Drowning islands warn of future perils for ‘environmental refugees’

There is one holiday destination that should shake the faith of even the most vehement climate change skeptic: the Carteret Islands, part of Papua New Guinea, located northeast of Bougainville. The palm trees sway gently under a balmy sun, the beaches are perfect, and stretched out as far as the eye can see is the wide blue of the Pacific Ocean.

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Police warn students of spring break rapist

Women at two Kansas colleges are on edge after warnings that the same man may have raped 13 women at the schools in the last eight years. The University of Kansas and Kansas State University have alerted students to possible danger for those who stay in town during spring break, which starts Monday. Thirteen rapes have happened during breaks in the school year in the last eight years near the colleges.

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You talkin’ to me? Film quotes stir passion

Sometimes, when you need just the right thing to say, it’s good to let the movies do the talking. Whether it’s daring someone to “Show me the money!” before sealing a deal, proclaiming “Houston, we have a problem” when something goes wrong or shouting “I’m the king of the world” on a particularly good day, there’s a simple pleasure in using those instantly recognizable nuggets of dialogue.

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Missing NFL player’s family says they’ve given up search

The family of an NFL player that had vowed to continue the search for him and two other boaters missing off the coast of Florida announced Friday that they are giving up. “Thursday at 5 p.m., we received new information on the events of last Saturday and decided to discontinue the search for Marquis,” Bruce Cooper, Marquis Cooper’s father, said in a written statement. “We want to thank everyone in Arizona, Tampa, and all over the United States for their thoughts, well-wishes, prayers and volunteer efforts on our behalf

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Loving My Time in Cartagena

“Why are you risking your life for a vacation?” a close friend gasped, aghast when I told her I planned to spend my post-election holiday in Cartagena, Colombia. In fact, few of my friends seemed to think it was a good idea: I couldn’t convince any of them to share my rental house in the city’s walled Old Town. If they had heard of Cartagena at all, it was only as the backdrop of the classic 1980s romantic caper Romancing the Stone, a place of corrupt juntas and bodice-ripper-reading drug dealers — a parody turned deadly serious by four decades of civil war, Pablo Escobar and the cocaine cartels

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Coast Guard suspends search for 3 boaters

The Coast Guard ended its search Tuesday for two professional football players and a third man lost at sea, leaving the families to cope with unknown fates of the men and to organize a private search. “There’s a lot of things we have to come to grips with — we’ve all agreed unanimously we won’t give up hope,” said Bruce Cooper, father of Oakland Raiders linebacker Marquis Cooper. Cooper, NFL free agent Corey Smith and former college football player William Bleakley are missing, with authorities believing a fishing boat carrying them and a fourth man overturned Saturday in the Gulf of Mexico

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