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/ 21 November 2005
The Washington Post‘s editorial watchdog slammed legendary reporter Bob Woodward on Sunday for committing a journalistic ”sin” by keeping from his paper what he knew in a CIA leak case that has rocked the White House. The newspaper’s ombudsman, Deborah Howell, said Woodward should follow the same rules as other Post journalists despite the fame he has garnered since his prize-winning work in the Watergate scandal.
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/ 21 November 2005
Its scent has drawn comparisons to garbage and spoiled meat, but that isn’t stopping crowds from flocking to see — and smell –- an unusual plant in bloom at the United States Botanic Garden. The titan arum plant, nicknamed ”corpse plant” for its rank smell, is attracting thousands of visitors during the day or two it remains in bloom.
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/ 15 November 2005
FBI agents arrested a woman on Tuesday who was suspected of robbing four banks in suburban Virginia while appearing to be talking on a cellphone. Candice Martinez (19) was arrested just before 4am at a home in nearby Centreville, Virginia after an FBI agent spotted a car nearby with licence plates they had been searching for.
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/ 11 November 2005
In the era when dinosaurs ruled the Jurassic earth, a 3,9m oceanic crocodile with a short snout and a mouthful of deadly teeth hunted large creatures in the sea, scientists reported on Thursday. Nicknamed ”Godzilla” by its discoverers, the new find was very different from other marine crocodiles, which had long snouts with many small teeth.
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/ 10 November 2005
The United States trade deficit exploded to a new record high of ,1-billion in September after hurricanes battered the world’s biggest economy, the Commerce Department said on Thursday. A strike at aviation giant Boeing in September also contributed to the gap between US imports and exports widening from August’s deficit of ,3-billion.
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/ 10 November 2005
Muhammad Ali, his hands shaking and eyes reflecting the White House chandeliers, accepted the nation’s highest civilian award from President George Bush on Wednesday. Bush called him ”the greatest of all time” and ”a man of peace”, and tied the Presidential Medal of Freedom around the former heavyweight champion’s neck.
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/ 9 November 2005
In a ruling reflecting the resurgence of religious conservatism, a key United States state has given Charles Darwin and his evolution theory a shove. The Kansas Board of Education on Tuesday adopted new science teaching guidelines, under which evolutionary concepts must be presented to students alongside theories that life could have had divine origins.
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/ 2 November 2005
United States President George Bush may be burdened with many problems, but his pockets are pretty light. Bush revealed the contents of his pockets on Tuesday to an Argentine newspaper reporter who was interviewing him in advance of a presidential trip to Latin America later this week.
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/ 31 October 2005
Embattled United States President George Bush on Monday nominated a conservative Appeals Court Judge, Samuel Alito, to the Supreme Court in a move expected to heal a rift in his Republican party. Bush called Alito ”one of the most accomplished and respected judges in America”.
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/ 30 October 2005
Wal-Mart, which has cultivated an image for brutal cost-cutting at the expense of employees and suppliers, is trying to reshape itself as a kinder, gentler company, but its legion of critics is not buying it. Views are mixed on whether there is a change at Wal-Mart, which is the world’s largest private employer.
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/ 28 October 2005
An embattled White House braced on Friday for criminal charges against Vice-President Dick Cheney’s top aide in an investigation of the leak of an undercover CIA officer’s identity. Meanwhile, President George Bush’s top political adviser, Karl Rove, remains under investigation.
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/ 27 October 2005
United States President George Bush announced on Thursday that his choice to fill a US Supreme Court vacancy, Harriet Miers, had withdrawn her nomination. The surprise withdrawal of Miers’s nomination comes just over three weeks after she was recommended for the high-profile legal post by Bush on October 3.
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/ 26 October 2005
White House lawyers really have their hands full: Top Bush administration aides are under investigation, the president wants to secure a Supreme Court seat for his top legal aide — and a satirical website is using the presidential seal. Preventing The Onion from using the symbol of United States presidential power became an official matter after a White House lawyer asked the online magazine to remove the seal from its website.
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/ 25 October 2005
The White House on Tuesday defended Vice-President Dick Cheney after a news report appeared to deepen links between him and the criminal investigation into who unmasked a CIA agent in 2003. ”The vice-president is doing a great job as a member of this administration, and the president appreciates all that he’s doing,” said Scott McClellan, chief spokesperson for US President George Bush.
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/ 25 October 2005
While the United States and France are seeking a resolution to pressure Syria to cooperate with an investigation into the murder of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri, other members are asking for more time, The Washington Post said on Wednesday.
