Micro Finder: July 2014

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Tropical storm forms in Atlantic

Tropical Storm Bertha formed in the Atlantic late Thursday, according to the National Hurricane Center.

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8 things you need to know

The deadliest outbreak of Ebola virus on record has sparked fears that the killer virus could spread from west Africa to other regions and continents.

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Tracking patients' journey

CNN's Tom Foreman takes a virtual look at how an Ebola patient will be transported to the U.S. for medical care.

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Can you catch Ebola on planes?

What are airlines doing to protect you from deadly diseases?

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Sick doctor gives friend serum

CNN's Pamela Brown reports on the Ebola virus spreading across Africa and the two American aid workers infected.

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Virus fears sweep world

Fionnuala Sweeney reports concern the Ebola virus could spread internationally.

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Boehner authorized to sue Obama

The Republican-led House approved a resolution on Wednesday authorizing Speaker John Boehner to sue President Barack Obama over claims he abused his executive authority at the expense of Congress and the Constitution.

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'Substantial' damage in LA flooding

Hundreds of vehicles waterlogged and stranded. A famous basketball court possibly warped. Six facilities out of commission, including a student health center.

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Sudanese Christian arrives in U.S.

A Sudanese Christian woman once sentenced to death in her native country because of her faith arrived in her new home, the United States, on Thursday.

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9/11-related cancer cases growing

Cancer is plaguing a growing number of first responders and rescuers who worked at ground zero after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. These are cancers the federal government says are thought to be directly related to that effort -- cancers like leukemia, myeloma, thyroid and prostate cancers.

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U.S. to send more missiles to Iraq

As violence continues unabated in Iraq, the United States has agreed to sell $700 million in military aid, including 5,000 Hellfire missiles.

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Rafa Nadal injured ahead of U.S. Open

Rafael Nadal's hopes of successfully defending his U.S. Open title have been dealt a serious blow after the Spaniard revealed he has sustained a wrist injury during a practice session.

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Gun victim: Time for Congress to act

This month, just outside of Houston, a man police say had a history of abusing and threatening women got his hands on a gun and executed six members of his ex-wife's family -- including four children. On that day, local law enforcement officials believe he was on his way to hunt down other family members when, thankfully, they ended his rampage.

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Will sanctions against Russia work?

The U.S. and EU are imposing new sanctions on Moscow -- but will they have any effect?

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Bird's eye view of aftermath

A gas explosion in Taiwan has killed at 22 people. CNN affiliate ETTV provides us with a birds eye view of the aftermath.

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In pictures: Deadly gas blasts

Taiwan gas explosion

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U.S. pressures Qatar to release couple

The Obama administration urged Qatar on Thursday to allow an American couple convicted of wrongdoing in the death of their adopted daughter to return to the United States.

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WikiLeaks breaks Australia gag order

They were warned not to share it, but share it they did.

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Gas explosions kill at least 22, injure 270 in Taiwan

The death toll is rising in Taiwan after underground gas leaks caused a series of explosions in the southern city of Kaohsiung, state media says.

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Liberia President: 'A global crisis'

CNN speaks to Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf about how their efforts to stop the spread of Ebola are going.

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U.S., U.N. announce cease-fire

The U.S. and U.N. have announced that all parties have agreed to a three-day unconditional cease-fire in Gaza.

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Kerry: It's a moment of opportunity

Secretary of State John Kerry speaks about a humanitarian cease-fire for 72 hours between Israel and Hamas.

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Lack of electricity fuels chaos

CNN's John Vause reports on how the lack of power has exacerbated the suffering of those in Gaza.

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'Precision' strikes hit civilians

CNN's Barbara Starr reports on the precision strikes against Hamas in Gaza.

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At least 30 killed by landslide

Rescue efforts are underway after a landslide caused by monsoon rains. CNN's Sumnima Udas reports.

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Amid deaths, 4 miraculous lives

Despite the threat of falling bombs and rockets, quadruplets were delivered Wednesday night at Gaza City's largest hospital.

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CIA apologizes for spying on Senate

CIA Director John Brennan apologized to the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday and admitted the agency spied on computers used by its staffers who prepared an investigation of the controversial post 9/11 CIA interrogation and detention program.

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The war in Ukraine: Closing in

THE battle for eastern Ukraine may be entering a decisive phase. Since early July Ukraine’s re-energised armed forces have been on the offensive against 15,000 or so Russian-backed separatists. The Ukrainians are close to achieving two important objectives: surrounding Donetsk, the region’s biggest city, and establishing some control over border crossings through which Russia has been sending arms convoys. But the next stage of the intensifying conflict could be bloodier. Much will depend on how far Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, is prepared to go to try to save the separatists from defeat.Ukraine, under its newly elected president, Petro Poroshenko, used a poorly observed ten-day ceasefire in June to prepare a much more aggressive campaign, according to a senior Pentagon official. Its main elements were the use of air power to provide close support for ground troops and a new willingness both to take casualties and to put civilians at risk from shelling. The Americans are contributing “nonlethal” help in the form of intelligence, military advice and $20m worth of kit, including Kevlar body armour.The first breakthrough came on July 5th....

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Business in India: An unloved billionaire

IN A country full of both ambition and frustration, Reliance Industries is a “role model for all Indians who dare to dream,” says its boss, Mukesh Ambani. The company certainly has much to boast of. It is hugely profitable, earning more than any other private Indian firm. It is brave, going where others fear to tread, constructing refineries, drilling for oil and gas, building supermarkets and broadband networks. It invests more in India and pays more corporation tax there than any other firm. Without Reliance, which generates 15% of the country’s exports, the balance of payments would be a wreck.Yet in other ways, Reliance is a rotten role model for corporate India. When it comes to governance this secretive and politically powerful private empire is not a national champion but an embarrassment.The father of Indian capitalismReliance’s culture reflects its roots. In the days before India liberalised its economy in 1991, the firm’s founder, Dhirubhai Ambani, fought his way up from a menial job in Yemen through Mumbai’s heaving tenements to the top of Indian business. Socialist dogma and meddling officials were his foes, charm and cunning his tools. He managed to...

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Commercial property: Stores of value

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German politics: For curvy cannons and extra sleep

The chairman and the faux fanatics

“SATIRE cannot have any consequences,” argued Martin Sonneborn in his masters thesis in 1994. Almost by accident, he has proved himself wrong. Die Partei (“The Party”), the elaborate joke of a party he heads, won 0.62% of the German vote in the elections for the European Parliament in May. That was enough for Mr Sonneborn to win a seat (actually, two seats: the legislature meets in Brussels and Strasbourg).The Party mimics the grandiosity of the Nazi and East German communist parties. Its much longer official name mentions animal rights and the “promotion of elites”. Mr Sonneborn is its GröVaZ (an acronym for “greatest chairman of all time”). The Party, he proclaims, is “always right”.Its platform has evolved since its founding in 2004. Early on it advocated a war of aggression against Liechtenstein and the rebuilding of the Berlin Wall. Lately it has become less bellicose. It wants to get rid of daylight-saving time while continuing to set the clocks back every autumn, giving Germans an extra hour of sleep. As a member of the European Parliament Mr Sonneborn plans to revive the EU’s infamous...

