The James Logan Courier

By Mike Dorning
Chicago Tribune (MCT)

BALTIMORE — President-elect Barack Obama tied the current challenges of economic crisis and war to the great struggles of the nation's past as he traveled Saturday to Washington for the inauguration by retracing the final stages of the train trip Abraham Lincoln made to assume the presidency on the eve of the Civil War.

The daylong, 137-mile train ride, beginning in Philadelphia and incorporating rallies in Wilmington, Del., and Baltimore as well as "slow rolls" through communities on the way, permitted the incoming president to invoke the broad perspective of history while expanding the pageantry of the inauguration to a large swathe of the densely populated Northeast.

By Joel Greenberg
Chicago Tribune (MCT)

JERUSALEM — Under intense international pressure to halt a three-week-old offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip that has taken a high toll of civilian lives, Israel declared Saturday that it would unilaterally cease fire but keep its forces in the territory for now.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned that Israel would respond forcefully if Hamas continued its rocket attacks on Israel, and it remained unclear whether the militant Islamic group would also hold its fire.