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Chinese Court Sentences 2 to Death Over Tainted Milk Scandal


CHINA - TAINTED MILK: A Chinese court has sentenced two people to death and two others to life in prison for their roles in the production and sale of tainted milk that killed six infants. Thursday's sentences are the first to be handed down in China in connection with the scandal, which sickened almost 300-thousand children last year. One of the two men sentenced to death by a court in northern Hebei province's Shijiazhuang city is Zhang Yujun. Zhang was found guilty of producing a powder containing an industrial chemical that was added to the milk.

US GUANTANAMO: Aides to President Barack Obama say he will sign an executive order today to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba within one year. The order calls for the transfer or release of the 250 terror suspects held at the facility. It calls for a review of all the detainees to determine how to prosecute those that may have committed crimes. Mr. Obama is also expected to issue another order designed to end the use of harsh interrogation techniques by U.S. agents.

US POLITICS - KENNEDY: New York media are reporting that Caroline Kennedy, daughter of slain U.S. president John F. Kennedy, is withdrawing her name from consideration for the New York Senate seat left vacant by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. New York Governor David Paterson will appoint Clinton's successor. He is expected to announce his decision Saturday. It is not clear what spurred Kennedy's decision to withdraw, after declaring her interest in the seat late last year. As a child, Caroline Kennedy lived in the White House from 1961 until her father's assassination in 1963.

ASIA - ECONOMY: Asia's major economies reported more setbacks today as a result of weakening global demand for their exports. China says its economy slowed sharply in the last quarter of 2008, growing by just six-point-eight percent from a year earlier. In the previous quarter, the Chinese economy grew nine percent. China also says its economic growth for all of 2008 slowed to nine percent, ending a five-year streak of double-digit gains. South Korea says its economy shrank five-point-six percent in the last quarter of 2008 compared to the previous quarter.

CHINA - HEALTH REFORM: China's State Council says the country will spend more than 120-billion dollars over the next three years to improve the health care system. The State Council said the money will be spent on improving the basic medical insurance system and reforming public hospitals. Chinese public hospitals are often criticized for their high fees, lack of access and poor doctor services, and there is a growing public anger about the state of the health care system. The council said that, between now and 2011, the government wants most of the population to be covered by basic health insurance.

ISRAEL - PALESTINIANS: U.S. President Barack Obama pledged to pursue Middle East peace in phone calls to Israeli and Palestinian leaders Wednesday, shortly after Israel completed its troop withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Palestinian officials say Mr. Obama told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that he hoped to work as partners in achieving peace. Mr. Abbas' Palestinian Authority was ousted from Gaza by Hamas in 2007. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office said the Israeli leader told President Obama he hoped efforts by Israel, Egypt, the United States, and Europe to prevent weapons smuggling into Gaza would succeed.

PAKISTAN - UK - AL-QAIDA: Pakistani officials say security forces are questioning a suspected al-Qaida militant arrested for his alleged involvement in the London terrorist attacks of July 2005. The officials, who asked not to be named, told Western news agencies that Zabi ul-Taifi was arrested Wednesday along with six fellow militants in a raid outside the northwestern city of Peshawar. They said Taifi is a Saudi national wanted in connection to the July 7th, 2005, terrorist attacks on London's mass transit system. The four coordinated bombings killed 52 commuters.

SRI LANKA: The Sri Lankan military says it has captured what appears to have been the Tamil Tiger rebels' main operations center in the north. A military official said today that soldiers found detailed maps of the military's deployments and rebel positions in an empty building in the Mullaittivu district. He also said troops found briefing rooms and an underground bunker in the building, but rebels had removed most of their equipment before the army moved in. Tamil Tiger rebels were unavailable for comment.

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