USA
Government attorneys said Monday that US courts have no authority to stop the military from transferring an American citizen to an Iraqi court to face charges that he supported terrorists and insurgents. Shawqi Omar, a citizen of both Jordan and the United States, has been held since 2004 in US-run prisons in Iraq. A US judge blocked the transfers of Omar to an Iraqi court in February, but during Monday's appeal before the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit the government said American courts have no jurisdiction because Omar is being held by a multinational force, not the US military.
A classified report by the Marine Corps' chief of intelligence in Iraq concludes that prospects are dim for securing the country's western Anbar Province, a stronghold for Sunni insurgents fighting US forces and the Shiite-led government, The Washington Post reported Monday. According to an Army officer who has read the classified report, there are no functioning Iraqi government institutions in Anbar, leaving a vacuum that has been filled by Al Qaeda in Iraq.
Only 10.8 percent of Americans have no ties to a congregation, denomination, or faith group, and 60 percent of those without links to organized religion still believe in God or a higher power, according to a Baylor University survey on faith in America released Monday. Previous surveys suggested 14 percent were unaffiliated, overlooking about 10 million Americans.
Shuttle Atlantis docked with the International Space Station Monday, 218 miles above Earth, and prepared to install a 35,000-lb. truss that will become part of the outpost's structural backbone.
The largest earthquake to strike the eastern Gulf of Mexico in the past 30 years sent shock waves from Louisiana to southwest Florida Sunday morning. The US Geological Survey received more than 2,800 reports from people who felt the magnitude 6.0 earthquake, centered about 260 miles southwest of Tampa.
Tennis star Roger Federer beat Andy Roddick in the US Open men's championship match Sunday, winning his third Grand Slam title of the year.
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston, announced Monday the sale of a home once occupied by its founder, Mary Baker Eddy, to the Longyear Foundation of Brookline, Mass, for $700,000. Mrs. Eddy lived in the house – at 12 Broad Street, in Lynn – from 1875 to 1882.
