Federal regulators on Thursday adopted sweeping new rules for the credit card industry that will shield consumers from increases in interest rates on existing account balances among other changes.

The rules, which take effect in July 2010, will allow credit card companies to raise interest rates only on new credit cards and future purchases or advances, rather than on current balances.

Source: http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2008/12/18/regulators_adopt_new_credit_card_rules/

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All but one of Boston's public indoor pools will close tomorrow because they lack drain covers required by a new federal law. Swim lessons, water aerobics, public lap times, and school swim teams will have to go on hiatus or find another venue for a few weeks.

Nationwide, public pools, universities, hotels, YMCAs, and spas have been scrambling to satisfy the law, which requires covers on drains to help prevent accidental drownings caused by suction when water is flowing through them.

Source: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/12/18/new_regulation_puts_lid_on_city_pool_use/

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Former senior defence official Theoneste Bagosora has been convicted of instigating Rwanda's 1994 genocide and sentenced to life in prison.

Bagosora and two co-defendants were found by a UN tribunal to have led a committee that plotted the massacre of ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

It is the first time the Rwanda tribunal has convicted anyone of organising the killings.

More than 800,000 people were killed in Rwanda's genocide.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7789039.stm