Outside the Fence

By Heather Brady

Regional
Bond was set at $2,500 yesterday for each of the nine high school students, six adults and three 17-year-old juveniles, charged with two counts of malicious wounding by mob of two other teens for the Jan. 11 incident at a field next to the Stonybrooke subdivision off State Route 208. The two teens, ages 18 and 19, were hospitalized after the beating, which was videotaped with a cell phone, and have since been released. The nine suspects were being held without bond until yesterday, when it was issued pending an arraignment on Feb. 6 in juvenile and domestic relations court. The details and motive for the attack remain unclear, even among those involved in the case. (The Free Lance-Star, Jan. 21; www.fredericksburg.com)

National
Barack Hussein Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States yesterday, promising to “begin again the work of remaking America.” President Obama, the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas, inherited a White House built partly by slaves and a nation in crisis at home and abroad. More than a million people bore witness as he recited the oath of office, with his hand on the same Bible that Abraham Lincoln used at his inauguration 148 years ago. But Mr. Obama sobered the celebration with the grim assessment of the state of a nation rocked by home foreclosures, lost jobs, shuttered businesses, failing schools and the threat of climate change. “Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real,” Mr. Obama said in his address. “They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America, they will be met.” (The Washington Post, Jan. 21; www.washingtonpost.com)
Global
On Tuesday, Israel slowed its withdrawal of forces from Gaza as the two-day cease-fire with Hamas suffered its first violations. Both sides declared unilateral cease-fires on Sunday, after a three-week Israeli assault aimed at stopping years of rocket fire. Hamas said Israel had seven days to leave, but Israel said it would leave on its own schedule, and only if Hamas stopped firing. However, Israeli troops twice came under fire on Tuesday, and eight mortars were shot at Israel, all of which fell short. Israel responded with air strikes on launching sites. Israel would not comment on the pace of withdrawal, but Israel Radio’s military affairs correspondent reported that some soldiers held positions in northern Gaza to make sure Hamas did not retake rocket-launching sites. The Arab leaders in the area remain divided on how to respond to Israel’s offensive in Gaza. (The Washington Post, Jan. 21; www.washingtonpost.com)