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26 Americans, mostly CIA agents, charged for kidnapping in Italy On Friday an Italian judge ordered 26 americans, a CIA-led team, to stand trial for kidnapping of Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr in 2003. North Korea agrees to end nuclear program North Korea has agreed to end its nuclear program and close down its nuclear facility at Yongbyon within 60 days.

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Cars big winner as 34th Annual Annie Awards handed out Cars drove home the big prize last night, from the 34th Annual Annie Awards, while Flushed Away won five awards, the most of the night. The animation industry's highest honor, ASIFA-Hollywood's Annies recognise contributions to animation, and Wikinews was there, capturing moments on the red carpet.

Wikipedia Current Events
A Turkish court hands down life sentences to seven Al Qaeda associates for their involvement in the 2003 Istanbul bombings. A United States businessman is charged in Manhattan with financing terrorism and material support of terrorism for allegedly passing on money for a training camp in Afghanistan. General Motors is in talks to buy DaimlerChrysler AG's struggling Chrysler Group in its entirety. Iranian security forces clash with militants after the explosion of a bomb in the town of Zahedan in southeastern Iran. The United States House of Representatives passes House Concurrent resolution 63; a non-binding resolution criticising U.S. President George W. Bush's Surge Plan in Iraq. An Italian judge has ordered 26 U.S. citizens—most of them CIA agents—to stand trial over the kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric in Milan in 2003. Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the current leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, has been wounded in fighting in Baghdad according to Arab TV stations. The President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai meets with the Prime Minister of Italy Romano Prodi to discuss Italian contributions to the fight against the Taliban and drug traffickers in Afghanistan.

26 Americans, mostly CIA agents, charged for kidnapping in Italy
On Friday an Italian judge ordered 26 americans, a CIA-led team, to stand trial for kidnapping of Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr in 2003. He was brought to Egypt were he says he was tortured as a subject to CIA " rendition". He was later released. Also on trial is Nicolo Pollari, Italy's former spy chief, and members of the SISMI military intelligence agency.

This is the the first criminal trial over "renditions", aspects of the Bush administration's "war on terror". One of the defendants Robert Seldon Lady, the former CIA station chief in Milan, said via his lawyer that he did not recognise the court.

Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, a Muslim cleric also known as Abu Omar was taken by a CIA-led team in Milan on 17 February, 2003 and allegedly transferred by vehicle to the Aviano Air Base near Venice. Then by air to the Ramstein Air Base in Germany from where he was sent to Egypt. He was released from prison on Sunday and says he would like to return to Italy. He says he has been tortured with electric shocks, beatings, rape threats and genital abuse, and that "I have been reduced to a wreck of a human being."

Though Mr Nasr was under investigation for terrorism-related activities at the time of his abduction no charges have been brought against him. Italian officials says Nasr was suspected of recruiting fighters for radical Islamic causes and fought in Afghanistan and Bosnia. Montasser al-Zayat, lawyer, said Nasr had only traveled to Jordan, Yemen, Albania and Germany.

Disney prohibits LGBT production of Sister Act
Disney's given a thumbs down to a university's LGBT club stage production of Sister Act. After working six months on the production, the group at Irish university NUI Galway were told to cease production, or suffer the consequences of legal action.

Jeff Rockett, producer of the play, commented to the Irish Times, "We are dumbfounded by Disney's stance towards what is a charitable, non-profit-making society, aimed at promoting safety and integration for the student LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] community. We were just having fun."

Reports claim the story was only "loosely based" on the film, and so the play's producers are investigating with lawyers what changes can be made, to make the production completely independent of the original concept.

Galway's Town Hall Theatre will refund tickets to the production.

An officially licensed Sister Act: The Musical is on stage in Atlanta, before making its way to Broadway.

Canadian government 'will respect' Kyoto law
The Conservative Canadian government have decided to obey the Kyoto bill which was a forced decision by the opposition Liberals. Prior to this decision, the Liberal opposition party said the government could be sued if they would ignore the law.

