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ABC News: Iraq or Afghanistan? Obama And McCain Spar Over Which War To Win (U.S., 24 articles)
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WASHINGTON - Senator Barack Obama said on Tuesday that the addition of tens of thousands of combat troops to Iraq last year had significantly reduced violence in the country. According to excerpts released by the campaign, the goals include ending the war in Iraq, wrapping up the fight against al Qaeda, securing nuclear weapons from rogue states, achieving energy security and rebuilding alliances. Moments earlier, his Democratic rival , Barack Obama, said in a speech in Washington that the U.S. must end the war in Iraq and that Afghanistan, by contrast, is " a war that we have to win. Barack Obama has said his main priority as US president will be to end the US involvement in Iraq. The proposed increase of about 7,000 troops is part of Obama's plan to pull combat troops out of Iraq and focus on the growing threat from a resurgent Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is considering the withdrawal of additional combat forces from Iraq beginning in September, according to administration and military officials, raising the prospect of a far more ambitious plan than expected only months ago.
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Treasury Acts to Shore Up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (U.S., 27 articles)
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As share prices in the nation's largest mortgage companies tumbled for a third day, Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Barney Frank said Democrats plan to alter the Treasury's plan " to enhance taxpayer protection. Fresh credit concerns also drove regional banking stocks lower as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said financial markets remain under " considerable stress. The US government has announced sweeping measures to shore up the nation's two largest mortgage finance companies, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.
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Bush: Offshore drilling will have psychological impact - (U.S., 11 articles)
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WASHINGTON President Bush lifted a long-standing White House ban Monday on new oil and gas drilling off the nation's coastlines and pressured Congress to take a similar step, stoking the battle over how Washington should respond to high gasoline prices. Bush's decision to lift the executive order, which was imposed by his father in 1990 and renewed by President Clinton, will have no effect unless Congress cancels its own ban on offshore drilling. WASHINGTON - President Bush acknowledged today that expanded drilling in coastal waters would have no immediate impact on oil supplies, but said greater exploration would "change the psychology" of global markets.
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Congress rejects veto of bill to halt Medicare payment cuts (U.S., 13 articles)
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WASHINGTON - President Bush on Tuesday vetoed a bill protecting doctors from a Medicare pay cut, but both houses of Congress swiftly overrode the veto with large bipartisan majorities, so the bill is now law. Hours later, the House and Senate voted to override the veto, making the Medicare measure the fourth bill to become legislation over Mr. Bush's opposition. The White House supports rescinding the pay cut, but objects to the way the legislation would finance the plan, largely by reducing spending on private health plans.
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Seeing Bad Loans, Investors Flee From Bank Shares (U.S., 8 articles)
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While a fraction of the nation's banks are expected to buckle under their growing burden of bad loans, federal regulators, bank executives and analysts agree that the vast majority of institutions are sound. The failure of IndyMac, one of the biggest banks to go under in US history, has sparked fresh fears about the survival of other lenders exposed to the faltering mortgage market. Regulators had already warned about an increase in bank failures in the coming months, not least as the fallout from the credit crisis and the deterioration in the housing market spilled over into the "real" economy.
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News for Dallas, Texas (U.S., 5 articles)
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DISD police, acting on a tip, found about 240 pots in a classroom, with lights designed to help plants grow. Denton pizza restaurant employees were surprised by a robbery Friday, but even more surprising was who the robbery suspects turned out to be. The Dallas Morning News traces its origins to The Daily News in Galveston, which was born on April 11, 1842, in a one-room unpainted shack, three years before the Republic of Texas was admitted to the Union.
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Massachusetts Senate votes to end gay marriage restriction - (U.S., 7 articles)
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BOSTON - Massachusetts may have been the first state to legalize same-sex marriage for its residents, but when California last month invited out-of-state gay and lesbian couples to get married, the potential economic benefits did not go unnoticed here. The Massachusetts Senate today passed a bill that would repeal a 1913 state law that prevents gay and lesbian couples from most other states from marrying in Massachusetts. About a dozen gay and lesbian couples who arrived in Saint John on a cruise ship on Tuesday tied the knot in the port city, taking advantage of Canada's legal recognition of gay marriage.
