Time.com – A U.N. report into the murder of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri could finger Hizballah, and reignite the civil war. The join visit by rival regional power players is designed to prevent that

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3 dead as building collapses in Italy (AP)

by admin on July 31, 2010

Italian firefighters and rescuers work at the site of an apartment building collapse in Afragola, near Naples, southern Italy, Saturday, July 31, 2010. (AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta)AP – An apartment building collapsed early Saturday in southern Italy, killing three people in their sleep, police said.


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Laura Dekker poses for the media on her boat Guppy in Den Osse, south-west Netherlands, Tuesday, July 27, 2010. A Dutch court has cleared the way for 14-year-old Laura Dekker to set sail on a risky solo voyage around the world. Judges at Middelburg's family court have lifted a guardianship order imposed on Dekker last year after she said she wanted to set sail alone around the world. (AP Photo/ Evert-Jan Daniels)AP – Laura Dekker, the 14-year-old Dutch girl who hopes to become the youngest sailor to circle the globe alone, says she is leaving the Netherlands Wednesday.


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Germany mourns Love Parade victims (AFP)

by admin on July 31, 2010

German Chancellor Angela Merkel attends a commemoration service at the Salvatorkirche church in Duisburg, on July 31. Thousands of mourners paid their respects Saturday in Duisburg to the 21 people who died at a techno festival a week earlier, as anger over the tragedy grew.(AFP/Friedrich Stark)AFP – Thousands of mourners paid their respects Saturday in Duisburg to the 21 people who died at a techno festival a week earlier, as anger over the tragedy grew.


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Time.com – After the former head of Microsoft China’s academic credentials have come under scrutiny, a nationwide debate is raging on the place of integrity in Chinese society

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British Prime Minister David Cameron smiles during a joint press conference with his Indian counterpart in New Delhi, India, Thursday, July 29, 2010. Cameron says his visit to India has created the basis for'an enhanced and enduring partnership' between Britain and its former colony. Cameron, who used his three-day trip to seek new business for the struggling British economy, made his statement at a Thursday night press conference after meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. (AP Photo/Saurabh Das)AP – A diplomatic spat with implications for international counterterrorism escalated Saturday after Pakistan’s spy chief canceled a visit to London following comments by the British leader suggesting Pakistan exports terrorism.


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Yvonne Schroeder, left, and Dominique Pavone, who attended this year's Love Parade in Duisburg demonstrate in front of the city hall of Duisburg on Thursday, July 29, 2010, against the responsible persons of the disaster at the Love Parade. 21 people were killed in a crush at the Love Parade techno festival in Duisburg on Saturday. (AP Photo/dapd/Mark Keppler)AP – Germany held a memorial service Saturday for the victims of the Love Parade techno music festival, where 21 people were crushed to death and 500 injured in a tunnel that was the only entrance to the event.


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Pakistani rescue workers look for survivors in the wreckage of a plane that crashed in Islamabad, Pakistan on Wednesday, July 28, 2010. A government official says all 152 people on board the plane that crashed in the hills surrounding Pakistan's capital were killed. (AP Photo/Irfan Haider)AP – Recovery workers on Saturday found the”black box” flight data recorder from the wreckage of Pakistan’s worst-ever plane crash, though its condition was unclear, a government official said.


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Prime Minister Vladimir Putin tours the village of Verkhnyaya Vereya, Russia, on Friday, July 30, 2010. Putin on Friday visited the village of Verkhnyaya Vereya, where all 341 houses have burned to the ground, and kissed the cheek of one woman who was sobbing.(AP Photo/RIA Novosti, Alexei Druzhinin, pool)AP – Russian state TV is reporting the death toll from the massive forest fires that have wiped out villages and vast areas of woodland has risen to around 30 people, but officials say some of the worst blazes are under control.


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A woman sits outside her house flooded by heavy monsoon rains in Peshawar, Pakistan on Friday, July 30, 2010. Boats and helicopters struggled to reach hundreds of thousands of villagers cut off by floods in northwest Pakistan on Friday as the government said it was the deadliest such disaster to hit the region since 1929. (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad)AP – The United Nations says devastating floods have affected 1 million people in Pakistan.


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Israeli airstrike kills senior Hamas rocket maker (AP)

July 31, 2010

Palestinians wheel a wounded man at the Shifa hospital following an Israeli air strike in Gaza City, late Friday, July 30, 2010. Late Friday, Israel targeted back two buildings in Gaza used by Hamas militants as a training facility, Palestinian security officials said.Gaza militants fired a rocket into the Israeli city of Ashkelon early Friday. (AP Photo/ Khalil Hamra)AP – Israeli warplanes fired missiles at five targets across Gaza, killing a senior commander of the Hamas military wing and wounding 11 people, the group said Saturday.


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Mexico’s TV channel cancels show after kidnappings (AP)

July 30, 2010

AP – Mexico’s biggest television network canceled a popular news show to protest the kidnapping of four reporters, abductions that media advocates called an escalation of a campaign by drug gangs to control information.

