NEWS
By Raheem Salman and Tina Susman | November 28, 2008
BAGHDAD - Iraq's parliament approved a three-year timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops yesterday, a pact that supporters call a path to sovereignty and opponents say could be used to keep Americans on Iraqi soil indefinitely. The pact is the first step taken by Iraqi legislators toward ending the U.S. presence in their country since the American-led invasion in March 2003. It is expected to be ratified by Iraq's three-member presidency council. The vote, held above the din of detractors shouting, "No!"
NEWS
By FROM SUN NEWS SERVICES | November 21, 2008
U.N. to send 3,100 more troops to Congo GOMA, Congo: The U.N. Security Council unanimously agreed yesterday to send 3,100 more peacekeeping troops to Congo, while rebels said they remained committed to a pullback from the front lines despite an army attack. British Ambassador John Sawers said the 15-nation council wants to help contributing nations "as best we can in getting troops on the ground rapidly" once they decide to help out. "Exactly how many weeks it will be, it's not clear. But this is a matter of urgency," Sawers said.
NEWS
By From Sun staff and news services | November 19, 2008
NAACP chairman Bond won't seek new term BALTIMORE: Veteran civil rights activist Julian Bond will not seek another term as chairman of the NAACP's national board, saying the time is right to "let a new generation of leaders" take over the century-old organization. Bond, 68, has served as chairman since 1998. He announced yesterday that his current one-year chairman's term, which expires in February, will be his last, although he plans to remain on the board. "This is a time for renewal.
NEWS
By FROM SUN NEWS SERVICES | November 7, 2008
U.S. declares Iraq security pact final BAGHDAD: The U.S. responded yesterday to Iraqi proposals for changes in the draft security pact that would keep American troops here for three more years, saying it now considers the text final and it is up to Iraq's government to push the process to approval. U.S. and Iraqi officials would not release details of Washington's response, which was contained in a letter from President Bush to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. But a senior Iraqi official familiar with the negotiations said Washington accepted some proposals and rejected others, presumably an Iraqi demand for expanded legal authority over American troops and Defense Department contractors.
NEWS
By New York Times News Service | October 19, 2008
BAGHDAD - Followers of the anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr took to the streets yesterday in a demonstration against the proposed security agreement between the U.S. and Iraqi governments, now being reviewed by Iraqi political leaders. In a message to the assembled marchers, one of al-Sadr's senior clerics read a statement from him warning that "whoever tells you that this pact gives us sovereignty is lying," according to news services. A leading Sadrist cleric at the rally, Hazim al-Arraji, said: "This is the voice of the Iraqi people from all over Iraq: We need the invaders to leave our country; no one wants them to stay.
NEWS
By GREGORY KANE | December 20, 2006
Marc Clarke, host of 92Q's Big Phat Morning Show, was having considerably less than a big phat morning. Clarke stood in the foyer of one of the Charles Theatre's several movie houses, wondering if he'd been out of line and gone too far with some comments he had made only moments before. The movie house was packed with scores of boys -- nearly all of them black -- who had been brought to a screening of The Pact, a documentary about three doctors from Newark, N. J. That's just part of the story.
NEWS
By Justin Fenton | October 28, 2006
ELKTON -- Ed Hoffman says he stood over the bed of his sleeping wife for a half-hour, a loaded shotgun in his hands, watching in the pre-dawn darkness as she tossed and turned in her nightgown. When she nestled into just the right position, he put the barrel against her head and pulled the trigger, killing her instantly. Then it was his turn to complete what he says was a murder-suicide pact between him and his wife of 44 years. But first he had to take care of some details. He went to his computer and composed and sent an e-mail to 70 friends and relatives, a matter-of-fact recounting of their loving marriage and desire to take charge of their own deaths.
NEWS
October 7, 2006
Awards Andre J. Downey, president/chief executive of EEC Inc.; Stella M. Miller, president of Stella May Contracting Inc.; and Deborah L. Stroman, CEO of Soulful Golf Inc., have been named among Maryland's Top 100 Minority Businesses for 2006 by the Governor's Office of Minority Affairs and The Daily Record. Baltimore Junior Association of Commerce named David W. Stambaugh III, general manager of the Baltimore Maritime Exchange Inc., as the 33rd recipient of its Port Leader of the Year award.
NEWS
By PETER WALLSTEN | August 15, 2006
WASHINGTON -- For weeks, the Bush administration resisted international pressure for a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah, insisting that only disarming the terrorist organization would cure a "root cause" of hostility and prevent yet another failed peace agreement. But the truce that took effect yesterday - coming without the destruction of Hezbollah's military threat and an unclear path to its disarmament - marks a far less dramatic conclusion than many in the Bush administration had hoped for when the fighting began last month.
NEWS
By BRENT JONES | June 14, 2006
A former Western Maryland principal denied at her federal trial yesterday that she falsifed invoices and defended herself against charges that she took more than $18,000 intended for classroom books and travel reimbursements. Diane L. McFarland testified for more than three hours in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, choking up as she relayed details about her personal finances. McFarland, 52, who was making $72,000 a year as principal of Cash Valley Elementary School in LaVale, said she had two credit cards and a mortgage to pay off in 2004, and that she always "paid ahead on the mortgage."