Shoe thrower gets reduced sentence

Iraq's highest court on Tuesday reduced the prison sentence of Muntadhar al-Zeidi, the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush, from three years to one, a court spokesman said.

The spokesman for the Federal Appeals Court said the decision was made because the journalist had no criminal history.

Al-Zeidi has been in custody since he threw the shoes at Bush during a joint news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in December 2008. Defense attorney Diaa al-Saadi said Al-Zeidi could be free within five months with credit for good behavior.

U.S. intelligence about the makeup and recruiting power of the Taliban movement in Afghanistan is so shallow that it impedes the U.S. war effort, President Obama's special envoy to the region said.

"I am deeply, deeply dissatisfied with the degree of knowledge that the United States government and our friends and allies have on this subject," veteran diplomat Richard Holbrooke told reporters in Islamabad.

Holbrooke blamed the shortcoming partly on the intense U.S. intelligence focus on Iraq over the past six years.

Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a former deputy to Saddam Hussein who is the last high-ranking fugitive from U.S. forces, called for Iraqis to topple their government and return the Baath Party to power in an audiotape broadcast by Al-Jazeera.

Salesman Asad Raad rushed out of his motorcycle shop after the explosion shook the Kazimiyah area and plucked the infant from the back seat, where he lay next to his dead mother. Rescuers pulled a badly burned man, presumed to be the baby's father, from the car and rushed him to a hospital.

"The baby suffered light burns in the face," Raad said. "I took the baby to my house and called the police. They told me to keep him for the time being."