London marks three years until Olympics

Three years from Monday, the eyes of the world will be on London for the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games. The city is celebrating the three-year mark by showcasing the event’s centerpiece — the under-construction Olympic Park — and highlighting the progress made on everything from building work to transportation to getting sponsorship money

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British Army builds mock Afghan village in English countryside

The aroma of freshly baking flatbread wafts through the air as a unit of British soldiers position themselves for a quick patrol around the village of Sindh Kalay. Market vendors hawk grapes and melons, as a group of village elders sit smoking water pipes and suspicious-looking men lurk beside battered motorcycles

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The story of Yaojin: Rebuilding a quake village

The two-story buildings in Yaojin are tall and straight – they look well built and solid. People now live an incredibly normal life here, just 17 miles from the epicenter of the 7.9-magnitude earthquake that had flattened their village and left nearly 90,000 dead or missing one year ago this week. All across the quake zone, reconstruction appears to be moving at a quick pace, though many survivors still live in shacks and prefabricated homes

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Pope visits Italian quake zone

Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday visited two towns hit hard by the recent earthquake in central Italy, meeting with survivors and offering prayers. The pope flew by helicopter from Vatican City to a tent camp near the village of Onna, where he led a prayer for the hundreds killed in the April 6 quake. The camp houses hundreds of families left homeless when the magnitude-6.3 quake destroyed their homes

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‘Climate change’ forces Eskimos to abandon village

The indigenous people of Alaska have stood firm against some of the most extreme weather conditions on Earth for thousands of years. But now, flooding blamed on climate change is forcing at least one Eskimo village to move to safer ground. The community of the tiny coastal village of Newtok voted to relocate its 340 residents to new homes 9 miles away, up the Ninglick River.

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Madonna ready to sign adoption papers for girl

Madonna is expected in a Malawi court Monday to sign papers seeking permission allowing her to adopt a second child from the country. The singer, who adopted her son, David Banda, from Malawi in 2006, arrived in the impoverished country Sunday. She was seen walking through the village of Chinkhota with her daughter Lourdes, 12, after touching down at the airport in Lilongwe

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