Khmer Rouge Trials To Start

The Khmer Rouge Trials in Cambodia are ready to start. A panel of judges has approved the ground rules. After a delay of more than six months, the deal was reached in a week long meeting. The delay was caused by disagreements between local and UN-appointed legal officials. Trials will start in 2008, but the tribunal is expected to last for three years before the trials. No one has ever faced charges for as many as two million who were thought to have died during the four years of Khmer Rouge rule in the late 1970's.

NASA pays $26+ million to Columbia Family Members

It was announced that NASA paid $26.6 million to family members of the astronauts that died in the space shuttle Columbia in 2003. This was an out-of-court settlement with the families. They obtained the money through a congressional appropriationin 2004 in order to pay this award. The families do not wish to discuss it further. This is a private matter, after all, a very sad happening. They didn't announce how much money each family received but a husband of astronaut Laurel Clark thought the figures were on the "low side" of what they were seeking. No amount of money can bring back their loved ones.