Latin America and the U.S. Grapple with the OAS’s Cuba Conundrum

Latin American leaders usually have few qualms about lecturing the U.S. on what they regard as the folly of its Cuba policy, especially of late. Re-integrating Cuba has become a priority issue for many if not most of the region’s governments, who see it as a way to break with the Cold War politics and U.S

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Staff’s kids help Leno say goodbye to ‘Tonight’

Jay Leno ended his 17-year reign as the host of "The Tonight Show" Friday with the children of people who met and started families while working at the long-running late-night show during his tenure, according to audience members who attended the taping.

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German Policeman Unmasked as Stasi Spy

When Benno Ohnesorg was shot on June 2, 1967, by a policeman in West Berlin during a demonstration against the Shah of Iran, the young German student became a martyr for a generation of left-wing activists. The killing triggered the radicalization of the mass protest movement in West Germany, which directed its anger against the police, the government and the conservative establishment.

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The Outlook For Stocks Is Decidedly…Mixed

‘Mixed’ is a word that pops up often in financial research reports these days. The measures that give us hints about which way the economy and markets are headed‹everything from the number of people out of work to how difficult it is for companies to fund themselves are pointing in every which direction. As a new Bank of America-Merrill Lynch report puts it: ‘The [stock market] indicators are fairly evenly divided between positive and negative readings.’ That’s not too helpful.

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Space craft to use ‘sails’ for fast return to Earth

The humble sail is undergoing a revolution and is set to be thrust into outer-space for use on satellites, rockets and other space craft. A new form of sail, known as an “aerobraking sail”, is being adapted by space engineers who hope to use it to speed up the return of various forms of space craft to Earth faster than they would naturally fall from the sky. The development comes at a critical time when the volume of space junk in orbit is continuing to rise and poses an ever-increasing collision threat to new missions

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Police officer killed in New Zealand standoff

A policeman was killed Friday during a day-long siege with a gunman at a house in the town of Napier, in New Zealand’s north island. In the United States, the total number of confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus, as swine flu is officially called, nearly doubled to 1,639 from the day before, with reports coming from 43 states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

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