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/ 25 October 2005
Legendary singer and pianist Shirley Horn, known for her deliberately slow renditions of jazz standards, has died at 71 in the Washington area, a member of her entourage said on Friday. Horn was discovered in 1960 by producer Quincy Jones and legendary trumpeter Miles Davis.
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/ 24 October 2005
Harriet Miers nominated by President George Bush to fill a vacancy on the United States Supreme Court currently lacks the votes for her confirmation by the US Senate, despite an intense White House campaign to sell her candidacy, lawmakers from both parties acknowledged.
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/ 22 October 2005
In the clearest indication to date that criminal charges against top White House officials may be in the offing, the special prosecutor investigating the CIA leak case has unveiled his own website — one week before his probe was scheduled to wrap up.
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/ 21 October 2005
What would Jesus blog? This was among the questions considered by a conference of God bloggers in California recently, which heralded their growing numbers as potentially the most important development in the spread of Christianity since the Gutenberg printing press began churning out bibles in the 15th century.
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/ 19 October 2005
Washington’s power-broking elite is shaken and stirred, and revolt is brewing over the Dom Perignon and canapés at the latest threat to the United States capital’s everyday life. What can have so vexed the cocktail party set? A new al-Qaeda terror threat? Quagmire in Iraq?
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/ 19 October 2005
Internet blogs are getting a boost from the big search engines, which make the personal journals more accessible and move them toward mainstream journalism, analysts say. Yahoo this month said it would include blogs on all its news searches, saying it would give readers more access to "grassroots journalism."
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/ 18 October 2005
Jurors in United States death penalty cases are often excluded because of race and gender, are not shown critical evidence and tend to be conviction prone, the Death Penalty Information Centre said on Tuesday in a report. ”While most Americans never serve on a capital jury,” the report said, ”everyone is affected by a system that fails to respect those who do serve and that falls woefully short of justice.”
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/ 17 October 2005
For the first time in history, the list used for naming tropical storms in the Atlantic Ocean is running out of names. With the naming of Tropical Storm Wilma on Monday morning, the list of 21 names used this year has reached its end. Wilma is gathering strength and is expected to become a hurricane this week.
The United States Congress held an unprecedented hearing on Thursday on India’s Dalits, once known as the ”untouchables,” highlighting what it calls a key human rights issue in the world’s largest democracy. About 200-million of India’s estimated population of a billion people are Dalits, occupying the bottom rung in Hinduism’s 2 500-year-old caste system.
A former United States marine and naturalised US citizen from the Philippines breached security at the White House and allegedly used his top-secret clearances to steal classified documents from Vice-President Dick Cheney’s office, ABC News reported.
United States government regulators are trying to shut down a company they say secretly downloaded spyware on to the computers of unwitting internet users, rendering them helpless to a flood of pop-up ads, computer crashes and other annoyances. Spyware is a growing problem on the internet.
Speaking from the International Space Station in orbit about Earth, American space tourist Greg Olsen said on Tuesday the experience was ”indescribable” and ”a dream come true”. ”I am having a great time. This is a dream come true, it’s an indescribable experience … I love it,” gushed the 59-year-old businessman and grandfather.
Seeking to close a gap in the nation’s defence against mad cow disease, George Bush’s administration is proposing to eliminate cow brains and spinal cords from feed for all animals, including chickens, pigs and pets. The US government already bans virtually all cattle remains from cattle feed.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned on Tuesday that Zimbabwe’s economy is in a state of virtual collapse with growth contracting, inflation rampant and poverty soaring. In an annual report issued after Zimbabwe won a six-month reprieve from the threat of expulsion from the IMF, directors expressed ”deep concern” at the economic situation under President Robert Mugabe.
The Pentagon has notified the United States Congress of possible military sales to Saudi Arabia valued at more than -billion, if all options are exercised. The proposed sales include a laundry list of armored personnel carriers, command vehicles, water cannons, a variety of trucks, ambulances, ammunition and assault rifles for the Saudi Arabian National Guard.
United States President George Bush nominated White House counsel and long-time loyalist Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court on Monday, a move that may shape legal battles on divisive issues such as abortion for decades. If confirmed by the US Senate, she would replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
A United States soldier convicted of abusing Iraqi prisoners said, in remarks made public late on Sunday, she knew of ”worse things” happening at Abu Ghraib and insisted military commanders were fully aware of what was going on in Iraq’s infamous jail.