"If and when that becomes law, the government would respect it. I'll just point out ... that the bill has no plan of action in it, the bill gives the government no authority to spend any money to have a plan of action," Canadian PM Stephen Harper told the House on Thursday. "Of course, if and when that becomes law, the government would respect it."

The bill will be sent to the Senate of Canada for approval before it is actually made law. The legislation will only give the government 60 days to come up with a plan that meets with the Kyoto Protocol.

Kyoto wants to drop 6% of greenhouse gas emissions starting from 1990 to 2012. The Conservatives say it is bad for the Canadian economy.

Political experts are now saying that a federal election could come as soon as spring 2007. The Conservatives were elected on the 23 of January in 2006.

Study finds pregnant women eating seafood helps child
According to a recent survey and study reported in the British journal Lancet, mothers eating fish during certain parts of their pregnancy could possibly help a child's development.

Seafood is the predominant source of omega-3 fatty acids, which are essential for optimal neural development.

The survey of more than 11,000 women in the United Kingdom, noted their weekly seafood intake and found that low seafood intake was correlated with a higher risk of suboptimal developmental outcome.

During 2004, the United States Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency released a report recommending pregnant women and nursing mothers should eat less than 12 ounces (340 grams) of seafood every week to prevent development problems due to the toxins in the seafood. The advisory noted that shark, swordfish, king mackerel should not be eaten more than once weekly.

An FDA spokesperson said that neither the FDA or the EPA had any comment on the study and would need to review it before commenting.

Potential charges against "Tigger" bounced: District attorney
Tigger costumed character actor Michael J. Fedelem, 31, has been cleared by the Florida state attorney's office. After reviewing tape of an incident where Tigger appears to bop a 15-year-old in the face, the office decided that the allegations were false.

Jerry Monaco Sr. and his family, including Jerry Monaco Jr., were visiting the Walt Disney World theme park early this year. The tape of Junior being hit in the face, distributed to the media by Senior, quickly went international, with Junior telling the press that the attack was completely unprovoked.

While the short clip the media aired of this scenario would seem to prove his statement, the full-length video shows Junior pulling on the Tigger costume's tail, thus blocking proper air flow. Even earlier in the clip, Senior is heard mocking the character, sarcastically apologising for supposedly sitting on its head.

The DA commented to television station Local6 that "The family didn't react like they wanted justice, they reacted like they wanted cash."

Jean Erik Redrupp, general manager of Park Operations at Disney-MGM Studios, had phoned to apologise after the incident, but Senior repeatedly demanded Fedelem himself reply.

"Everybody will come up and apologize to me but Tigger. He won't be a man about it and get out of the costume and come out and apologize to my son. I didn't want VIP treatment. I didn't want an extra day at Disney. I didn't want any of that. I wanted him to apologize and that is the one thing that they won't do."

Some reports say that Disney has made no decision on Fedelem's employment status, while the Associated Press claims a "telephone call placed to Disney officials ... early Friday to find out Fedelem's employment status was not immediately returned".

Wikinews has contacted Teamster's Union Local 385 for comment; Teamster's represents Fedelem and many of the other costumed character employees.

Today in History
1801 - The U.S. House of Representatives elected Thomas Jefferson as President and Aaron Burr as Vice President of the United States, resolving an electoral tie in the 1800 presidential election.

1854 - Britain recognized the independence of the Orange Free State in the present-day Free State Province, South Africa.

1959 - Vanguard 2, the first weather satellite, was launched to measure cloud-cover distribution.

1995 - The United Nations brokered a ceasefire between Ecuador and Peru, leading to the official end of the Cenepa War eleven days later.

February 17 is Tết Nguyên Ðán (2007).

Quote of the Day

Even to have come forth is something, since I see that being able to conquer is placed in the hands of fate. However, there was in me, whatever I was able to do, that which no future century will deny to be mine, that which a victor could have for his own: Not to have feared to die, not to have yielded to any equal in firmness of nature, and to have preferred a courageous death to a noncombatant life.
~ Giordano Bruno

Word of the Day

hegemony; n

Domination, influence, or authority over another, especially by one group or nation over another.

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2007-02-16T20:56:28