Columnist and humorist Art Buchwald says he’s having ”the best time of my life” after deciding to refuse dialysis treatment and stay in a hospice. ”So far things are going my way. I am known in the hospice as The Man Who Wouldn’t Die,” Buchwald (80) wrote in a column published in newspapers on Tuesday.
Cigarette sales hit a 55-year low in 2005 and have fallen by more than 21% since state attorneys general negotiated a landmark settlement with the industry eight years ago. The National Association of Attorneys General said on Wednesday that the 378-billion cigarettes sold in the United States last year marked the lowest number sold since 1951.
The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday said it would keep in place sanctions on Zimbabwe because of money still owed the bank, and urged Harare to urgently implment reforms to stablise its economy. In a statement the IMF board urged Harare ”to continue its efforts to resolve the remaining overdue financial obligations”.
An intensification of storms on the surface of the sun in coming years could disrupt satellites, communications and power grids on Earth and endanger astronauts, United States scientists are forecasting. A new 11-year solar cycle beginning in late 2007 or early 2008 will be between 30% and 50% stronger than the previous one.
The Bush administration is getting closer to a United Nations Security Council rebuke of Iran, but the latest round of diplomacy shows the United States needs the help of Cold War foe Russia to close the deal. Iran is offering to suspend full-scale uranium enrichment for up to two years, a diplomat said on Tuesday.
Appropriate for the coming spring blossoms in the United States, the government is adding a little colour to American wallets. A newly redesigned bill is going into circulation. The new , featuring shades of orange, yellow and red, will join colourised versions of the bill and the bill.
United States President George Bush on Tuesday extended by one year a series of sanctions against Zimbabwe officials, including President Robert Mugabe, deemed to be undermining democracy. The decision renews Bush’s executive orders of March 2003 and November 2005 freezing the assets of more than 100 people and 30 entities considered to be opposing reforms in Zimbabwe.
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/ 28 February 2006
Various United States interest groups have joined forces to fight a proposed bulk e-mailing fee they claim strikes at the heart of online communication — a level playing field for rich and poor. The service would charge businesses and other bulk e-mailers a fee to route their e-mail directly to a user’s mailbox.
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/ 27 February 2006
President George Bush has been buffeted by one calamity after another. Try what he may, he just can’t seem to find traction for his second-term agenda. With midterm congressional elections approaching later this year, it won’t get any easier.
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/ 23 February 2006
The United States reacted coolly on Wednesday to prospects that former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide would return to Haiti after the election of his one-time protégé René Préval to lead the Caribbean nation. ”If we were asked, I think we would say it’s probably not a good idea. It doesn’t serve a useful purpose,” said deputy State Department spokesperson Adam Ereli.
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/ 22 February 2006
The FBI’s latest attempt to modernise its computers is running behind schedule and its budget already has exceeded the cost of the last failed effort. FBI Director Robert Mueller and other officials have refused to disclose the anticipated cost of the Sentinel program, which will not be fully in place until 2009.
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/ 17 February 2006
The United States risks ”loss of leadership” is space exploration, if it fails to replace quickly its ailing shuttle fleet with a new reliable space vehicle, the head of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) has warned. And that will not be possible without sacrificing some valuable science programmes, Michael Griffin, head of the Nasa, told Congress on Thursday.
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/ 17 February 2006
United States Vice-President Dick Cheney badly handled a damage limitation exercise after accidentally shooting a hunting partner and could now become a case study for future politicians, experts said. ”It will be studied as one of the big ones — an example of how a modest mishap goes completely out of control,” said Larry Sabato, head of the Centre for Politics at the University of Virginia.
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/ 16 February 2006
The French businessman flying in China wants his airplane seat mate to be a woman who will escort him during his ”lonely after-work evening”. An American woman wouldn’t mind meeting her ”soul mate” on her plane trip. Thanks to the internet, these travellers might get to choose their ideal travel partners in their next voyage.
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/ 14 February 2006
United States comedians and satirists have seized upon Vice-President Dick Cheney’s quail hunting accident, in which he fired shotgun pellets at a lawyer friend Harry Whittington. David Letterman on his talk show said: "Good news, ladies and gentlemen, we have finally located weapons of mass destruction: it’s Dick Cheney."
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/ 13 February 2006
For many, Valentine’s Day conjures up images of love, romance, flowers and chocolate. But for detective agencies across the United States, the romantic holiday is a boon for business as it is the ideal time for a spouse to catch a cheating mate.
"Valentine’s Day is the biggest day of the year for private investigators," says Tony Delorenzo, of Private Detectives of America.
