The World in Brief (1/31/06)

Despite new judge, chaos erupts again at Saddam’s trial

Nancy A. Youssef, Knight… Despite new judge, chaos erupts again at Saddam’s trial

Nancy A. Youssef, Knight Ridder Newspapers

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Hopes that a new judge in the Saddam Hussein trial would lead to fewer outbursts, shouting matches and theatrics vanished in the opening minutes of Sunday’s session when the entire defense team and the four most prominent defendants, including Saddam, walked out.

The session proceeded without them, but many here worry that the case, which was supposed to show Iraqis how a democratic justice system works, may instead be eroding the public’s confidence in the tribunal.

Saddam, a Sunni Muslim, and his seven co-defendants are on trial for the murder of nearly 150 people after the 1982 assassination attempt in the largely Shiite-Muslim city of Dujail. They face several charges, including crimes against humanity. If convicted, they could be sentenced to death.

Sunday’s was the first session under Judge Raouf Rasheed Abdel-Rahman, the replacement for mild-mannered Rizgar Mohammed Amin, who resigned after criticism that he had let the defendants dominate the proceedings.

Abdel-Rahman tried to make it clear that a new regime would rule in the court, warning as he opened the proceedings that the defendants would not be allowed to make political statements. The court, he said, would only consider legal arguments.

One of the defense lawyers immediately rose and began addressing the judge, ignoring Abdel-Rahman’s repeated requests that he sit down. Then, Saddam’s half brother and co-defendant, Barzan Ibrahim, shouted an insult. Abdel-Rahman, visibly angry, ordered him removed. Four guards surrounded Ibrahim, who kicked and screamed as he was dragged out.

That drew Saddam’s ire, and both he and defense lawyers began shouting. “Long live Iraq! Long live Iraq!” the former dictator said at one point.

Innovative policy gives maternity leave to grad students

Lisa M. Krieger, Knight Ridder Newspapers

Stanford University on Thursday promised its female graduate students 12 weeks of paid maternity leave, a bold step aimed at attracting and retaining intellectual talent of women.

The policy – believed to be the second of its kind among major U.S. universities – also guarantees that new mothers can maintain full-time student status and eases their return to classwork, research and teaching.

“It is vital to the nation that we retain those women who seek graduate degrees,” said Arthur Bienenstock, Stanford’s vice provost and dean of research and graduate policy, who announced the policy at a meeting of the Faculty Senate, the University’s legislative body. “Otherwise, we will lose our lead in innovation and ultimately our standard of living, as well as national security.”

Universities are working hard to recruit more women into rigorous fields, particularly engineering and computer sciences; still, many more women than men drop out all the way along the academic track, according to a 2002 report by the National Council for Research on Women.

Graduate school requires years of study, teaching and research – and coincides with women’s peak childbearing years.

ABC News anchor, cameraman injured by roadside bomb

Nancy A. Youssef, Huda Ahmed and Tony Pugh, Knight Ridder Newspapers

BAGHDAD, Iraq – A roadside bomb seriously wounded ABC News anchor Bob Woodruff and ABC News cameraman Doug Vogt Sunday as they were riding with Iraqi troops near the town of Taji, 25 miles north of Baghdad.

Woodruff and Vogt were standing with their heads outside the hatch of a Russian-made Iraqi military personnel carrier, apparently filming, when the explosion rocked the vehicle. Both men received shrapnel wounds to the head. An Iraqi army officer who was helping them lost four fingers. The vehicle’s driver was uninjured.

Bashar Mahmoud Ayoub, commander of the 9th Division of the Iraqi Army based in Taji, said Woodruff and Vogt had been in a Humvee but asked to move to the Iraqi vehicle, which was the lead vehicle in a joint U.S.-Iraqi convoy. Ayoub said roadside bombs, known in military parlance as improvised explosive devices or IEDs, are common in the area.

“We suffer on this road every time we pass it. It is filled with IEDs. They target my men daily,” he said. “There are so many, you cannot imagine it.”

Woodruff, who was named co-anchor of ABC’s nightly news broadcast in December, is the best-known American journalist wounded or killed in Iraq since fighting began there in March 2003. Nearly 9 million Americans watch ABC’s “World News Tonight” nightly.

IEDs are the primary killers of U.S. soldiers in Iraq. Roadside bombs have killed 23 U.S. troops so far in January, according to Iraq Casualty Count. There are no official statistics for the number of Iraqi soldiers who have died in similar blasts.

ABC officials in New York said that both Woodruff, 44, and Vogt, 46, were wearing body armor and helmets, but had suffered shrapnel wounds to the head. Both men were taken by helicopter to a U.S. military hospital in Balad, Iraq. Following surgery, both were listed in serious but stable condition, said ABC News President David Westin.

Bernanke faces immediate tests that could determine economy’s fate

Kevin G. Hall, Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON – Today, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan hands over the reins for steering the world’s largest economy to his successor, Ben S. Bernanke.

Greenspan’s final official act is expected to be presiding over a 14th consecutive quarter-point interest rate hike, bringing to 4.5 percent the benchmark federal-funds rate that banks charge each other for overnight loans, which directly affects consumer loans.

Bernanke’s first big test will be determining when and how to break this streak of rate increases, which began in June 2004.

It’s no small question, and the answer will have tremendous impact on all Americans.

Raise rates too high and housing prices could slump, credit card fees could surge and the cost of borrowing for college or a new car could become punishing.

Ease credit too soon and risk being seen by global financial markets as soft on inflation. Investors in stocks and bonds, traders in currencies and gold, and foreign governments that buy U.S. government debt could all lose confidence in Bernanke’s monetary management. That could spark a crisis that spreads across the globe.

So what to do? Keep raising rates? Pause? Begin cutting?

“I think there’s some pressure for the Fed to keep going over the near term,” said William Dudley, chief U.S. economist for Goldman Sachs ‘ Co. in New York.

Many on Wall Street believe that Bernanke’s Fed will continue raising rates. Futures markets, which project investor expectations, suggest a nearly 60 percent chance that Bernanke will keep tightening rates in March.