Afghanistan
Taliban holds talks with U.S. about fate of Christian prisoners
Diplomats from the United States, Germany and Australia met with Taliban officials on Tuesday to discuss the imprisonment of two American women and six other foreigners on charges of preaching Christianity. Taliban authorities claim that the eight were caught "red-handed" trying to entice Muslims to Christianity. Sixteen Afghan employees of the group were arrested on similar charges, according to The New York Times. "Today we have started discussions with the ministry of foreign affairs in order to monitor the upcoming procedure and hopefully we might have other talks," said Helmut Landes, consul officer at the German embassy in neighboring Pakistan. The Taliban have said that their reclusive leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, who is based in southern Afghanistan, will make any final decision. The Taliban have not revealed where the Afghan prisoners are being held and have refused requests from International Red Cross officials who want to see them. Under Taliban rule, the punishment for a Muslim who converts to Christianity is death. A foreigner convicted of preaching Christianity can be jailed for three to 10 days and expelled.
National
Athens, Georgia
Univ. of Georgia affirmative action policy unconstitutional
A federal appeals court panel ruled unanimously on Monday that the University of Georgia's admission policy, which gives a slight preference in bonus points to non-white applicants, was unconstitutional, according to The New York Times. The three judges on the panel said the University failed to prove that having more non-white students on campus would lead to a more diverse student body. "Racial diversity alone is not necessarily the hallmark of a diverse student body," the judges on the panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit wrote, "and race is not necessarily the only, or best, criterion for determining the contribution that an applicant might make to the broad mix of experiences and perspectives" that create diversity. However, this ruling conflicts with last December's ruling by a federal judge upholding the University of Michigan's affirmative action policy for undergraduate admissions. Race can be considered as a factor in encouraging diversity, but it cannot be assumed that every non-white student will automatically contribute more to a diverse campus than white students, the opinion said.
Local
Boston, Massachusetts
Boston looking to install cameras to catch red-light runners
Boston and Cambridge lawmakers are pushing for legislation that would allow the installation of cameras at strategic intersections to snap photographs of red-light-running drivers and ticket them $100 per offense. The devices already are used in 50 cities across the country, according to the Associated Press. However, the bill to do this, which for the first time in four attempts successfully made it out of the State Legislature's Public Safety Committee in May, faces significant opposition. Some motorist organizations and politicians, such as the American Civil Liberties Union, blast the cameras as an invasion of privacy, saying they open drivers to a host of privacy abuses and allow the government to monitor civilian movements. Also opposed to the bill is the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association, which represents about 1,500 officers. They call the move the first step down a slippery slope of replacing intelligent, discerning police officers with indiscriminate machines. Similar cameras have been said to create drops of up to 30 percent of injury-causing accidents in some cities.