USA

Five Democratic presidential candidates officially withdrew Tuesday from Michigan's Jan. 15 primary in order to honor national party rules. Barack Obama, John Edwards, Bill Richardson, Joseph Biden, and Dennis Kucinich followed through on pledges to skip the primary because it was moved ahead of Feb. 5 in violation of Democratic National Committee efforts to preserve Iowa and New Hampshire as primary pacesetters. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Christopher Dodd won't campaign in the state but will keep their names on the ballot.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a motion Tuesday in federal court to block immigration authorities from forcibly drugging deportees before they're put on commercial flights back to their homelands. An immigration spokesperson said medical sedation is rarely used, and only as a last resort.

At a national conference of black ministers in New York, the group vowed Tuesday to step up efforts to fight against HIV/AIDs, a disease diagnosed far more frequently among blacks than whites. The ministers will press for federal legislation to address the problem.

Ronald Taylor was released Tuesday 12 years into a 60-year prison sentence after a new DNA test, paid for by the Innocence Project, linked the crime to another inmate. Taylor (above r.) is the third prisoner let go because of problems with Houston police forensics.

Sharply increasing efforts to grow corn and other crops to produce ethanol for fuel could threaten the nation's water supply, according to a report released Wednesday by the National Research Council.

General Motors expects to have about 20 models equipped by 2009 with technology capable of slowly halting a stolen car, the Associated Press reports. The steering and brakes will still work. The goal is to prevent risky police chases.