2009-02-28BBC

President Barack Obama has said all American combat forces will leave Iraq by August next year. The withdrawal was one of his campaign promises. Announcing the plan Mr. Obama said that up to fifty thousand US troops of more than 140 thousand current in Iraq would remain there to train and advise the Iraqi security forces. But all American forces he said would pull out by the end of 2011.

The United States will pursue a new strategy to end the war in Iraq through a transition to full Iraqi responsibility. This strategy is grounded in a clear and achievable goal shared by the Iraqi people and the American people: an Iraq that is sovereign, stable, and self-reliant.

An American court has indicted the last terrorism suspect who’d been held without charges at military prison in United States. The man Ali al-Marri was arrested in the United States in 2001, and later designated an enemy combatant by the Bush’s administration.(哪位解釋一下這句啥意思？) // has more.

大體意思就是說： Ali al-Marri是在2001在美國被捕的，而且隨后被布什政府認為是‘敵方戰斗人員’。

Ali al-Marri will now be transferred from a prison in South Carolina where he’s been held for more than five years to Illinois to face trial in a civilian court. He has been charged with conspiracy to provide material support and providing material support to Al-Qaeda. Each count carries a maximum sentence of fifteen years in prison, the decision by the Obama Administration to trial Mr. al-Marri in the US court system marks a significant policy shift from the administration of his predecessor.

The United States says its economy contracted more sharply at the end of last year than initially estimated. The Commerce Department says gross domestic product fell at an annual rate of 6.2 percent during the last three months of 2008, the steepest slide in 25 years. Its initial estimate had been 3.8 percent. The department said a major element in the decline had been businesses and consumers cutting back on spending.