Sunday, September 13, 2009

SPB News for Sunday.


Trial Begins for Abramoff Associate - Prosecutors called former Jack Abramoff associate Kevin Ring "lobbyist in name but a corruptor in practice" during opening statements in the 38-year-old...
U.S. to Expand Review of Detainees in Afghan Prison --Some of the detainees have already been held at Bagram for as long as six years. The Obama administration soon plans to issue new guidelines aimed at giving the hundreds of prisoners at an American detention center in Afghanistan significantly more ability to challenge their custody, Pentagon officials and detainee advocates say. The new Pentagon guidelines would assign military-appointed representatives to each of the roughly 600 detainees at the American-run prison at the Bagram Air Base north of Kabul... Two prisoners [argue] that they were not enemy combatants and want a civilian judge to review the evidence against them and order their release, under the constitutional right of habeas corpus. The Obama administration, like the Bush administration, has rejected this argument... The new policy guidelines will bolster the government’s case, said the Defense Department official, who added, "We want to be able to go into court and say we have good review procedures." The Obama administration had sought to preserve Bagram as a haven where it could detain terrorism suspects beyond the reach of American courts, agreeing with the Bush regime’s view that courts had no jurisdiction over prisoners there.

US committee approves $128 billion war spending --Funding will allow President Obama's order to add 21,000 more troops to the Afghanistan contingent, to proceed. A powerful Senate committee in the US has approved President Barack Obama’s $128 billion request for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. With little debate, it was decided to allow the request which will cater for $636 billion in funding for next year’s Pentagon budget. The funding will allow President Obama’s order from earlier this year, to add 21,000 more troops to the Afghanistan contingent, to go ahead.

Corus, Minn. bank busts bring '09 failures to 91 Regulators closed Chicago-based Corus Bank N.A. and Woodbury, Minn.-based Brickwell Community Bank on Friday, bringing the number of U.S. bank failures this year to 91. Corus had $7 billion in assets and $7 billion in deposits as of June 30, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said in a statement. Corus' deposits have been assumed by MB Financial Bank, the FDIC said. Brickwell Community Bank had $63 million in deposits as of July 24, the regulator said.

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