Anti-Radical Islam Reporter Killed In South Russia

Abulla Alishayev was the second journalist to die in three days in Russia's north Caucasus, a region scarred by fighting between federal forces and Muslim rebels.

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Canceled Novel About Muhammad, Child Bride Finds New Publisher

SPOKANE, Wash. - A historical novel about the prophet Muhammad and his child bride that was pulled by Random House over concerns it would anger Muslims has been sold to another publisher, the author said Wednesday.

"We do have a U.S. publisher," Sherry Jones, of Spokane, told The Associated Press in an e-mail Wednesday. "We can announce that, but not the name until they announce it."

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Don't Let Them Eat Cake, Saudi Cleric Says

The Saudi ban on birthdays is in line with the strict interpretation of Islam followed by the conservative Wahhabi sect adhered to in the kingdom. All Christian and even most Muslim feasts are also prohibited because they are considered alien customs the Saudi clerics don't sanction.

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A New Taliban?

The emergence of a Saudi-style 'morality police' is ringing alarm bells in Yemen.

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Iraqi Government To Gain Control Of Anti-Al Qaeda Councils

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The U.S. military will transfer control of Sunni Awakening groups to the Iraqi government next month, a U.S. military spokesman said Thursday in Baghdad.

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Gaza Hospitals Strain Under Pressure Of Strikes

(AP) A walkout of medical staff throughout Gaza has strained services at hospitals and clinics throughout the territory, the latest in a series of crippling strikes that are deepening bitter divisions between Gaza's militant Hamas rulers and loyalists of moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

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Violence In India Is Fueled By Religious And Economic Divide

TIANGIA, India: Those who came to attack Christians here early last week set their trap well, residents say.

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Where Politics Crucifies the Poor

Atom Collider Rap Is A YouTube Smash

EAST LANSING, Michigan (AP) -- Who says science doesn't turn people on? Kate McAlpine is a rising star on YouTube for her rap performance -- about high-energy particle physics.

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The Large Hadron Rap

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Courts weigh doomsday claims

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Cosmic crash unmasks dark matter

New maps detail solar system objects

Rosetta Spacecraft On Its Way To Meet Asteroid Steins

Origin Of Cosmic Dust That Lands On Earth Discovered

Origin Of High Energy Emission From Crab Nebula Identified

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'Autonomous' Helicopters Teach Themselves To Fly

Scientists Grow 'Nanonets' Able To Snare Added Energy Transfer

DNA Tubes Created With Programmable Sizes For Nanoscale Manufacturing

Bonobos May Have Greater Linguistic Skills Than Previously Thought

ScienceDaily -- What happens when linguistic tools used to analyze human language are applied to a conversation between a language-competent bonobo and a human? The findings, published this month in the Journal of Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, indicate that bonobos may exhibit larger linguistic competency in ordinary conversation than in controlled experimental settings.

--snip--

Pedersen said linguistic aspects of the conversation included turn taking, negotiation, pauses and repetition, and went far beyond information sharing made possible through the use of lexigrams symbols.

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Prehistoric Funerary Precinct Excavated In Northern Israel

ScienceDaily -- Hebrew University excavations in the north of Israel have revealed a prehistoric funerary precinct dating back to 6,750-8,500 BCE.

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'Lost World' Beneath Caribbean To Be Explored

Scientists Develop New Computational Method To Investigate Origin Of Life

ScienceDaily -- Scientists at Penn State have developed a new computational method that they say will help them to understand how life began on Earth. The team's method has the potential to trace the evolutionary histories of proteins all the way back to either cells or viruses, thus settling the debate once and for all over which of these life forms came first.

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Person's Geographic Origins Located From DNA

Gene 'Network' Linked To Schizophrenia Pieced Together; Patients Confirmed To Carry Mutations

New Master Switch Found In Brain Regulates Appetite And Reproduction

Genetic Link To Relationship Difficulties Found

Sleight Of Hand And Sense Of Self: Illusion Isn't Always Just In The Mind

'Armored' Fish Study Helps Strengthen Darwin's Natural Selection Theory

In The Nevada Desert, There's Something Out There -- The Black Mailbox

TIKABOO VALLEY, NEV. -- The only landmark for about 40 miles on a barren stretch of highway is a mailbox battered by time and desert gusts. It's known as the Black Mailbox, though it's actually a faded white.

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'Arming' For Armageddon

LAKELAND, Fla. -- Both Christian and secular critics assailed the makers of Jesus Camp for referring to the camp's extremist, militant Christianity as "evangelical." There is a name, however, that describes Kids on Fire's agenda, if you're familiar with their theology: Joel's Army. Pastor Becky Fischer, who runs the camp, said that a third of the kids at her camp were under 6 years old because they are "more in touch in the supernatural" and proclaimed them to be "soldiers for God's Army." Her camp's blend of end-times militancy and supernaturalism is perfectly emblematic of the Joel's Army movement, whose adherents believe their cause is prophesied in the Old Testament chapter titled "An Army of Locusts."

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Protest Continues Over Darwin Exhibition

A protest, supporting rational thinking against attacks by religious fundamentalists, will take place outside a Northampton museum.

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Ireland Is Running Out Of Priests

With precious few candidates for the priesthood and rapidly emptying pews, the Catholic Church is being forced to accept radical change.

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Cathedral turns to wine bars to woo new business

U.S. Fights Islamic Anti-Defamation Push

U.S. officials said they hope to persuade moderate Muslim nations - among them Senegal, Mali, Nigeria and Indonesia - to reject the measure, which lacks the force of law but has provided diplomatic cover for regimes that repress critical speech. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic.

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Anglicans Still Divided Over Homosexuality

Senior churchmen yesterday rejected proposals designed to avoid a schism in the Anglican Communion, insisting they would continue to develop their own global movement for conservative evangelicals and offer it as an alternative solution to the current crisis over homosexuality.

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Bishop Post To Go To Gay Cleric

A gay cleric is in line to become the next Bishop of Bangor, replacing the Right Rev Tony Crockett, who died of cancer this year. Canon Jeffrey John, who entered into a civil partnership with his long-term partner, the Rev Grant Holmes, in 2006, is currently the dean of St Albans and is a Welsh speaker - making him an ideal candidate for the job.

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Women Preachers At Moderate Mosque 'Urge Faithful To Kill Gays'

Women preachers are urging followers at one of Britain's most influential mosques to kill homosexuals and view all non-Muslims as "vile", according to a television documentary.

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Even In Flood, India's 'Untouchables' Last Rescued

TRIVENIGANJ, India - In the two weeks since a monsoon-swollen river burst its banks, ancient prejudices have run just as deep as the floodwaters. India's "untouchables" are the last to be rescued - if at all - from a deluge that has killed dozens and made 1.2 million homeless.

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Christians hide in forests as Hindu mobs ransack villages