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Alastair Macdonald / Reuters:
Bombs, protests as Iraq election mood sours — BAGHDAD (Reuters) - At least five Iraqis and a U.S. soldier were killed in violence in Iraq on Sunday as fresh street protests over election results kept up tension that has soured the mood after a peaceful ballot 10 days ago.
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Sabrina Tavernise / New York Times:
Shiites Decline Sunni Bid for More Iraq Parliament Seats — Baghdad, IRAQ, Dec. 25 - Sunni Arab political leaders asked the main Shiite political block today to give them 10 Shiite seats in the new parliament in an early attempt to defuse tensions over the results of last week's election.
Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:
Bush Presses Editors on Security — President Bush has been summoning newspaper editors lately in an effort to prevent publication of stories he considers damaging to national security. — The efforts have failed, but the rare White House sessions with the executive editors of The Washington Post …
New York Times:
Huge Rise Looms for Health Care in City's Budget — When the Metropolitan Transportation Authority proposed making new workers chip in more to its pension fund than current workers do, it was enough to send the union out on strike and bring the nation's largest mass-transit system to a halt for three days.
Eric Lipton / New York Times:
On Gulf Coast, Big Difference Between Corps and Private Cleanups — PASCAGOULA, Miss. - There is an eerie stillness here on Edgewood Avenue. Toys, broken glass and random pieces of furniture are strewn across yards. Not a single person is in sight. The only movement …
Boston Globe:
Mosque on hold — THE STORY on the lawsuit filed against us by the Islamic Society of Boston (''Praised by beacon, mosque project stalls amid rancor," Page A1, Dec. 18) did mention that the society's founder, Abdurahman Alamoudi, raised money for Al Qaeda and is in jail (in connection with a plot to assassinate a Saudi prince).
Adam Liptak / New York Times:
Courts Criticize Judges' Handling of Asylum Cases — Federal appeals court judges around the nation have repeatedly excoriated immigration judges this year for what they call a pattern of biased and incoherent decisions in asylum cases. — In one decision last month, Richard A. Posner …
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John Grisham / New York Times:
Silent Nights on the Gulf Coast — IN the harrowing days after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, the shellshocked and homeless survivors strung up tents and tarps wherever they could find standing shelter, anything to hide from the sun. Now, four months later, many of the tents remain …
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Rantingprofs
Michael Janofsky / New York Times:
Professors' Politics Draw Lawmakers Into the Fray — While attending a Pennsylvania Republican Party picnic, Jennie Mae Brown bumped into her state representative and started venting. — "How could this happen?" Ms. Brown asked Representative Gibson C. Armstrong two summers ago …
Mark Steyn / Chicago Sun Times:
Falling birth rates not just a problem in Europe — "But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John." — If, like increasing numbers of Europeans, you have "some problems …
Robin Toner / New York Times:
Catfight! — A long time ago, it became clear that something about Hillary Rodham Clinton had driven many political pundits around the bend. — For nearly 15 years, she has been denounced, at various times, as a deeply subversive rogue feminist who equated marriage with slavery …
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Mark Weinraub / Reuters:
Christmas Eve sales slower than predicted — CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. retailers faced slower-than-expected traffic in stores on the last shopping day before Christmas as extended hours and steep discounts failed to draw a big crowd of shoppers. — "I don't think the day is the kind …
David Axe / Defense Tech:
MERRY CHRISTMAS, IRAQ — At the Erbil Ministry of Culture's media hall, the Iraqi-Kurdistan Symphony Orchestra has just struck the final chord of the Kurdish national anthem, and the audience — Kurdish Christians and Muslims, Arabs and Turkomens, maybe even an Iraqi Jew or two …