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/ 10 February 2006
A former CIA official who coordinated United States intelligence on the Middle East has accused the Bush administration of ”cherry-picking” intelligence on Iraq to justify a decision it had already reached to go to war, The Washington Post reported on Friday.
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/ 10 February 2006
A former CIA official who coordinated United States intelligence on the Middle East has accused the Bush administration of ”cherry-picking” intelligence on Iraq to justify a decision it had already reached to go to war, The Washington Post reported on Friday.
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/ 10 February 2006
Indicted former top White House aide Lewis ”Scooter” Libby will argue that Vice-President Dick Cheney authorised him to leak classified information in 2003 to bolster the case for the United States-led war against Iraq, US news media reported late on Thursday.
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/ 10 February 2006
Bottled water consumption, which has more than doubled globally in the last six years, is a natural resource that is heavily taxing the world’s ecosystem, according to a new United States study. The study says that although bottled water is often no healthier than tap water, it can end up costing 10 000 times more.
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/ 10 February 2006
Commercial passenger flights into space could be authorised in the United States by 2008, US Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta told a group of space entrepreneurs on Thursday. ”The timeline isn’t based on science fiction,” he said in a statement released by the department.
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/ 10 February 2006
Bottled-water consumption, which has more than doubled globally in the past six years, is a natural resource that is heavily taxing the world’s ecosystem, according to a new United States study. "At as much as $2,50 per litre, bottled water costs more than gasoline," the study says.
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/ 8 February 2006
Iran has much of what it needs to build a nuclear bomb and lacks only the know-how to put the pieces together, the United States State Department said on Tuesday. The comments by department spokesperson Sean McCormack constituted the second worrying assessment by the United States as it stepped up efforts to mobilise support for UN action against Tehran.
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/ 6 February 2006
The White House on Monday proposed a ,77-trillion Budget for the next fiscal year that boosts defence and homeland security spending while trimming many social programmes. President George Bush’s Budget for the fiscal year starting October 1 will boost defence spending by 6,9% to ,3-billion.
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/ 6 February 2006
It was almost certainly the first State of the Union address in United States history to mention switchgrass. It grows in marshes and may, according to President George W Bush, be part of the solution to the US’s oil addiction. In six years, said Bush, the ethanol derived from such vegetable matter would be a viable, affordable fuel for the US’s cars.
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/ 2 February 2006
Patients suffering from severe lupus have experienced improvement when injected with blood stem cells from their own bone marrow, according to a study published in the United States. Of the patients with life-threatening lupus who received the treatment, 50% were disease free five years afterward, said the study.
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/ 2 February 2006
North Korea’s reluctance to return to the negotiating table over its nuclear weapons programme has fuelled speculation the United States may seek to refer the Stalinist state, like Iran, to the United Nations Security Council. Christopher Hill, the chief US negotiator to the nuclear talks, said that Washington might consider other options if North Korea stayed away from the stalled negotiations.
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/ 2 February 2006
Newly appointed United States Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito broke ranks with fellow conservative jurists on his first day on the job, backing a ruling by the court to stay the execution of an inmate in the midwestern state of Missouri. Alito joined the majority in a 6-3 vote that rejected a request by Missouri authorities to execute convicted murderer Michael Taylor.
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/ 1 February 2006
After steering the United States economy through an extraordinary boom
punctuated by recession and financial crises, Federal Reserve chairperson Alan Greenspan headed into a well-earned retirement on Tuesday. Greenspan (79) chaired his last meeting of the US central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee before handing over to top White House economic adviser Ben Bernanke.
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/ 1 February 2006
New Federal Reserve chairperson Ben Bernanke got down to work on Wednesday with a parting gift from his illustrious predecessor to cope with a new mood of uncertainty in the United States economy. Bernanke was to be sworn in at a private ceremony in the Fed building at 2pm GMT to succeed Alan Greenspan, who bowed out Tuesday with more one rate hike.
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/ 27 January 2006
The diplomatic "quartet" seeking Middle East peace on Thursday urged the militant group Hamas, shock winners in the Palestinian elections, to renounce violence and accept Israel’s right to exist. Without naming Hamas, the quartet reiterated its view "that there is a fundamental contradiction between armed group and militia activities and the building of a democratic state.
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/ 24 January 2006
Millions of United States BlackBerry users can now turn their attention back to a federal court where the fate of the popular wireless e-mail device may be decided.
After the Supreme Court chose on Monday not to intervene in the case, the resolution of the long-running battle over patents for the handheld device is up to a district judge.