Saudi Film Festival Is Cancelled In State Crackdown On Culture

Saudi Arabia's only film festival has been cancelled, dealing a blow to reformist hopes of an easing of clerical control over culture that was raised by the low-key return of cinemas in December.

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Princess facing Saudi death penalty given secret UK asylum

Saudi Arabian asylum princess 'feared flogging and stoning'

Amnesty criticises Saudi Arabia's 'shocking' human rights violations

Public Flogging Holds No Fear For Woman Who Dared Wear Trousers

A Sudanese woman arrested for wearing trousers and facing a public flogging as punishment, was applauded by democracy activists yesterday after she took a defiant stand against Sudan's rulers and the repressive version of Islam she accuses them of enforcing in Africa's biggest country.

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150 Women Face Adultery Flogging On Maldives

Almost 150 women living in the Maldives face a public flogging for indulging in extra-marital sex after being convicted by the Muslim country's conservative courts. Around 50 men also face the punishment.

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Religious Unrest In Egypt

MINYA (Egypt) - HUNDREDS of Egyptian Muslims tried on Friday to set on fire the home of a Coptic Christian in southern Egypt after he announced plans to turn it into a church, a security official said.

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Rights Groups Decry Gaza 'Honor Killing'

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- A 27-year-old mother of five was bludgeoned to death with an iron chain by her father last week in Gaza in what human rights groups report was an honor killing.

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Hamas dress code aims to make Gaza more Islamic

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Israel won't stop housing project in Muslim neighborhood

Clashes With Islamists Who Claim To Be Taleban Kill 150 In Nigeria

Radical Islamists, who claim to be linked to al-Qaeda, have killed more than 150 people in two days of violence in northern Nigeria, news agencies reported.

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Nigeria hunts Islamic sect, women and children freed

Nigerian army storms Islamist sect's base

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AAI Affiliate Nigerian Human Movement Confronts Witch-Belief in Nigeria

Suicide Bombers Kill Eight And Injure At Least 50 In Attack On Jakarta Hotels

The menace of international terrorism returned to Indonesia when explosions ripped through two luxury hotels in Jakarta, killing eight guests and injuring at least 50 others.

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Taliban Running School For Suicide Bombers

Pakistan said yesterday it had rescued 20 young boys who were among hundreds recruited by the Taliban and brainwashed into becoming suicide bombers at a secret indoctrination camp.

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Iraq Police: 29 Killed By Mosque Bombs

(CBS/AP) Bombs exploded near five Shiite mosques in Baghdad, killing at least 29 people, in an apparent coordinated attack that targeted worshippers leaving Friday prayers, Iraqi police and hospital officials said.

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US Military Deaths In Iraq War At 4,329

Blasts kill 7 in Baghdad

The Burqa-Clad Bombers Who Terrorise Afghanistan

Male suicide bombers disguised in womens' burqas stormed government buildings and security headquarters in co-ordinated attacks which killed a dozen people and injured 22 others in eastern Afghanistan.

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Afghan Civilian Deaths up 24 Percent

Bombers dressed as women kill three Afghan officers

Seven suicide attackers strike at Afghan facilities

Four U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan

Understanding Atheism May Break Down Prejudices

Studies have shown atheists are less likely to be criminals and less likely to get divorced than theists. Countries with lots of atheists are strongly correlated with low murder rates, low poverty rates, low infant mortality rates, low illiteracy rates, high per capita income and high levels of gender equality. The more educated you are, the more likely you are to be an atheist. Atheists contribute more to charity than theists do.

Despite all of these positive qualities, atheists are more distrusted than virtually any other minority. Roughly three-quarters of the population wouldn't vote for an atheist, half views us unfavourably and one-quarter of the population believes that we are inherently immoral. As I've demonstrated briefly above, there doesn't appear to be any evidence to support this dim view, so I have to hope this is caused by a simple lack of understanding as to what atheism is.