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Can InBev sell Anheuser-Busch theme parks? (U.S., 7 articles)
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Anheuser-Busch agreed on Sunday night to sell itself to the Belgian brewer InBev for about $52 billion, putting control of the nation's largest beer maker and a fixture of American culture into a European rival's hands. The all-cash deal, for $70 a share, would create the world's largest brewer, uniting the maker of Budweiser and Michelob with the producer of Stella Artois, Bass and Brahma. The two companies would have sales of more than $36 billion a year, surpassing the current No. 1 brewer, SABMiller of London.
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John Darwin, back-from-the-dead canoeist, pleads guilty to fraud (U.S., 9 articles)
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John Darwin, the canoeist who walked into a London police station five years after faking his own death, today pleaded guilty to seven charges of obtaining cash by deception and a passport offence. At a hearing at Leeds Crown Court, Mr Darwin denied nine other charges of using criminal property, while his wife Anne pleaded not guilty to six deception charges and nine of using criminal property. The pair are accused of fraudulently obtaining almost $250,000 during the course of a five-year charade which began when Mr Darwin took his canoe out to sea opposite his home in Seaton Carew in March 2002.
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China's athletes feel push for gold in Beijing Games - (U.S., 5 articles)
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As in much of Africa, Ncube said, China's reach into Zimbabwe's economy is equally pervasive: The roads are filled with Chinese buses, the markets with Chinese goods, and Chinese-made planes are in the skies. Such unease appears to be rising across Africa as Chinese become powerful players and, in some places, the dominant ones in economies across the continent. " Beating the West at its own game would be particularly pleasing said Susan Brownell
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Cuomo Steps Into Mortgage Crisis (U.S., 8 articles)
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The new regulations particularly target abuses in the subprime mortgage market, which has been largely unregulated because the loans are secured and held by private investors. Subprime mortgages, designed to make loans available to borrowers with low incomes or poor credit, carry above-market interest rates to compensate investors for the added risk of default. The rules bar lenders from making loans without proof of a borrower's income and require lenders to ensure risky borrowers have reserved money to pay for taxes and insurance.
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Google, Viacom agree to shield YouTube users (U.S., 7 articles)
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NEW YORK - Google Inc. will delete personal information about users of its YouTube video-sharing website before turning data over to Viacom Inc. and other companies in a copyright lawsuit alleging widespread piracy. Viacom, owner of the MTV and Comedy Central networks, plans to use the information to determine if YouTube users illegally share content. SAN FRANCISCO - Defendants and plaintiffs in two copyright infringement lawsuits against YouTube have reached a deal to protect the privacy of millions of YouTube watchers during evidence discovery, a spokesman for Google said late Monday.
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Landis Attorneys Question Lab's Methods at Hearing (U.S., 6 articles)
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Attorneys for Floyd Landis began trying to paint a picture yesterday of incompetence at the French laboratory where the cyclist's urine was tested. While Floyd Landis s former manager prepared to enter rehab yesterday, a witness for Landis testified he had grave concerns about the evidence being used to prove the Tour de France champion's positive doping test. Landis contends poor testing methods are responsible for unreliable results that call into question the validity of the positive test from last year's Tour.
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Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie celebrate birth of the 'Brangelina' twins (U.S., 6 articles)
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Hollywood's golden couple now have a golden boy and girl, after the "Brangelina" twins were born in southern France. Exclusive rights to the first photographs of the babies have been sold for $11 million ($6 million) to an unnamed US magazine, reported the newspaper Nice Matin, which broke the news of the birth yesterday. The newborns und Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline, born one minute apart Saturday evening und are the ultimate million-dollar babies, with experts estimating their first photos will fetch a fortune.
