Chilean couples are getting divorced at an unprecedented rate as specialist law firms cut fees and offer easy payment through department-store credit cards. In late 2004, the South American nation became the last in the Western Hemisphere to make divorce legal, overcoming a decade of opposition from the Roman Catholic Church, conservative groups and lawmakers. Almost 2,000 couples divorced in the first two months of this year, up from 900 in the year-earlier period and 1,200 in all of 2005, according to the civil registry. The pace may quicken as lawyers compete to make it easier, faster and cheaper for couples to end their marriages. ``Our offices are full practically every day,'' said Alejandro Krausz, 31, co-founder of Defensas Judiciales, a law firm in Santiago that serves estranged couples. ...
http://www.bloomberg.com
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Editor - 08:35:00 04-13-07
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 Kindly thief allows ailing store clerk to call 911 Woman tells robber she is having a heart attack; he still grabs some loot |
A gunman robbing a convenience store allowed the clerk to call 911 and apologized after the woman said she might be having a heart attack. But he still took $30 and cigarettes, authorities said.The masked man entered the Kangaroo Express store early Saturday in this Orlando suburb and pointed what appeared to be a semiautomatic handgun at 60-year-old clerk Mary Parker, according to surveillance audio/video released Thursday. He demanded access to the safe, but she said she didn’t have the keys.He told her to empty the cash register into a bag. He then pulled up a stool for her to sit down and told her he was doing this because no one would hire him and he had bills to pay. She started hyperventilating and pleaded with the gunman for help.“I have heart trouble. Help me,” Parker said.“I’m sorry, ma’am,” the gunman replied.“I have heart trouble,” Parker told him.“Ma’am, it’s going to be all right,” the gunman said....
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18090863/
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Editor - 08:34:00 04-13-07
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| Vatican ambassador to boycott Holocaust memorial in row over photo |
The Vatican ambassador to Israel has sparked a public row after refusing to attend this Sunday's annual Holocaust memorial service in Jerusalem in protest at a description of the wartime role of Pope Pius XII.Monsignor Antonio Franco, who arrived in Jerusalem last year, has called on Israel's official Holocaust museum, Yad Vashem, to change a picture caption which criticises the pope for failing to condemn the deportation and mass killing of Jews under the Nazi regime. Earlier this month he wrote to turn down a formal invitation to Sunday's torch-lighting remembrance ceremony.In turn, the Holocaust museum said it was "shocked" at Monsignor Franco's decision to stay away from the event and called on the Vatican to open up its archives for further examination of the troubled history of Pius XII....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2056752,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=12
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Editor - 08:32:00 04-13-07
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| IRS trudges on with aging computers |
The Internal Revenue Service has been trying for years to upgrade its antiquated mainframe computers, which process Americans' tax returns by churning through millions of lines of assembly code written by hand in the early 1960s. But after more than 20 years and over $5 billion, there's still no end in sight. Not all computer systems can talk to each other, information isn't available in real time, and tax returns filed on paper are often manually entered by typists. An internal strategy document written seven years ago likened the upgrade task to redesigning and rebuilding a densely populated city like New York, without evacuating it first or disrupting the "daily pattern" of the residents' lives. The IRS' long-term goal is to run its operations with the efficiency Americans expect of banks and credit card companies, but it has consistently fallen short. ...
http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-6175657.html
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Editor - 00:19:00 04-13-07
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| The prospect of all-female conception |
Women might soon be able to produce sperm in a development that could allow lesbian couples to have their own biological daughters, according to a pioneering study published today. Scientists are seeking ethical permission to produce synthetic sperm cells from a woman's bone marrow tissue after showing that it possible to produce rudimentary sperm cells from male bone-marrow tissue.The researchers said they had already produced early sperm cells from bone-marrow tissue taken from men. They believe the findings show that it may be possible to restore fertility to men who cannot naturally produce their own sperm.But the results also raise the prospect of being able to take bone-marrow tissue from women and coaxing the stem cells within the female tissue to develop into sperm cells, said Professor Karim Nayernia of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne....
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article2444462.ece
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Editor - 00:17:00 04-13-07
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| A bloody message from Iraq: nowhere is safe... |
Nowhere is safe. Insurgents struck in the heart of the Green Zone yesterday, one of the most heavily defended places in Baghdad. The symbolism - and the bloody message - was clear with this attack on the home to the US-imposed democracy. A suicide bomber cleared at least eight rings of security to blow himself up in the Iraqi parliament, killing eight people including three lawmakers as they were eating lunch. It was the most deadly attack mounted from within the Green Zone.In a separate attack, the Iraqi capital was cut in two as one of the main bridges over the Tigris was blown up earlier in the day.The Green Zone bombing was not only an assault on democracy. It was intended to undermine President George Bush's troop "surge", which is denounced as a sham by so many Iraqis....
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2444473.ece
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Editor - 23:54:00 04-12-07
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