Abbas, Olmert schedule their next meeting for early March Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert held their latest summit yesterday with officials on both sides warning that stalling the talks could endanger prospects for a treaty this year and foster more violence.

Motive remains unclear in shooting that left 5 dead Police think the graduate student who shot and killed five students last week at Northern Illinois University took steps to thwart investigators trying to figure out why he did it.

Calls for Musharraf to step down mount after ruling party's defeat Calls mounted yesterday for President Pervez Musharraf to step down after his ruling party suffered a resounding defeat in elections that independent monitors described as having been generally free and fair.

Castro had important role in many of geopolitical crises of past 50 years What the CIA couldn't do with exploding seashells, poison cigars and chemicals to make his beard fall off, Fidel Castro has done alone. He removed himself from a world stage that he seemed to dominate for nearly 50 years.

Democrat wins decisively; McCain easy victor in GOP contest Barack Obama ran his winning streak to nine states yesterday with a double-digit victory over Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin that set the stage for potentially crucial primaries a week from Tuesday.

Cuban leader may be through as president, but not as a political force Fidel Castro , the revolutionary leader who brought communism to the Western Hemisphere, vexing U.S. policymakers for nearly a half- century, resigned yesterday as president of Cuba.

Portugal Makes Amends by Honoring Diplomat Who Saved Thousands of Jews From Nazi Persecution

US woman's detention at Starbucks renews criticism for Saudi religious police.

Iraqi police to round up beggars, mentally disabled to foil Al Qaeda.

US Military imposes tight restrictions on personnel in Japan.

Oil Prices Retreat After Closing Above $100 a Barrel; Asian Stock Markets Rattled

Election Defeat Diminishes President Musharraf and Could Herald His Downfall in Pakistan

Cubans welcome rule of less flamboyant, more pragmatic Raul.

Cat: Coco

Peter writes to tell us about a research group at the University of Sydney in Australia, who in the middle of some calculation wanted to check the numbers everybody uses for the thickness of our galaxy at the core. Using data available freely on the Internet and analyzing it in a spreadsheet, they discovered in a matter of hours that the Milky Way is 12,000 light years thick, vs. the 6,000 that had been the consensus number for some time.Read mor
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A major earthquake of 7.6 magnitude struck off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, on Wednesday and a local tsunami watch was in effect, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The ricochet effect from the Hollywood writers strike might be more far-reaching and long-lasting than first thought. So says an influential Los Angeles economist in his annual "Economic Forecast Report" for Los Angeles County and its surrounding areas.

The Aardvarchaeology blog looks at the ruins of children's treehouses, which can often be found in wooded areas near residential areas. There's a big difference between the way that kids and adults abandon their sites -- children leave everything in situ, forgotten and frozen, while adults strip a site of everything that might be useful. And the treehouse sites are hardly ever cleaned up. In fact, the children's parents often have only a vague no
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