Investigators find flight data recorder from Comoros crash

Search teams have found the flight data recorder from the Yemenia Airways plane that crashed off the Comoros Islands in June, killing 152 people, the chief investigator said Friday. An operation to retrieve the recorder has begun, said a statement from investigator Ali Abdou Mohamed

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Health-Care Reform After Kennedy: A Scaled-Back Bill?

It has not been lost on many that Ted Kennedy’s death came at a moment when the cause he described as the greatest one of his public life — universal health care — seems to be stumbling just short of the goal line. Kennedy’s absence has been felt all year on Capitol Hill, and there are many on both sides who believe that health reform might be closer to becoming a reality if he had been in any shape to bring his negotiating skills to bear. So what effect will his passing have on the prospects for health reform?

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After Kennedy’s Death: Silence from the Pope

There was a poignant footnote to President Obama’s historic July 10 meeting with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican. Behind closed doors in the papal library, Obama handed Benedict a letter that Senator Edward Kennedy had asked him to personally deliver to the pontiff. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs later told reporters that nobody — not even the President — knew the contents of the sealed missive.

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European envoys visit jailed Cuban’s family

European diplomats visited the family of a jailed Cuban dissident Thursday over concern the government has arrested him on criminal charges in a bid to block his political activities. Representatives from Sweden, the current president of the European Union, as well as diplomats from the United Kingdom, Germany, Hungary, and Poland, drove to the Havana home of Darsi Ferrer and talked to his wife. Ferrer has been an outspoken critic of the Cuban government and has even organized small marches to demand improved human rights in Cuba, an unusually bold move

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Analyst: Post-Kennedy health care bill may be more sweeping

For almost 50 years, Sen. Ted Kennedy pushed unsuccessfully for legislation that would reform the health care system and ensure coverage for every American. Ironically, his death might bring about a change of tactics that would help reach the goal he was unable to achieve in life, one veteran political analyst says

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Obama’s Next Move in Afghanistan

The early returns from Afghanistan’s presidential election had the smell of a decorous massage job. With 10% of districts reporting, the incumbent, Hamid Karzai, and his main challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, the former Foreign Minister, were tied, with about 40% each. But few of those votes came from Karzai’s Pashtun strongholds in the south, where turnout was light — owing to Taliban threats — but heavily managed

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Taiwan allows Dalai visit for typhoon victims

Taiwan said Thursday that it will allow a visit by the Dalai Lama to pray for the victims of the typhoon-battered island. Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou made the announcement Thursday while visiting a school in the southern part of the island, a government spokesman said. Typhoon Morakot slammed into Taiwan on August 8 and unleashed floods, mudslides and misery

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GM and German Government Still Wrangling Over Opel

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s race to save automaker Opel — and the jobs of its 25,000 employees in Germany — is beginning to look like a high-speed pileup that could cost her at the polls. To get talks with Opel owners General Motors back on track, Merkel is reportedly ready to abandon her previous plan to force GM to sell a controlling stake in its European business to a consortium of Canadian-Austrian car-parts maker Magna International and Russia’s Sberbank

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