Baghdad
Iraqi women killed by security guards
Guards in a security convoy opened fire on a car at an intersection in central Baghdad yesterday, killing two Christian women before speeding away, police said. The Iraqi government said a Dubai-based private security company was behind the shootings.
Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said the Unity Resources Group had apologized after guards in four SUVs fired on a car carrying the two women, killing them instantly.
Khalaf said the government and the company have both begun investigations and that initial findings showed the guards fired 19 bullets.
“They apologized and said they are ready to meet all the legal commitments,” he said.
Unity Resources Group, which has operated in Iraq since 2004, employs security professionals from the U.S., Britain, Australia and New Zealand.
A company spokesman said there was a shooting involving one of its security teams and it was working with Iraqi authorities to determine the circumstances.
Washington
Court silences man who claims he was abducted by CIA
A German man who says he was abducted and tortured by the CIA as part of the anti-terrorism rendition program lost his final chance yesterday to persuade U.S. courts to hear his claims.
The Supreme Court rejected without comment an appeal from Khaled el-Masri, effectively endorsing Bush administration arguments that state secrets would be revealed if courts allowed the case to proceed.
El-Masri, 44, a German citizen of Lebanese descent, says he was mistakenly identified as an associate of the Sept. 11 hijackers and was detained while attempting to enter Macedonia on New Year’s Eve 2003.
He claims that CIA agents stripped, beat, shackled, diapered, drugged and chained him to the floor of a plane for a flight to Afghanistan.
New York
Dow Jones, S&P 500 reach record highs
An Wall Street advanced sharply yesterday as investors interpreted minutes from the Federal Reserve’s last meeting as indicating the central bank is ready to keep cutting interest rates to boost the economy. The Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor’s 500 index hit records.
According to preliminary calculations, the Dow rose 120.80, or 0.86 percent, to 14,164.53, eclipsing the previous record close of 14,087.55 reached Oct. 1. The Dow had a new trading high as well, rising to 14,166.97.
Crandon, Wis.
After rampage, killer shot himself three times
An off-duty sheriff’s deputy who killed six people apparently shot himself three times, with the last shot hitting him in the right side of the head, the state attorney general said Tuesday.
Tyler Peterson, 20, shot himself twice under the chin before firing the third and fatal shot, Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said. Peterson also was shot once in the left biceps from a distance.
The six people who died early Sunday were either students or recent graduates of Crandon High School, where Peterson also had graduated.
– Compiled from
Daily wire reports