Libra-log

A cameraman for the al Jazeera television station was released from Guantanamo Bay after being detained for six years, the BBC reported.

Sami al-Hajj returned home to Sudan after being imprisoned by the United States in Guantanamo and in Afghanistan.

He arrived in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, early Friday. Weak from a 16-month hunger strike, he was carried off the plane by U.S. military personnel.

Hajj was arrested by Pakistani troops near the Afghanistan border in 2001. He was later handed over to the United States.

He was accused of being involved in militant groups, and the U.S. military alleged he had helped fund fighters in Chechnya and Bosnia in the 1990s.

He was never charged.

The United States created the camp in Guantanamo in 2002 to hold foreign terror suspects, the BBC said.

More than 275 detainees remain there. The United States hopes to try at least 80 of them in court.

Posted by libra012 at 3:13 PM | Permalink

A bill to raise the minimum wage to as much as $7.90 by July 2009 passed the House today, but Gov. Tim Pawlenty said changes will have to made for him to approve it, the Pioneer Press said.

The legislation passed 82-45 in the House, after the Senate approved a similar bill a year ago. Three years earlier, Minnesota’s minimum wage was raised to $6.15 an hour for large employers.

This bill, if approved by the governor, would increase wages for large and small businesses.

Posted by libra012 at 2:12 PM | Permalink

A suicidal, 21-year-old man died in St. Paul on Sunday after police used a Taser to control him as he attacked two officers, the Pioneer Press reported.

His identity and cause of death have not been released.

The man’s relative reportedly called police to Wheelock Ridge Villa, saying he was threatening to commit suicide with drugs.

Two officers and paramedics entered the apartment where the man was located, partially clothed. When paramedics tried to examine him he attacked the officers.

Officers sprayed him with pepper spray to subdue him, but the man did not respond and kept struggling with them. Then an officer trained to use a Taser shocked him, but the man still continued fighting.

Finally officers were able to handcuff him, at which time the man became unresponsive. He was pronounced dead in an ambulance.

Posted by libra012 at 2:06 PM | Permalink

Sen. Barack Obama beat Hillary Clinton in the Guam Democratic Party Caucus by seven votes on Saturday, reported the BBC.

Record amounts of voters showed up to polls, Reuters said. Obama had 2,264 votes, beating Sen. Hilary Clinton who had 2,257 votes. In the last Democratic primary on the Pacific Island, only 1,500 total people participated.

Guam has 8 Democratic delegates with half a vote each, whom Obama and Clinton split.

Neither candidate visited the island, a place more than 20 hours from Washington by plane, but both campaigned by calling into radio stations.

The people of Guam, a territory of the United States since 1898, cannot vote in the presidential election, but the eight delegates and five “superdelegates� will participate in the Democratic Convention.

Posted by libra012 at 2:03 PM | Permalink

The opposition leader in Zimbabwe, Morgan Tsvangirai, beat President Robert Mugabe, but failed to take the majority so the leaders will compete in a run-off vote on a date to be announced, said Zimbabwe’s electoral body on Friday.

According to Lovemore Sekeramayi, the chief elections officer, Tsvangirai won 47.9 percent and Mugabe received 43.2 percent—neither taking over 50 percent to gain the majority.

Tsvangirai’s party, the Movement for Democratic Change, has accused Mugabe of cheating, “scandalous daylight robbery� and violent intimidation, Reuters said.

Tsvangirai has suggested he would only participate in a run-off vote if it was monitored by United Nations-led foreign observers. The original election was observed by Zimbabwe’s neighbors.

Posted by libra012 at 3:16 PM | Permalink