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The comfort of your convictions

The folly of pretence

Ranks Of Atheists Grow, Get Organized

Americans United Commends Appellate Court Decision Against Bible Distribution In Mo. Public School

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that the South Iron R-1 School District may not allow distribution of Bibles to children in elementary school.

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FFRF Sues To Stop Religious Engravings At Capitol Visitor Center

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, a state/church watchdog and the nation's largest association of atheists and agnostics, filed a federal lawsuit today to stop the prominent engraving of "In God We Trust" and the religious Pledge of Allegiance at the Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, D.C.

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FFRF Asks Gates to Enforce Secularism in Military

FFRF Joins Facebook and Twitter!

Ralph Reed's New Group -- Yes, It Is "Your Daddy's Christian Coalition"

An Atheist public policy group today blasted Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed over claims that his latest political venture -- the "Faith and Freedom Coalition" -- does not share the tactics and objectives of its predecessor.

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The Culture Wars' New Front: U.S. History Classes In Texas

The Texas Board of Education, which recently approved new science standards that made room for creationist critiques of evolution, is revising the state's social studies curriculum. In early recommendations from outside experts appointed by the board, a divide has opened over how central religious theology should be to the teaching of history.

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Anti-Islam Sign On Display Outside Fla. Church

GAINSEVILLE, Fla. -- The sign at the Dove World Outreach Center reads "Islam is of the devil."

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US Evangelist 'Married' Under-Age Girls, Court Hears

A controversial American evangelist "married" under-age girls as young as eight before forcing them into sex, a court has heard.

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Arkansas Woman Dies During New Jersey Voodoo Cleansing Ritual, Cops Say

GLOUCESTER TOWNSHIP, N.J. -- Authorities are investigating how an Arkansas woman died Sunday in what they call a voodoo cleaning ritual in a southern New Jersey town house.

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Death Sparks Debate On Jehovah's Witness Transfusion Ban

A teenage Jehovah's Witness who triggered a cross-country court battle when she refused blood transfusions as part of her cancer therapy has died, renewing debate about the religion's blood ban and its impact on children.

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Will Jehovah's Witnesses be banned in Russia?

Vote On Gay Bishops Threatens Archbishop With Another Schism

The archbishop of Canterbury is bracing himself for fresh turmoil in the Anglican Communion ahead of a crucial vote that could overturn a ban on the ordination of gay bishops.

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CofE 'could back rebel US Church'

Anglo-Swedish rift over church gay marriage

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British study reveals Bible knowledge in decline

Catholic Clergy Braced For Fallout From Abuse Report

CATHOLIC clergy are preparing for an onslaught of criticism in the long-awaited report on the hierarchy's handling of paedophile priests, due to be given to the government this week.

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A secret shame: Inside the latest scandal to rock the Catholic church

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Irish Catholics go online to lose religion

No records kept on people leaving Church

Blasphemy Law Is Silly, Dangerous And Unjust

It is silly because it revives a medieval religious crime in a modern pluralist republic. And it is dangerous because it incentivises religious outrage, by making it the first trigger for defining blasphemy.

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Catholics Hurl Firebombs At Belfast Police

Militant Catholics hurled gasoline bombs, fireworks and other makeshift weapons at Northern Ireland police Monday in a failed effort to prevent a Protestant parade from passing through the bitterly divided north side of Belfast.

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Religious Schools 'Undermine Cohesion'

The rise of faith-based schools in Australia is restricting the ability of some students to relate to people of diverse backgrounds, a university sociologist has warned.

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Saudi Family Sues Genie, Alleges Harassment

In Islamic cultures, a belief in genies, or jinns, is common.

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Orthodox Strife Grips Jerusalem

Ultra-Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem have clashed with police in protest at what they see as interference by the Israeli authorities in their community.

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Kids TV Praises Gaza Mom's Suicide Bombing

GAZA CITY (CNN) -- It's meant to be a children's program, but "Young Pioneers" on Hamas-run television is well-known for pushing the boundaries of what most people would deem suitable content for children.

