Somalia faces 'all-out war' as neighbours intervene

[Quote]
"An "all-out war" between Somalia's government and Islamists is brewing due to the presence of thousands of foreign troops, according to the UN. A confidential report obtained by the AP says that Ethiopia, Uganda and Yemen are supporting the government, while Iran, Libya, Saudi Arabia and Gulf states are supporting the Islamic movement."

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UK Paper Says U.S. Created Death Squads That Rule Iraq

[Quote]
"Sectarian war is now regarded as a greater obstacle to any semblance of peace returning than the insurgency. Yet, ironically, the death squads are the result of US policy. At the beginning of last year, the Pentagon was reported to have decided to train Shia and Kurdish fighters to carry out "irregular missions" as part of the "Salvador Option"."

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NYC Real Estate Agent Revealed as Haitian Warlord

[Quote]
"A Haitian warlord who had been living in New York City as a real estate agent was ordered by a U.S. court on Tuesday to pay $19 million to three women who say they were raped and had their breasts slashed by his men. U.S. District judge found that Emmanuel "Toto" Constant was liable for torture, attempted extra-judicial killing and other crimes."

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Test screens at Newark Airport fail to find 'bombs and guns'

[Quote]
"Screeners at Newark International Airport failed 20 of 22 security tests conducted by undercover U.S. agents last week, missing an array of concealed bombs and guns at checkpoints throughout the hub's three terminals. The tests, conducted Oct. 19 by TSA "Red Team" agents, also revealed significicant failures by screeners to follow procedues."

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Don't forget Darfur. People are dying.

[Quote]
""Every day, the 2.5 million people chased from their homes in Darfur face the threat of starvation, disease, and rape, while the few lucky enough to remain in their homes risk displacement, torture and murder." I donate, I blog do everything I can to help, but please, please help."

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Pyongyang threatens war if S.Korea joins sanctions

[Quote]
"SEOUL - North Korea warned South Korea on Wednesday against joining U.S.-led sanctions against Pyongyang and said it would take action after any such move by Seoul. South Korea's participation in sanctions would be seen as a serious provocation leading to a "crisis of war" on the Korean peninsula, a North Korean spokesman said."

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Europe Warns China on Trade Practices

[Quote]
"At least the EU gets it. While the U.S.does nothing to stem a growing trade deficit with China."

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Venezuela drops UN Security Council bid

[Quote]
"Venezuela has agreed to drop out of the hotly contested race for Latin America's open seat on the UN Security Council and asked Bolivia to run in its place, Bolivia's president, Evo Morales, said. Morales is one of Chavez' closest allies."

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Many follow U.S. example on detainees

[Quote]
"Manfred Nowak, the U.N. special investigator on torture, said that when he criticizes governments for their questionable treatment of detainees, they respond by telling him that if the United States does something, it must be all right. He would not name any countries except for Jordan."

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New Calif. sex predator law facing legal tests

[Quote]
"Attorneys for two Bay Area sex offenders are poised to test the constitutionality of a new state law that allows convicts designated as sexually violent predators to be held indefinitely in mental hospitals after they have completed their prison terms."

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Sudan Expels U.N. Official for Blogging

[Quote]
"Sudan is to expel the UN's top official in the country after he reported two military defeats for the government and other embarrassing details in the largely invisible war in the western region of Darfur. His remarks were quickly denounced by the Sudanese army which described Mr Pronk as a security threat who told him to leave the country."

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Darfur... the Forgotten

[Quote]
"Jon Gray notes that we Diggers haven't done enough to bring froward the plight of the victims of genocide in Darfur. I agree. Lets try and do all we can do to get the word out."

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More Human Remains Recovered at WTC Site on Sunday

[Quote]
"Searchers who have yet to unearth more than half the underground sites apparently overlooked during the initial excavation of ground zero have uncovered more than 100 pieces of human remains believed to belong to Sept. 11 victims. The medical examiner's office said 18 new pieces were found Sunday."

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Rise In Bribery Tests Integrity of U.S. Border

[Quote]
"Bribery of federal and local officials by Mexican smugglers is rising sharply, and with it the fear that a culture of corruption is taking hold along the 2,000-mile border. At least 200 public employees have been charged with helping move narcotics or illegal immigrants across the U.S.-Mexican border since 2004, thousands more under investigation."

