Rice deputy sent to Darfur
Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick was dispatched to Africa on Monday to push for a peace agreement to end political and ethnic conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan.
Zoellick’s trip was announced after the first day of a two-day extended deadline for a settlement ended without a pact. Sudan’s government has said it will accept the accord, but rebel groups are pressing additional demands.
“As long as the parties are talking, there’s always a chance for an agreement,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said. But she declined to predict the outcome.
At a news conference, Rice said President Bush felt “very strongly and very passionately” about both the need for an agreement and getting a robust and largely African security force in to protect the people of Darfur.
Playmate’s case returns to court
The Supreme Court revived former Playboy Playmate Anna Nicole Smith’s pursuit of her late husband’s oil fortune, ruling Monday that the one-time stripper deserves another day in court.
Smith won the votes of all nine justices in her feud over the estate of J. Howard Marshall II, the colorful Texas tycoon who died in 1995 at age 90.
The case has had twists and turns. Smith won a $474 million judgment, which was cut to about $89 million and eventually reduced to zero.
Although Monday’s ruling reinstates her claim, there is no guarantee she will collect any money.
Justices said only that federal courts in California could deal with her case despite a Texas state court ruling that Marshall’s youngest son was the sole heir to the estate.
ROCKVILLE, Md.
Jury picking starts in next sniper trial
Convicted sniper John Allen Muhammad grew increasingly frustrated as he and prosecutors questioned potential jurors Monday for his second trial in the Washington-area shootings that terrorized two states in the fall of 2002.
It was hard to find anyone who didn’t already believe he was responsible for the crimes, and Muhammad, acting as his own attorney, objected to most of them.
About 25 prospective jurors out of a pool of 300 came in front of Montgomery Circuit Court Judge James Ryan on Monday, and almost all said they had formed an opinion about the case.
At the end of Monday, 21 people were chosen to go to final jury selection Thursday. The rest of the 300 people in the pool were to be interviewed today and Wednesday.
Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, 21, both face six murder charges in Maryland for the sniper killings. Malvo’s trial is scheduled for the fall.
In all, 10 people were killed and three wounded in the three-week spree. Muhammad was sentenced to death for the Virginia killing, and Malvo faces life in prison.