DiPascali, Madoff’s Right-Hand Man, Pleads Guilty

Frank DiPascali, the former financial chief for disgraced billionaire financier Bernie Madoff, told a federal court judge on Tuesday that he and others knew as far back as the early 1990s that no sales were taking place in Madoff’s investment scam. He made the comments while pleading guilty to criminal charges as part of a government cooperation agreement for his role in Madoff’s $65 billion Ponzi scheme.

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Palau considering taking Uighur detainees, officials say

The Obama administration is in talks with the South Pacific island nation of Palau to relocate some or all of 17 Uighurs — native Chinese Muslims — held at Guantanamo Bay, senior administration officials told CNN Tuesday. Last week, Daniel Fried, the Obama administration’s special envoy to oversee the closure of Guantanamo, visited Palau and Australia as part of a tour of the Pacific region

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Obama administration keeps Bush view on Afghanistan detainees

The Obama administration told a federal court late Friday it will maintain the Bush administration’s position that battlefield detainees held without charges by the United States in Afghanistan are not entitled to constitutional rights to challenge their detention. “Having considered the matter, the government adheres to its previously articulated position,” said a Justice Department document filed in federal court in Washington. In a controversial 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court last year ruled that detainees held at the U.S

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Postcard from Savannah

As America’s first black president settles into the Oval Office, it seems an odd time for Georgia to be up in arms over school integration again. In 1961, when a federal court ordered the University of Georgia to admit two black students, 1,000 white rioters hurled firecrackers, bricks and racial epithets through dorm windows. But 1961 this is not: today a white Republican is leading the charge, and black students and lawmakers are fighting for the status quo

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