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Whole Foods Market: Victim of success

... but it’ll cost you

THE colourful chalkboards and baskets of fruit that greet customers at the entrances of Whole Foods Market’s shops paint a rosy picture. Yet shares in the American seller of organic and natural food have fallen by more than 40% since hitting a peak last October, in a period when stockmarkets have been strong.It is not that the retailer is in immediate crisis: its latest quarterly figures, on July 30th, showed sales and profits both up a bit. And it is not that people are going off the idea of paying more for food produced without chemical fertilisers, pesticides or additives: the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements reckons that the industry’s worldwide revenues were a record of $63 billion in 2012; and Techsci Research, a market-research firm, predicts that the American market for such foods—the world’s largest—may grow by 14% by 2018.The problem is that at Whole Foods, shoppers have been paying way over the cost of regular produce, and its success in getting them to do so has now attracted a lot of competitors, from rival organics chains like Sprouts and Trader Joe’s to mass-market...

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Commemorating the first world war: In foreign fields

WHEN Britain declared war on Germany on August 4th 1914, it was committing not only its own men, but those of its empire. The five “dominions”—Australia, Canada, Newfoundland (which joined with Canada in 1949), New Zealand and South Africa—were self-governing but had no power over foreign policy. Most entered the war willingly, proud to go to the aid of the empire, often pictured as a lion with its cubs, as in the image above. But as the war dragged on and their young men died in droves (see chart), they pressed for more say in its conduct and, after it ended, more control over their destinies. The men who came home often found that fighting for Britain had, paradoxically, made them feel more distant from it. A century later, many historians see the first world war as the former dominions’ “war of independence”.“My three years in the British navy have…shown me how completely indifferent was the centre of the imperial faith, England, to my native land,” wrote Arthur Lower, a Canadian who became a historian on his return. “I came back from the war much more of a Canadian than I went into it.” Such sentiments across the dominions led eventually to the 1931 Statute of...

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How the first world war reshaped Europe: Redrawing the map

On July 28th 1914 Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, starting a slaughter that would leave millions dead. War redrew borders and reshaped economies, too. Europe’s debt-financed splurge on munitions prompted a manufacturing boom in America, boosting exports and transforming it from global debtor to global creditor. Germany’s industry was hammered. Its economy only returned to the size it had been in 1913 over a decade later.The Treaty of Versailles in 1919 was one of several to carve new countries from what remained of the pre-war empires. The Baltic states, given to Germany the previous year under the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which had taken Russia out of the war, became independent. Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia were created; Romania was enlarged; and Poland was rebuilt from former Russian, German and Austro-Hungarian territories.

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Corruption: No ordinary Zhou

SINCE President Xi Jinping launched his anti-corruption campaign at the end of 2012, the question has been how high he would aim. On July 29th an emphatic answer came with the news that Zhou Yongkang was under investigation by the Communist Party for “serious violations of discipline”—for which, read corruption.Mr Zhou (pictured) was once one of the most powerful men in the land. Until two years ago he was a member of the Politburo’s ruling standing committee: in charge of the state’s vast security apparatus, he controlled a budget bigger than the army’s. It had long been an unwritten rule of China’s power politics that men of Mr Zhou’s stature were untouchable. In flouting the rule, Mr Xi has left no doubt about the authority he believes he now wields. He appears to be the most powerful Chinese leader since the late Deng Xiaoping.Mr Zhou first appeared to be in trouble in 2012, with the purge of Chongqing’s party secretary, Bo Xilai. It is thought that Mr Bo had been eager to challenge Mr Xi’s ascent to the presidency, and Mr Zhou was a close ally who argued against bringing Mr Bo down. The result was a rare serious split in China’s highest leadership.Mr Zhou sat...

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Corruption and the economy: Is anti-graft anti-growth?

EVEN by Chinese standards, growth in the southern city of Jieyang was remarkable under Wan Qingliang, the local boss with bouffant hair who cultivated an air of frugality in his personal life. When he took over, in 2004, annual expansion was 4%. By 2007 Jieyang’s growth rate had surged to 18%. Dirt roads were paved, banana groves uprooted and high-rises planted in their place. Propelled by these achievements, Mr Wan’s ascent up China’s political ranks was swift. He was made vice-governor of Guangdong, China’s wealthiest province, and then mayor of Guangzhou, the province’s capital and China’s third-biggest city.Yet Mr Wan’s fall was even more precipitous than his rise. In June investigators accused him of widespread corruption; he has disappeared from sight. The man who said he owned no homes allegedly dispensed favours worth at least 600m yuan ($97m) to one property developer, Comhope, and the charge sheet is growing. But the takedown of Mr Wan, who knew how to get the local economy fizzing, raises a question about President Xi Jinping’s fight against corruption: is it a drag on growth?The scars of Mr Xi’s campaign are visible in Jieyang. At a Comhope complex down by the river, bamboo scaffolding lies in a heap at the base of what were supposed to be 30-storey towers—construction was abandoned at the 11th floor. Across China, luxury retailers and fancy restaurants are...

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Aviation: The sky is a limit

CHINA’S airlines and airports have long been notorious for their lateness. Since mid-July they have got much, much worse as rafts of flights have been delayed or cancelled. On July 26th the country’s Civil Aviation Administration warned of “massive flight delays” in eastern and central China. Capacity would drop by 65% on some routes, the agency said. On July 28th nearly 200 flights were cancelled at Shanghai’s two airports, and 120 were delayed by more than two hours.Frustrated travellers beg for more information. While some officials, rather implausibly, have put it all down to bad weather, it perhaps marks an advance in transparency that others blame “air-traffic control”, and specifically the role of military drills, for the havoc. Even so, claims by the defence ministry that the live-fire drills they announced were having only “limited impact” on civilian aviation have been met with raspberries.The problem is that less than 30% of China’s airspace is open to civil aviation, compared with more than 85% in the United States. The armed forces hog the rest. A Chinese aviation expert estimates that the air force could, by transferring a tenth of its airspace...

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'Separatism' charges for China scholar

Chinese authorities on Wednesday formally charged a prominent Uyghur scholar with "separatism" months after his detention, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

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N. Korea fires projectiles at Japan sea

North Korea fired four projectiles on Wednesday morning toward the Sea of Japan, an official with the South Korean Defense Ministry told CNN.

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'We're approaching breaking point'

Robert Turner, director of operations for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, speaks about life in Gaza.

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Team member describes scene

A team member traveling with international experts describe what they found at the crash site of MH17.

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From convicted sex offender to millionaire

Michael Phillips has been spending most of his time these days living in a tiny room in a no-frills northeast Dallas nursing home.

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Wake up to the plight of the pangolin

The world finally is starting to wake up to the plight of the pangolin -- an awesomely introverted, scale-covered mammal that's capable off fending of lions but gets snatched right up by poachers.

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Knee injury forces Li Na out

World No. 2 Li Na has pulled out of next month's U.S. Open with a knee injury.

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Argentina’s debt saga: No movement

DISAPPOINTMENT, melodrama, and a faint glimmer of hope. The ingredients of the latest instalment of Argentina’s legal stand-off with its “hold-out” bondholders were painfully familiar. The disappointment came late on July 30th, when Argentina entered into default for the eighth time in its history (see chart). The melodrama came courtesy of Axel Kicillof, the economy minister, railing against Thomas Griesa, the New York court judge whose ruling precipitated this moment. And the hope is that a settlement remains possible.

The country’s previous default, when it reneged on $81 billion in debt in 2001, is the source of its latest one. Most of its creditors exchanged their defaulted debt for new securities in two restructurings that took place in 2005 and 2010. But a few creditors took a different path. They scooped up the cheap defaulted debt in order to chase payment of full principal plus interest in the New York courts, under whose law the...

