Venezuela church-state clash grows
A new pro-poor break-away church vexes the country's Catholic leaders, who call it a Ch�vez ploy.http://www.elabs5.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=o1l,2pyi,er,7qck,7x3u,i4ns,g971
Indian government's unstable win
In wake of confidence vote, it faces shaky political alliances and corruption claims.
http://www.elabs5.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=o1l,2pyi,er,5n67,hwui,i4ns,g971
Cuba under Ra�l: Creeping toward capitalism?
Since Ra�l Castro took the helm in February, he's rolled out a series economic changes, including allowing Cubans to buy cellphones and giving farmers profit-incentives. http://www.elabs5.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=o1l,2pyi,er,44wf,6i52,i4ns,g971
USA
Berliners welcome Obama as they did JFK
The Democratic presidential nominee, who delivers the sole public foreign policy speech of his overseas tour here Thursday, was dubbed 'president of the world' by Der Spiegel.
http://www.elabs5.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=o1l,2pyi,er,g9qf,hhax,i4ns,g971
Military revisits Afghanistan plan
A key component is likely to be more troops, but the strategy must go beyond that, experts say.
http://www.elabs5.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=o1l,2pyi,er,hdet,h9y8,i4ns,g971
Rising costs of financial turmoil
The multibillion-dollar cost of government bailouts is just the start.
http://www.elabs5.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=o1l,2pyi,er,e2wt,7zu6,i4ns,g971
Commentary
Open China's great firewall
The largest online community in the world suffers under a heavy hand.
http://www.elabs5.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=o1l,2pyi,er,2gyk,cvbl,i4ns,g971
Turkey's dangerous message to the Muslim world
A court ban on the most pro-Western party would be a big mistake.
http://www.elabs5.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=o1l,2pyi,er,971m,7f1s,i4ns,g971
In Sudan, stability or civil war?
The answer can be found in the dusty village of Abyei.
http://www.elabs5.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=o1l,2pyi,er,dw0c,djbz,i4ns,g971
Features
Fish hum, grunt, and growl to get their message across
Scientists listen to one deep sea swimmer, seeking new insights on the evolution of communication
http://www.elabs5.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=o1l,2pyi,er,gsfp,a4lo,i4ns,g971
A water pump for the people
Inventor Martin Fisher designs easy irrigation tools for African farmers.
http://www.elabs5.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=o1l,2pyi,er,emwx,lp82,i4ns,g971
A town�s bold plan to harness offshore wind
Hull, Mass., could become the first US community to host an offshore wind farm.
http://www.elabs5.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=o1l,2pyi,er,dluk,9e3w,i4ns,g971
Home Forum
She grows pretty plants by the seashore
It�s no day at the beach for a seashore gardener.
http://www.elabs5.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=o1l,2pyi,er,l1o4,arr6,i4ns,g971
Identity in the age of Facebook
It's getting trickier to figure out who we really are. Or maybe that's always been a challenge. But today it's even more complicated because we can be one person in daily life and another online.
http://www.elabs5.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=o1l,2pyi,er,iear,9neo,i4ns,g971
News in Brief
World
Indications that hurricane Dolly would spare oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico helped send crude prices lower again Wednesday. By midmorning on the New York Mercantile Exchange, contracts for future deliveries were selling for $125.78 a barrel � down $2.64 in the past 24 hours and more than $20 since early July. Above, Mexican marines check on storm preparations along a beach on the gulf near Matamoras.
Iraqi Kurds, led by President Jalal Talibani, heaped denunciations on new draft legislation aimed at paving the way for provincial elections later this year. The elections are seen by the US as an important step in bridging Iraq's sectarian divides. But Kurds oppose the measure because it calls for equal ethnic distribution of council seats in areas to which they have historical ties. Talibani and his two deputies on the Presidential Council must ratify the bill before it can take effect.
Newly indicted President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan made his first visit to the Darfur region since the International Criminal Court sought his arrest on genocide charges. He promised to build new highways and an electrical generating plant and said in a televised address: "We all know that injustices happened. But from Day One, we have been working to provide stability for all the people" of the region. An estimated 2.7 million Darfur residents have been killed or driven from their homes in what the UN says is a campaign of ethnic cleansing.
Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic wants to be his own defense attorney before the UN War Crimes Tribunal for the Balkans, a source close to him said Wednesday. But a spokeswoman for the tribunal in The Hague said the interests of justice would be best served "if the accused is assisted by qualified counsel." Karadzic is being held in a jail in Serbia's capital, where he has until Friday to appeal his extradition to The Hague. If his trial were to follow the example set by the late dictator Slobodan Milosevic, who also was permitted to represent himself, it could take five or more years.
Demonstrators wanting to protest Chinese government policies and actions � such as in Tibet � may do so in three designated areas at the Olympic Summer Games, officials said Wednesday. But police and Beijing's city government must approve them first, the officials added. Analysts expressed surprise at the announcement, since public protests in Beijing are viewed as challenges to the government's hold on power, and it repeatedly has warned of terroristic threats to the sports festival.
Residents of villages on Thailand's side of a disputed border area with Cambodia were holding evacuation and self-defense drills Wednesday as the ongoing confrontation between the two countries deepened. In appealing for UN Security Council intervention, Cambodian officials said war was imminent, even though both sides have pledged not to resort to force. For its part, Thailand accused Cambodia of harboring ambitions to claim even more of the territory it considers its own.
Every practicing doctor in Britain would have to submit to a yearly competency review under a plan to be announced by the nation's chief medical officer, published reports said Wednesday. The new policy would be the first of its kind in the world and the biggest overhaul of British medical regulations in 150 years. It also would require doctors to apply for license renewals every five years. The plan is aimed at weeding out those who make poor clinical decisions or are burdened with personal problems such as drug or alcohol dependency.
USA
California wildfires, which once numbered 2,000 in the past month, are down to 33, according to state officials, who cautioned that fire danger remains high in some rural areas. Meanwhile, the Union Pacific Railroad Co. agreed to pay $102 million for damages that occurred from a fire in 2000 sparked by a company welder who was repairing track.
Nineteen miles of the Mississippi River at New Orleans were closed Wednesday by the Coast Guard after a tugboat pushing a barge crashed into a tanker carrying biodiesel and styrene. A Coast Guard officer said more than 400,000 gallons of fuel spilled.
Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs and four of his followers were indicted Tuesday in Eldorado, Texas, on charges of felony sexual assault of a child. Jeffs has already been convicted in Utah as an accomplice to rape and is awaiting trial in Arizona on other underage marriage charges.
Los Angeles will ban plastic shopping bags from stores, beginning July 1, 2010, unless California legislators pass a similar bill that supersedes the one the Los Angeles City Council approved Tuesday. Shoppers can buy paper or biodegradable bags for 25 cents.
New York will provide language assistance to non-English language speakers by requiring all city agencies to deal in the six most common foreign languages spoken: Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Korean, Italian, and French Creole. Many services have been available for years in foreign languages, but Tuesday's announcement raises the bar.
Choosing whether to become an organ donor is a decision all licensed New Jersey drivers will be required to make, starting in 2013, according to a new first-in-the-nation law passed Tuesday. The law also makes organ donation education in high schools mandatory.
The Hanford nuclear reactor in Yakima, Wash., which produced plutonium for the first man-made nuclear blast in 1945, could become a national historic landmark if the Interior Department agrees with Tuesday's National Park Service recommendation.
Although blacks constitute 17 percent of the US military, just 9 percent are officers and only one among 38 four-star generals or admirals is black, according to data compiled by the Associated Press 60 years after desegregation of the armed forces.The Christian Science Monitor
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