SIEM REAP, Cambodia

Hillary Clinton promises funding for rehab center

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited a rescue and rehabilitation center for child prostitutes in northern Cambodia on Sunday, pledging to do more to help end the scourge of sexual slavery.

Before touring the famed 12th century Angkor Wat temple complex, Clinton met with a group of about 50 victims of human trafficking at the U.S.-funded facility in Siem Reap and promised them continued American support.

“I am so proud of you,” she told the girls and young women, most of whom are between 17 and 23. They receive an education and vocational training that includes weaving and sewing lessons.

Clinton listened as one young woman, Vann Sina, recounted her story of being abducted at 13 and forced to have sex with 20 to 30 men a day for more than two years before being rescued from a brothel.

The Siem Reap center received a $336,0000 grant from the State Department last year to fund its operating costs and Clinton said she would make sure money continued to flow.

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE

Former al-Qaida fighter gets eight more years in custody

A former teenage al-Qaida fighter was sentenced Sunday to eight more years in custody under the terms of a plea agreement unsealed after a military sentencing jury said he should serve 40 years for war crimes.

Omar Khadr looked straight ahead as a military judge imposed the eight-year sentence, ending a legal odyssey that began when the Canadian son of a major al-Qaida figure was captured at age 15 with severe wounds in Afghanistan in 2002.

Khadr pleaded guilty Oct. 25 to five war crimes including murder for throwing a grenade that mortally wounded an American special forces medic, Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer. Prosecutors said it was no routine battlefield killing because the Canadian was not a legitimate soldier, but an al-Qaida fighter.

SAO PAULO, Brazil

President Lula’s confidant elected in runoff voting

Dilma Rousseff, a former guerrilla turned economist and key confidant to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, was elected Sunday to succeed him in a runoff vote against Jose Serra, former governor of Sao Paulo and minister to Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Lula’s predecessor.

Rousseff’s victory was widely seen as an endorsement of Lula’s policies, enacted over eight years in office, and a desire to continue them.

 

Copy the Story Link