The expected legal challenges, in cases from Florida, Ohio, Oregon and Virginia, add another dimension to the growing controversy over the agency's domestic surveillance program and could jeopardize some of the Bush administration's most important courtroom victories in terror cases, legal analysts say." -By Eric Lichtblau and James Risen (1, 2) -NYTimes

- Government - Military - Psychology - Health
"A Political Debate On Stress Disorder: As Claims Rise, VA Takes Stock." ... "The spiraling cost of post-traumatic stress disorder among war veterans has triggered a politically charged debate and ignited fears that the government is trying to limit expensive benefits for emotionally scarred troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan." ... "A total of 215,871 veterans received PTSD benefit payments last year at a cost of $4.3 billion, up from $1.7 billion in 1999 -- a jump of more than 150 percent." ... "Experts say the sharp increase does not begin to factor in the potential impact of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, because the increase is largely the result of Vietnam War vets seeking treatment decades after their combat experiences." (1, 2) -By Shankar Vedantam -WashingtonPost

- Secret - Government - Law Enforcement - Law - Privacy
"U.S. secret surveillance up sharply since Sept. 11." ... "Federal applications for a special U.S. court to authorize secret surveillance rose sharply after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and the panel required changes to the requests at a even greater rate, government documents show." ... "The Justice Department's reports to the U.S. Congress on the surveillance court's activities show that the Bush administration made 5,645 applications for electronic surveillance and physical searches through 2004, the most recent year for which figures are available. In the previous four years, the court received a total of 3,436." -AlertNet.org/Newsdesk

- US - Iraq - Police
"U.S. Seeks To Escape Brutal Cycle In Iraqi City: 3rd Try at Pullout Depends on Police." ... "On one of his last days in Iraq, Sgt. Dale Evans looked out over the turbulent city from a rooftop tower piled high with sandbags, manning a machine gun. Below him, rows of Bradley Fighting Vehicles stood at the ready. Dusty streets were lined with coiled barbed wire and abandoned houses pockmarked from gunfire -- a protective no-man's land around a base that U.S. commanders describe as their "battleship" in downtown Samarra." ... "This month, Evans and his company from the 3rd Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment, will leave Patrol Base Uvanni, beginning a third attempt in as many years by U.S. forces to hand this Sunni city over to Iraqi police. It's a major test for the U.S. military in Iraq, and one U.S. commanders here say they can't afford to fail." ... "Since 2003, Samarra has come to symbolize the trials and errors of U.S. strategy in Iraq -- a cycle of military offensives, lulls and new waves of lethal insurgent attacks." (1, 2) -By Ann Scott Tyson -WashingtonPost

- Russia - Economics
"Outspoken Putin aide set to quit: An outspoken aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered his resignation in protest against what he called the end of political freedom." ... "Economic adviser Andrei Illarionov said Russia was no longer politically free but run by state corporations acting in their own interests." ... ""It is one thing to work in a country that is partly free. It is another thing when the political system has changed, and the country has stopped being free and democratic," Mr Illarionov told reporters in Moscow."-BBC /News

- Japan - Business - Employment - Politics
"Japan backs gender equality plan." ... "Japanese Prime Minister Junichuro Koizumi's cabinet has approved a gender equality plan that aims to put more women in leadership positions." ... "It gave the green light to a series of measures to improve employment conditions for women and encourage their return to work after maternity." ... "The changes, known as the female re-challenge plan, have been pushed through by the prime minister himself." ... "They come in response to Japan's plunging birth rate." -By Leo Lewis-BBC /News

-Government - Military - Intelligence -Secret-Prisons - Civil Liberties - Privacy - Law - Media - Politics
"Fear destroys what bin Laden could not." ... "One wonders if Osama bin Laden didn't win after all. He ruined the America that existed on 9/11. But he had help." ... "If, back in 2001, anyone had told me that four years after bin Laden's attack our president would admit that he broke U.S. law against domestic spying and ignored the Constitution -- and then expect the American people to congratulate him for it -- I would have presumed the girders of our very Republic had crumbled." ... "Had anyone said our president would invade a country and kill 30,000 of its people claiming a threat that never, in fact, existed, then admit he would have invaded even if he had known there was no threat -- and expect America to be pleased by this -- I would have thought our nation's sensibilities and honor had been eviscerated." ... "If I had been informed that our nation's leaders would embrace torture as a legitimate tool of warfare, hold prisoners for years without charges and operate secret prisons overseas -- and call such procedures necessary for the nation's security -- I would have laughed at the folly of protecting human rights by destroying them." ... "If someone had predicted the president's staff would out a CIA agent as revenge against a critic, defy a law against domestic propaganda by bankrolling supposedly independent journalists and commentators, and ridicule a 37-year Marie Corps veteran for questioning U.S. military policy -- and that the populace would be more interested in whether Angelina is about to make Brad a daddy -- I would have called the prediction an absurd fantasy." -By Robert Steinback -Miami/Herald