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The evidence mounts

UNTIL recently, British Columbians consumed as much fuel per head as their fellow Canadians. Nothing remarkable distinguished their use of fossil fuel until, in 2008, they began paying a carbon tax. Six years on the province remains the only jurisdiction in North American jurisdiction to levy a charge on fossil-fuel consumption.

BC’s levy started at C$10 ($9) a tonne in 2008 and rose by C$5 each year until it reached C$30 per tonne in 2012. That works out to 7 cents of the C$1.35 per litre Vancouver residents pay at the pump to fill up their vehicles. Because the tax must, by law in BC, be revenue-neutral, the province has cut income and corporate taxes to offset the revenue it gets from taxing carbon. BC now has the lowest personal income tax rate in Canada and one of the lowest corporate rates in North America, too.

BC’s fuel consumption is also down. Over the past six years, the per-person consumption of fuels has dropped by 16% (although declines levelled off after the last tax increase in 2012). During that same period, per-person consumption in the rest of Canada rose by 3%. “Each year the evidence becomes stronger and stronger that the carbon tax is driving environmental gains,” says Stewart Elgie, an economics professor at University of Ottawa and head of the pro-green think tank Sustainable Prosperity. At the same time, BC’s economy has...Continue reading

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Israel: Winning the battle, losing the war

HAMAS has ruled Gaza since 2007 and there is not much to admire. The Islamist party is harsh, narrow-minded and intolerant of dissent. Its charter is anti-Semitic. It fires rockets into Israeli territory and builds tunnels under it to kill or kidnap Israeli soldiers. It knows that the Israeli attacks it provokes will kill hundreds of Palestinian civilians, which will garner sympathy around the world. It is also weaker than it was, for it is now losing the military battle against Israel.By contrast Israel is the most successful state in the Middle East. It is the region’s only true democracy—a hub of invention, enterprise and creativity. Israel has overwhelming firepower in the fight in Gaza. Most of its people are united behind their soldiers and have the firm backing of America’s Congress. Yet, though Israel is winning the battle, it is struggling in the war for world opinion (see article). That matters in part because Israel is a cosmopolitan trading country that looks to its American ally for security, but also...

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Argentina defaults: Eighth time unlucky

ARGENTINA’S first bond, issued in 1824, was supposed to have a lifespan of 46 years. Less than four years later, the government defaulted. Resolving the ensuing stand-off with creditors took 29 years. Since then seven more defaults have followed, the most recent this week, when Argentina failed to make a payment on bonds issued as partial compensation to victims of the previous default, in 2001.Most investors think they can see a pattern in all this, but Argentina’s president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, insists the latest default is not like the others. Her government, she points out, had transferred the full $539m it owed to the banks that administer the bonds. It is America’s courts (the bonds were issued under American law) that blocked the payment, at the behest of the tiny minority of owners of bonds from 2001 who did not accept the restructuring Argentina offered them in 2005 and again in 2010. These “hold-outs”, balking at the 65% haircut the restructuring entailed, not only persuaded a judge that they should be paid in full but also got him to freeze payments on the restructured bonds until Argentina coughs up.Argentina claims that paying the hold-...

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Why we must end weapons trade

The recent controversy over arms sales to Russia reminds me of an interesting exchange during a hustings I took part in during the 2009 European Election campaign.

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Landslides trap at least 170 in India

Landslides caused by heavy monsoon rains may have trapped 150 people or more in a village in western India, a senior official said Wednesday.

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Other nations' roles in conflict

Rami G. Khouri of the American University of Beirut discusses the competing interests of other nations.

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'Sharknado 2' whips up Twitter frenzy

Peace. Love. And Snarknado 2.

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Gaza crisis brings 9/11 flashbacks

I am an American, and I love my country, but I also love my heritage.

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Shrapnel 'fell like rain' in Gaza

Mangled limbs wrapped in blood-stained rags were strewn across rooms in the school.

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Ukraine declares MH17 cease-fire

Ukraine's military announced a one-day cease-fire on Thursday to allow international experts full access to the site where Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashed two weeks ago.

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N. Korea: Jailed U.S. man speaks

Kenneth Bae, an American citizen detained in North Korea, said he feels like the U.S. government has abandoned him, according to a pro-North Korea newspaper.

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Brutal scene after school attack

CNN's Karl Penhaul shows the devastation following another attack on a U.N. shelter in Gaza.

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Inside the Israel-Gaza conflict

The conflict between Israel and Hamas rages on, leaving over a thousand dead since Operation Protective Edge began July 8.

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Wednesday, July 30, 2014

The bitter lessons of MH17

During the last four months, the people of Ukraine have been fighting for their freedom, independence and European path in a war started by Russia-backed terrorists and their accomplices.

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U.S. to Israel: 'Limit civilian casualties'

A number of shells fell Thursday next to a U.N. school housing displaced residents -- a day after another school-turned-shelter was hit by artillery, killing more than a dozen people.

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Bergdahl to be questioned next week

Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl will meet next week with the general who's looking into how the now-freed prisoner of war was captured by the Taliban in 2009, the Army and his attorney said.

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Hamas: Its origins and goals

Paula Hancocks looks back at Hamas' founding and explains their present-day goals.

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Ebola: What you need to know

Outbreak 'an international problem'

Liberian Information Minister Lewis Brown tells CNN's Richard Quest the Ebola crisis is now an international problem.

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China probes former security chief

China's ruling Communist Party announces an official investigation into high-ranking former leader Zhou Yongkang for an alleged "serious disciplinary violation."

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Enola Gay's last crewman dies

Nearly 69 years ago, Theodore "Dutch" Van Kirk navigated a U.S. B-29 Superfortress called the Enola Gay over Hiroshima, Japan, on a sunny August day. Once over its target, the Enola Gay unloaded the first atomic bomb dropped in war.

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Israel-Hamas cease-fire bid fails

International efforts to broker a cease-fire fail again, with Hamas and Israel blaming one another for the continuation of violence that has left more than 1,200 people dead.

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House approves lawsuit against Obama

'Substantial' damage in LA flood

Ventura wins $1.8M lawsuit

It was a lawsuit pitting two larger-than-life personalities against each other -- former pro wrestler-turned-Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura and ex-Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle.

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Police: Teen raped at Keith Urban show

A teenage girl was raped at the same Keith Urban show where 20 people got so drunk they were hospitalized, police said.

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Barrymore's half-sister found dead

Jessica Barrymore, the half-sister of actress Drew Barrymore, was found dead early Tuesday morning.

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Expert: Argentina will default

Former finance undersecretary for Argentina Miguel Kiguel says Argentina's chances of avoiding default are slim at best.

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9/11-related cancer cases growing

U.S. to send more missiles to Iraq

As violence continues unabated in Iraq, the United States has agreed to sell $700 million in military aid, including 5,000 Hellfire missiles.

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Ebola aid workers 'slightly improved'

The two American aid workers who were infected with the deadly Ebola virus "have shown a slight improvement in the past 24 hours," according to Samaritan's Purse, an international evangelical Christian humanitarian agency.

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Nadal injured ahead of U.S. Open

Truce closes with a boom

CNN's John Vause was on the air as a 'knock on the roof' blast announced an early end to a humanitarian truce in Gaza.

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Ebola victim's wife speaks out

The wife of the first American who died in the current Ebola outbreak speaks out about losing her husband.

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Girl dies after being hit by plane

The 9-year-old girl critically injured when an airplane struck her on a Florida beach last weekend has died, the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office said Tuesday.

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What will investigators find at site?

