President-elect Barack Obama told USA Today, in an interview published Thursday, he plans to appoint a team to address the crisis in Gaza immediately after his inauguration.

CONFIRMATION HEARINGS: Attorney General-designate Eric Holder denounced the use of torture (CSMonitor) in his Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday.

“I will use every available tactic to defeat our adversaries, and I will do so within the letter and spirit of the Constitution,” he told the Senate Judiciary Committee. Janet Napolitano, nominated to be secretary of the Homeland Security Department, told a committee the nation’s transit system
needed to be made more secure (Philadelphia Inquirer).

Meanwhile, Susan Rice, nominated to be ambassador to the UN, said hoped to strengthen the “indispensable if imperfect” institution.