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Drone strikes are legal and extend to US citizens as well, says Obama
WASHINGTON - In a major counter-terrorism speech, President Barack Obama Thursday defended the covert US drone program and stressed that despite the controversies around it, the strikes are legal and save lives. He also said the use of lethal force extends to U.S. citizens as well. This disclosure comes a day after his administration acknowledged publicly for the first time that four US ...
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Two civilians among 13 dead in Pakistan car bomb
QUETTA, Pakistan - At least 13 people, including two civilians, were killed in a car bomb targeting a police vehicle in western Pakistani city of Quetta Thursday, police officials said. The bombing also injured at least 20 people in the capital of Baluchistan province, riven by Islamist militancy and a violent separatist insurgency. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the ...
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Kerry holds talks with Israeli and Palestinian officials
JERUSALEM - US Secretary of State John Kerry Thursday separately began meetings with Israeli and Palestinian officials but appeared doubtful about his success on getting the two warring sides back to peace negotiations. This is Kerry's fourth trip to the Middle East in as many months of his assuming the office of the top US diplomat. He was been trying to revive a peace process that has been ...
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Meeting of Syrian opposition leaders begins in Istanbul
ISTANBUL - Syrian opposition leaders Thursday began their three-day meeting in this Turkish capital city to decide on their participation in talks aimed at end the civil war in the country. As the meeting began in Istanbul a prominent Syrian figure in the opposition proposed a transition plan for the country that requires President Bashar al-Assad to hand over power to a senior aide and ...
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Ecuadors Correa wont run again in 2017
On the eve of his inauguration for another four-year term, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa said Thursday that he will not run again in 2017. "We are all necessary, but nobody is indispensable," the 50-year-old head of state said in a television interview, expressing confidence that his Alianza Pais movement will have found a new leader by the time the next presidential election rolls ...
Movie Review
The Decameron (Il Decameron) [Blu-Ray]
The Decameron (Il Decameron), the first of the three films that would come to be known as Pier Paolo Pasolinis Trilogy of Life, is based on nine stories from the canonical 14th-century work of the same name by Giovanni Boccaccio. Pasolini discarded the frame story of seven ... ...
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Singer-songwriter Georges Moustaki dies
Singer-songwriter Georges Moustaki died Thursday in the French Mediterranean city of Nice, his family said. He was 79. A Greek native, Moustaki grew up in Alexandria, Egypt, and arrived in Paris in 1951. He began performing at nightclubs and came to know masters of the "chanson franaise" such as Georges Brassens, Jacques Brel and Serge Gainsbourg. Moustaki met Edith Piaf in the late 1950s and ...
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Ecuadorian satellite escapes collision with Russian rocket
Ecuador's first satellite avoided a direct collision with the remains of a Russian rocket, but whether the device is still operating remains unclear, the head of the country's EXA space agency told EFE. The US-based Joint Space Operations Center, which had alerted EXA to the possible threat to Pegaso, informed the Ecuadorian agency Thursday that the Russian wreckage did not hit the satellite ...
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When travelling at least try to get to correct continent
Being in the travel trade sucks. You won't BELIEVE the fuss passengers make, just because some tiny mistake has been made which has led to them being taken to, say, the wrong country. Why quibble? Countries are countries. Variety is the spice of life, as the Bible says. Or was it Rod Stewart? Anyway, news broke last week about a pair of holidaymakers who were mistakenly flown to the wrong ...
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History maker Sri Srinivasans feat hailed widely
History-making Indian-American legal luminary Srikanth 'Sri' Srinivasan's unanimous Senate confirmation as the first South Asian judge on the powerful appeals court for the American capital has been widely hailed. Senate Judiciary Committee's Democratic Chairman Patrick Leahy, welcomed Srinivasan's confirmation, but criticised "Republican efforts to delay a floor vote of the highly qualified ...
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Taliban influence in Afghanistan to grow Russian agency
The Taliban influence in Afghanistan may grow after international coalition forces pull out, while rising radicalism in Syria could lead to the country's disintegration, Russian military intelligence agency GRU has said. GRU chief Lt. Gen. Igor Sergun said the situation in Afghanistan poses a "serious challenge to international stability" and that the withdrawal of the International Security ...