Nearly two weeks after Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was blown out of the sky by a suspected surface-to-air missile, the Dutch investigators in charge of finding out what happened have yet to lay eyes on the wreckage or the human remains believed to be still left in the enormous debris field.

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North Korea fires projectiles

North Korea fired four projectiles on Wednesday morning toward the Sea of Japan, an official with the South Korean Defense Ministry told CNN.

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China charges Uyghur scholar

Gaza tunnel attack on video?

Hamas says new video shows its militants infiltrating Israel. CNN's Martin Savidge reports.

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U.N. school shelled in Gaza

Five shells strike a U.N. school at a refugee camp in northern Gaza. CNN's John Vause has more.

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Ukraine: U.S., Europe, Russia face off

There are echoes of the Cold War as pro-Russian rebels battle Ukrainian government forces in the nation's east.

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Meat-free tofu McNuggets unveiled

If you're wary of chicken and beef products after a major meat supply scandal in Asia, the McDonald's in Japan could have an alternative for you -- tofu and fish nuggets.

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Why we must end weapons trade

Attack on U.N. school in Gaza leaves 19 dead

Nineteen people are killed and 126 more injured as five shells strike a U.N. school at a refugee camp in northern Gaza, a U.N. official says.

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Landslides trap 150 people in India

Landslides caused by heavy monsoon rains may have trapped 150 people or more in a village in western India, a senior official said Wednesday.

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Is foreign policy a liability for Clinton?

Presidential candidates often lack experience in one critical area: foreign policy.

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Father arrested in baby's hot car death

The death of a 10-month-old girl left in a hot car in Wichita, Kansas -- the latest in a string of hot-car child deaths in the United States -- triggered the quick arrest of the girl's foster father and on Friday prompted state officials to launch home inspections of adoptive and foster families.

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Whale-watchers stranded at sea

After more than 12 hours stuck at sea, passengers aboard a whale-watching boat off the Massachusetts coast could reach land Tuesday.

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EU, U.S. hit Russia with fresh sanctions over Ukraine

The EU and the U.S. step up economic pressure on Russia with new sanctions, as fighting in Ukraine keeps investigators from reaching the MH17 crash site.

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Facebook: Get Messenger app or else

For mobile users who text with friends via Facebook, it's almost time to download the social-media giant's dedicated app for doing so, or lose the ability.

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Duchovny under fire for Russia beer ad

David Duchovny's latest role is stirring up more intrigue than any episode of "The X-Files." The actor plays himself in a beer commercial imagining how proud he would be if he were Russian.

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First family reach MH17 crash site

The first family members of an MH17 passenger arrive at the crash scene. CNN's Kyung Lah reports.

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Water main floods Sunset Boulevard

A portion of world-famous Sunset Boulevard was closed Tuesday afternoon after a nearby water main broke, spilling an estimated 8 to 10 million gallons of water into the streets near and on the UCLA campus.

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Tuesday, July 29, 2014

The bitter lessons of MH17

Are arrests just politics?

CNN's Andrew Stevens speaks to Asia Society's Jamie Metzl about

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Bergdahl could be questioned soon

Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl could meet next week with the U.S. Army General looking into how the now-freed prisoner of war was captured by the Taliban in 2009, his attorney said.

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Hamas: Its origins and goals

Paula Hancocks looks back at Hamas' founding and explains their present-day goals.

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China's tainted meat scandal explained

McDonald's restaurants in many Chinese cities have been eerily quiet this past week.

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Serena fit after Wimbledon scare

It was one of the most disturbing sights Wimbledon has witnessed.

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Afghan president's cousin killed in blast

A cousin of Afghan President Hamid Karzai died in a bombing Tuesday, a provincial spokesman said, marking the latest killing of a Karzai relative.

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How WWI gave us drones

Drones are our latest Frankenstein's monster. But our preoccupation with their novelty -- with the ethical hazards of remote killing and the possible violation, through surveillance, of life and privacy at home -- has obscured their roots in the deadly history of Western aerial control of the Middle East that began in World War I, exactly a century ago.

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No end in sight: Israel, Hamas blame each other for fighting

Children die in camp shelling

CNN's Karl Penhaul speaks with witnesses of the bombing, including children whose guardians granted him OK to interview.

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Last crewman of Enola Gay dies

China probes former security czar

After months of intense political rumors, China's ruling Communist Party announced Tuesday an official probe into a retired senior leader for suspected "serious disciplinary violation."

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Xi snares 'untouchable' tiger

CNN's David McKenzie reports on the significance of the investigation of former Chinese security chief Zhou Yongkang.

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U.S. man 'sent 500 powder letters'

For nearly six years, hundreds of letters, most containing a suspicious white powder, were sent through the mail, addressed to President Barack Obama, members of Congress, hotels near the Super Bowl, schools, companies and others.

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U.S.: Russia violated missile treaty

The United States accused Russia on Monday of violating the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, citing cruise missile tests that date to 2008, senior State Department and White House officials said.

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Terror of life under fire in Ashkelon

In Ashkelon, Israel, the threat of rockets has a psychological impact, writes Atika Shubert.

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See inside Hamas' tunnel network

CNN's Wolf Blitzer gets a rare look inside a Hamas tunnel which Israel says is used to smuggle weapons and launch attacks on its territory.

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Tunnel threat has Israel on edge

CNN's Wolf Blitzer takes you inside a tunnel that the IDF says was built by Hamas to enter Israel.

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Cease-fire dispute bolsters hardliners

The current rift between Israel and the Obama administration over the terms of a cease-fire in Gaza is empowering hard-liners in the Israeli government and in Hamas who don't want to end the fighting.

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Powerless in pummeled Gaza

With the electricity out, Gaza residents are struggling to survive amid devastation. CNN's John Vause reports.

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Japanese teen dismembers classmate

A 16-year-old Japanese girl has been arrested in Sasebo, Nagasaki prefecture, on suspicion of murdering a fellow student. Police confirmed that the alleged attacker also dismembered her victim's body.

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Obama: Not a new Cold War

Michelle Kosinski takes a look at the new sanctions against Russia that President Obama announced on Tuesday.

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Battles near MH17 crash site

Investigators were again blocked from reaching the MH17 crash site because of fighting. Nick Paton Walsh reports.

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Why Gaza cease-fire never happened

Despite starting the year with a vision for a lasting Middle East peace, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has been unable to even push through a weeklong Gaza cease-fire.

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'Die Hard' actor James Shigeta dies

James Shigeta, a prolific and pioneering Asian-American actor whose 50-year career includes the movies "Die Hard" and "Flower Drum Song," died in his sleep in Los Angeles on Monday, his agent said. He was 81.

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Ebola doctor killed by the virus

A doctor who was on the front lines fighting the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone has died from complications of the disease, Doctors Without Borders said Tuesday.

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FIFA asks Italy to probe racism claims

FIFA has asked the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) to investigate alleged comments from the front runner to become its next president that referred to African players as "banana eaters."

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'Stowaway' body found in plane

The body of an "apparent stowaway" was found Sunday night in the wheel well of a U.S. Air Force C-130 that landed at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany, Pentagon spokesman Adm. John Kirby said Tuesday.

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Report: Dozens die in China attack

A gang wielding knives and axes attacked civilians, a police station, government offices and smashed vehicles, China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported Tuesday, citing local police.

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Sewol ferry students 'told to stay put'

Lines of police surrounded a courthouse as student survivors of the Sewol ferry disaster gave evidence in their hometown of Ansan, South Korea, on Monday.

