Not many would have heard of the Nenets who inhabit the Yamal Peninsula in the Arctic Circle between the Kara Sea and the Gulf of Ob. I too hadn’t until I came across a feature on them in Geographical, the magazine of the Royal Geographical Society of UK.

Tags: indigenous people | climate change

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By Teymoor Nabili

John McCain was attempting comedy, but his little jingle may repeat itself as tragedy.

Republican hawks in the US House of Representatives have introduced a bill to support (encourage?) Israeli military action against Iran.

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By W.G. McDonald

First, seek the most direct path
leading to the pantry.
Focus on the jar itself.

Tags: Zen | Art | Peanut Butter

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By JOSEPH W. MCQUAID
New Hampshire Union Leader Publisher 

SARAH PALIN'S endorsement of Kelly Ayotte for U.S. Senate should neither surprise nor upset the other campaigns. The race will be won by the candidate who impresses New Hampshire voters, and New Hampshire voters are rarely impressed by what outsiders have to say.

Tags: Sarah Palin | Kelly Ayotte | New Hampshire

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The forecasts for India’s high economic growth have been coming thick and fast. Only late last year the Parisbased Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development predicted a 5.9% growth for India in 2009 and 7.2% 2010. In his budget speech earlier this year the Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherji, had promised to put the economy on a trajectory of high growth and there have been several occasions when he predicted that India’s GDP would grow at the rate of more than 8%.

Tags: GDP India

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By Gabriel Elizondo

Hollman Morris is a Colombian journalist who has received dozens of international awards for his work uncovering atrocities and human rights abuses in the decade’s-long armed conflict in his country.

But the United States apparently views him as a terrorist. (More on this terrorist thing later).

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Any natural or man-made disaster raises controversies. A disaster of the scale that Bhopal witnessed because of the leak of the lethal methyl isocynate (MIC) on one cold December morning in 1984 was sure to raise controversies of huge proportions. That is precisely what it did, and more so after the June7, 2010 ultra-mild verdict handed out to the accused officials of Union Carbide of India Ltd. (UCIL). In the process, facts and fiction got merged and one doesn’t really know what is true and what is not and what to believe and what not to. A few of these are subject of this article.

Tags: Bhopal gas leak

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By Imran Khan

Standing in the valley I look to the North East and Afghanistan.

The Tora Bora mountains seem to push toward the sky and even in July ominous clouds lurk overhead.

The Pakistani army have brought me to Khurram agency in the remote tribal belt in the North West of the country.

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By Clayton Swisher

It's not clear what miracles Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel can work for General Petraeus now that he's the top officer in Kabul.

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By Nicole Johnston

First close down the borders and refuse to allow any exports out.

Then ban the importing of any raw material for factories and businesses.

Force the commercial class to rely on expensive underground smuggling tunnels to procure what the community needs. This in turn enriches the tunnel owners.

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Recently we had a 16-hour power outage commencing from midnight until 4.00 next afternoon. The inverter saw us through the hot and stuffy night but it, too, lost its energy by the next afternoon. There was no alternative but to bear the acute discomfort of an air-less hot afternoon. Outages are frequent but this was out of the ordinary.

Tags: india | solar power

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By Nicole Johnston

Keram Abu Salem Crossing

We watched the trucks roll into Gaza with goods Israel has not allowed in for more than three years.

And when we waved the drivers down to stop so we could see the cargo, there were those innocuous items; kids’ footballs, packets of pencils, children’s backpacks, kitchen cutlery and sewing material.

Tags: blockade

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The place just isn’t the same. Going near the courts in lower Manhattan, New York City seems under siege. Streets are blocked off with mechanized metal barriers. Police from all levels of government, local, state, and federal, abound. Some are busy inspecting under cars with mirrors. Some aren’t so busy standing in little guard houses keeping an eye on their surroundings. Others just milling about. This is the surreal world we walked into.

Tags: video | FIJA | NY | arrest | US Marshals | Heicklen

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If you've ever purchased a privately owned car, you may are left wondering how to get the smell of cigarette smoke out of a car. Some people go the additional mile to detail their cars before sale, but if you are scoping a spur-of-the-moment deal on Craigslist, you may be purchasing an AS-IS car that doubled as a mobile smoking lounge. Not only are the upholstery and instrument panel stained or discolored from cigarette smoke, but the odor has been left behind. You have to learn how to get the cigarette smell out of a car in case you are a non-smoker who prefers a low-tar automobile interior.

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By Kristen Saloomey

Israel has engaged in a war of words with the United Nations Correspondents Association which hosted an event during which a passenger on board the Mavi Marmara was allowed to show a video that was shot as Israeli commandoes raided the aid ship.

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The recent video of Seattle Police Patrol Officer Ian P. Walsh punching a 17-year-old woman in the face as she tries to help her friend evade him has caused much controversy. There is an understandable reaction among many decrying the young women’s lack of respect for authority. This is correct, they do lack respect for the police, but the question is why?

Tags: women | Seattle | punch | police | jaywalking | citation

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Arthur Laffer is making news by predicting that the U.S. economy will collapse next year after the George W. Bush tax cuts expire in 2010. His theory on the Obama tax plan is depending on how the super-rich can choose when and how they collect their income to evade having to pay their taxes. Laffer believes the economy is doing better this year than it really should be doing because these aristocrats are collecting more of their loot and spending a lot more of their money before taxes rise. He also says that when taxes have to go up, Americans who can will choose to make less money, thus reducing the government’s tax revenue anyway.

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In anticipation of what will probably be one of the more disappointing speeches delivered from the Offal Office, I am submitting the following cartoon to accompany the transcript of the speech.  I sincerely hope to be pleasantly surprised by the talk, but I am not holding my breath on this one.  BO is smart enough not to be too harsh with his masters--no matter what their crimes...

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By Ayman Mohyeldin

Despite the fact East Jerusalem remains, under international law, an occupied city, many Israeli officials, including West Jerusalem's Jewish Mayor Nir Barakat, profess that Jerusalem is a city open for all to live in and move around freely within, including Arabs.

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Good evening.  As we speak, our nation faces a multitude of challenges.

At home, our top priority is to recover and rebuild from a recession that has touched the lives of nearly every American.

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