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Aljazeera claims that a tactical nuke exploded at Camp Falcon in Iraq

[Quote]
""Video from live nightly newscast in Baghdad caught the detonation - miles away - with it's characteristic ENORMOUS blinding white flash, a rising core of fire then a small mushroom cloud!"- Aljazeera. It just looks like a large bomb exploded, not a nuke. More anti-American propoganda"

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Iraq War May Cost America: $1 Trillion

[Quote]
"If you add these costs, and others, to the total tab, the cost of the war has jumped from $4.4 billion to $7.1 billion a month since the 2003 fiscal year, The paper estimates the total cost could top $1 trillion."

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How to make 655,000 dead Iraqis disappear

[Quote]
"The Lancet study estimating 655,000 Iraqi dead was based on some of the most arguably solid research methods possible, but that didn't stop the American press and Washington from trying to say it wasn't so. When asked by Suzanne Malveaux about the study, Bush replied with a bald-faced lie: ""their methodology has been pretty well discredited.""

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Concordes ‘left to rot on the runway’

[Quote]
"Three of the four Concordes remaining in the UK are being left to corrode on exposed stretches of tarmac. Campaigners fighting to preserve the supersonic airliner have warned that unless action is taken these symbols of engineering and scientific discovery could be lost to future generations."

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US in secret truce talks with insurgency chiefs

[Quote]
"American officials held secret talks with leaders of the Iraqi insurgency last week after admitting that their two-month clampdown on violence in Baghdad had failed. Few details of the discussions in the Jordanian capital Amman have emerged but an Iraqi source close to the negotiations said the participants had met for at least two days."

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Bush's Attempt to Redefine

[Quote]
"A fresh attempt by Bush to redefine success in Iraq was undermined within hours by the American military and Iraqi officials. Only hours after his statement Major-General William Caldwell, spokesman for the US forces in Iraq, said that the results of a vast security operation to secure Baghdad ? the key to this war ? had been ?disheartening?."

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Thousands watch as parachutist plummets 876 ft. to his death

[Quote]
"FAYETTEVILLE, West Virginia (AP) -- Thousands of people watched a participant jump to his death from a bridge during a popular festival Saturday when his parachute opened too late, a sheriff's office official said."

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112 Cars Burned Every Day In France

[Quote]
""An average of 112 cars a day have been torched across France so far this year and there have been 15 attacks a day on police and emergency services.""

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Uncovering the Black German Holocaust

[Quote]
""At a time when the fight for justice for Jewish Holocaust victims continues to make front-page news, the horrific experiences of Black people in Nazi Germany are virtually ignored. These experiences are brought to light in a documentary film entitled Hitler's Forgotten Victims, directed by David Okuefuna and produced by Moise Shewa"

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Photos from the war in Iraq

[Quote]
"All of the photos were taken in 2003. Very cool site with some great photos. Bravo to this guy for all his hard work."

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US Tortures Man Once Tortured by Taliban

[Quote]
"Arrested by the Taliban in Afghanistan in January 2000, Rahim says al-Qaida leaders burned him with cigarettes, smashed his right hand, deprived him of sleep, nearly drowned him and hanged him from the ceiling until he "confessed" to spying for the United States. Now same thing is happening to him at Gitmo."

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Russia Suspends Foreign Non-Governmental Groups

[Quote]
"Russia has suspended the activities of Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the International Republican Institute and more than 90 other foreign NGOs on grounds they failed to meet the registration requirements of a controversial new law designed to bring foreign activists here under much closer government scrutiny."

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Report: N. Korean Leader Regrets Test

[Quote]
"North Korean leader Kim Jong Il expressed regret about his country's nuclear test to a Chinese delegation and said Pyongyang would return to international nuclear talks if Washington backs off a campaign to financially isolate the country, a South Korean newspaper reported Friday."

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US Coast Guard wants to mount machine guns on boats all around Great Lakes

[Quote]
""But the United States Coast Guard has a new mission for the waters off of these quiet shores. For the first time, Coast Guard officials want to mount machine guns routinely on their cutters and small boats here and around all five of the Great Lakes as part of a program addressing the threats of terrorism after Sept. 11.""

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US Military Pilot : Jailed 17.5 years for Trans-Atlantic Drug Dealing

[Quote]
"U.S. military pilot who flew a U.S. Air Force jet from New York to Germany to pick up 200,000 pills of Ecstasy was sentenced Friday to 17 1/2 years in prison. U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl rejected appeals by defense lawyers for leniency for Capt. Franklin Rodriguez of the U.S. Air National Guard."