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Is Obama a lame duck president?

According to the conventional wisdom, lame duck presidents can't do very much. The popular image is that they are killing time, maybe grabbing a beer with the locals, until the new guy or gal comes to town.

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Afghan president's cousin killed in blast

A cousin of Afghan President Hamid Karzai died in a bombing Tuesday, a provincial spokesman said, marking the latest killing of a Karzai relative.

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Same-sex marriage ban overturned

A federal appeals court on Monday struck down Virginia's ban on same-sex marriage, the first such decision in a southern state and another victory for gay and lesbian couples seeking the right to legally wed.

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Children killed in camp as Gaza fighting intensifies

Three weeks on, the fighting is intensifying, the death toll is climbing and Israel has warned its citizens to be ready for a prolonged battle.

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How WWI gave us drones

Gaza tunnels: Lifeline or deadly?

CNN's Wolf Blitzer goes inside one of Hamas' tunnels near the Gaza border with Israel.

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Children die in camp shelling

CNN's Karl Penhaul speaks with witnesses of the bombing, including children whose guardians granted him OK to interview.

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Beachgoer killed by landing plane

A father was killed and his daughter critically injured Sunday when an airplane struck them as they walked along a Florida beach.

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U.S. man 'sent 500 powder letters'

Palin to launch her own TV channel

Sarah Palin is again going rogue -- this time to the digital world, with the creation of her own online news channel.

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U.S.: Russia violated missile treaty

Investigators frustrated by delays

Uncertainty hangs over an international effort to retrieve human remains from the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 as fighting rages in eastern Ukraine.

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Dozens killed as fighting intensifies in Gaza

Despite calls for a cease-fire, Gaza authorities report dozens of deaths overnight, as Israel's PM speaks of a "protracted campaign" to come.

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Life under fire in Ashkelon

In Ashkelon, Israel, the threat of rockets has a psychological impact, writes Atika Shubert.

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Inside Hamas' tunnel network

CNN's Wolf Blitzer gets a rare look inside a Hamas tunnel which Israel says is used to smuggle weapons and launch attacks on its territory.

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Russia cooperation 'close to zero'

Former CIA Operative does not "foresee any clear answers or arrests" in the shoot down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.

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Black boxes help explain downing

CNN's Pamela Brown reports on what investigators have learned so far from MH17's flight data recorders.

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Monday, July 28, 2014

Japanese teen dismembers classmate

Battle nears MH17 crash scene

Increased fighting around the MH17 crash scene blocks international investigators. CNN's Kyung Lah reports.

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U.S.: Russia builds force in Ukraine

U.S. and NATO officials say Russia is sending more weapons and troops into Ukraine. CNN's Christiane Amanpour has more.

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How Gaza cease-fire never happened

How North Korea gets its power

The last bit of news I heard before boarding a plane to Seoul a few days ago was that North Korea had just fired 100 artillery shells into the sea near the border with South Korea.

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Israel protests turn anti-Semitic

Fears of violence and anti-Semitism at major protest marches across Europe and the around the world. Max Foster reports

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1 killed, 13 hurt by U.S. beach lightning

Nine people were injured Sunday afternoon after a rare lightning strike at California's Venice Beach.

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Judge: Clippers sale can go forward

A deal to sell the Los Angeles Clippers for an NBA record price may move forward, a California probate judge ruled Monday.

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Charges in carjacking that killed 3 siblings

Philadelphia police said Monday they've apprehended two suspects in a Friday carjacking that left three children dead and their mother in critical condition.

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Zillow CEO on Trulia purchase

Zillow Chief Executive Spencer Rascoff talks to Maggie Lake about the $3.5 billion purchase of Trulia.

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MH17 probe forced to turn back

A team of investigators looking to uncover what happened to MH17 is forced to turn back. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh reports.

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Explosions, gunfire in fighting

CNN's Karl Penhaul describes the scene from Gaza City while rockets and gunfire continue amid ongoing fighting.

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Source: Suicide blast kills 5 in Nigeria

A suicide bomber in Nigeria killed at least five people on Sunday in an attack on a church in the city of Kano, a local resident told CNN. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

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Who would fill Hamas void?

If Hamas was wiped out, would a more radical group take their place? CNN's Brian Todd reports.

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Gender differences: The Mars and Venus question

THAT men and women think differently is now widely accepted. Why they do so is another matter. One possible explanation is that it is an evolutionary trait. In the time of hunting and gathering different skills were required: men needed to spend time away from camp, tracking animals and fighting off intruders, and women needed social skills to bring up children. Yet there are bound to be many other factors at work for this variation to survive into modern times. The latest research suggests that living standards and access to education probably bear more responsibility for cognitive disparity between men and women than genes, nursery colours or the ability to catch a ball.Previous studies have shown that male and female brains are wired differently. A study last year by Ragini Verma of the University of Pennsylvania used sophisticated imaging techniques to show variations in dominant connections in the cerebrum, the part of the brain that does the thinking, between men and women. Dr Verma speculated that these wiring changes help to explain why women tend to have better memories, social adeptness and an improved ability to multitask.Now Daniela Weber of the...

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What's Putin's real end game?

CNN Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr reported Thursday that the U.S. intelligence community has information that Russian artillery is firing into eastern Ukraine. The artillery pieces shown in the released footage are Russian M-46 130mm field guns with a range of a little over 16 miles.

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MSF: Teams greeted with rocks

CNN's Hala Gorani speaks to Medecins Sans Frontieres' Marc Forget about the importance of education when fighting Ebola.

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Suspected U.S. sex offender killed

A suspected sex offender recently featured on CNN's "The Hunt" with John Walsh was killed Monday in Manhattan while police were attempting to arrest him on child molestation charges, according to two New York City law enforcement sources.

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Westerners flee Libya battles

Westerners are fleeing Libya as deadly fighting there intensifies. CNN's Fionnuala Sweeney reports.

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U.S. student hid cameras in bathrooms

University of Delaware students are being offered counseling after a doctoral student allegedly hid video cameras in restrooms around the university's Newark campus over a two-year period.

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Israeli family mourns son

CNN's Atika Shubert speaks to the family of an Israeli soldier who was killed in Gaza.

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Botched executions can't be norm

Megan McCracken and Jennifer Moreno say it's unacceptable for states to experiment with new execution procedures without full disclosure

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Concordia reaches end of last voyage

The crippled Costa Concordia cruise ship is nearing the end of its final voyage.

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Gaza hospital, refugee camp hit

CNN's Karl Penhaul spoke to a witnesses about the bloodshed at a Gaza hospital.

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What do both sides want?

Paula Hancocks takes a closer look at what both sides in the Middle East conflict are hoping for.

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Rising anti-Israel sentiment?

CNN's Becky Anderson interviews author Rami Khoury on the rising anti-Israel sentiment.

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Ebola: Liberia closes borders

The deadliest Ebola outbreak in history continues to plague West Africa as leaders scramble to stop the virus from spreading.

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U.S. aid worker in Liberia has Ebola

An American doctor trying to quell the Ebola outbreak in Liberia is now infected with the virus, the organization for which he works said.

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This won't be AIDS-free generation

In the United States, 26% of all new HIV infections are among young people ages 13 to 24. Yet only 1 in 5 high school students is tested for HIV.

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Gaza peace fight 'drains me of hope'

At age of 52, it might be too late to re-visit your beliefs and principles in order to change them.

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Israel rejects blame in school deaths

The Israeli military rejects "the claim that people were killed" after a mortar hit the courtyard of a U.N. school sheltering Gaza residents. U.N. officials says 16 were killed.

