Chinese police have begun questioning writers, artists and intellectuals who dared to sign a new charter demanding political reforms. It is a move that sets the mood for the year in which the Communist Party will mark the 60th anniversary of its rule.
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Fighting intensified on the northern outskirts of Gaza City yesterday as a Hamas leader warned that the Islamists would kill Jewish children anywhere in the world in revenge for Israel’s devastating assault.
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Blog: finally, news
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Minnesota Twins owner Carl Pohlad dead at age 93; he bought team in 1984 and won 2 titles

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AP - Carl Pohlad, a billionaire banker whose Minnesota Twins won two World Series titles during nearly his nearly quarter-century as owner, died Monday. He was 93.

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Reuters - With CD sales dropping fast, the music business is exploring nontraditional ways to expose consumers to recording artists. Among the new sales and marketing vehicles are Tara Leigh Music Party and musicShop.
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Reuters - With CD sales dropping fast, the music business is exploring nontraditional ways to expose consumers to recording artists. Among the new sales and marketing vehicles are Tara Leigh Music Party and musicShop.
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Turkey is to restore the citizenship of one of its most illustrious writers, the late Nazim Hikmet.
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AP - Michael Redd had a season-high 35 points and Charlie Villanueva scored 13 of his 25 in the fourth quarter, leading Milwaukee to its first win without Andrew Bogut in 21 months, 107-97 over the Toronto Raptors on Monday night.

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AP - Logitech International SA, a maker of mice, webcams and other computer peripherals, said Monday it is cutting its salaried work force by 15 percent in response to weak consumer demand amid what it expects to be an extended global downturn.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama has chosen former White House chief of staff Leon Panetta to lead the CIA, which has been widely criticized for harsh interrogation of terrorism suspects, Democratic officials said on Monday.
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AP - GAZA CITY, Gaza — Israel ignored mounting international calls for a cease-fire Monday and said it won't stop its crippling 10-day assault until "peace and tranquility" are achieved in southern Israeli towns in the line of Palestinian rocket fire.

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AP - Gov. Tim Kaine said Monday he will manage a Virginia budget crisis $3 billion and growing and head the Democratic National Committee in his spare time, largely as "an electronic gig."
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AP - A Minnesota board on Monday certified results showing Democrat Al Franken winning the state's U.S. Senate recount over Republican Norm Coleman, whose lawyer promised a legal challenge that probably will keep the race in limbo for months.

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HONG KONG (Reuters) - Asian stocks edged up for a seventh day on Tuesday, boosted by hopes for a global economic recovery later in 2009, though the rising yen and falling high-yielding currencies suggested such optimism was limited.
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Reuters - Asian stocks edged up for a seventh day on Tuesday, boosted by hopes for a global economic recovery later in 2009, though the rising yen and falling high-yielding currencies suggested such optimism was limited.

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AP - Jonathan Rodriguez scored 22 points to lead Campbell in a 77-67 win against Kennesaw State on Monday night.
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The government said Monday it had supplied another $15 billion to seven U.S. banks in the latest round of payments from the $700 billion rescue fund.
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Leon Panetta, Barack Obama's surprise choice to head the CIA, clearly isn't someone with much hands-on national security or intelligence experience. But no one disputes that the man knows government.
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AP - Rescuers dug through tons of mud late Monday in search of more victims of a massive landslide that buried a long stretch of highway in northern Guatemala, killing at least 35 coffee workers and travelers using the road.

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AP - The nation's largest owner of timberland disclosed Monday that it will no longer pursue changes in agreements governing its use of U.S. Forest Service roads — changes that critics complained could transform forests into housing subdivisions.
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SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil was steady above $48 on Tuesday after rising 5 percent overnight, as Israel's deepening incursion into Gaza and a spat between Russia and Ukraine over gas prices stoked fears of severe supply disruptions.
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NEW YORK (Billboard) - With CD sales dropping fast, the music business is exploring nontraditional ways to expose consumers to recording artists. Among the new sales and marketing vehicles are Tara Leigh Music Party and musicShop.
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Applicants for nursing jobs are still so scarce that recruiters have been forced to get increasingly inventive.
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The US is to establish "the largest area of protected sea in the world", banning fishing and mining, around its Pacific islands.
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