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Youths Test Religious Rights In Macedonia

TETOVO, Macedonia (AFP) -- Open displays of faith among Macedonia's rival Christian and Muslim youths are stoking religious tensions that have smouldered since the fall of communist Yugoslavia.

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Iran Singer Gets Jail Term For Koran Disrespect

TEHRAN (Reuters) - An Iranian singer and composer who has been likened to Bob Dylan has received a five-year jail sentence in absentia for disrespecting religious sanctities, according to Iranian television.

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Sudan Women 'Lashed For Trousers'

Several Sudanese women have been flogged as a punishment for dressing "indecently", according to a local journalist who was arrested with them.

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Fresh Fighting Erupts In Somalia

(CNN) -- Fresh fighting erupted Sunday between Somalia's transitional government forces and Islamist rebels, continuing a wave of violence that a top United Nations official called a "grave violation of human rights" that could possibly amount to war crimes.

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Islamist insurgents behead 7 Somalis for 'spying on government and abandoning Islam'

Deadly Blasts Hit Two Hotels In Jakarta

Suspicion immediately fell on Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), the Islamist terrorist network with ties to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist network that was tied to the 2003 Marriott attack and the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed more than 200 people, mostly foreign tourists.

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Bomb Kills At Least 7 In Southern Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- At least seven people were killed Friday in a roadside bombing in a southern Afghan border town, Afghan officials said.

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July becomes deadliest month for foreign troops in Afghanistan

2 U.S. Marines killed in Afghanistan

Bombs Kill 11 In Iraq

(AP) A suicide bomber on Wednesday killed six people, including an Iraqi policeman, in an attack on security forces in a former insurgent stronghold in Iraq's western Anbar province, police said. A Baghdad bombing killed five other people.

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3 coalition soldiers killed in attack on Iraq base

4 killed, 32 wounded as 6 Baghdad churches bombed

7 U.S. troops, linguist wounded in blast in Iraq

Al Qaeda Message Urges Pakistanis To Back Militants

(CNN) -- The people of Pakistan must back Islamic militants to counter the influence of the United States in their country or face punishment from God, Ayman al-Zawahiri, al Qaeda's second in command, said in an audio message released early Wednesday.

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Explosion kills 11 in Pakistan

Evolution Guides Cooperative Turn-Taking, Game Theory-Based Computer Simulations Show

ScienceDaily -- It's not just good manners to wait your turn -- it's actually down to evolution, according to new research by University of Leicester psychologists.

A study in the University's School of Psychology sought to explain how turn-taking has evolved across a range of species. The conclusion is that there is an evolution-based "invisible hand" that guides our actions in this respect. What's more, the researchers have shown that this behavior can be simulated using a simple computer algorithm and basic genetic laws.

--snip--

The researchers say that playing "tit for tat" -- copying in each time period whatever the other individual did in the previous period ­-- can explain synchronized cooperation, but cannot fully explain turn-taking. "For example, many predatory animals hunt in pairs or larger groups, and this involves synchronized cooperation. 'Tit for tat' has been shown to work very well in initiating and sustaining this type of cooperation."

"But where cooperation involves turn-taking, a 'tit for tat' instinct could sustain the pattern once it was established but could not initiate it in the first place. For example, in a mating pair of penguins who both went foraging or both incubated the eggs at the same time, 'tit for tat' would not be enough to evolve the habit of taking turns."

Using evolutionary game theory and computer simulations, Professor Colman and Dr Browning discovered a simple variation of "tit for tat" that explains how turn-taking can evolve in organisms that pursue their individual self-interests robotically.

The researchers state: "Turn-taking is initiated only after a species has evolved at least two genetically different types that behave differently in initial, uncoordinated interactions with others. Then as soon as a pair coordinates by chance, they instinctively begin to play 'tit for tat'. This locks them into mutually beneficial coordinated turn-taking indefinitely. Without genetic diversity, turn-taking cannot evolve in this simple way."

