The Scary Alternative To A 2-State Solution

Largely unreported in the American and Western media, on August 10, two days after the start of both the Russian invasion and the Olympics, Palestinian lead negotiator Ahmed Qurie declared that if the peace process did not advance towards a final settlement soon, Palestinians would stop pursuing a two-state solution demand the establishment of a bi-national state with Israel.

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Be Like Others

In Iran, a country where homosexuality is punishable by death, but sex-change operations are legal according to Islamic law, a generation of young men are compelled to make an agonizing choice.

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'Be Like Others' Director Tanaz Eshaghian on Sundance, Sex Changes, and the Ayatollah

Sex crimes

Baghdad Touched By War Even As Security Takes Hold

(AP) Salam Dawood sat in his car stuck in traffic. A mother and her two sons shuffled among the vehicles, begging for money when a roadside bomb exploded.

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New Barrier Wall Going Up in Baghdad's Sadr City

Loyalists of Iraq's Sadr sign blood oaths to continue fighting

Iraq to clear out Baghdad squatters

Iraqi troops take control of key province

US Allies Angry at Anbar Handover

Uncertainty After Anbar Handover

Doubts persist as Iraq takes over U.S.-backed patrols

Al Qaida Has Free Movement In Pakistan, Top Official Concedes

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan's top security official Monday admitted that al Qaida's leadership moved freely in and out of the country and vowed that "no mercy" would be shown to extremists based in its tribal territory that borders Afghanistan.

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Pakistan investigates 'honor killings' of 5 women

Pakistan police urged to probe 'honor killings'

Pakistani women buried alive 'for choosing husbands'

Pakistan election tactics reopen radical Islamic schools

Pakistan misses al Qaeda's No.2 in raids

Pakistan Airstrike Kills 40 Taliban

Pakistan Halts Terror Fight For Ramadan

500th U.S. Service Member Dies In Afghanistan

(CNN) -- A sailor killed in Afghanistan on Saturday was the 500th U.S. service member to die in that country since the war there began in 2001.

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Virgin Mary Spotted In Suburban Tree Trunk

Mr Moreau has admitted he was drinking in his garden when he first spotted the likeness, but insists he was completely sober. "I'm not a wacko," he said.

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Manitoba Dig Uncovers 80-Million-Year-Old Sea Creature

A public dig organized by the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre has turned up the biggest fossil find in Manitoba in nearly 30 years.

The summer dig near the centre in Morden, Man., that is still underway has already unearthed a mosasaur, an 11-metre-long ancient sea creature estimated to be 80 million years old.

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'Armored' fish study helps strengthen Darwin's natural selection theory

Dung beetles provide an object lesson in the speed of natural selection

B.C. Health Official Says Mumps Outbreak Began With Unimmunized Religious Group

AGASSIZ, B.C. -- A British Columbia health official says a spreading mumps outbreak began with a Fraser Valley religious group that shuns immunization.

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Judges Uphold Abortion Rights In Mexico City

Mexico's supreme court yesterday upheld the capital's abortion law by dismissing a challenge brought by the conservative federal government by eight votes to three.

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Dead Sea Scrolls Go From Parchment To The Internet

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- More than 2,000 years after they were written, the Dead Sea Scrolls are going digital as part of an effort to better preserve the ancient texts and let more people see them than ever before.

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Praise The Lord And Pass The Business Plan As God Embraces Mammon

God wants you rich, and as if to prove it His golden forefinger is pointing down through the stage ceiling at the Excel exhibition centre in east London.

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Shock Anti-Religion Leaflet Distributed In Hertford

A SHOCKED Hertford resident contacted the Herald after receiving an anti-religion leaflet through her door.

A leaflet was delivered to her home in the Foxholes estate, and she was "freaked out" to read the words "They want your child's mind: Do not give it to them!"

The leaflets feature artist's drawing of Jordanian preacher Abu Qatada, who has been dubbed Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe, alongside an Islamic crescent, a stereotypical representation of a Jew complete with the Star of David and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, with a crucifix.

The group behind the campaign against religious education call themselves Notori, an acronym which refers to their slogan, 'Say no to religious indoctrination at school' the leaflets also feature a website address.

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http://www.notori.co.uk/

Abuse At St Stanislaus College 'Involved Night Orgies'

ORGIES involving up to 60 schoolboys, priests and teachers are among allegations levelled at former staff members of a NSW Catholic boarding school.

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Shia Muslim Convicted Of Child Cruelty After Forcing Two Boys To Flog Themselves

Syed Mustafa Zaidi, a warehouse supervisor, told the boys, aged 13 and 15, to beat themselves with a zanjeer zani, a wooden-handled implement containing five curved blades used when commemorating the death of Hussain, grandson of Muhammad and one of the most important figures in Shia Islam. Zaidi is due to be sentenced on September 24.

Manchester crown court heard how Zaidi, 44, flagellated himself at an event held in January in Manchester until his back was bloody and cut. Others at the event also flogged themselves. Some of those present, fearing Zaidi would seriously harm himself, asked him to calm down. Zaidi agreed, only to turn his attention to the two boys.

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Turkish Military Will Defend Secular State, Government Warned

One of Turkey's most senior army commanders has warned the Islamist-rooted government that it will face a powerful military backlash if it seeks to alter the country's secular system.

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Church Burns As Indian Religious Riots Spread

Hindu mobs ransacked a church and clashed with Christian villagers in eastern India as authorities struggled to control spiralling religious violence in the region, police said today.

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Kashmir on brink as Islamic militants take family hostage

Bomb Attack Kills 9 On Pakistan Bus

(AP) Suspected militants bombed a bus carrying prisoners in northwest Pakistan on Thursday, killing at least nine people as fighting between security forces and extremists flared across the country's tribal belt.

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Iraqi Troops To Take Control Of Former Restive Province

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S.-led coalition troops are scheduled to hand over control of a onetime hub of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq to Iraqi forces on Monday, a senior American military official said.

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Top Iraqi Shiite Arrested In Baghdad

Monkeys Enjoy Giving To Others, Study Finds

ScienceDaily -- Researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, have shown capuchin monkeys, just like humans, find giving to be a satisfying experience. This finding comes on the coattails of a recent imaging study in humans that documented activity in reward centers of the brain after humans gave to charity.

Empathy in seeing the pleasure of another's fortune is thought to be the impetus for sharing, a trait this study shows transcends primate species.

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Missouri Public School Must Stop Distribution Of Bibles To Fifth-Graders, AU Tells Court

A Missouri public school must end its policy of allowing an evangelical Christian group to distribute Bibles to fifth-graders on school property during school hours, Americans United for Separation of Church and State has told a federal appellate court.

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