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PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Two suicide bombers dressed as police officers detonated explosive vests at a meeting of hundreds of people with the top civilian official in the tribal agency of Mohmand, killing more than 40 and wounding at least 100, government officials said.
In Obama’s deal with GOP, a portent for the next two years
WASHINGTON — For President Barack Obama, this is what bipartisanship looks like in the new era: messy, combustible and painful, brought on under the threat of even more unpalatable consequences and yet still deferring the ultimate resolution for another day.
Cables show how U.S. strains to stop arms flow
WASHINGTON — Just a week after President Bashar Assad of Syria assured a top State Department official that his government was not sending sophisticated weapons to Hezbollah, the Obama administration lodged a confidential protest accusing Syria of doing precisely what it had denied doing.
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TEHRAN — The wedding nearly 1,400 years ago of Imam Ali, Shiite Islam’s most revered figure, and Fatemeh al-Zahra, the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad, is commemorated in Iran’s packed political calendar as a day to celebrate family values.
Blustery conditions, but no snow for this week
Chilly temperatures will maintain their grip on New England. Over the past few days, highs only reached the lower 30s°F which is about 10°F below normal for late Autumn. In fact, current trends show that it will get even colder over the region, with lows near 15°F by mid-week!
Afghan corruption shows in leaked cables from Wikileaks
WASHINGTON — From hundreds of diplomatic cables, Afghanistan emerges as a looking-glass land where bribery, extortion and embezzlement are the norm and the honest man is a distinct outlier.
Obama seeking aid for jobless in return for deal on taxes
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration said Thursday that it wanted an extension of unemployment assistance and a variety of tax breaks for low-wage and middle-income workers as part of a deal with congressional Republicans to extend all the Bush-era tax cuts.
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Scientists said Thursday that they had trained a bacterium to eat and grow on a diet of arsenic, in place of phosphorous –one of six elements considered essential for life — opening up the possibility that organisms could exist elsewhere in the universe or even here on Earth using biochemical powers we have not yet dared to dream about.
Russia, Qatar to host World Cups, expand reach of premiere event
The world’s biggest sporting event continued its spread to new corners of the globe Thursday as Russia and Qatar were named as hosts of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup soccer tournaments.
First flakes possible, but not likely
The season’s first forecasted chance of snow is in the cards for our area this weekend, but chances are low that we will actually see much, if any, of the white stuff. From Saturday night into Sunday morning, precipitation associated with a cut off low pressure system located over northeastern Maine could push south into our area. The result could be a few overnight or early-morning sprinkles or flurries. However, the chance of precipitation will be slight, and a significant snowfall will be highly unlikely.
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WASHINGTON — Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican and Vietnam-era war hero, took on the nation’s top defense and military officials Thursday when he repeatedly challenged the Pentagon’s position that gay men and women should be allowed to serve openly in the armed forces.
Rain wednesday, then cooling off
Yesterday’s sunny skies and seasonal temperatures will give way today and tomorrow to increasing clouds and warmer than average temperatures ahead of an approaching low pressure systems. The models are predicting a secondary low (associated with a low pressure in Ontario) to form in central New York and affect our region on Wednesday.
Obama declares two-year freeze on federal pay
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama announced Monday a two-year pay freeze for civilian federal workers as he sought to address concerns over high annual deficits and appealed to Republicans to find a common approach to restoring the nation’s economic and fiscal health.
Leaked cables show a guessing game over North Korea
WASHINGTON — Over an official lunch in late February, a top South Korean official confidently told the U.S. ambassador, Kathleen Stephens, that North Korea would fall “two to three years” after the death of Kim Jong Il, the country’s ailing leader, Stephens later cabled Washington. A new, younger generation of Chinese leaders “would be comfortable with a reunited Korea controlled by Seoul and anchored to the United States in a benign alliance,” the diplomat predicted.
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The very high levels of vitamin D that are often recommended by doctors and testing laboratories and can be achieved only by taking supplements — are unnecessary and could be harmful, an expert committee says. It also concludes that calcium supplements are not needed.
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WASHINGTON — Global talks on climate change opened in Cancun, Mexico, on Monday with the toughest issues unresolved and little expectation of a breakthrough on shaping an international treaty to curb emissions of the heat-trapping gases linked to global warming.
In U.S. terrorism sting operations, questions of entrapment
WASHINGTON — The arrest Friday of a Somali-born teenager who is accused of trying to detonate a car bomb at a crowded Christmas tree-lighting ceremony in Portland, Ore., has again thrown a spotlight on the government’s use of sting operations to capture terrorism suspects.
Bomb attacks made on two Iranian nuclear experts
TEHRAN — Unidentified assailants riding motorcycles carried out separate bomb attacks here Monday against two of the country’s top nuclear scientists, killing one and prompting accusations that the United States and Israel were again trying to disrupt Iran’s nuclear program.
Years after end of Apartheid, affirmative action opens rift
CAPE TOWN — The University of Cape Town was once a citadel of white privilege on the majestic slopes of Devil’s Peak. At the height of apartheid, it admitted few black or mixed-race students, and they were barred from campus dormitories, even forbidden to attend medical school postmortems on white corpses.
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OTTAWA — For more than a decade, a handful of therapists have been using virtual environments to help people to work through phobias, like a fear of heights or of public spaces. But now advances in artificial intelligence and computer modeling are allowing them to take on a wider array of complex social challenges and to gain insight into how people are affected by interactions with virtual humans — or by inhabiting avatars of themselves.