Pakistani troops rescue students from Taliban

The Pakistani army rescued a group of 80 students and school staff Tuesday, a day after Taliban fighters abducted the group, military representatives said. The army rescued the group, which included 71 students, near Razmak in Pakistan’s tribal region

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Helping Christians Reconcile God With Science

For many young Christians, the moment they first notice discrepancies in the Biblical tales they’ve faithfully studied is a rite of passage: e.g., if Adam and Eve were the first humans, and they had two sons — where did Cain’s wife come from? The revelation that everything in the Bible may not have happened exactly as written can be startling. And when the discovery comes along with scientific evidence of evolution and the actual age of planet Earth, it can prompt a full-blown spiritual crisis

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Lawyer accuses queen’s police of trading porn and taking steroids

Police officers responsible for protecting the British royal family handled firearms when drunk, traded pornography and steroids and sat on Queen Elizabeth II’s throne in comical poses, it has been alleged in a London court. The allegations were made Tuesday by John Cooper, the lawyer for former royal protection officer Paul Page, who is accused of defrauding colleagues and friends to fund a life of luxury, The British Press Association reported.

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Victim’s wife: Kidnappers’ silence ‘very cruel’

Lourdes Batista wishes she had super powers so she could use them to find her husband, she said Wednesday, 105 days after authorities said he was kidnapped in Mexico. Felix Batista, a renowned kidnapping consultant, disappeared after getting into a vehicle outside a Saltillo restaurant December 10

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1,200 face redundancy at HSBC

British banking giant HSBC announced Wednesday that up to 1,200 employees may lose their jobs as the troubled banking sector continued to falter. The bank, which laid off 500 banking staff last December and 1,100 investment banking jobs in September, said operating conditions for banks in the UK were “extremely challenging” and were unlikely to improve for some time

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The ‘Post-Intelligencer’ Is Dead; Will Seattle News Live On?

The buzz on Monday afternoon in the newsroom of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer was not the usual cacophony of clacking keys, phone interviews and news meetings. Instead, it was the sound of reporters putting to bed their final stories, sifting through receipts to prepare their final expense reports, feeding years of reporting notes into an industrial-size shredding bin and tidying away the mementos of their P-I careers in cardboard boxes

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Prison warden arrested over ‘copter escape

Greek officials have arrested a prison warden and suspended eight guards two days after the dramatic helicopter escape of two inmates. The justice minister is also cracking down on mobile phone use by prisoners, saying Sunday’s escape could have happened only with inside help.

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Three quit in wake of helicopter prison break

The director of a maximum-security prison and two of his colleagues resigned Monday after two inmates escaped by helicopter. The Greek minister of justice, Nicholas Dendias, said he had asked for and received the resignations of the director, security secretary and head of inspection and control at Korydallos Prison, in a suburb of Athens. “The government will not tolerate the current situation,” he said in a written statement

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