Free Republic

Bond, Date Set for Civil Rights Trial SHELIA BYRD Associated Press PHILADELPHIA, Miss. - A judge set a $250,000 bond Wednesday for the reputed former Klansman charged with the 1964 murders of three civil rights workers. Circuit Judge Marcus Gordon set a March 28 trial date for Edgar Ray Killen after meeting with attorneys in his chambers. There was no immediate word on whether Killen would be able to post the bond. Killen, a 79-year-old part-time preacher from the tiny Union community, was arrested last week. He is the first person face a state murder charge in the killings that...

QUEEN OF THE SEA: Sri Lanka officials say 1,000 tickets were sold for an excursion Sunday from the capital, Colombo, to beach resorts on the train known as "Samudradevi," or "Queen of the Sea." TRAGEDY STRIKES: The train was swept off the track by Sunday's tsunami. AFTERMATH: More than 800 people were killed; no relatives claimed 204 of the bodies, so they were buried in a mass grave along the railway line. "This was the only thing we could do," said Venerable Baddegama Samitha, a Buddhist monk and former parliamentarian. "The bodies were rotting. We gave them a decent burial."

<p>AMBALANGODA, SRI LANKA -- The twisted limbs of the frail girl in a blue dress were caught in a garden fence by the sea. She may have been dead already, but no one stopped to check. There was too much tragedy going on all around, as the water kept coming.</p>