Close-in suburbs are being shortchanged by federal housing and transportation policies that favor central cities and outer suburbs, a private research group suggests.A report Wednesday by the Brookings Institution notes that nearly one-fifth of the U.S. population lives in what the think tank calls "first suburbs" -- cities and towns adjacent to inner cities.They are between fast-growing outer suburbs and slower-growing or shrinking inner cities and are often neglected by both urban and suburban policies, the report said."Politically, they are less than the sum of their parts," said Bruce Katz, director of the metropolitan policy program at Brookings....
http://www.cnn.com
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Editor - 20:03:00 02-15-06
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 Gunman Shot Dead During Detroit Bank Robbery in Which He Took About 10 People Hostage |
Police fatally shot a man who robbed a bank Wednesday and took about 10 people hostage, authorities said. No other injuries were reported. The armed man entered the Comerica Bank branch, demanded money and then fired one shot into the air, Second Deputy Chief James Tate said. A SWAT team surrounded the building, but officers were unable to establish contact with the man, Tate said. An officer fired one shot, striking the man in the head, he said. ...
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1625133
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Editor - 20:01:00 02-15-06
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| Paramilitary Groups Disarm in Colombia |
Hundreds of paramilitary fighters handed in their weapons and renounced violence Wednesday in a ceremony in southern Colombia, the country's peace commissioner said. Separately, the U.S. Embassy in Colombia said it would not penalize companies for hiring former members of armed groups that Washington considers terrorist organizations a declaration that may help the fighters abandon warfare and crime. The 552 combatants who disarmed were members of the Central Bolivar Bloc of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, considered by the United States as a terrorist organization with links to major drug traffickers. The ceremony, attended by the peace commissioner, Luis Carlos Restrepo, took place on a farm near the town of Valparaiso, 260 miles south of Bogota. With the ceremony, more than 22,500 paramilitary fighters have benefited under a government-brokered peace deal with AUC. ...
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1625019
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Editor - 19:57:00 02-15-06
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| Civil liberties fear as US terror suspect list rises to 325,000 |
Civil liberties organisations expressed outrage yesterday after it was reported that the database of terrorist suspects kept by the US authorities now holds 325,000 names, a fourfold increase in two and a half years.The list, maintained by the National Counterterrorism Centre (NCTC), includes different spellings of the same person's names as well as aliases, but the Washington Post quoted NCTC officials as saying that at least 200,000 individuals are on it. They said that "only a very, very small fraction" of that number were US citizens, but that insistence did little to defuse the reaction. Timothy Sparapani, an expert on privacy rights at the American Civil Liberties Union, said the ACLU's response was one of incredulity, and alarm that many people are likely to be on the list by mistake, with serious impact on their lives and few, if any, means of getting themselves off it. "The numbers continue to grow by leaps and bounds," Mr Sparapani said. ...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1710756,00.html
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Editor - 19:53:00 02-15-06
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| Germany confirms bird flu cases |
Germany has confirmed that two swans found dead in the north of the country had the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus. The birds were found on the island of Ruegen in the Baltic Sea, off Germany. Austria has also confirmed its first cases of bird flu, in two dead swans. Sweden and Denmark have ordered poultry to be kept indoors as a precaution. The United Nations food agency has urged governments in Western Europe not to panic, but warned the virus could spread further when birds migrate. The H5N1 strain of the virus, which can kill humans through contact with infected animals, has recently been found in Italy, Greece and Bulgaria. A spokeswoman for the UK's Royal Society for the Protection of Birds told the BBC News website it was probable the birds had shifted further westwards than normal in search for food following particularly cold weather in countries like Ukraine. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4714574.stm
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Editor - 13:31:00 02-15-06
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| Moscow's Mideast Challenge to America |
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia seemed to cede much of its influence in the Middle East to the United States. No longer. Now, Moscow appears eager to present itself as a counterbalance to Washington in the region -- with major geopolitical consequences. News from the Middle East can be confusing. And that has been especially true recently. One day, we read that Iran is halting all talks concerning its controversial nuclear program. The next day, the Iranians have changed their mind. One week we read that Hamas has won democratic elections in the Palestinian Authority. The next week, the US, Europe and Israel are refusing to speak with the terrorist group.But their has been one constant: Russia. And Russian President Vladimir Putin's attempt to increase his country's influence in the Middle East....
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,401078,00.html
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Editor - 13:03:00 02-15-06
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