Medvedev’s Challenge to Putin: Oh, Never Mind

It was impossible to pinpoint the exact moment of the transformation, but by the time Russian President Dmitri Medvedev left the podium after his first big press conference on Wednesday, he had morphed into a lame duck. The problem was not so much that he failed to state his plans for re-election next year, but, as some members of his own circle now admit, the President seemed to be courting a constituency of just one man — Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who will alone decide whether Medvedev stays or goes

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Dad in Japan custody battle thought wife would take kids

On February 12, 2009, Christopher Savoie received an e-mail from his ex-wife that he had feared would come. About a month after their bitter divorce, in which Noriko Savoie promised as part of the agreement she wouldn’t return to Japan with their children to live, she threatened to do just that.

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Whip It: Drew Barrymore, Director and Roller Derby Girl

It’s been well established that Drew Barrymore is both adorable and a free spirit. Who else could show up to the Toronto premiere of her first directorial effort, the roller derby-themed film Whip It, with a hair-do that looked like something put together by a bored Jolie-Pitt child during an unsupervised hour at the chateau?

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Hamilton edges Sutil to snatch pole at Monza

Lewis Hamilton gave McLaren Mercedes pole position in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza with a dramatic late lap to beat Force India’s Adrian Sutil by just two-tenths of a second on Saturday. Defending world champion Hamilton took the 15th pole of his career after he clocked a last-gasp time of one minute and 24.066 seconds ahead of Sutil, who was 0.195secs behind.

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Pakistan Military Not Capitalizing on Taliban Disarray

A week after a CIA drone strike is believed to have killed Baitullah Mehsud, you’d think the Pakistan military would be rushing to capitalize on the apparent disarray in the leadership of the Pakistani Taliban as rivals fight to succeed him. But rather than mount an offensive in the strongholds of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan in South Waziristan — the sort of campaign promised by President Asif Ali Zardari back in May — Pakistan’s generals seem content to let the CIA’s drones do most of the fighting. Indeed, some officials in Islamabad say Mehsud’s death may open the way for a truce with the TTP, if his successor agrees to stop fighting the Pakistani state and instead turns their weapons on Western forces in Afghanistan

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