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Qatari FM: Israel rejecting peace

Qatar's Foreign Minister Al-Attiyah speaks about the Israeli-Gaza conflict in an exclusive interview with CNN's Becky Anderson.

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Beheadings in Syria violence

In some of the most gruesome images yet to emerge from the latest mass violence in Syria, videos show militants raising their victims' decapitated heads on poles.

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Yukos win delivers blow to Putin

The brand name Yukos no longer exists and its former founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky has left Russia after being freed from jail, but a landmark ruling in the Hague released Monday ensures their legacy will live on during a sensitive period of time for Vladimir Putin.

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Rice ruling: What is NFL thinking?

Carol Costello says she was wrong to expect the NFL to come down hard on Baltimore Ravens player Ray Rice, and that the league be universally criticized if they didn't.

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Sehwol ferry students 'told to stay put'

Is Obama a lame duck president?

Israel: Errant mortar hit school

Israel has released video of what it says is an errant mortar hitting a U.N. run school yard. CNN's Sara Sidner reports.

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Finding ways to feed Gaza

CNN's Ian Lee reports on one humanitarian organization's efforts to feed the battle weary in Gaza.

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Lightning strike kills 1 on beach

A sunny day at the beach took a dark turn when a man died and a dozen others were injured after a rare lightning strike.

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Militias battle for territory in Libya

Violence is raging in Libya as rival militias are fighting for territory. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh has more.

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ISIS Militants destroy Jonah's tomb

The shrine towers over Mosul. A burst of smoke, then, nothing.

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Second Air Algerie 'black box' found

The second flight data recorder from an Air Algerie flight that crashed in Mali has been found, a spokeswoman for the U.N. mission in Mali says.

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Beachgoer killed by landing plane

A father was killed and his daughter critically injured Sunday when an airplane struck them as they walked along a Florida beach.

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Palin to launch her own TV channel

Sarah Palin is again going rogue -- this time to the digital world, with the creation of her own online news channel.

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Meat scandal limits menus

McDonald's and KFC are hit by the Shanghai meat Scandal. Customers get apologies but no refunds. Ralitsa Vassileva reports.

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Boy, 3, smashes Jeep into house

A diaper-clad toddler crashed a Jeep Wrangler into a neighbor's house in Oregon -- then scampered home, sat on the couch and watched cartoons, authorities said.

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Fighting prevents access to crash site

U.S. evacuates embassy in Libya

The U.S. Embassy in Libya evacuated its personnel on Saturday because of ongoing militia violence in the capital, Tripoli, U.S. officials said.

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Indian teen has 232 'teeth' removed

A teenager in India, who had more than 200 "teeth" growing in his mouth due to a benign dental tumor, has had them removed.

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U.N. Security Council calls for immediate cease-fire in Gaza

With more than 1,000 people killed in the Israel-Hamas conflict, the U.N. Security Council calls for an "unconditional humanitarian cease-fire" in Gaza.

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Watch Security Council

The president of the U.N. Security Council reads a statement calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza.

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Japan teen suspect in decapitation

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Carjackers runs over 3 siblings in U.S.

The manhunt for two suspects in a Philadelphia carjacking that left three children dead and their mother in critical condition entered its third day Sunday.

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U.S. journalists 'detained' in Tehran

Concern is growing for the wellbeing of four journalists apparently detained in Iran this week, three of them American citizens, according to the Washington Post.

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Aruba to release wanted ex-general

A retired Venezuelan military general will be released from custody in Aruba, days after authorities arrested him there, Venezuela's foreign minister said Sunday.

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Israel: We did not target school

An Israel Defense Force spokesperson says that an unintentional single mortar hit a school in Gaza.

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How North Korea gets its power

Worst Ebola outbreak in history

The worst ebola outbreak in history spreads out of control in West Africa. CNN's Michael Holmes reports.

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Lightning strike injures 9 in U.S. beach

Nine people were injured Sunday afternoon after a rare lightning strike at California's Venice Beach.

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Did Boko Haram abduct official's wife?

Gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram Islamists on Sunday abducted the wife of the Cameroonian deputy prime minister in a dawn attack on his home village of Kolofata, north of the area where they also kidnapped a local chief and his family, residents and security sources said.

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Nibali wins Tour de France

Vincenzo Nibali became only the sixth man in history to win all three of cycling's major tours as he sealed victory in this year's Tour de France on the Champs Elysees Sunday.

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Scenes from the ground in Gaza

A temporary truce Saturday between Israel and Hamas provided a precious few hours for hundreds of people, who had fled the fighting, the opportunity to learn whether they had a home to return to in Gaza.

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Malaysian PM's 'quiet diplomacy'

It was a moment of triumph amid a personal tragedy for Malaysian leader Najib Razak.

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Suicide blast kills 5 in Nigeria -- source

F1: Ricciardo wins in Hungary

Daniel Ricciardo drove the race of his young life to secure an unlikely victory for Red Bull Sunday in an incident-packed Hungarian Grand Prix which saw Lewis Hamilton ignore team orders to allow championship leader Nico Rosberg through.

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What's Putin's real end game?

Hamas agrees to new extension

Hamas has agreed to an extension of the cease-fire with Israel that had expired.

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Security pact reached for MH17 site

Malaysia has secured an agreement with pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine to allow a group of international police to enter the MH17 crash area to provide protection for international crash investigators, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak's office said Sunday.

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C. America leaders signal border plan

Central American leaders signaled to President Barack Obama they're working on a "comprehensive plan" to address the underlying reasons for the surge of immigrant youth from their countries who are entering the United States illegally.

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What will end violence?

"Lift the siege."

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Fighting resumes

After Hamas launches rockets into Israel, the Israeli military resumes operations in Gaza.

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Hamas rejects truce extension

Hamas has rejected a cease-fire extension that was requested by the U.N. and agreed to by Israel.

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Rights activist killed at protest

CNN's Ben Wedeman reports on the death of human rights activist Hashim Abu Maria, who was shot during a protest.

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Concordia nears end of final voyage

The crippled Costa Concordia cruise ship is nearing the end of its final voyage.

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Botched executions can't be new norm

Megan McCracken and Jennifer Moreno say it's unacceptable for states to experiment with new execution procedures without full disclosure

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Why we need Asian superheroes

Jeff Yang says it's great to see the comics make an effort at diversifying the halls of justice

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Concordia begins final voyage

The cruise ship Costa Concordia is on its final voyage, heading for the scrap heap.

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McCain: Arizona execution 'torture'

The prolonged execution of Arizona death row inmate Joseph Wood was tantamount to torture, Sen. John McCain said.

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Doctor in Liberia infected with Ebola

An American doctor trying to quell the Ebola outbreak in Liberia is now infected with the virus, the organization for which he works said.

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This won't be the AIDS-free generation

In the United States, 26% of all new HIV infections are among young people ages 13 to 24. Yet only 1 in 5 high school students is tested for HIV.

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Gaza peace fight 'drains me of hope'

At age of 52, it might be too late to re-visit your beliefs and principles in order to change them.

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Hamas rejects cease-fire extension

Israel approves an extension of a humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza, but Hamas rejects the idea, saying it won't tolerate Israeli troops in the territory.

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Shelling leaves heavy damage

After the clouds of war cleared, CNN's Ian Lee surveys the devastation left behind in Gaza.

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Gaza resident: Where do I live now?

CNN's Karl Penhaul talks to many residents trying to pick up the pieces in Gaza.