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Kingpin’s death could mean more violence in Mexico (AP)

July 30, 2010

A soldier stands guard on the roof of the house where, according to Mexico's Defense Ministry, a top leader of the Sinaloa cartel, Ignacio Coronel Villareal, aka Nacho, was killed in Guadalajara, Mexico, Friday July 30, 2010. Soldiers killed Coronel on Thursday in a raid on his posh hideout, dealing the biggest blow yet to Mexico's most powerful drug gang since President Felipe Calderon launched a military offensive against organized crime in 2006. (AP Photo/Claudio Cruz)AP – One of the world’s most powerful drug cartels took a major hit when soldiers killed a top kingpin in a gunbattle, and his death will likely will mean more violence as factions fight for the cocaine and methamphetamine empire that he left behind.


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Castro accuses US of torture in’Cuban Five’ case (AP)

July 30, 2010

In this photo released by the state media Cubadebate web site, Cuba's former leader Fidel Castro, right, shakes hands with Yailin Orta Rivera, Juventud Rebelde journalist and professor at the Communications College at the University of Havana, during a meeting with youth at the Havana Convention Center in Havana, Cuba, Friday July 30, 2010. (AP Photo/Cubadebate, Estudios Revolucion)AP – Fidel Castro accused U.S. authorities of torturing a convicted Cuban spy, telling a meeting of communist youths that the agent had been placed in solitary confinement in California.


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5.7 quake shakes Iran (AP)

July 30, 2010

AP – A 5.7-magnitude earthquake rattled the northeast Iranian city of Torbat-e Heydariyeh on Friday, injuring at least 110 people.

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US casualties in Afghanistan soar to record highs (AP)

July 30, 2010

NATO and US soldiers are seen standing guard in Kabul. Three foreign soldiers were killed in two separate Taliban-style bomb attacks in Afghanistan's volatile south, NATO said Friday.(AFP/File/Massoud Hossaini)AP – In a summer of suffering, America’s military death toll in Afghanistan is rising, with back-to-back record months for U.S. losses in the grinding conflict. All signs point to more bloodshed in the months ahead, straining the already shaky international support for the war.


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Dutch anti-Islam party to have strong voice in next govt (AFP)

July 30, 2010

Dutch politician Geert Wilders addresses a press conference in Westminster, central London, in 2009. Dutch anti-Islam Wilders will have to be consulted on every decision the next government makes if a provisional agreement on forming a new cabinet reached Friday is finalised, an expert said.(AFP/File/Shaun Curry)AFP – Dutch anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders will have to be consulted on every decision the next government makes if a provisional agreement on forming a new cabinet reached Friday is finalised, an expert said.


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Is Yemen in the Middle of Another Undeclared War? (Time.com)

July 30, 2010

Time.com – Officially, the country says it has a ceasefire with rebels in the north but warplanes and over-run military bases indicate otherwise. And then there’s al-Qaeda.

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Bike riding in London is risky business (AP)

July 30, 2010

Boris Johnson Mayor of London poses for the media as a new cycle hire scheme starts in London, Friday, July 30, 2010, with the London Eye in background. The cycle hire scheme aims to enable travelers to use a network of cycle stations throughout central London to commute or just tour the area, as the cycle hire system goes live Friday morning.(AP Photo/Alastair Grant)AP – Feel like living dangerously?


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The pill equally effective in obese, thin women (Reuters)

July 30, 2010

Reuters – Despite studies suggesting that birth control pills might not work as well in obese women, a new study suggests that they prevent pregnancy the same no matter what a woman weighs.

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Sarkozy threatens immigrants who target police (AP)

July 30, 2010

French President Nicolas Sarkozy delivers a speech in Grenoble, French Alps, Friday, July 30, 2010. Nicolas Sarkozy came in Grenoble to install the new prefect after confrontations between youths and policemen, which came after a local resident suspected in the armed robbery of a casino was killed while fleeing police. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)AP – President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday that he wants to revoke the French citizenship of immigrants who put the lives of police officers in danger as part of a”national war” on delinquency.


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Activist: Iranian with stoning sentence tormented (AP)

July 30, 2010

Representative for the anti-capital punishment organization, the International Committee Against Executions and the International Committee Against Stoning. , with coordinator Mina Ahadi and Iranian Solidarity Spokesperson Maryam Namazie, right, before the start of their press conference in London, Friday July 30, 2010, in support of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, seen in poster background, who is sentenced to stoning after an Iranian court found her guilty of having sex outside of marriage. The anti captial punishment group hope to boldter international support to their cause and bring a reprieve for the stoning of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani. (AP Photo/Max Nash)AP – An Iranian woman whose sentence of death by stoning was lifted earlier this month says she’s grateful for the international support she’s received, but remains heartbroken at the separation from her children and tormented by the fear she could still be executed, a rights activist said Friday.


