Jan
08
2013
As Afghan President Hamid Karzai visits Washington DC this week, high on the agenda in his talks with President Barack Obama is the manner and detail of US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. Karzai has been publicly very critical of the US in recent months, relaying his dissatisfaction in speeches, particularly over issues of national sovereignty.
On Friday the Afghan government …
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Jan
08
2013
Aurora, Colorado experienced yet another shooting incident on Saturday, only five months after the movie theater massacre last summer that left 12 people dead and 58 injured. This latest shooting resulted in four dead, including the gunman who exchanged gunshots with police officers. Gun-related shootings are so common place these days, that it took the murder of 20 children at …
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Jan
08
2013
Los Angeles City Council members are expected to vote this month on the Community Care Facilities Ordinance that would affect more than 43,000 families in the city. Originally created in 2007 by then council member Greig Smith, the ordinance was designed to eliminate homes for recovering drug and alcohol users, also called “sober-homes,” from single family residential zones.
Following a …
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Jan
08
2013
BEIJING (AP) — Editors of a Chinese newspaper known for bold reporting were meeting Tuesday with propaganda officials to find a way out of a censorship dispute that has triggered protests and evolved into a political challenge for China’s new leadership.
What started out as a confrontation by Southern Weekly journalists with a top censor over a New Year’s editorial has rapidly become a focal point driving public calls for the authoritarian Communist Party government to …
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Jan
08
2013
CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is in a “stable situation” in a Cuban hospital receiving treatment due to a severe respiratory infection, his government said Monday.
Information Minister Ernesto Villegas provided the update, saying the government is in “permanent contact” with Chavez’s medical team and relatives who are with him in Havana where he underwent surgery for cancer. His report came as other government officials reiterated their stance that the president need not be …
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Jan
08
2013
Gay and lesbian Americans have been able to serve openly in the military ever since President Obama repealed “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” in September 2011. But online, some Pentagon computers appear to force the LGBT military community behind closed doors, blocking military users’ access to LGBT advocates’ and other progressives’ websites, while conservative sites remain fully accessible, according to John Aravosis of AMERICAblog. The military now blames faulty computer software for the de facto censorship, …
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Jan
07
2013
We’ll go to Kabul, Afghanistan, to speak with activist Kathy Kelly about the on-going discussions between President Karzai and Obama over US troop withdrawals. And, we’ll examine the various pieces of gun control legislation introduced into Congress. Plus, a look at a controversial proposed ordinance in Los Angeles that would ban the sharing of rental apartments by multiple families. …
Jan
07
2013
Outgoing Czech President Vaclav Klaus came under fire Thursday for decreeing a mass amnesty for thousands of convicted or suspected criminals, including some jailed or on trial in major fraud cases.
Around 7,400 inmates out of a total of 23,000 were due to be released following the decision taken by the head of state on the 20th anniversary of the Czech Republic’s independence.
“Each amnesty should have a transparent philosophy. But in this case, I am still …
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Jan
07
2013
In what the Guardian hails as the biggest social movement in North America since Occupy, Canada’s Idle No More has spent the last month organizing peaceful protests, forming dance flashmobs and staging events of solidarity to demand that Canada revise its recent omnibus bill, C-45, which protesters argue infringes on the treaty and land rights of Canada’s aboriginal peoples.
Canada’s Prime Minster Stephen Harper has now granted the request of the Attawapiskat community’s Chief Theresa Spence, …
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Jan
07
2013
(Reuters) – Bahrain’s highest court upheld the prison sentences of 13 leaders of a 2011 uprising on Monday, a defence lawyer said, in a ruling that could stir further unrest in the U.S.-allied Gulf Arab state.
The case has drawn international criticism from rights groups and come under scrutiny from U.S. officials keen for acquittals to help restore calm in a country that it counts as a regional partner against Iran.
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