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1. President-elect Barack Obama has named retired¹ General Eric Shinseki as his Veterans Affairs secretary. Shinseki served as Army chief of staff in the Bush administration but left after testifying that it might take several hundred thousand US troops to control Iraq after the invasion.

2. The New York Times is reporting that three New York City police officers have been indicted² in an assault case at a subway station. The 24-year-old tattoo³ artist claims two officers held him down while another sodomized him with a baton⁴ back in October.

3. NBC has named David Gregory to become permanent moderator on "Meet the Press". Gregory, the NBC News chief White House correspondent calls it "an incredible honor" to replace Tim Russert.

4. Nearly three million Muslim pilgrims have been performing a ritual of forgiveness on a rocky desert hill outside Mecca in Saudi Arabia. It marks the climax⁵ of the annual hajj and is the most spiritual moment of the pilgrimage.

WORDS IN THE NEWS

1. sodomize: v.

formal or law a sexual act in which a man puts his sex organ into someone's anus, especially that of another man

2. hajj: n.

a journey to Mecca for religious reasons, that all Muslims try to make at least once in their life