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Taliban chief beheads 8 ‘spies’ working for British

[Quote]
"THE Taliban?s military commander, Mullah Dadullah, has been filmed executing eight men who were accused of spying for British and American forces in Afghanistan, it was claimed last week."

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Magnitude 6.3 Earthquake Strikes Hawaii

[Quote]
""An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.3 struck Hawaii early Sunday morning, waking up residents and knocking out power.""

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Chinese Soldiers Shooting Tibetan Pilgrims (Video)

[Quote]
"I'm speechless."

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Armenian genocide monument destroyed in France

[Quote]
"A bronze monument near Paris commemorating the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks has been destroyed just two days after France's parliament passed a bill that would make it a crime to deny the genocide. The heavy bronze sculpture was wrenched off its pedestal late Friday night or early Saturday morning."

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Chinese Troopers Shooting Fleeing Tibetans (Video)

[Quote]
"Romanian cameraman Sergiu Matei took video of the Tibetan refugees crossing Nangpa La Pass enroute to Nepal, when they were fired upon by Chinese troops on Sept. 30, 2006."

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South Koreans believe policy of engagement with North Korea has failed.

[Quote]
"They are so weary of Kim Jong II's rejection of attempt to build ties to that 65% of S. Koreans now want their own nuclear program."Sunshine has got to be dead," says Lee Pil Ho, a mid-level manager. "It's not going to work. Many people think so. This is the result we get of giving a lot of oil, fertilizer, and cement to the North.""

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U.S. Citizen Sentenced To Death In Iraq

[Quote]
"A U.S. citizen who allegedly orchestrated the kidnapping of three Romanian journalists near Baghdad last year was sentenced to death in an Iraqi court Thursday, prompting his lawyers to ask a federal judge in Washington to block the U.S. military from transferring him to the Iraqi government."

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How Long Can the World Feed Itself?

[Quote]
""For the sixth time in the past seven years, the human race will grow less food than it eats this year. We closed the gap by eating into food stocks accumulated in better times, but there is no doubt that the situation is getting serious. The world's food stocks have shrunk by halfsince 1999...""

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Girl Questioned after Threatening Bush on MySpace

[Quote]
"The latest Sacramento resident to be questioned by federal agents for threatening President Bush is a 14-year-old girl who is passionate about liberal politics and cute movie stars."

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Breaking news: Muhammad Yunus wins Nobel Peace Prize

[Quote]
"Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank have been awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, it has been announced."

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New York City: Where pilots fly uncontrolled

[Quote]
"THERE were angry calls yesterday for tighter restrictions on flights around Manhattan after a baseball star?s aircraft crashed into a luxury high-rise apartment building on the Upper East Side of New York."

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U.N. study: Violence against children widely accepted

[Quote]
"Violence against children is widely accepted as normal around the world, and at least 106 countries still allow physical punishment in schools, a U.N. report on the issue showed on Thursday. data estimated that in 2002 some 150 million girls and 73 million boys were subjected to forced sex, and other forms of violence."

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Seventeen Innocent Guantanamo Detainees Released

[Quote]
"Sixteen Afghans and one Iranian released from years in captivity at Guantanamo Bay prison arrived in Afghanistan on Thursday, an Afghan official said, maintaining that "most" of the detainees had been falsely accused. He said many of the detainees, had served up to four years, after being turned in by other Afghans with personal disputes."

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US offers $ 1,000,000 for American Terrorist Gadahn

[Quote]
"He has been put on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list, and the State Department is offering a $1 million reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction."

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Israel worried North Korea may help Iran

[Quote]
""Israeli officials said Tuesday they were concerned that North Korea's reported nuclear test would set a dangerous precedent and encourage Iran to press ahead with its nuclear program.""

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FBI Agents Still Lacking Arabic Skills

[Quote]
"Five years after Arab terrorists attacked the United States, only 33 FBI agents have even a limited proficiency in Arabic, and none of them work in the sections of the bureau that coordinate investigations of international terrorism, according to new FBI statistics."

