Pop singer Jennifer Lopez appeared in a special concert Saturday night for the dictator of Turkmenistan, who runs one of the world’s most brutal and oppressive regimes. “It was our pleasure!” she cheered from the stage. “And we wish you the very happiest birthday…...
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Jennifer Lopez sings ‘Happy Birthday Mr. President’ to brutal dictator
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Judge showed ‘anti-Christian bias’ by upholding yoga classes in school: lawyer
By Marty Graham SAN DIEGO (Reuters) – Yoga in a public school’s fitness program does not amount to teaching children religion because despite its roots in Hindu philosophy it is part of American culture, a California judge ruled on Monday. The ruling denied a request by a family in a...
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Edward Snowden threatens new leaks over ‘illegal aggression’
LONDON (Reuters) – Former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden has broken his silence for the first time since he fled to Moscow eight days ago to say he remains free to make new disclosures about U.S. spying activity. In a letter to Ecuador, Snowden said the United States was illegally...
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Watch: Wendy Davis addresses crowd outside Texas State Capitol
Thousands of pro-choice activists gathered at the Texas State Capitol on Monday to kick off the state legislature’s special session. They were joined by Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis (D-Fort Worth), who received national attention last week for her 11-hour filibuster against an anti-abortion...
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Extremophile microbes to inherit the Earth in two billion years
Two billion years from now, an ever-hotter Sun will have cooked the Earth, leaving microbes confined to pockets of water in mountains or caves as the last survivors, a study said Monday. The bleak scenario is proposed by astrobiologist Jack O’Malley-James of the University of St. Andrews,...
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Rafael Correa says Ecuador helped Edward Snowden by mistake
Ecuador is not considering Edward Snowden’s asylum request and never intended to facilitate his flight from Hong Kong, president Rafael Correa said as the whistleblower made a personal plea to Quito for his case to be heard. Snowden was Russia’s responsibility and would have to reach...
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Intelligence chief James Clapper apologizes to Congress for ‘erroneous’ NSA claims
The US director of national intelligence, James Clapper, has attempted to head off criticism that he lied to Congress over the extent of government surveillance on American citizens, with a letter to senators in which he apologised for giving “erroneous” information. Two weeks after...
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Arizona mourns tragic loss of 19 fire fighters killed by massive wildfire
The bodies of 19 young firefighters killed in America’s deadliest wildfire in 80 years were removed in a cortege of white vans, as experts probed how they perished so suddenly. The names of the dead men, mostly in their 20s, were released a day after the Yarnell Hill fire tragedy, in which...
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LeVar Burton explains his ritual to prevent being shot by police
He’s not exactly known for bad behavior, but even the former host of the children’s show Reading Rainbow fears he will be mistreated by police because of his skin color. Actor and director LeVar Burton explained Monday on CNN that he follows a particular procedure every time he is...
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Morsi rejects army ultimatum but vows ‘path of democratic change’
Egypt’s presidency on Tuesday rejected an army ultimatum threatening to intervene if Islamist President Mohamed Morsi did not meet the demands of the people, raising the stakes in the country’s political crisis. The army statement, read out on television Monday, had given Morsi 48 hours...
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Documents show Cardinal Dolan — top U.S. Catholic official — shielded pedophile priests
By Brendan O’Brien and Geoffrey Davidian MILWAUKEE (Reuters) – Roman Catholic Church officials in Milwaukee vigorously shielded pedophile priests and protected church funds from lawsuits during a decades-long sex abuse scandal, according to hundreds of documents released on Monday. The...
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Nursing home staff allegedly abused elderly Alzheimer’s patients
By David Beasley ATLANTA (Reuters) – Twenty-one current and former employees of a nursing home for Alzheimer’s patients in Georgia, including its owner, face a total of more than 70 criminal charges for allegedly abusing elderly patients, authorities said Tuesday. The abuses included...
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Illinois governor vetoes several provisions of ‘flawed’ concealed carry gun bill
By Greg McCune CHICAGO (Reuters) – Illinois governor Pat Quinn on Tuesday vetoed parts of a gun bill that would have allowed people to carry more than one gun, carry guns into some places that serve alcohol, and carry a partly exposed gun. Flanked by parents of gun violence victims, Democrat...
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Paula Deen’s accuser: Lawsuit not just about ‘the N-word’
The lawsuit against former Food Network host Paula Deen doesn’t simply revolve around the use of the “N-word,” the woman who filed the lawsuit clarified on Tuesday. “This lawsuit has never been about the N-word,” Lisa Jackson said in a statement obtained by CNN....
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George Zimmerman’s injuries were ‘insignificant,’ medical examiner testifies
By Barbara Liston SANFORD, Florida (Reuters) – Volunteer watchman George Zimmerman suffered “insignificant” injuries in the fight in which he shot and killed unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin, a medical examiner testified on Tuesday, as prosecutors attempted to undermine...
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France’s Marine Le Pen expected to face charges for incitement to racial hatred
Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s far-right Front National, is expected to face charges for incitement to racial hatred in France, after the European parliament voted to lift her parliamentary immunity. The French state prosecutor in Lyon had asked the European parliament to lift Le...
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In ‘sneak attack,’ North Carolina GOP pushes bill that could close all but one abortion clinic
Legislation to ban Islamic law in North Carolina now also contains a number of anti-abortion measures, potentially closing all but one abortion clinic in the state. “This attempted sneak attack on women’s reproductive rights is absolutely shameful,” Sarah Preston of the American Civil...
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Military air tankers join fight against deadly Arizona wildfire
The US military ordered four air tankers to join fire-dousing efforts in Arizona, where firefighters were battling a still out-of-control inferno which killed 19 of their comrades. The Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System (MAFFS) planes will be redeployed from other states to help tackle blazes...
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Egypt’s army ‘ready to die’ to protect against ‘any terrorist, radical or fool’
CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s high command said on Wednesday the army was ready to die to defend Egypt’s people against terrorists and fools, in a response to Islamist President Mohamed Mursi that was headlined “The Final Hours”. The post on the official Facebook page of...
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Hope mixes with fear as Egyptian army prepares to overthrow Morsi
By Alexander Dziadosz CAIRO (Reuters) – When military helicopters monitoring Egypt’s protests whirr over downtown Cairo, storekeepers and shoppers stop talking and crane their heads to catch a glimpse. The talk is largely of the army anyway. In a dramatic re-entry into politics on...
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