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Thursday, July 31, 2014
Tropical storm forms in Atlantic
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8 things you need to know
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Tracking patients' journey
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Can you catch Ebola on planes?
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Sick doctor gives friend serum
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Virus fears sweep world
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Boehner authorized to sue Obama
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'Substantial' damage in LA flooding
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Sudanese Christian arrives in U.S.
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9/11-related cancer cases growing
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U.S. to send more missiles to Iraq
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Rafa Nadal injured ahead of U.S. Open
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Gun victim: Time for Congress to act
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Will sanctions against Russia work?
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Bird's eye view of aftermath
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U.S. pressures Qatar to release couple
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WikiLeaks breaks Australia gag order
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Gas explosions kill at least 22, injure 270 in Taiwan
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Liberia President: 'A global crisis'
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U.S., U.N. announce cease-fire
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Kerry: It's a moment of opportunity
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Lack of electricity fuels chaos
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'Precision' strikes hit civilians
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At least 30 killed by landslide
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Amid deaths, 4 miraculous lives
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CIA apologizes for spying on Senate
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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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German politics: For curvy cannons and extra sleep
“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
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.
from The Economist: International http://ift.tt/1nWDlTl
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
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N. Korea fires projectiles at Japan sea
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'We're approaching breaking point'
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Team member describes scene
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From convicted sex offender to millionaire
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Wake up to the plight of the pangolin
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Knee injury forces Li Na out
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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
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Landslides trap at least 170 in India
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Other nations' roles in conflict
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'Sharknado 2' whips up Twitter frenzy
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Gaza crisis brings 9/11 flashbacks
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Shrapnel 'fell like rain' in Gaza
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Ukraine declares MH17 cease-fire
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N. Korea: Jailed U.S. man speaks
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Brutal scene after school attack
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Inside the Israel-Gaza conflict
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Wednesday, July 30, 2014
The bitter lessons of MH17
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U.S. to Israel: 'Limit civilian casualties'
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Bergdahl to be questioned next week
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Hamas: Its origins and goals
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Ebola: What you need to know
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Outbreak 'an international problem'
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China probes former security chief
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Enola Gay's last crewman dies
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Israel-Hamas cease-fire bid fails
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House approves lawsuit against Obama
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'Substantial' damage in LA flood
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Ventura wins $1.8M lawsuit
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Police: Teen raped at Keith Urban show
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Barrymore's half-sister found dead
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Expert: Argentina will default
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9/11-related cancer cases growing
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U.S. to send more missiles to Iraq
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Ebola aid workers 'slightly improved'
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Nadal injured ahead of U.S. Open
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Truce closes with a boom
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Ebola victim's wife speaks out
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Girl dies after being hit by plane
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What will investigators find at site?
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North Korea fires projectiles
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China charges Uyghur scholar
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Gaza tunnel attack on video?
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U.N. school shelled in Gaza
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Ukraine: U.S., Europe, Russia face off
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Meat-free tofu McNuggets unveiled
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Why we must end weapons trade
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Attack on U.N. school in Gaza leaves 19 dead
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Landslides trap 150 people in India
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Is foreign policy a liability for Clinton?
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Father arrested in baby's hot car death
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Whale-watchers stranded at sea
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EU, U.S. hit Russia with fresh sanctions over Ukraine
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Facebook: Get Messenger app or else
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Duchovny under fire for Russia beer ad
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First family reach MH17 crash site
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Water main floods Sunset Boulevard
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Tuesday, July 29, 2014
The bitter lessons of MH17
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Are arrests just politics?
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Bergdahl could be questioned soon
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Hamas: Its origins and goals
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China's tainted meat scandal explained
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Serena fit after Wimbledon scare
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Afghan president's cousin killed in blast
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How WWI gave us drones
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No end in sight: Israel, Hamas blame each other for fighting
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Children die in camp shelling
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Last crewman of Enola Gay dies
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China probes former security czar
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Xi snares 'untouchable' tiger
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U.S. man 'sent 500 powder letters'
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U.S.: Russia violated missile treaty
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Terror of life under fire in Ashkelon
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See inside Hamas' tunnel network
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Tunnel threat has Israel on edge
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Cease-fire dispute bolsters hardliners
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Powerless in pummeled Gaza
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Japanese teen dismembers classmate
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Obama: Not a new Cold War
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Battles near MH17 crash site
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Why Gaza cease-fire never happened
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'Die Hard' actor James Shigeta dies
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Ebola doctor killed by the virus
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FIFA asks Italy to probe racism claims
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'Stowaway' body found in plane
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Report: Dozens die in China attack
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Sewol ferry students 'told to stay put'
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Is Obama a lame duck president?
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Afghan president's cousin killed in blast
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Same-sex marriage ban overturned
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Children killed in camp as Gaza fighting intensifies
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How WWI gave us drones
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Gaza tunnels: Lifeline or deadly?
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Children die in camp shelling
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Beachgoer killed by landing plane
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U.S. man 'sent 500 powder letters'
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Palin to launch her own TV channel
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U.S.: Russia violated missile treaty
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Investigators frustrated by delays
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Dozens killed as fighting intensifies in Gaza
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Life under fire in Ashkelon
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Inside Hamas' tunnel network
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Russia cooperation 'close to zero'
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Black boxes help explain downing
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Monday, July 28, 2014
Japanese teen dismembers classmate
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Battle nears MH17 crash scene
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U.S.: Russia builds force in Ukraine
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How Gaza cease-fire never happened
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How North Korea gets its power
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Israel protests turn anti-Semitic
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1 killed, 13 hurt by U.S. beach lightning
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Judge: Clippers sale can go forward
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Charges in carjacking that killed 3 siblings
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Zillow CEO on Trulia purchase
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MH17 probe forced to turn back
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Explosions, gunfire in fighting
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Source: Suicide blast kills 5 in Nigeria
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Who would fill Hamas void?
