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Wednesday, Dec. 18
The Indiana Daily Student

world


Switzerland Big Bang Machine

Geneva atom smasher sets collision record

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The world’s largest atom smasher conducted its first experiments at conditions nearing those after the Big Bang, breaking its own record for high-energy collisions with proton beams crashing into each other Tuesday at three times more force than ever before.


The Indiana Daily Student

Wind farm on the Thames to help electrify Britain

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As part of the goal to get 15.4 percent of Britain’s electricity from renewable sources by 2015, the government has approved construction of the London Array, a wind farm to be positioned 20 kilometers off the coast of southeast England in the Thames Estuary. The region (Kent and Essex counties) has the highest demand for electricity in the U.K., with an estimated 750,000 homes consuming power every year. If successful, the wind farm will be one of the largest offshore wind farms in the world, with about 300 turbines generating enough energy to power the entire area.


The Indiana Daily Student

‘Gray area’ gets felony pot cases tossed out in court

Police thought they had an open-and-shut case when they seized more than two pounds of marijuana from a couple’s home, even though doctors authorized the pair to use pot for medical purposes. San Francisco police thought the same with a father-and-son team they suspected of abusing the state’s medical marijuana law by allegedly operating an illegal trafficking operation.


The Indiana Daily Student

Paper or TV?

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On my way to class, though I’m only above ground for about 10 minutes, I pass at least five newsstands.These sprawling kiosks stock and advertise every type of publication imaginable, from a standard daily paper to magazines about African politics to uncensored porn.Each newsstand always seems to have several people waiting in line to buy their daily print fix. Even as the economy continues to steady itself, they’re still regularly buying their papers and magazines.

The Indiana Daily Student

In Texas, fear follows Mexicans who flee drug war

FORT HANCOCK, Texas — When black SUVs trail school buses around here, no one dismisses it as routine traffic. And when three tough-looking Mexican men pace around the high school gym during a basketball game, no one assumes they’re just fans.Fear has settled over this border town of 1,700, about 50 miles southeast of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, epicenter of that country’s bloody drug war. Mexican families fleeing the violence have moved here or just sent their children, and authorities and residents say gangsters have followed them across the Rio Grande to apply terrifying, though so far subtle, intimidation.The message: We know where you are.


The Indiana Daily Student

38 dead after suicide bombings in Moscow subway

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MOSCOW — Female suicide bombers blew themselves up Monday in twin attacks on Moscow subway stations packed with rush-hour passengers, killing at least 38 people and wounding more than 60, officials said. The carnage blamed on rebels from the Caucasus region follows the killings of several high-profile Islamic militant leaders there.


The Indiana Daily Student

321 civilians killed in Congo massacre

At least 321 civilians were killed in a previously unreported massacre in Congo in late 2009, while villagers that escaped were sent back with their lips and ears cut off as a warning to others of what would happen if they tried to talk, according to an investigation by a human rights group.


The Indiana Daily Student

Pres. Obama visits Afghanistan

President Barack Obama made a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Sunday. After an overnight flight from Washington, the president landed in Afghanistan for a stay of just a few hours, in darkness. He flew by helicopter from Bagram Airfield to the capital, where he was greeted at the presidential palace by Afghan leader Hamid Karzai, given just an hour’s notice of Obama’s arrival.


The Indiana Daily Student

Cancer question complicates 9/11 compensation

Hundreds of people are suing New York City over cancer diagnoses they received after working at ground zero on Sept. 11. A judge last week rejected a $575 million settlement for thousands of ill responders in part because he thought it should contain more money for cancer victims.


The Indiana Daily Student

Ex-Scientology lawsuits reveal elite Sea Org group

Hundreds of Scientology followers live on a gated, 500-acre campus and work long hours for almost no pay reproducing the works of founder L. Ron Hubbard and creating the church’s teaching and promotional materials. The church said its 5,000 so-called Sea Organization members are religious devotees akin to monks who are exempt from wage requirements and overtime. But two lawsuits filed by former Sea Org members, as they are known, allege the workers are little more than slave laborers, forced to work 100-hour weeks for pennies and threatened with manual labor if they cause trouble.


The Indiana Daily Student

Congress completes overhaul of health care with 2nd House vote

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Capping an epic struggle, congressional Democrats put the final touches Thursday to historic legislation enshrining health care as the right of every citizen. Republicans vowed to campaign for repeal in the fall election season, drawing a quick retort from President Barack Obama: “I welcome that fight.”


The Indiana Daily Student

Rules change for discharging military gays

Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Thursday approved new rules that will make it harder to discharge gays from the military, calling the changes a matter of “common sense and common decency.” Gates announced new guidelines for how the Pentagon carries out the 1993 law banning gays from serving openly in the military — rules that essentially put higher-ranking officers in charge of discharge proceedings and impose tougher requirements for evidence used against gays.


The Indiana Daily Student

Vandalism, threats of violence follow passage of health care bill

Bricks have been hurled through Democrats’ windows, a propane line was cut at the home of a congressman’s brother and lawmakers who voted for a federal health care bill have received phone threats in the days before and after passage of the sweeping legislation.Authorities are investigating incidents in Kansas, Virginia and places such as Rochester, N.Y., where a brick tossed through the window of a county Democratic Party office had a note attached that said: “Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice,” roughly quoting the late Barry Goldwater, the 1964 Republican presidential nominee.


The Indiana Daily Student

Judge: No prom, but lesbian’s rights violated

Prom’s still off at a high school that canceled it rather than let a lesbian student bring her girlfriend, but a judge ruled Tuesday the district’s actions did violate the teen’s constitutional rights. U.S. District Judge Glen H. Davidson refused the American Civil Liberties Union’s demand to force the school district to put on the April 2 prom. However, he said canceling it did violate 18-year-old Constance McMillen’s rights and he would hold a trial on the issue.


The Indiana Daily Student

Disputed isle disappears into sea

For nearly 30 years, India and Bangladesh have argued for control of a tiny rock island in the Bay of Bengal. Now rising sea levels have resolved the dispute for them: the island’s gone.


The Indiana Daily Student

States to file suit over health care reform bill

The White House says it isn’t worried that 13 state attorneys general are suing to overturn the massive health care overhaul, and many legal experts agree the effort is futile.


The Indiana Daily Student

Sources: Officials eyeing charges for Blackwater

Federal prosecutors are considering filing weapons charges against former top officials of the Blackwater Worldwide private security company over allegations they illegally stockpiled automatic rifles at the company’s North Carolina headquarters, sources say.




The Indiana Daily Student

Film contends 147 toddlers were infected in Uzbek HIV outbreak

MOSCOW — An AIDS outbreak at two children’s hospitals in Uzbekistan has killed at least 14 children and left 133 infected with HIV, according to a documentary posted on a respected Central Asian news Web site Monday.