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Scientific Achievements Less Prominent Than A Decade Ago

ScienceDaily -- A new report by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press finds that overwhelming majorities of Americans believe that science has had a positive effect on society and that science has made life easier for most people. The public - even those skeptical of some scientific conclusions on such topics as climate change and evolution - rates scientists highly and believes government investments in science pay off in the long term.

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Is There A Place For Atheists In America?

In 2006, a University of Minnesota study found that atheists are the least trusted among several categories. In that study, some 40 percent of Americans said of atheists, "This group does not at all agree with my vision of American society."

Compare this number to other groups that often experience discrimination, such as Muslims who were next at 26 percent, and gays just after that at 23 percent.

Yet, a recent survey by Trinity College in Connecticut found that 15 percent of Americans claim they adhere to no religion, making them the fastest growing group of believers -- or, rather, nonbelievers -- in the United States.

The American Religious Identification Survey also found that the number of people who self-identify as "nonreligious" is growing in every state.

With the nonreligious far outnumbering Jews and Muslims, and pulling roughly even with Episcopalians, one would assume acceptance in American society.

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Pharmacists Can't Refuse Plan B Pill, Appeals Court Says

Pharmacists are obliged to dispense the Plan B pill, even if they are personally opposed to the "morning after" contraceptive on religious grounds, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

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Humanists Applaud 9th Circuit Court's Plan B Decision

Americans United Applauds Ninth Circuit Decision Favoring Patients' Right To Pharmacy Access

Obama Says He Supports 'Robust' Protections For Health Workers With Moral, Religious Objections

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Americans United Urges Senate Judiciary Committee to Ascertain Sotomayor's Views on Church-State Separation

Second Atheist Billboard In Moscow, ID Declares "Prayer Not Required"

For all who "Want a Better World" the American Humanist Association has a message: "Prayer not Required." A billboard emblazoned with this slogan went up this week in the Moscow, Idaho area on Highway 95 (JPEGs of the billboard can be found here: http://americanhumanist.org/system/storage/29/996/billboard_paryernot2.jpg).

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Residents Want Sign Promoting Atheism Removed

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (WSVN) -- Community residents are protesting a billboard they call offensive to Christians.

--snip--

The sign states: "Being a good person doesn't require God. Don't believe in God? You're not alone. http://www.freethoughtflorida.com/."

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Conn. Church Creates Stir With Gay Exorcism Video

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) -- The video shows the 16-year-old boy lying on the floor, his body convulsing, as elders of a small Connecticut church cast a "homosexual demon" from his body.

"Rip it from his throat!" a woman yells. "Come on, you homosexual demon! You homosexual spirit, we call you out right now! Loose your grip, Lucifer!"

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Survey: 60% of gays say faith is important to them

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Does God Hate Women?

Paleontologists Brought To Tears, Laughter By Creation Museum

PETERSBURG, Kentucky (AFP) -- For a group of paleontologists, a tour of the Creation Museum seemed like a great tongue-in-cheek way to cap off a serious conference.

But while there were a few laughs and some clowning for the camera, most left more offended than amused by the frightening way in which evolution -- and their life's work -- was attacked.

"It's sort of a monument to scientific illiteracy, isn't it?" said Jerry Lipps, professor of geology, paleontology and evolution at University of California, Berkeley.

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Church Camps Closing Amid Declining Use, Economy

"I think this fall through Christmas we will see as many as 10 to 15 percent of camps decide they no longer can continue operating," said Kobielush, whose organization has about 950 member camps. He estimates there are about 3,000 church-affiliated camps nationwide.

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Christianity Is Finished In Britain, Says Church Of England Bishop

A long-serving Church of England bishop has predicted that the Church of England will cease to exist within a generation. In an article in the Sunday Telegraph, the Right Reverend Paul Richardson said declining church attendance and the rise in multiculturalism meant that "Christian Britain is dead".

