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John Roberts sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States John G. Roberts was sworn in as the 17th Chief Justice of the United States after being confirmed by the United States Senate by a 78-22 vote. U.S. house majority leader DeLay indicted, steps down temporarily U.S House of Representatives majority leader Tom DeLay was indicted today by a Travis County Texas grand jury on conspiracy charges. He announced that he will step down temporarily.

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Wikipedia Current Events
U.S. Senator Harry Reid and other Democrats criticize Republican talk show host William Bennett for saying: "You could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down."

Wikipedia Current Events
The new United Nations coordinator for human and avian influenza warns that 5-150 million people could die in a flu epidemic. Humans have no natural immunity to the virus. US President George W. Bush has made four formal statements recently about the epidemic. Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Two members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade are shot dead in an Israeli raid into the Balata refugee camp, in Nablus, on the West Bank. Conflict in Iraq: 10 people die following a car bomb in Hillah, Iraq. An Osaka High Court judge rules that the visit by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to the Yasukuni Shrine violates the constitution's separation of church and state. The visit by a Japanese head of government to the war shrine is a sensitive issue with China and South Korea. United States negotiators in Geneva are caught off guard by European demands for a change from U.S. Commerce Department control to international regulation of the Internet. New York Times journalist Judith Miller testifies before a federal grand jury and identifies Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, as her confidential source for a non-published story about the unmasking of a CIA agent in 2003.

Belgium indicts former Chad dictator accused of humanitarian crimes

Rights groups have welcomed the indictment in Belgium of Hissène Habré, former dictator of Chad. Habré, described by the organisation Human Rights Watch as "the African Pinochet", ruled Chad from 1982 to 1990. He now stands accused of "crimes against humanity" over a series of abuses allegedly committed during his tenure.

A 1992 "Truth Commission" in Chad heard evidence of systematic torture by Habré's government, and accused the regime of more than 40,000 killings. But the government of Chad, which until very recently, according to Human Rights Watch, included many of Habré's former associates, has never made any attempt to prosecute him.

Habré, who currently lives in Senegal, was arrested by the authorities there in 2000, charged with torture and crimes against humanity. But the following year the Senegalese high court ruled that Habré could not be prosecuted for crimes committed in another country.

Every state has the right under international law, to prosecute the alleged perpetrators of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity, wherever those crimes were committed.

In practice, Belgium is one of the few countries in the world to have enacted legislation enabling their domestic courts to exercise this right.

In June 2001, four Rwandans were convicted by a Belgian court, under the country's "universal jurisdiction" law, of participating in the 1994 genocide (recently portrayed in the film "Hotel Rwanda").

Belgium recently amended the law to reduce its scope, after a series of highly-controversial attempts to bring cases against serving world leaders, including the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. But a number of cases that had already begun were allowed to continue, including the case against Habré.

The government of Senegal recently detained Habré to prevent him from fleeing, following pressure from the United Nations. Belgium has now issued an extradition request.

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Today in History

October 01:

331 BC: Alexander the Great of Macedon defeated Darius III of Persia in the Battle of Gaugamela, and was subsequently crowned "King of Asia" in a ceremony in Arbela.

1936: Generalísimo Francisco Franco became the head of the Spanish State.

1958: NASA began operations, replacing the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA).

1964: Tōkaidō Shinkansen, the first Shinkansen line of high-speed railways in Japan, opened.

1977: Brazilian football star Edson Arantes do Nascimento, better known as Pelé, played his last professional football game.

Quote of the Day

"War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children." ~ Jimmy Carter

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Jake Novak

2005-09-30T23:14:10

Jake Novak