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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?
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MSF: Teams greeted with rocks
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Suspected U.S. sex offender killed
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Westerners flee Libya battles
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U.S. student hid cameras in bathrooms
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Israeli family mourns son
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Botched executions can't be norm
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Concordia reaches end of last voyage
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Gaza hospital, refugee camp hit
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What do both sides want?
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Rising anti-Israel sentiment?
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Ebola: Liberia closes borders
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U.S. aid worker in Liberia has Ebola
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This won't be AIDS-free generation
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Gaza peace fight 'drains me of hope'
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Israel rejects blame in school deaths
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Qatari FM: Israel rejecting peace
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Beheadings in Syria violence
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Yukos win delivers blow to Putin
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Rice ruling: What is NFL thinking?
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Sehwol ferry students 'told to stay put'
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Is Obama a lame duck president?
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Israel: Errant mortar hit school
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Finding ways to feed Gaza
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Lightning strike kills 1 on beach
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Militias battle for territory in Libya
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ISIS Militants destroy Jonah's tomb
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Second Air Algerie 'black box' found
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Beachgoer killed by landing plane
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Palin to launch her own TV channel
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Meat scandal limits menus
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Boy, 3, smashes Jeep into house
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Fighting prevents access to crash site
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U.S. evacuates embassy in Libya
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Indian teen has 232 'teeth' removed
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U.N. Security Council calls for immediate cease-fire in Gaza
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Watch Security Council
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Japan teen suspect in decapitation
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Sunday, July 27, 2014
Carjackers runs over 3 siblings in U.S.
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U.S. journalists 'detained' in Tehran
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Aruba to release wanted ex-general
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Israel: We did not target school
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How North Korea gets its power
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Worst Ebola outbreak in history
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Lightning strike injures 9 in U.S. beach
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Did Boko Haram abduct official's wife?
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Nibali wins Tour de France
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Scenes from the ground in Gaza
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Malaysian PM's 'quiet diplomacy'
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Suicide blast kills 5 in Nigeria -- source
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F1: Ricciardo wins in Hungary
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What's Putin's real end game?
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Hamas agrees to new extension
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Security pact reached for MH17 site
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C. America leaders signal border plan
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Fighting resumes
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Hamas rejects truce extension
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Rights activist killed at protest
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Concordia nears end of final voyage
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Botched executions can't be new norm
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Why we need Asian superheroes
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Concordia begins final voyage
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McCain: Arizona execution 'torture'
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Doctor in Liberia infected with Ebola
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This won't be the AIDS-free generation
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Gaza peace fight 'drains me of hope'
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Hamas rejects cease-fire extension
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Shelling leaves heavy damage
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Gaza resident: Where do I live now?
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Saturday, July 26, 2014
Ray Rice ruling: What is NFL thinking?
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Bolt ready to compete in Glasgow
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Nibali closes in on Tour de France title
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Report: Mortars fired from Gaza
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SWAT plane arrest: Father speaks out
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F1: More bad luck for Hamilton
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Lampard: 'MLS my next big challenge'
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Ebola death in Nigeria's biggest city
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Boy, 13, killed in Chicago gun violence
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Anti-Semitic violence increases
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Clinton: Settlements 'terrible signal'
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Fire traded up to last minute
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Will 12-hour Gaza truce hold?
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Friday, July 25, 2014
Palestinians call for 'day of rage'
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Jews targeted in France
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Lightning to blame for crash?
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Wiggins upstaged at C'wealth Games
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SWAT team storms Toronto plane
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C. America addressing border crisis
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Dutch PM: We'll step up recovery
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'Disintegrated' Air Algerie jet found
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How can cease-fire be achieved?
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The art of negotiating peace
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Should world 'do nothing' in Gaza?
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Gaza doctors struggle amid horror
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Mali's president: Wreckage found
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Two days, two plane crashes
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DNA clue to Brooklyn Bridge flag gag
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Dogs get jealous too, study finds
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McCain: Arizona execution was 'torture'
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This won't be the AIDS-free generation
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Gaza peace fight 'drains me of hope'
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Hillary Clinton: Putin 'bears responsibility' for MH17
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Clinton: Putin is partly to blame
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Who's running MH17 investigation?
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Most Air Algerie victims French
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Deadly clashes in West Bank
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Model Pejic undergoes sex change
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Cease-fire proposal turned down
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Schools turned to shelters
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Explosions rock U.N. school
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U.N.: Innocent people trapped
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U.S. man shoots, kills pregnant intruder
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Tour de France history for Lithuanian
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Russia 'to send weapons to Ukraine'
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Hopes for 1-week cease-fire
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Norway expects terror bid in 'days'
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U.S.: Proof Russia firing into Ukraine
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Pope to make first visit to U.S.
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Teen has 232 "teeth" removed
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Azerbaijan to host first F1 race
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MH17 foretells a more dangerous world
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Should planes land in war zones?
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Why liberals don't trust Hillary Clinton
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Gutting Obamacare is playing with lives
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Why bringing bodies home matters
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Thursday, July 24, 2014
Fighters escort jet to UK landing
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Attack leads to finger pointing
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Schools turned to shelters
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Budget threat to deep-space rocket
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U.N.: Innocent people trapped
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Rebels ban more searches
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Uncertainty over strike
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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...
from The Economist: Finance and economics http://ift.tt/WK2ZPZ
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
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Could storm be to blame?
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