A Florida woman who lost power due to hurricane damage has finally regained electricity. Sound normal? Well, the hurricane that knocked out her power was Hurricane Andrew, which hit 15 years ago. The woman, who didn't want her full name released, had been living in her Cutler Bay home without power since August 24, 1992. That means no air conditioning during the sweltering summer heat. No heat during cold swings that Florida sometimes experiences during the winter. And no hot water for showers every morning. "I think it's like everything, you learn how to step into it, and wait, and when you feel it, you take your quick shower," she told CBS 4. Why did she go so long? Soon after the hurricane hit, money from her insurance settlement ran out, and the contractor stopped working. Her home was left half-repaired and not up to government code — meaning electricity couldn't be hooked up. Since she didn't have money to finish the repairs, she had only one option: live with it....
http://www.foxnews.com
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Editor - 17:30:00 02-18-07
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 Poll sees hope in West-Islam ties |
Most people believe common ground exists between the West and the Islamic world despite current global tensions, a BBC World Service poll has found. In a survey of people in 27 countries, an average of 56% said they saw positive links between the cultures. Yet 28% of respondents told questioners that violent conflict was inevitable. Asked twice about the existing causes of friction, 52% said they were a result of political disputes and 58% said minority groups stoked tensions. Only in one country, Nigeria, where Christian and Muslim groups often clash violently, did a majority of those polled (56%) cite religious and cultural differences between communities as the root cause of conflict. Doug Miller, president of polling company Globescan, said the results suggested that the world was not heading towards an inevitable and wide-ranging "clash of civilisations". "Most people feel this is about political power and interests, not religion and culture," he said....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6369529.stm
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Editor - 15:40:00 02-18-07
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| Mexican Government Extending Anti-Drug Operations to Two Border States, Official |
The Mexican government will expand its anti-drug raids to two states across the border from Texas, deploying more than 3,000 soldiers, sailors and federal police, officials said Sunday. The raids will cover Nuevo Laredo, a town across the border from Laredo, Texas, that has been bloodied by turf wars between drug gangs in recent years. Officials also said that in the two months since intensive raids began in central and western Mexico, they have destroyed almost as many opium fields as plots of marijuana, long Mexico's principal drug crop. "We have begun a frontal struggle against organized crime that has no precedent in the country's history," said Interior Secretary Francisco Ramirez Acuna. "We are recovering territory for our children." ...
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2885584
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Editor - 15:36:00 02-18-07
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| Iraq blasts kill 63, send grim message |
Militants struck back Sunday in their first major blow against a U.S.-led security clampdown in Baghdad with car bombs that killed at least 63 people, left scores injured and sent a bloody calling card to officials boasting that extremist factions were on the run. The attacks in mostly Shiite areas — twin explosions in an open-air market that claimed 62 lives and a third blast that killed one — were a sobering reminder of the huge challenges confronting any effort to rattle the well-armed and well-hidden insurgents. Instead, it was the Iraqi commanders of the security sweep feeling the sting. Just a few hours before the blasts, Lt. Gen. Abboud Qanbar led reporters on a tour of the neighborhood near the marketplace and promised to "chase the terrorists out of Baghdad." On Saturday, the Iraqi spokesman for the plan, Brig. Gen. Qassim Moussawi, said violence had plummeted 80% in the capital....
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2007-02-18-iraq-iran-border_x.htm?csp=34
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Editor - 15:35:00 02-18-07
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| 5 dead in avalanches in Mont., Utah and Idaho |
Weekend avalanches killed five people in Montana, Utah and Idaho, with one bruised survivor traveling miles by snowmobile and on foot to reach help, authorities said. In Montana’s Big Belt Mountains, the bodies of two snowmobilers caught in an avalanche were found by searchers early Sunday and removed by helicopter later in the day. That avalanche happened Saturday at the base of Mount Baldy, about 20 miles from Townsend. A survivor traveled the 15 or 20 miles back to the trailhead, initially by snowmobile and then on foot after the machine became stuck, Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Cheryl Leidle said. Upon reaching a pickup truck at the trailhead, he used a cell phone to call for help. “It would appear the avalanche drove them into a grove of trees downhill from the avalanche itself,” Leidle said. ...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17211105/
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Editor - 15:33:00 02-18-07
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| Some cocoa may improve brain blood flow |
A nice cup of the right kind of cocoa could hold the promise of promoting brain function as people age. In an increasingly aging world, medical researchers are seeing more cases of dementia and are looking for ways to make brains work better. One potential source of help may be flavanols, an anti-oxidant found in cocoa beans that can increase blood flow to the brain, researchers said Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Ian MacDonald of England's University of Nottingham reported on tests given to young women who were asked to do a complex task while their brains were being studied with magnetic resonance imaging. Among the women given drinks of cocoa high in flavanols, there was a significant increase in blood flow to the brain compared with subjects who did not drink the cocoa, he said....
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-02-18-cocoa-brain-function_x.htm?csp=34
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Editor - 15:30:00 02-18-07
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