OAS team in Honduras to push for ousted leader’s return

A delegation of foreign ministers led by the Organization of American States’ secretary-general arrived Monday in Honduras in an effort to restore ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya to office. The delegation represents seven countries, including Canada, Mexico and Argentina. The organization has demanded that Zelaya, who was ousted June 28 in a military-led coup, be allowed to return to Honduras and resume his presidency

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Voter gripes abound as Afghans count presidential ballots

More than 200 allegations of irregularities in last week’s presidential elections in Afghanistan have been registered, according to the independent commission set up to handle such complaints. Despite domestic accusations from one of the presidential candidates that the vote was rigged, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan called the election “a very well-organized campaign.” “The Afghan-led independent electoral commission looks like it managed a pretty good process,” Ambassador Karl Eikenberry said Sunday

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Lockerbie bomber drops appeal, Scottish agency says

A Libyan man convicted in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, is dropping his appeal, the Scottish Court Service said Friday. The move may be part of a deal convicted bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi is seeking with Scottish authorities to be released on compassionate grounds. Al-Megrahi, 57, is suffering from terminal prostate cancer.

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Scottish government yet to decide on Lockerbie bomber release

The Scottish government have said no decision has been made on releasing the man convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. The government statement followed reports that Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, serving a life sentence for the bombing that killed 270 people, could be released on compassionate grounds

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Saudis pull plug on Lebanese TV station after lewd content is aired

Saudi Arabian officials have closed a second office of a Lebanese broadcasting network, this one in Riyadh, after the network aired an interview with a Saudi man who bragged about his sex life, authorities said. Pakistani police registered a case Tuesday against Musharraf over his order to arrest and detain judges in late 2007, the Pakistani High Commission in London said. As a result, “If Musharraf returned to Pakistan, he would face a court who would decide whether he is arrested or released on bail,” a spokeswoman for the High Commission said

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Inflatable baby floats recalled

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is asking parents to immediately stop using a series of inflatable floats for babies in swimming pools, announcing a voluntary recall of about 4 million floats Thursday.

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EU slashes ‘roaming’ cellphone costs

Cellphone users in the European Union will enjoy significant savings when "roaming" within the bloc’s 27 member states from Wednesday with the introduction of new pricing rules. Under the new system, the maximum cost of making calls between two EU member states will be €0.43, down from €0.46, while receiving calls now costs €0.19, down from €0.22. Cellphone operators are also required to bill their customers by the second after the first 30 seconds of a call, rather than per minute — a measure the Commission says will cut phone bills by 20 percent.

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Going, going, gone digital — with a few exceptions

Phones at help centers across the country rang Saturday, a day after broadcasters halted the transmission of analog signals long depended on by many people without cable or satellite television. The Federal Communication Commission, on its Web site, said Friday’s switch to digital television by 971 full-power stations had prompted hundreds of thousands of calls for help “but caused no widespread disruption of free, over-the-air television broadcasts.” It said 317,450 calls had been handled on Friday alone by the commission’s help line, 1-888-CALL-FCC. “Of the calls handled by live FCC help-line agents, nearly 30 percent concerned the operation of digital converter boxes,” the FCC said

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