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Live-in girlfriend backfires; he'll avoid future f... (U.S., 11 articles)
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Over the last three years, her mother and father passed away, our children started college and her job will soon disappear. Help her plan positively for the job change, by considering taking time to just relax awhile, take some courses, pursue interest in another field, etc. DEAR ELLIE: My boyfriend of nine years and I are living together and talking about buying a house and the future (kids, marriage, etc).
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US Senate proposes lifting travel and immigration prohibitions on people with HIV (U.S., 10 articles)
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WASHINGTON - A two-decades-long ban on people with HIV visiting or immigrating to the United States may come to an end soon through a Senate bill on fighting AIDS and other diseases in Africa and other poor areas of the world. The United States currently is among a dozen countries, including Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Libya and Russia, that ban travel and immigration for HIV-positive people. Kerry and Republican Sen. Gordon Smith are trying to repeal the ban, first implemented in 1987 and confirmed by Congress in 1993.
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A message to Arik I know you don't remember me - S... (U.S., 5 articles)
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Nir Hasson Welfare - Police demand social workers' aid during pullout The police are demanding that social workers accompany every police team sent out to evacuate settlers from Gush Katif. Ruth Sinai Housing - First families move to Nitzan homes; others opt for tents Despite the Housing Ministry's best efforts, hundreds of evacuated settlers will spend weeks in hotels until their new housing is ready. Nir Hasson Agriculture - An agricultural empire, destined to collapse Gush Katif's agricultural empire is destined to fall apart in some two weeks' time; all the efforts to move it into Israel have failed.
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Any Way You Splice It (U.S., 4 articles)
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With Lewes only about 110 miles away, the round-trip in my compact car didn't even use up a tank of gas. We have endeavored to take Dizzy along on holiday before and have struggled to find reasonable accommodations for a couple of days at the beach. For this trip, we searched online and found a little bed-and-breakfast called the Lazy L at Willow Creek, just outside of downtown Lewes.
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New search team to look for Steve Fossett (U.S., 4 articles)
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A 16-year-old captured in Afghanistan and held at Guantanamo Bay sobs during his questioning, holding up his wounded arms and begging for help in a video released Tuesday that provided the first glimpse of interrogations at the U.S. military prison. President Bush said Tuesday the nation's troubled financial system is "basically sound" and urged lawmakers to quickly enact legislation to prop up mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Should that effort prove unsuccessful, another adventurer, Robert Hyman, intends to lead a team in August on a similar volunteer search.
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Israel Announces First Cases of Deadly Bird Flu Strain, in Turkeys (U.S., 9 articles)
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JAKARTA, Indonesia, May 24 The World Health Organization might soon convene an expert panel to decide whether an unprecedented human outbreak of bird flu in Indonesia should trigger a higher global alert for a possible pandemic, health officials said Wednesday. JERUSALEM, March 17 Israeli health officials announced Friday that they believe more than 1,000 turkeys have died in recent days from bird flu, the first reported cases in the country. Initial test results appeared to confirm that birds being raised on four farms in southern Israel died after being infected by the H5N1 virus, avian influenza's deadly strain.
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What is wrong with Scottish golf? (U.S., 4 articles)
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As the eyes of golfers focus on Scotland on the eve of the Open, what do those eyes behold? A world-class row about a golf resort that Donald Trump wants to build among the dunes north of Aberdeen. For a country steeped in the tradition of the game, and with a natural topography that provides some of the greatest courses in the world, these are painful times for Scottish golf. Today, the Barclays Scottish Open will tee-up at Loch Lomond, and the timing of the event seems ironic, given the wailing over the state of the game in the home of golf.