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Argentine couples wed under new gay marriage law (AP)

July 30, 2010

Ernesto Rodriguez Larrese, center right, and Alejandro Vanelli, center left, are showered with rice after getting married in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, July 30, 2010. Larrese and Vanelli are the first gay couple to get married at the Argentine capital after President Cristina Fernandez signed a new law on July 21 making Argentina the first country in Latin America to legalize marriage for same-sex couples. (AP Photo/ Natacha Pisarenko)AP – After a 27-year courtship, two men on Friday became the first gay couple to wed under Argentina’s historic same-sex marriage law — the first of its kind for a Latin American nation.


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Will Britain Give Up its Nuclear Submarines? (Time.com)

July 30, 2010

Time.com – With the Ministry of Defense facing budget cuts and the nation’s nuclear-deterrent system seeming more and more like a relic of the Cold War, is it time for Britain to give up its Doomsday boats?

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No end for Greek fuel protest, tourism slammed (AP)

July 30, 2010

Protesting truck drivers hold a Greek flag as they protest in central Athens on Friday, July 30, 2010. Defying an emergency government order, Greek truck drivers vowed Friday to press ahead with a protest that has halted fuel supplies across the country and is hurting tourism at peak season.The protesters rejected a compromise offer by the government to offset the financial impact of liberalizing their closed-shop profession.(AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)AP – Defying an emergency government order, Greek truck drivers vowed Friday to press ahead with a strike that has halted fuel supplies across the country and is hurting tourism during the peak summer season.


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Saudi, Syrian leaders make rare visit to Lebanon (AP)

July 30, 2010

Lebanese President Michel Suleiman, center, receives Saudi King Abdullah, left, and Syrian President Bashar Assad, right, upon their arrival at the Presidential Palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, July 30, 2010. The leaders of Syria and Saudi Arabia launched an unprecedented effort Friday to defuse fears of violence over upcoming indictments in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.(AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)AP – The leaders of Syria and Saudi Arabia launched an unprecedented effort Friday to defuse fears of violence over upcoming indictments in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.


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Breast Cancer’s DNA Yields More Secrets (HealthDay)

July 30, 2010

HealthDay – THURSDAY, July 29 (HealthDay News) — The genetic makeup of breast cancer tumors may be a better predictor of how well a woman will fare than a tumor’s size and appearance, which has been the traditional way of looking at cancers, new research suggests.

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25 dead as forest fires rage across Russia (AP)

July 30, 2010

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin tours the village of Verkhnyaya Vereya, Russia, on Friday, July 30, 2010. Putin on Friday visited the village of Verkhnyaya Vereya, where all 341 houses have burned to the ground, and kissed the cheek of one woman who was sobbing.(AP Photo/RIA Novosti, Alexei Druzhinin, pool)AP – Forest fires raged across Russia on Friday, destroying villages, surrounding one southern city and killing at least 25 people, including three firefighters. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin consoled survivors at one smoldering village and urged officials to redouble their efforts against the blazes.


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Ex-students fined in SAfrica racist video case (AP)

July 30, 2010

AP – A South African court on Friday ordered four white former students to pay fines of nearly $3,000 each for a video they made that humiliated black university employees and drew global attention to entrenched racism on the campus.

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US Embassy workers tested after suspicious letter (AP)

July 30, 2010

AP – Two employees of the U.S. Embassy in Paris were undergoing medical tests after handling a suspicious letter Friday, the embassy said Friday.

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German rage over festival deaths focuses on mayor (AP)

July 30, 2010

Protesters demonstrate in front of the city hall of Duisburg on Thursday, July 29, 2010, against the responsible persons of the disaster at the Love Parade. 21 people were killed in a stampede at the Love Parade techno festival in Duisburg on Saturday. (AP Photo/dapd/Mark Keppler)AP – The mayor of the German city where 21 people were crushed to death at a music festival last weekend is facing growing pressure to resign amid nationwide outrage over the tragedy.


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Palestinians Hold to Preconditions for Peace Talks (Time.com)

July 30, 2010

Time.com – U.S. efforts to cajole Mahmoud Abbas into talks with the Israelis have yet to yield results. But the Obama Administration could soon find itself on the spot if such talks went ahead

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China criticizes Clinton comments on island chains (AP)

July 30, 2010

In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency taken on Wednesday, July 28, 2010, a Chinese soldier jumps through a fire obstacle during psychological training at an army training field before the upcoming 83rd anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army, which will be celebrated on Aug. 1, in Guangzhou, the capital of south China's Guangdong Province. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Li Gang) ** NO SALES **AP – China’s military on Friday criticized remarks by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that Washington had a strong interest in seeing territorial disputes in the South China Sea resolved peacefully.


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Experts identify three culprits for gluten allergy (Reuters)

July 30, 2010

Reuters – Researchers have identified three fragments in gluten that appear to trigger a disorder in people who are allergic to the wheat protein.

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Taiwanese wary about China amid warming ties (AP)

July 30, 2010

AP – In the crowded Taipei theater, Eddy Fang laughs politely at the Chinese ensemble’s comic references to jealous husbands and overweight wives but can’t help thinking it’s all a bit lowbrow in relatively sophisticated Taiwan.

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