Authorities in an eastern Ukrainian city took down billboards and ended television advertisements on Monday featuring Soviet dictator Josef Stalin exhorting residents to pay their utility bills on time after protests from rights groups and nationalists.Irina Taran, a spokeswoman for the governing council in Donetsk, said dozens of billboards featuring Stalin appeared in the city last week; television advertisements featuring old film clips of the Soviet leader also appeared. Ukrainian media reported that the mayor's office initiated the move, but then backed down in the face of protests.One billboard shows Stalin holding a piece of paper and saying "Comrades! This isn't a film! This is life!" In the television ad, Stalin is shown in grainy black-and-white footage being applauded by hundreds of party members as a dubbed-over voice says: "Those who don't pay for their heat should be punished!"...
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Editor - 19:26:00 03-26-07
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 Kentucky bans traditional cigarettes Law limits sales to ‘fire-safe’ versions; state joins 7 others in move |
Traditional cigarettes essentially will be banned from this tobacco-producing state under a new law limiting sales to so-called fire-safe versions. Kentucky is joining seven others that require the special smokes in an effort to prevent fires ignited by cigarettes, according to the National Fire Protection Association. "Kentucky, with its rich tobacco history, makes a statement that this is very much a public safety initiative," said Lorraine Carli, a spokeswoman for the group. Now if we could just find a way to ban all Politicians as a “public safety initiative,” that would truly be in the best public interest ...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17801626/
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Editor - 19:19:00 03-26-07
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| China announces investment drive in Tibet |
China will invest 100 billion yuan ($12.9 billion) in projects in Tibet, including an extension of its first railway, state media reported, as Beijing seeks to boost its image in the remote region through development. The money will be spent on 180 projects in the years up to 2010, including upgrading an airport; extending availability of drinking water, electricity and telephone lines to herding communities; and building a railway from regional capital Lhasa to Xigaze, the region's second-largest city, the Xinhua news agency reported late on Monday. To critics, the railway connecting Lhasa to other parts of China that opened in July last year has become a symbol of Beijing's efforts to subdue discontent among Tibetans by offering development and modernity. The vice chairman of the regional government, Hao Peng, said the new wave of infrastructure investment would be tilted toward herding regions "so farmers and herders and the grassroots population will ...
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2983767
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Editor - 19:09:00 03-26-07
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| Can you dig it? Oregon may name state soil And which soil, derived from weathered basalt, might get the title? Jory! |
No matter how many pressing matters are at hand, legislators always find time to debate the merits of a new state icon. Oregon has a state bird, flower, insect and gemstone. In 2005, Gov. Ted Kulongoski signed a bill that made the metasequoia the state fossil. And this week, legislators are expected to hear whether the reddish earth found in the Willamette Valley foothills, known as Jory, should be the state soil. "We are trying to highlight the importance of soil to our state," said Scott Burns, a Portland State geology professor who has lobbied for a decade to make Jory a state symbol. Well at least they weren’t passing more laws. Maybe they can spend their time doing this crap and keep away from passing so many laws...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17793388/
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Editor - 19:06:00 03-26-07
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| Streaker Sentenced to Help at Wyoming County Fair Under Plea Agreement |
A man arrested for streaking during the Teton County Fair's annual demolition derby must volunteer 40 hours of service to this year's fair, under a plea agreement a judge approved. Seamus McKinney, 25, also will be placed on a year of supervised probation. The demolition derby is always the last event at the fair. A rash of streaking at the derby over the last couple of years has led to arrests and warnings from police that anyone caught streaking would face severe penalties. In 2005, a sheriff's deputy used a Taser to subdue a man who was running naked through the arena with a fire extinguisher. In 2006, the same deputy repeatedly punched a streaking man after the man lowered his shoulder and ran into the officer. ...
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2983763
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Editor - 18:55:00 03-26-07
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| Smugglers force migrants into sea; 31 killed Up to 90 missing after Africans told to go overboard to enable getaway |
Smugglers taking illegal migrants from Somalia to Yemen forced hundreds of Africans overboard in stormy seas in an effort to make a fast getaway from security forces, officials said Monday. Thirty-one bodies have been found and nearly 90 people remained missing.Passengers who resisted the smugglers were stabbed or beaten with wooden and steel clubs, then thrown into the water where some were attacked by sharks, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said, citing survivors."Several recovered bodies showed signs of severe mutilation," UNHCR said. "Survivors also reported that several Ethiopian women and at least one Somali were raped and abused by the smugglers during the voyage from Bosaso in Somalia's Puntland region. Survivors also alleged that some Yemeni security forces confiscated their money once they reached shore."...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17801579/
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Editor - 18:53:00 03-26-07
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