Victim of chimp attack in ‘critical but stable’ condition

Seven hours of surgery and four teams of surgeons were needed to stabilize a Connecticut woman attacked by a pet chimpanzee, doctors at Stamford Hospital said Wednesday. Dr. Kevin Miller said Charla Nash, 55, remains in critical but stable condition after her friend’s pet chimp, once featured in TV commercials for Coca-Cola and Old Navy, attacked her Monday

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Man who froze had history of late utility payments

Marvin Schur may have been worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, but the World War II veteran was chronically late in paying his utility bills during the two years before he froze to death last month at age 93 in his home in Bay City, Michigan, after his power was cut off.

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In Protest, Tibetans Refuse to Celebrate New Year

When asked how his New Year celebrations have been, the pilgrim — a middle-aged businessman wearing a heavy winter coat against the bitter winds that knife through the monastery’s narrow alleys — immediately glances up and then over his shoulder. It is the universal, instinctive reaction of Tibetans I talked to on a recent trip to China’s far western province of Qinghai, where ethnic Tibetans make up the majority of the population in the areas closest to the Qinghai-Tibet border

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Behind the French Ruling on WWII Deportations of Jews

Following decades of debate over the nation’s wartime history, France’s highest judicial body has formally ruled that the French state bears moral and legal responsibility for the deportation of nearly 76,000 Jews during the nation’s WWII occupation. In doing so, the court officially recognized the willful participation of France’s collaborationist Vichy government in anti-Semitic persecution that had long been attributed to Nazi occupying powers. The ruling Monday, by the Conseil d’Etat, or State Council, was cheered by organizations representing French Jews and families of Jews who were deported during the war — a mere 3,000 of whom ultimately returned

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GM Bailout: Billions to Put People Out of Work

GM says it needs more money from the federal government or it will run out of cash next month. It has made some progress with its creditors and the UAW, but neither of those negotiations is final, so some of what GM can do to cut costs and improve its balance sheet will have to be taken on faith. The parts of the GM restructuring the the company can claim are firm are the closing of some brands including Saturn and Hummer, the shutdown of several factories, and the firing of 47,000 people.

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Drugs suspected in teen’s death at Fort Lewis barracks, Army says

Army investigators suspect drugs played a role in the death of a 16-year-old girl found unconscious with another teenage girl at a closed barracks, a spokesman for the investigation said Wednesday. The incident happened last weekend at Fort Lewis near Tacoma, Washington, as the girls were visiting an acquaintance at the barracks, which are closed to the public, according to Chris Grey, a spokesman for the base’s Criminal Investigation Command.

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Holder: U.S. a ‘nation of cowards’ on race discussions

In a blunt assessment of race relations in the United States, Attorney General Eric Holder Wednesday called the American people "essentially a nation of cowards" in failing to openly discuss the issue of race. In his first major speech since being confirmed, the nation’s first black attorney general told an overflow crowd celebrating Black History Month at the Justice Department the nation remains “voluntarily socially segregated.” “Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards,” Holder declared. Holder urged Americans of all races to use Black History Month as a time to have a forthright national conversation between blacks and whites to discuss aspects of race which are ignored because they are uncomfortable.

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