Cannes exposure is no guarantee of success

As the 2009 Cannes Film Festival draws near, filmmakers who have made the event’s short list hope that their films will be blessed with that hard-to-earn Cannes buzz, which could lead to awards and financial success. But the story doesn’t always have a Hollywood ending. There were several big names in last year’s lineup

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The Other GM

At last month’s glitzy Shanghai auto show, held in the only significant car market in the world that’s still growing, Nick Reilly, the president of GM Asia-Pacific, knew the question would come. Still, he winced a bit when a Chinese journalist asked him what would happen to Detroit’s fallen giant if it was forced by the U.S. government to declare bankruptcy

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How Stereotypes Defeat the Stereotyped

As explicit discrimination has receded in the last two decades, culminating in the elevation of an African-American to the Presidency, a woman to the House Speakership and a black woman to the galactic dominance known as being Oprah Winfrey, those who study the effects of racism and sexism have had to cope with a difficult question: If discrimination is less powerful, why do some groups in society continue to fare worse than others? Has bias merely become better hidden, or are there other forces at work

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Scottish court convicts 8 men over child sex abuse

A Scottish court has convicted eight men of child sexual abuse in what police say is the largest pedophile ring ever dismantled in Scotland. Staff members from Mardan Medical Center have treated 2,124 patients from clashes between the Pakistani military and Taliban fighters in more than two weeks of fighting, according to Dr

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Pakistani hospitals overwhelmed by wounded

Pakistan’s offensive against Taliban militants in the country’s northwest is overwhelming medical resources in the Swat Valley, hospital officials said Friday. Staff members from Mardan Medical Center have treated 2,124 patients from clashes between the Pakistani military and Taliban fighters in more than two weeks of fighting, according to Dr. Arshad Ahmed

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Mexico lowers swine flu alert as businesses in capital reopen

Mexico lowered its swine flu alert one notch Thursday as more than 6 million students returned to classes and thousands of shuttered businesses reopened their doors. The alert went from orange (elevated) to yellow (medium). Mexico has reported 1,112 laboratory-confirmed cases, including 42 deaths, according to the World Health Organization

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Son of pro-Taliban cleric killed in Pakistan

A son of a pro-Taliban cleric who negotiated a controversial peace deal in Pakistan’s Swat Valley was killed Thursday morning, Pakistani and Taliban officials said. Kafayatullah, the son of Islamist fundamentalist leader Sufi Muhammed, died when mortar shells from Pakistani security forces hit a home in the Lower Dir district of Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province, said Mehmood Khan, a Taliban commander, and a Pakistani intelligence official who asked not to be identified. The attack took place in the Maiden area.

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