December 24, 2005

The Egyptian opposition leader, Ayman Nour, was found guilty of fraud and jailed for five years. (BBC)
The United Kingdom began commemorations for the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami ahead of the official Thai commemorations in Thailand. (BBC)
The Congress of the United States rejected Condoleezza Rice's request to restore $50 million in aid to the African Union that human rights groups say had been cut from the budget in November. The money would have gone to maintain AU peacekeepers in controlling the Darfur conflict, in which about 180,000 people have died. (Herald News Daily) (UN)
A tourism-promoting agency announced that it is purchasing the Maryland land, and the small one-room building thereon, said to have been the original location that inspired the novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin," written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. (Lexington Herald-Leader)