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Now for Stage 2 : A Warhead on the End of a Ballistic Missile

[Quote]
"Miniaturising nuclear war- heads for intercontinental missiles will be beyond the present North Korean capability. In the most sophisticated weapons- design world, weight does not equate to yield. The Americans and Russians have produced low-weight nuclear warheads capable of producing 250 kilotons"

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Flashback: Bush Grants N Korea Nuclear Funds in 2002

[Quote]
"In releasing the $95 million in funding, President George W Bush waived the Framework's requirement that North Korea allow inspectors to ensure it has not hidden away any weapons-grade plutonium from the original reactors. President Bush argued that the decision was "Vital to the national security interests of the United States.""

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Four top Israeli doctors arrested over illegal human experimentation

[Quote]
"Four senior doctors at Kaplan Hospital in Rehovot and Hartzfeld Geriatric Hospital in Gedera suspected of illegally experimenting on humans were arrested Monday. The hospitals in Gedera and Rehovot conducted illegal and unethical testing on thousands of elderly patients for years. During one of the incidents described, twelve patients died."

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U.S. Doubts Korean Test Was Nuclear

[Quote]
"U.S. intelligence agencies say, based on preliminary indications, that North Korea did not produce its first nuclear blast yesterday. U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that seismic readings show that the conventional high explosives used to create a chain reaction in a plutonium-based device went off, but that the ..."

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6 OPEC Countries Agree to Curb Oil Output

[Quote]
"Saudi Arabia and five other OPEC members reached an informal agreement to cut oil output by a total of 1 million barrels a day, a spokesman for the organization said. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has sought to revive oil prices, which have lost a quarter of their value in two months."

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Scientologists Drop Foley From Website

[Quote]
"Scientologists have removed a photograph of former Florida Congressman Mark Foley from the Web site of its Flag Service Organization. A cached version of the Flag Service Organization page shows the Florida Republican accepting leather-bound copies of two books by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, said Radar Online. Foley received the two..."

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N.Korea May Face More Sanctions After Nuclear Test

[Quote]
""We are outraged that a country that has to rely on the international community to feed its own people, and to bring them back from the brink of starvation, devotes so many of its scarce resources to missiles and nuclear weapons progress.""

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The Vanishing Russians: A Dying Population

[Quote]
"Russia is rapidly losing population. Its people are succumbing to one of the world's fastest-growing AIDS epidemics, resurgent tuberculosis, rampant cardiovascular disease, alcohol and drug abuse, smoking, suicide and the lethal effects of unchecked industrial pollution. In addition, abortions outpaced births last year by more than 100,000."

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From a soldiers perspective: The top 10 things you'll need in Iraq

[Quote]
"A very insightful piece from a soldier that's been in the field on what you'll need to make it in Iraq. From socks and googles, to small things like the water pack to bring."

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A Nuclear Threat : What North Korea Really Wants

[Quote]
"Is Kim Jong Il ready to provoke a regional crisis? On Sept. 19, 2005, North Korea signed a widely heralded denuclearization agreement with the United States, China, Russia, Japan and South Korea. Pyongyang pledged to "abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs." In return, Washington agreed that the United States and North Korea..."

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De Beers: How Diamonds Have Helped Africa

[Quote]
"We have a saying in De Beers that ?You have to live up to diamonds.? The diamond itself insists that you behave in a certain way. As an industry, we have to behave in a way that makes a real and proper contribution to the countries and peoples we are involved with, and I believe that De Beers does things, such as our AIDS program."

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Choose the wrong car in Baghdad and you die

[Quote]
"Roadblocks have gained a reputation as one of the most dangerous aspects of navigating around the Iraqi capital. Manned by nervous US troops, Iraqi soldiers or insurgents, the only certain thing about these temporary barriers thrown across most roads in the city is that they will be there ? and they will be unpredictable"

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Israel Continues To Steal Water And Soil From Lebanon

[Quote]
"As noted, this pathological behaviour is predictable, following a long established pattern, not that we hear about here in America."

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U.S. Casualties in Iraq Rise Sharply

[Quote]
"The number of U.S troops wounded in Iraq has surged to its highest level in nearly two years as American GIs fight block-by-block in Baghdad to try to check a spiral of sectarian violence that U.S. commanders warn could lead to civil war."

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Oil Exec: Oil is cheaper than Coca-Cola

[Quote]
""Today, a barrel of oil is worth half a barrel of Coca-Cola (Charts). So you should put things into perspective," he said, adding that the fact that consumers had not significantly changed their behavior proved that they were not particularly feeling the pinch."

