Medical Meditation: Say Om Before Surgery

In my work as a cardiovascular surgeon, I use the most sophisticated tools of modern medicine to separate patients from their diseased hearts and replace these organs with healthy ones. While my training was in the science of the Western world, I also rely heavily on an ancient Eastern technique–meditation–to help my patients prepare for surgery and to steer them gently toward recovery.

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Anatomy of an Intervention: Why France Joined the U.N. Action in Abidjan

The United Nations’ dramatic military operation in the Ivory Coast civil war came at a crucial juncture in the struggle between the country’s two Presidents. Over the weekend, forces supporting Allassane Ouattara, the man recognized as president by most of the international community, arrived at Abidjan, the city where both Ouattara and his rival Laurent Gbagbo, the incumbent, were holed out.

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Could Seven Dead Monks Upset President Nicolas Sarkozy’s Bold Plans To Remake France’s Legal System?

When the severed heads of seven French Trappist monks were found in a remote mountainous region of Algeria in May 1996, it was natural to assume the murders were the latest gruesome act by jihadists in their long-running and bloody campaign against the Algerian government.

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Fake golf clubs scam ‘duped’ eBay customers

A worldwide network of fraudsters conned thousands of people into buying fake golf clubs on eBay, a London court has heard. In allegedly the largest fraud uncovered by the online auction site, the counterfeit clubs, as well as clothing and other golf accessories, were sold “on a scale, it is believed, has never been seen before,” prosecutors told Snaresbrook Crown Court

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21 killed in suicide attack on African Union base in Somalia

A brazen, daylight suicide bombing on the African Union’s peacekeeping mission in Somalia’s capital has killed at least 21 people, mostly peacekeepers, the mission said Friday. Suicide bombers, disguised in two U.N.-marked vehicles, Thursday rammed through the security gate of the mission’s headquarters, which is attached to Mogadishu’s airport

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