Obama says U.S., Turkey can be model for world

President Obama said Monday that the United States and Turkey can send a powerful message to the world through their friendship. “I have now spent a week traveling through Europe, and I’ve been asked, ‘Are you trying to make a statement by ending this weeklong trip in Turkey’ And the answer is yes,” Obama said during his first state visit to a Muslim nation. Obama said he is trying to make a statement about the importance of Turkey — “not just to the United States, but to the world.” “I think that where there’s the most promise of building stronger U.S.-Turkish relations is in the recognition that Turkey and the United States can build a model partnership in which a predominantly Christian nation, a predominantly Muslim nation — a Western nation and a nation that straddles two continents,” he continued, “that we can create a modern international community that is respectful, that is secure, that is prosperous, that there are not tensions — inevitable tensions between cultures — which I think is extraordinarily important.” Obama said “one of the great strengths of the United States” is that it does not consider itself “a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation

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Football First XI: Best former Eastern Bloc players

The Berlin Wall came down 20 years ago and in that time the world game has opened its arms to a tidal wave of talent from behind the former Iron Curtain. Here, Football Fanzone picks the 11 finest footballers to emerge from the old Eastern Bloc since 1989

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Thousands to mourn reality TV star Goody

Thousands of well-wishers are expected to line the streets of east London on Saturday for the funeral of controversial reality TV star Jade Goody. The 27-year-old lost a public battle with cervical cancer last month, prompting sympathy and headlines around the world. Goody had burst into the spotlight in the British version of “Big Brother” in 2002 but attracted global notoriety five years later when she made racist comments — for which she later apologized — to Indian actress Shilpa Shetty

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Street view of the American Civic Association

Obama’s remarks came after a woman from Heidelberg, Germany, asked if he ever regretted having run for president. The question yielded a lengthy response from Obama, who is participating in his first overseas trip in office. “That’s a good question,” Obama said at a packed town hall meeting in Strasbourg, France

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U.S., Europe need to drop attitudes, Obama says

President Obama on Friday called on Europe and the United States to drop negative attitudes toward each other and said "unprecedented coordination" is needed to confront the global economic crisis. Speaking at a packed town hall meeting in Strasbourg on his first overseas trip as president, Obama said, “I’m confident that we can meet any challenge as long as we are together.” It’s easier to allow “resentments to fester” than “to forge true partnerships,” the president said. “So we must be honest with ourselves.

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