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Youth facility in Carroll Co. could reopen - (U.S., 4 articles)
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State juvenile service officials are expected today to ask the Board of Public Works in Annapolis to transfer the 16-acre property, which can house up to 173 boys, to a for-profit Nevada company called Rite of Passage. Many said they were surprised to learn of the state's plans only days ago when the transfer request appeared on the Board of Public Works agenda. Bowling Brook, run for 50 years by a nonprofit company, was shut down after the Jan. 23, 2007, death of Isaiah Simmons
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News on schools, education, teachers and students in Baltimore and Maryland (U.S., 8 articles)
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35 percent of high school students are physcially active at least an hour a day, weekdays 48 percent of high school students have had sexual intercourse. Middle school students at the Crossroads School near Fells Point were evaluated by teachers every single day last school year, with the results driving the next day's instruction. Statewide test scores for African-American and low-income children rose significantly this year and are moving closer to parity with other students, according to data released today by state education officials.
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Police Hope Levy's Ring Holds Clues to Her Fate (U.S., 7 articles)
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Police had been at the site, on a steep slope 100 yards northwest of Broad Branch Road NW, since a man walking his dog stumbled across Levy's skeletal remains May 22. He said police guarded the site for an extra day while waiting for the FBI crime lab in Quantico to study recovered items, including some of Levy's clothing. With the go-ahead from the FBI, the last D.C. and U.S. Park Police cruisers left about 5:45 p.m. yesterday.
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Squeeze panel: Colin McCormick (U.S., 7 articles)
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She retired on 31 January this year and was planning to sell her house in Leeds and move to be near her son, who lives in Southport. Mary Ann wanted to downsize from the three bed semi, to a one bedroom flat which would effectively reduce her bills and leave her a little extra for holidays, etc. According to official figures rising food and fuel costs has pushed UK inflation up to 3.8% in June from 3.3% in May.
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A Big Farm, but Not So Big It Could Get By Without Subsidies (U.S., 7 articles)
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While some farmers and agricultural experts see a downside to farm subsidies, others say the payments are a fair way to help out farmers in need. The cornerstone of the multibillion-dollar system of federal farm subsidies is an iconic image of the struggling family farmer: small, powerless against Mother Nature, tied to the land by blood. Without generous government help, farm-state politicians say, thousands of these hardworking families would fail, threatening the nation's abundant food supply.
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Level Raised To Extreme Fire Danger in Benton County Tuesday (U.S., 7 articles)
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SAN DIEGO - As fires continue to burn in northern California, a new campaign was launched Tuesday to help San Diegans fireproof their homes. The campaign aims to eliminate the myth that only luck can save one's home from a fire, NBC 7/39 reported. Prevention is the biggest tool, which can be accomplished by replacing wooden decks and having fire resistant roofs, to creating a 30-foot safety zone around one's home that's clear of brush, FLASH officials said Tuesday.
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Plaintiffs Reflect on Gun Ruling (U.S., 6 articles)
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The legislation was announced yesterday as officials scramble to comply with a US Supreme Court ruling last month striking down the city's 32-year-old ban. The proposal, which maintains some of the city's strict gun ownership rules and adds more regulations, was immediately criticized by gun rights advocates threatening more legal action. The proposed legislation also maintains the city's unusual regulation of machine guns, defined as weapons that shoot at least 12 rounds without reloading.
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Report: Donaghy made 134 calls to fellow referee (U.S., 5 articles)
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Contrary to what NBA referee Scott Foster might feel right about now, there were several ways in which the news Monday about shamed ref Tim Donaghy s cell-phone records could have been worse for all involved. It's not known what information was exchanged during the calls between Foster and Donaghy, who is awaiting sentencing later this month in federal court. The 41-year-old Donaghy pleaded guilty last year to felony charges of taking cash payoffs from gamblers in the 2006-07 season.
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Common red flags for home buyers (U.S., 5 articles)
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The dream scenario for someone selling his or her home is a long line of prospective buyers shouting at the top of their lungs in a protracted bidding war for the home. Real estate agents generally have a variety of standard forms, including residential purchase agreements that are kept up to date and made available to those who use the services of an agent. Finally, in many states there are disclosure laws a seller must comply with, and real estate agents can make sure that happens as well.