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Saturday, July 26, 2014

Ray Rice ruling: What is NFL thinking?

Bolt ready to compete in Glasgow

An athlete who didn't even compete at the Commonwealth Games, Usain Bolt, was the star attraction Saturday in Glasgow.

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Nibali closes in on Tour de France title

With the last day of the Tour de France usually uneventful as it relates to changes in the overall lead, Saturday marked the last realistic opportunity someone could catch Vincenzo Nibali.

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Report: Mortars fired from Gaza

An Israeli spokesperson says four mortar shells fired from Gaza landed in Israel when the cease-fire was due to expire.

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SWAT plane arrest: Father speaks out

The 25-year-old airline passenger whose dramatic arrest by a SWAT team was captured by a cell phone was due in court Saturday.

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F1: More bad luck for Hamilton

If Lewis Hamilton is to win a fifth Hungarian Grand Prix, he'll need something akin to a miracle.

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Lampard: 'MLS my next big challenge'

Not content with claiming every major club honor with Chelsea and over a century of caps for England -- now Frank Lampard is relishing a new challenge in MLS with New York City FC.

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Ebola death in Nigeria's biggest city

A Liberian man who was hospitalized in Nigeria's biggest city, Lagos, with the Ebola virus has died, Nigerian Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said.

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Boy, 13, killed in Chicago gun violence

Gun violence flared again in Chicago when a shooter sprayed bullets outside a convenience store on the city's west side, killing a 13-year-old boy and wounding six others.

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Anti-Semitic violence increases

Anti-Semitic violence has increased around the world. CNN's Isa Soares reports.

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Clinton: Settlements 'terrible signal'

Clinton: Israel's expansion of settlements is a "terrible signal" to send when claiming to support a two-state solution.

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Fire traded up to last minute

Hamas and Israel begin a 12-hour cease-fire. Will it hold?

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Will 12-hour Gaza truce hold?

A temporary humanitarian cease-fire between Israel and Hamas has begun as diplomats work to create a longer truce in the conflict that has killed more than 900 people.

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Friday, July 25, 2014

Palestinians call for 'day of rage'

Angry clashes erupt in the West Bank, as Palestinian leaders call for a "day of rage" in response to the fatal shelling of a U.N. school.

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Jews targeted in France

CNN's Isa Soares reports on anti-Semitism in Europe and around the world during the conflict in Gaza.

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Lightning to blame for crash?

Miles O'Brien, David Soucie and Tom Foreman discuss what may have caused an Air Algerie plane to crash in northern Mali.

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Wiggins upstaged at C'wealth Games

After crashing in the Tour de Suisse and being overlooked by his team for the Tour de France -- he became the first British winner of the race in 2012 -- Bradley Wiggins hoped relief would come at the Commonwealth Games.

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SWAT team storms Toronto plane

A passenger captured dramatic cell phone video of a Canadian SWAT team storming onto a Sunwing flight at Toronto's Pearson International Airport Friday. The video shows the police tactical team swarming onto the plane with their weapons drawn, yelling at passengers to get their hands up, and forcefully removing a 25-year-old man from the aircraft.

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C. America addressing border crisis

Dutch PM: We'll step up recovery

The Netherlands is stepping up efforts to try to ensure that the remains of all the victims of the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 return home from Ukraine, the Dutch prime minister told CNN.

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'Disintegrated' Air Algerie jet found

The crashed Air Algerie jet was found in a "disintegrated state" in northern Mali, but a Burkina Faso official says no survivors have been found so far.

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How can cease-fire be achieved?

Israeli leaders are demanding the 'demilitarization' of Gaza -- but Hamas is opposed. Is there another way to provide Israel with security guarantees? CNN's Tim Lister investigates.

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The art of negotiating peace

CNN's Max Foster speaks to former peace negotiator Daniel Levy about the intricacies of negotiating a cease-fire.

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Should world 'do nothing' in Gaza?

Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren, also a CNN Mideast analyst, says Israel needs to "crush Hamas."

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Gaza doctors struggle amid horror

Karl Penhaul spent time in an ER in Gaza and found staff struggling to care for a steady stream of horrific injuries.

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Mali's president: Wreckage found

Mali's President told Reuters the wreckage of a missing Air Algerie flight was spotted in his country's desert north.

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Two days, two plane crashes

In the last two days, two planes have crashed - one in West Africa, the other near Taiwan. Tom Foreman examines both.

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DNA clue to Brooklyn Bridge flag gag

New York police have collected DNA evidence in the case of nighttime acrobats who replaced two American flags atop of the Brooklyn Bridge with two white flags, according to a law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation Friday.

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Dogs get jealous too, study finds

Sure, Fido is a brown lab. But inside he may be a little green, too. A study by scholars at the University of California-San Diego found that dogs showed jealous behaviors when their owners displayed affection toward an animatronic stuffed dog which barked, whined and wagged its tail.

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McCain: Arizona execution was 'torture'

The prolonged execution of Arizona death row inmate Joseph Wood was tantamount to torture, Sen. John McCain said.

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This won't be the AIDS-free generation

In the United States, 26% of all new HIV infections are among young people ages 13 to 24. Yet only 1 in 5 high school students is tested for HIV.

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Gaza peace fight 'drains me of hope'

At age of 52, it might be too late to re-visit your beliefs and principles in order to change them.

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Hillary Clinton: Putin 'bears responsibility' for MH17

Russia's Vladimir Putin bears at least some responsibility for the shooting down of Flight MH17, says ex-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

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Clinton: Putin is partly to blame

Hillary Clinton tells CNN's Fareed Zakaria that Vladimir Putin should bear some responsibility for the downing of MH17.

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Who's running MH17 investigation?

With so many different nations affected by the MH17 downing, who is actually in charge of the investigation?

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Most Air Algerie victims French

CNN's Joe Johns reports on the latest developments in the Air Algerie crash.

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Deadly clashes in West Bank

Deadly demonstrations erupt in West Bank as tensions continue to escalate in the region. CNN's Ben Wedeman reports.

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Model Pejic undergoes sex change

As a male model, Andrej Pejic blazed trails with an androgynous look that saw him walking the runway in women's fashion shows.

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Cease-fire proposal turned down

The Israeli cabinet says they have unanimously rejected a cease-fire proposal by Secretary John Kerry and the U.N.

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Schools turned to shelters

Ian Lee gives us a tour of one of the U.N. run schools that have been converted into a shelter for displaced Gazans.

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Explosions rock U.N. school

Sixteen dead and hundreds injured as blasts rock a U.N. school. CNN's Ian Lee files this disturbing report.

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U.N.: Innocent people trapped

CNN's Christiane Amanpour speaks to the U.N.'s John Ging about all the children dying during the crisis in Gaza.

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U.S. man shoots, kills pregnant intruder

Tom Greer says he fought back when he was attacked by intruders at his home. When he got his gun and fired at them, they ran.

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Tour de France history for Lithuanian

His Garmin-Sharp teammate saw victory snatched from his grasp in heartbreaking fashion earlier in the Tour de France but Ramunas Navardauskas made sure there was to be no repeat on a rain soaked 19th stage Friday.

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Russia 'to send weapons to Ukraine'

Russia is preparing the transfer of more powerful weaponry into Ukraine, and it could happen at any time, a Pentagon spokesman said Friday, citing the latest U.S. intelligence.

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Hopes for 1-week cease-fire

The United States and Egypt are moving closer to an agreement with Israel and the Palestinians on a one-week humanitarian cease-fire, starting Sunday, diplomatic sources told CNN on Friday.

