A.M. Links: Journalist Killed Every Five Days, Russia Threatens NATO, John Yoo Torture Suit Tossed
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World Press Freedom Day was marked by police finding the tortured bodies of four journalists in Mexico and the killing of a radio reporter in Mogadishu as Reporters Without Borders warns journalists are being killed at an "astonishing pace."
- The Daily Beast details the State Department's handling of Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng. "Chen told CNN that once he reached the hospital the U.S. officials disappeared. Remember: he's blind. The U.S. Embassy staff left an injured blind man who is an enemy of the state in the custody of his totalitarian oppressors," Kirsten Powers writes.
- Natochannel.tv (they have these things because, why not?) proclaimed Chicago the capital of Illinois and the childhood home of President Barack Obama.
- Here's something for NATO to talk about at their summit there later this month, since the Cubs will probably be out of contention by then: Russia warns of a pre-emptive strike against any NATO deployment of missile defense systems in Eastern Europe. "A decision to use destructive force pre-emptively will be taken if the situation worsens," Chief of General Staff Nikolai Makarov said at a conference attended by U.S. and NATO officials this week.
- A federal appeals court ruled former Bush advisor John Yoo could not be sued for recommending the torture of U.S. citizen Jose Padilla. "We cannot say that any reasonable official in 2001-03 would have known that the specific interrogation techniques allegedly employed against Padilla, however appalling, necessarily amounted to torture," Judge Raymond Fisher wrote in a unanimous ruling.
- A grand jury found no reasonable cause to indict any police officers in the killing of 68-year-old former Marine Kenneth Chamberlain in his own apartment.
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