U.S. begins assessing Gaza needs
UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 19 (UPI) -- The United Nations estimates the overall bill to provide aid to Palestinians living in Gaza could top $1 billion, senior U.N. officials said Monday.
The non-government organization began assessing the damage and relief needs on the first full day of a cease-fire reached between Israel and Hamas militants ending the three-week Israeli military operation, the United Nations said in a news release issued from New York.
"The pervasive sense here among the population is one of overwhelming grief, so many families have been destroyed in so many ways," John Ging, Gaza director of operations of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, said via a video link news conference.
John Holmes, the U.N. under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, said in New York he intended to visit Gaza in the next few days.
He said all the main border crossings were open Monday, and infrastructure repairs allowed 100,000 more people to receive water, Another 400,000 were without water and sewage was still flooding the streets in some areas.
Holmes said an appeal for funds would begin within 10 days.
Iran says it cracked U.S. spy ring
TEHRAN, Jan. 19 (UPI) -- Iranian intelligence officials said Monday its forces have dismantled a U.S.-backed spy network aimed at toppling the country's Islamic regime.
The general director of the counterespionage section of Iran's Intelligence Ministry told reporters the ministry has defused a "soft overthrow project" by the United States, Fars News Agency reported.
Four Iranians linked to the alleged effort have been arrested, the news service said.
The Iranian officials said the CIA had spent about $32 million on the plot.
"The U.S., using its agents in United Arab Emirate, Baku, Turkey, Kuwait and other countries, seeks to implement a velvet revolution and tries to infiltrate the Iranian elites and experts and other social layers," he said.
The official said designers, scientists, physicians, professors, athletes, artists and other social groups were targets of the plot.
"They invited this people to a one month trip to the U.S. and asked some of them for information about biological issues, civil defense and infrastructure of Iran," he said.
Bush pardons border agents
WASHINGTON, Jan. 19 (UPI) -- George Bush, on his last full day as U.S. president, Monday commuted sentences of two Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting a drug-smuggling suspect.
Bush also faced pressure to issue blanket pardons to interrogators accused of torturing terror suspects, Politico reported Monday.
The commutation means the convictions of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean remain, but they will be released this year instead of serving their 11-year and 12-year sentences, respectively, the U.S. Justice Department said in a news release.
The agents were convicted of wounding Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila in the buttocks in February 2005 as he allegedly ran from a truck containing 743 pounds of marijuana near Fabens, Texas. Prosecutors argued that the agents shot an unarmed and fleeing suspect and then failed to report they fired their weapons.
The terms of the commutation for both direct that the sentences expire March 20, leave intact the three-year term of supervised release and a fine of $2,000 each.
While Bush hasn't shown an inclination of issuing blanket pardons, he could move quickly to immunize CIA and military interrogators and their bosses from criminal prosecution over treatment of prisoners, Politico said. Sources told the Washington publication Bush is facing calls for pardons from conservative allies.
Also, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski's spokesman said the Alaska Republican also asked the White House to pardon former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens the Anchorage Daily News reported.
Stevens, a Republican, was convicted Oct. 27 of seven felony charges of failing to disclose gifts and services he received from 2000 to 2006. In November, Alaska voters kicked him out of office after 40 years in the Senate. Stevens is seeking a new trial, alleging prosecutorial misconduct, juror misconduct and other issues.
Poll: Blacks say King's dream realized
WASHINGTON, Jan. 19 (UPI) -- More than two-thirds of African-Americans believe Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream of race relations has been fulfilled, results of a CNN poll indicated.
The CNN-Opinion Research Corp. poll found 69 percent of blacks said King's vision fulfilled since his 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech, just about doubling the 34 percent who agreed with that assessment in a similar poll taken last March. The results were released Monday -- Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
The number of whites saying King's dream has been realized rose from 35 percent in March to 46 percent.
"Whites don't feel the same way -- a majority of them say that the country has not yet fulfilled King's vision," CNN polling director Keating Holland said.
In November, a majority of black participants said Obama's victory signaled a new era in race relations, CNN said. Monday's poll suggests that a majority today no longer feels that way, but most blacks predict some improvement on racial issues.
The CNN-Opinion Research Corp. telephone poll conducted Jan. 12-15 surveyed 1,245 adults, including 798 whites and 332 blacks. The survey's margin of error is 3 percentage points for the overall sample and 4.5 percent the segments by race.