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Norway expects terror bid in 'days'

Norway says it thinks Islamist terror could strike the country within a few days but does not know what the plot is, the country announced Thursday.

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U.S.: Proof Russia firing into Ukraine

A week after Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over war-torn eastern Ukraine, dozens more coffins containing remains of victims of the crash were due to arrive in the Netherlands on Thursday.

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Pope to make first visit to U.S.

Pope Francis accepted the invitation of Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput to attend the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia next year, the Catholic News Service reported Friday.

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Teen has 232 "teeth" removed

A teenager in India, who had more than 200 "teeth" growing in his mouth due to a benign dental tumor, has had them removed.

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Azerbaijan to host first F1 race

Azerbaijan will make its Formula One debut in 2016 as the latest venue for the Grand Prix of Europe, it was announced Friday.

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MH17 foretells a more dangerous world

Patrick Cronin and Kelley Sayler say the world is seeing nonstate groups such as Ukraine's rebels wielding more power to do harm than ever before

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Should planes land in war zones?

Les Abend says, with rockets flying over Tel Aviv and missiles shooting down MH17 over Ukraine, a commercial pilot's pre-flight checklist just got much more complicated

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Why liberals don't trust Hillary Clinton

To prove she wasn't just an opportunist hoping to use a U.S. Senate seat in New York as a ticket to bigger things, then-first lady Hillary Clinton tried to show voters that she cared about their values and views -- she listened.

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Gutting Obamacare is playing with lives

Over the past decade, an increasing percentage of Americans lost health insurance coverage because they couldn't afford it. As a family physician, I have seen the devastating effects of losing health insurance. Without it, patients die unnecessarily.

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Why bringing bodies home matters

Gerard Jacobs says grieving families and nations need the comfort oftraditional rituals to honor the remains of loved ones, particularly in a mass disaster

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Thursday, July 24, 2014

Fighters escort jet to UK landing

Military fighter planes escorted a Gulfstream jet to the London area's Stansted Airport on Wednesday evening after the jet allegedly lost contact with air traffic controllers, an airport spokesman said.

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Attack leads to finger pointing

CNN's Karl Penhaul reports on the shelling of a school in Gaza that was being used as a shelter.

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Schools turned to shelters

Ian Lee gives us a tour of one of the U.N. run schools that have been converted into a shelter for displaced Gazans.

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Budget threat to deep-space rocket

NASA's staggering budget shortfall has put its rocket program at "high risk" of missing the planned 2017 launch date for its $12 billion deep-space rocket, a federal watchdog said.

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U.N.: Innocent people trapped

CNN's Christiane Amanpour speaks to the U.N.'s John Ging about all the children dying during the crisis in Gaza.

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Rebels ban more searches

The transfer from Ukraine to the Netherlands of remains of victims of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 shootdown is expected to be completed by Saturday, the Dutch prime minister said Thursday.

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Uncertainty over strike

CNN's Ian Lee reports there is uncertainty over who is responsible for a strike on a U.N. shelter in Gaza.

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The 20th International AIDS Conference: Is the end in sight?

TARGETS, students of management agree, help achieve goals. The best are demanding but realistic. And that is something those in charge of the fight against AIDS have come to realise. Their latest target, by far their most ambitious, is to end the epidemic by 2030. “End” is an elastic term, since there is no cure for HIV infection, nor is one in sight. But optimists think a combination of the tools available—particularly the antiretroviral (ARV) drugs which now keep around 13m people alive—could be enough to stop the virus spreading. In the parlance of epidemiologists, they believe they can arrive at R0<1. In layman’s terms, that means each infected individual, during the course of his or her lifetime, will pass the infection on to less than one person on average.That would be a stunning achievement. HIV was unknown to science a mere 33 years ago. A combination of scientific research and political willpower has got the virus on the run. According to calculations by UNAIDS, the United Nations agency created to deal with the disease, 1.5m people died of it last year. That is down from a peak of 2.4m in 2005 (see chart). The rate of new infections has been falling...

from The Economist: Science and technology http://ift.tt/1mJ3kHM

Free exchange: Sun, wind and drain

SUBSIDIES for renewable energy are one of the most contested areas of public policy. Billions are spent nursing the infant solar- and wind-power industries in the hope that they will one day undercut fossil fuels and drastically reduce the amount of carbon dioxide being put into the atmosphere. The idea seems to be working. Photovoltaic panels have halved in price since 2008 and the capital cost of a solar-power plant—of which panels account for slightly under half—fell by 22% in 2010-13. In a few sunny places, solar power is providing electricity to the grid as cheaply as conventional coal- or gas-fired power plants.But whereas the cost of a solar panel is easy to calculate, the cost of electricity is harder to assess. It depends not only on the fuel used, but also on the cost of capital (power plants take years to build and last for decades), how much of the time a plant operates, and whether it generates power at times of peak demand. To take account of all this, economists use “levelised costs”—the net present value of all costs (capital and operating) of a generating unit over its life cycle, divided by the number of megawatt-hours of electricity...

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The Big Mac index: A basket of sliders

COUNTRIES with McDonald’s fast-food restaurants may only rarely become embroiled in military conflict (Russia and Ukraine are obvious exceptions at the moment), but currency wars are another matter. In recent years central banks in many rich economies fired up big bond-buying schemes to put some sizzle into economies that had only recently emerged from a deep freeze. Emerging-market governments complained that the capital that flowed their way as a result was hard to digest. Meanwhile Americans griped that China was serving up an undercooked yuan. Burgernomics provides one way to keep track of the food fight.Our Big Mac index is based on the theory of purchasing-power parity. It says that in the long run exchange rates ought to adjust so that a basket of goods and services costs the same across countries. Our basket contains just one item, a Big Mac (except in India, where we substitute the Maharaja Mac, a chicken sandwich). Since a Big Mac costs 48 kroner ($7.76) in Norway and only $4.80 in America, the kroner is overvalued by 62% according to this lighthearted, protein-rich analysis, making it the most puffed-up currency in the index. The same...

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Accounting rules for banks: Freedom to fudge

FOR nearly a decade Spain has resisted the received wisdom, and European regulations, on accounting. In 2005 the European Union required all of its members to adopt IFRS, the dominant accounting standard outside America. One of the biggest changes between the new rules and many of the national guidelines that preceded them was a ban on banks writing down the value of their loans in anticipation of future losses, a practice some had abused to disguise volatility in their earnings. Instead, IFRS imposed a strict “incurred-loss” method, in which debt was valued at par until a borrower actually stopped paying.While nodding at the new rules, Spain in practice retained its old ones. Its banks, more than those of any other European country, had tended to wait until the last possible moment to recognise bad loans, amplifying the ups and downs of the credit cycle. Its central bank was therefore keen on the sort of smoothing of losses that IFRS was trying to eliminate: in 2000 it had forced banks to adopt “dynamic provisioning”, making bigger writedowns in boom times and smaller in bad.The financial crisis tested both systems, and revealed flaws in each. Because banks elsewhere in Europe could not write down their loans based on the deteriorating economic environment, their quarterly results failed to reflect the full horror to come, to investors’ cost. In contrast, Spanish banks had...

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Deadly twister hits campground

Two people are dead and at least 20 were injured at a Virginia campground on Thursday after a possible tornado, Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller told CNN.

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Could storm be to blame?

An Air Algerie flight with 116 people on board has dropped off radar, prompting a search for the missing plane.

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