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Praying for divine intervention as capital kirks face threat of closure

Daniel Radcliffe: A Cool Nerd

In an interview with Esquire magazine, Radcliffe risked the US box office prospects of the new Harry Potter film by declaring himself to be an atheist.

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New Lease Of Life For Brian As Glasgow Ends Film Ban After 29 Years

For almost 30 years, one of the classic comedy films has been unofficially "banned" in Glasgow, after it was branded blasphemous by councillors on its release.

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Australian Policeman Suspended Over Alleged Exorcism On Teenager

A policeman in Australia has been suspended from duty over allegations that he tried to perform an exorcism on a teenage boy during a church camp.

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Nigerian Humanists And Child Rights Activists To Tackle Witchcraft

The Nigerian Humanist Movement, an affiliate of the Atheist Alliance International, and the UK NGO, Stepping Stones Nigeria, are organising an international symposium on Witchcraft and Child Rights in Cross River State, Nigeria on July 29 2009. This symposium is part of the wider efforts being made by both organisations to combat witchcraft accusation, stigmatization and persecution of children in Nigeria.

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Game Show Looks To Convert Atheists

ISTANBUL (Reuters) -- What happens when you put a Muslim imam, a Christian priest, a rabbi and a Buddhist monk in a room with 10 atheists?

--snip--

"We don't approve of anyone being an atheist. God is great and it doesn't matter which religion you believe in. The important thing is to believe," Soylu said.

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Islamic Fundamentalists Jailed For Arson Attack At Publisher's Home

Three Islamic fundamentalists were jailed yesterday for an arson attack on a London publisher who planned to print an "offensive" book about the Prophet Muhammad.

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156 Dead As Muslim Uprising Hits China

Deep-seated ethnic tensions erupted into the deadliest outbreak of violence the country has seen since the Tiananmen Square massacre.

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Al Qaeda Branch Steps Up Raids In North Africa

WASHINGTON - Al Qaeda's affiliate in North Africa has carried out a string of killings, bombings and other lethal attacks against Westerners and African security forces in recent weeks that have raised fears that the terrorist group may be taking a deadlier turn.

American and European security and counterterrorism officials say the attacks may signal the return of foreign fighters from the Iraq war, where they honed their bomb-making skills.

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Bomb Blasts Kill 64 As Violence Surges In Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A roadside bomb targeted a police patrol in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, killing a civilian bystander Thursday, a police official told CNN.

It is the latest in a series of attacks across Iraq that have killed at least 64 people and wounded 167 others over the past two days.

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Scores die as suicide bombers keep up rebel efforts to destabilise Iraq

Drive-by shooting marks third day of Iraq attacks

Bombings in Iraq kill at least 19, wound some 60

Baghdad market bombing adds to soaring death toll

9 killed as attacks intensify in Baghdad

Bombing Kills 25 In Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Fifteen students were among the 25 people killed when a truck rigged with explosives detonated south of Afghanistan's capital, local officials said.

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2 British soldiers killed in Afghanistan

11 NATO troops killed in 2 days in Afghanistan

Suicide bomber kills 2 in Afghanistan

Seven American Troops Killed in Afghan Incidents

Women's rights 'in decline' in Afghanistan

Pakistan: Taliban Buying Children For Suicide Attacks

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- A top Taliban leader in Pakistan is buying and selling children for suicide bombings, Pakistani and U.S. officials said.

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Pakistan: At least 1 dead as motorcycle bomber hits bus

Bridge blast wounds eight in troubled northwest Pakistan

Amnesty: Israel Killed Hundreds Of Gaza Civilians

(CNN) -- Israeli troops killed hundreds of unarmed civilian adults and children, broke laws and committed war crimes during their winter offensive in Gaza, Amnesty International said in a scathing report released Thursday.

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Israel moves forward with settlement construction

Bomb Blast Kills 3 In Philippines

(CNN) -- Three people were killed and 37 injured after a bomb exploded Sunday morning in Cotabato City, Philippines, the military said.

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