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Outspoken Putin Critic Shot Dead in Moscow

[Quote]
"Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, an outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin, was shot dead on Saturday at her apartment block in central Moscow, police said. "According to initial information she was killed by two shots when leaving the lift. Neighbors found her body," a police source told Reuters."

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Mysterious warnings pop up along Russian border

[Quote]
"Norway's border with Russia at the far northern tip of the country has been relatively peaceful, but suddenly some mysterious signs have appeared on the Russian side, warning that the area contains land mines."

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Danish TV shows competition mocking Prophet Mohammed

[Quote]
"Danish state TV on Friday aired amateur video footage showing young members of the anti-immigrant Danish Peoples' party engaged in a competition to draw humiliating cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad"

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4,000 Iraq police killed in past 2 years

[Quote]
"BAGHDAD, Iraq - About 4,000 Iraqi police have been killed and more than 8,000 wounded in the past two years, the U.S. commander in charge of police training said Friday, but he said the force's performance was improving and officials are working to weed out militiamen."

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American Soldiers in Iraq asking: 'Why are we here?'

[Quote]
"Invisible enemy, untrustworthy allies have troops questioning their purpose"

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Experts warn of an accidental atomic war

[Quote]
"A Pentagon project to modify its deadliest nuclear missile for use as a conventional weapon against targets such as North Korea and Iran could set off an alarm in Russia and unwittingly spark an atomic war, two weapons experts warned."

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NY Girl Is Grabbed, Taped Up

[Quote]
"A 10-year-old girl riding her bicycle was snatched by a man on Thursday, stuffed into a car, bound with tape and driven around before being dumped on a street, police said. The girl suffered a cut on her leg when the man pulled her off her bike near her home but was otherwise unhurt, Suffolk County police said. No weapon was shown, and it didn't.."

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Amish girl told Killer:

[Quote]
"The oldest of the five Amish girls shot dead in a Pennsylvania schoolhouse is said to have stepped forward and asked her killer to "Shoot me first," in an apparent effort to buy time for her schoolmates."

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New York World’s Fair 1964-1965 pictures from National Geographic

[Quote]
"Very cool 25 page photo spread of the World?s Fair from a 1965 National Geographic. Check out the odd assortment of items in the time capsule on page 22 (larger view). Among other things it has a rather clunky looking computer memory module, birth control pills, a pack of cigarettes and a bikini."

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British Find No Evidence Of Arms Traffic From Iran

[Quote]
"Since late August, British commandos in the deserts of far southeastern Iraq have been testing one of the most serious charges leveled by the U.S. against Iran: that Iran is secretly supplying weapons, funding and training for attacks on U.S.-led forces in Iraq. There's just one thing. They have yet to see or hear anything of the sort happening.."

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Can U.S. Handle 300,000,000 ?

[Quote]
"U.S. population growth is a sign of either impending calamity or enduring vitality?depending on your point of view."

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Turkish Hijacker Story Was Fabricated

[Quote]
"The truth, according to the Turkish Transport minister, is that a single man seized control of the plane in order to avoid military service. "It has nothing to do with the Pope's visit.""

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Iran Asks France to Oversee Enrichment

[Quote]
"A top Iranian nuclear official proposed Tuesday that France create a consortium to enrich uranium in Iran, saying that could satisfy international demands for outside oversight of Tehran's nuclear program. French officials distanced themselves from the idea, which an analyst called an Iranian attempt to stall or divert attention from mounting..."

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Why the Russia-Georgia Spat Could Become a U.S. Headache

[Quote]
"Russia has escalated its showdown with its small, NATO-inclined neighbor of Georgia by closing all transport and postal communications. No trains, no flights, no ships, no vehicles, no mail money orders ? nothing can cross the border"

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Amish - they are grieving, but not angry

[Quote]
"Under their wide-brimmed straw hats and behind their distinctive beards, there was not a twitch of emotion or a single expression of grief yesterday as their horse-drawn buggies made their way down the narrow stone lanes and through the cornfields of Nickel Mines. But in this hamlet of 27 homes and one church, there were no pictures of the victims."

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Amish Say They 'Forgive' School Shooter

[Quote]
"It didn't take long for us to learn that the Amish families most affected by this tragedy have responded in a way that might seem foreign to most of us: They talk about Monday's school shooting only in terms of forgiveness."

[Read More]