Sarkozy wins French NATO re-entry vote

Opposition lawmakers Tuesday ridiculed President Nicolas Sarkozy for taking France back into NATO’s military command after more than 40 years, but were unable to stop the move when it came to a vote. The National Assembly voted in favor of Sarkozy’s plan, 329-238. Socialist Laurent Fabius, a former prime minister, told Prime Minister Francois Fillon: “You tell us this would mean more independence and more influence.

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Leftist claims El Salvador presidency

Mauricio Funes, a member of a political party that waged guerrilla war against the government 17 years ago, has claimed the presidency of El Salvador. “This is the happiest night of my life,” Funes told a jubilant crowd at his election headquarters Sunday night. “It’s also the night of greatest hope for El Salvador.” The FMLN party’s Funes had 51.12 percent of the vote, while the ARENA party’s Rodrigo Avila had 48.87 percent with 84 percent of the national ballots counted, the electoral commission said on its Web site

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War message found inside Lincoln’s watch

A long-hidden message has been discovered inside Abraham Lincoln’s pocket watch, the Smithsonian’s Museum of American History announced Tuesday. Watchmaker Jonathan Dillon was repairing Lincoln’s watch in April 1861 when he heard about the attack on Fort Sumter, South Carolina, and wrote a short message on the metal inside the watch, the Smithsonian said. There it remained, unseen for almost 150 years, it said

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Obama overturns Bush policy on stem cells

President Obama signed an executive order Monday repealing a Bush-era policy that limited federal tax dollars for embryonic stem cell research. Obama’s move overturns an order signed by President Bush in 2001 that barred the National Institutes of Health from funding research on embryonic stem cells beyond using 60 cell lines that existed at that time. Obama also signed a presidential memorandum establishing greater independence for federal science policies and programs

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