- US - Iran - Nuclear - Military - Politics - Bill Frist
"Reining in Iran." ... ""Iran's ruling mullahs have waged a 26-year campaign to suppress dissent, support terror and pursue a nuclear weapons program. In recent weeks, it has become clear that international efforts to stop Iran's atomic program have failed to bear fruit. Unless we act quickly, the United States will have a nuclear crisis on its hands." ... "If we let Tehran develop nuclear weapons covertly while IAEA negotiations slog forward, Iran's theocrats will have little reason to negotiate with anyone. The U.S. needs to act before a regime that has denied the real Holocaust unleashes another. " -By Bill Frist -LAtimes

- Iraq -Politics
"Iraq Contingent May Grow if Attacks Persist, Pace Says." ... "Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Peter Pace said Sunday that the number of U.S. troops in Iraq could increase next year, not decrease, if the insurgency continued." ... "The four-star Marine general said that any decision to withdraw or deploy additional troops in Iraq would depend mostly on whether the insurgency continued to launch deadly attacks against U.S.-led forces and friendly elements of the fledgling Baghdad government." -By Josh Meyer -LAtimes

- Ocean - Animals
"Oregon Surfer Punches Shark in the Nose." ... "A surfer says he reacted on instinct when he punched a great white shark that grabbed his leg near the northern Oregon coast." ... "He said he learned from television shows including the Discovery Channel's "Shark Week" that a shark's nose is its most sensitive area." -AP via -WashingtonPost

- Iraq - Terrorism - Police - Politics
"Gunmen kill Iraqi forces, bombs shake Baghdad." ... "Guerrillas killed 10 Iraqi policemen and soldiers in attacks north of Baghdad on Monday, while the capital itself was rocked by five major explosions that left at least eight dead." ... "It was one of the bloodiest days in Iraq since the largely peaceful election on December 15, when rival ethnic and sectarian groups took part in a vote for a new parliament. By nightfall, at least 20 were killed and over 40 injured." -By Deepa Babington with contributions by Faris al-Mehdawi in Baquba, Aseel Kami and Gideon Long -Reuters.co.uk

-Iran - Russia
"Iran says it didn't get Kremlin nuclear plan: Deal would move enrichment to Russia." ... "Iran denied Sunday that it received a proposal to move its uranium-enrichment facilities to Russian soil, a compromise Europe is seeking to resolve a standoff over Iran's nuclear program." ... "Russia had announced Saturday that it sent the formal proposal to Tehran, which has insisted it would not agree to moving enrichment abroad." -By Nasser Karimi -AP via -ChicagoTribune

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- US - Iraq
"A look at U.S. military deaths in Iraq." ... "As of Sunday, Dec. 25, 2005, at least 2,168 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count." ... "Since May 1, 2003, when President Bush declared that major combat operations in Iraq had ended, 2,029 U.S. military members have died, according to AP's count." -AP via -SeattlePI.NWsource

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- Christmas - Consumer
"Last-minute shoppers flock to stores on Christmas Eve." ... "Shoppers — some holding out for the best deals, others just not inspired to shop earlier — headed for the nation's malls and stores for last-minute gifts and gift cards on Saturday, the day before Christmas." ... "With shoppers delaying their holiday shopping even longer than last year, merchants are depending even more on the final hours before Christmas and post-holiday business to salvage the season. The exceptions have been online shopping, sellers of consumer electronics, and luxury stores, which have continued to generate strong gains." ... "The good news this year, analysts said, is that many retailers haven't reacted with a frenzy of bargains beyond what was in their strategy, recognizing that there is a second shopping season after Dec. 25." -By Anne D'Innocenzio  with contributions by Brian Witte -AP via -StarTribune

- US - Egypt - Law
"U.S. Protests Jailing of Egyptian Opposition Leader (Update2)." ... "The U.S. government protested the conviction of Egyptian opposition politician Ayman Nour on forgery charges and requested he be released from jail." ... "Nour's conviction ``calls into question Egypt's commitment to democracy, freedom and the rule of law,'' White House press secretary Scott McClellan said in a statement. The U.S. calls on Egypt ``to release Mr. Nour from detention.''" -By Carlos Torres -Bloomberg

- Consumer - Food -