Laotian, UK officials discuss fate of jailed pregnant woman

The fate of a pregnant British woman jailed in Laos will be discussed at a meeting Thursday in London between top officials from the two countries. Officials at the meeting are expected to sign a prisoner transfer agreement that would allow Samantha Orobator to serve out a sentence in Britain, if she is convicted at her forthcoming trial, according to an official Laotian source who spoke to CNN

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Prince Charles Goes Viral to Save the Rain Forests

He doesn’t write e-mails or — perish the thought — use a BlackBerry or iPhone. Indeed, the Prince of Wales still deploys a fountain pen to scratch out letters and instructions of such calligraphic idiosyncrasy that they are collectively known in the royal household as “black spider memos.” Yet despite appearances, the heir to Britain’s throne is not insensible to the power of technology. A campaign to save the rain forests launched by the Prince on Tuesday is based on a 90-sec.

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Al Qaeda exporting jihad with a hip-hop vibe

The latest video from Somalia’s al Qaeda-backed Al-Shabaab wing is as slickly produced as a reality TV show but with a startling message — complete with a hip-hop jihad vibe. “Mortar by mortar, shell by shell, only going to stop when I send them to hell,” the unidentified voice raps on the video, which runs at least 18 minutes.

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Three Things Obama Could Learn From Thatcher

When Margaret Thatcher, then 53, appeared at the door of 10, Downing Street exactly 30 years ago today, hubris and self-doubt were not things that worried her. Having won the first of what would be three general election victories, her address to the British people was not modest and self-deprecating in the traditional fashion. She clothed herself, rather, in the words of a Saint — Francis of Assisi

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UK’s Brown suffers first defeat — on Gurkhas

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown suffered a stinging defeat in Parliament Wednesday, losing a vote over the right of Ghurkha veterans to settle in the United Kingdom. It was the first time Brown has lost a vote in parliament since he became prime minister in 2007

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