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Starbucks' latest move (U.S., 4 articles)
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The other two - called Vivannos - will be available nationally and are billed as "nourishing blends" that can include fruit and bittersweet cocoa, whey and fiber. Restaurant research analyst Nicole Miller Regan said Starbucks gets credit for introducing non-dairy, non-coffee beverages to appeal to a wider audience, but added that a struggle still lies ahead. Is sorbetto the new frapuccino? Starbucks is gambling that Los Angeles and Orange County will go head over heels for its pair of icy new beverages being tested at roughly half of its area stores, beginning today.
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Alex Rodriguez OK with Madonna question (U.S., 4 articles)
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MIAMI - The wife of Alex Rodriguez wants to know if the New York Yankees star hired private detectives or installed wiretaps installed to spy on her. Cynthia Rodriguez's lawyers demanded evidence of any such surveillance as part of a routine request filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court last week in their divorce case. The document asks for any tape recordings, photographs, reports from investigators or results from possible wiretaps " or other electronic surveillance conducted by you or others on your behalf.
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EPA unveils first rules on carbon dioxide storage (U.S., 4 articles)
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WASHINGTON - The Environmental Protection Agency announced on Tuesday a first draft of a rule that will govern injecting carbon dioxide into underground storage. Development of such a rule is essential before companies can build power plants that will capture and store their carbon dioxide to limit the buildup of global warming gases. The agency acted under the Clean Water Act because injecting carbon dioxide might push pollutants into underground drinking water supplies, according to Benjamin H. Grumbles
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Paterson Has Raised $3.3 Million Since March (U.S., 4 articles)
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ALBANY - Gov. David A. Paterson has raised $3.3 million since taking office, by tapping into a broad array of special-interest groups and casting aside the self-imposed fund-raising limits of his predecessor , Eliot Spitzer, according to reports made public on Tuesday. A close look at Mr. Paterson's reports also suggested a pronounced return to the kind of fund-raising practices that have long raised the ire of government watchdog groups. His contributors span the gamut of Albany's special-interest groups, including its most powerful unions and business groups, like the dentists' political action committee, real estate interests and a variety of state and local labor unions.
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Former track coach Graham gets lifetime ban (U.S., 4 articles)
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The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency today imposed a lifetime ban against Trevor Graham, who had coached such now-tainted track stars as Marion Jones, Tim Montgomery and Justin Gatlin. Graham was convicted on May 29 of one count of lying to federal investigators, in connection with the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO) scandal that dates back to June 2003. The USADA originally had charged Graham with violating anti-doping rules that prohibit the possession, trafficking and distribution of performance-enhancing drugs.
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IAEA sets date for India proposal (U.S., 4 articles)
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The International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) approval of the plan is a key condition for putting into effect a nuclear deal between India and US. If the IAEA signs the agreement, the deal will go to the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group, which regulates global civilian nuclear trade, for approval. Dozens of Indian medical students who have been stranded in China after buying fake air tickets are being flown home, officials from Air India say.
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Bo Derek appointed to Calif. horse racing board (U.S., 4 articles)
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SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger named actress and animal rights activist Bo Derek on Tuesday to a state commission overseeing horse racing. Derek was appointed to fill one of two vacant posts on the California Horse Racing Board, a position requires confirmation by the state Senate and pays $100 per diem. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals called for Saez to be suspended, contending he should have noticed an injury and pulled up the horse rather than apply the whip.
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Elderly duo get life in insurance killings (U.S., 4 articles)
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LOS ANGELES - Two elderly women were sentenced to life in prison without parole Tuesday for murdering two indigent men to collect insurance policies taken out on their lives. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David Wesley on Tuesday sentenced 77-year-old Helen Golay and 75-year-old Olga Rutterschmidt to two consecutive life terms each. Both women were convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to murder for financial gain in the 1999 death of Paul Vados and the 2005 death of Kenneth McDavid
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blaster@cs.columbia.edu
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