Word: special
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This past weekend, just a week after radio and television host Glenn Beck’s 9/12 rally, the special interest group Family Research Council hosted what was essentially the second Republican convention of the month: the annual Values Voters Summit. Many speakers delivered offensive comments; particularly disturbing was youth leader Jason Mattera’s chauvinistic speech about the “hotness of Republican women.” But for the most part, speakers took care not to throw civility overboard with...
...feet) of earth. In one community, at least 40 people, mostly children, perished as they sat at an outdoor kiosk watching television before attending a Koranic class. On Friday alone, 12 bodies, or parts of bodies, were discovered by a search-and-rescue team from the Indonesian Special Police. One man identified a leg as his brother's. Another recognized his wife's torso. No other parts of their bodies were found. (See pictures of the earthquake that ravaged Sumatra...
...Washington, the core of USAID's shortcomings is that it has outsourced "its thinking, planning and local interactions with the recipients" to Beltway contractors who are more incentivized to keep money flowing than getting results on the ground. In one case, a firm that was contracted to provide special surgical lights and other advanced technology to hospitals and clinics in the country reportedly failed to take into account the fact that there was no source of electricity to power the new equipment. (See pictures of the Red Cross at work...
...Since 2001, when an American citizen was beheaded, about 600 U.S. special forces have rotated in and out of the southern Philippines to train the Philippine armed forces. But after eight years of U.S. training and hundreds of millions of dollars in aid and military assistance, the Philippine government still has not defeated the relatively small separatist group, and since 2007 progress seems to have stalled. The U.S. military presence in the Philippines has long been a contentious issue. Recently, Philippine senators have urged President Gloria Arroyo to renegotiate the agreement that allows U.S. troops on Philippine soil...
...beginning of 2009, the category of ground-based air defense was opened to women. But despite these advances, Australian women still only occupy 13% of military positions. And today, they are lawfully excluded from roles in seven divisions of the army, these including navy clearance diver, the Special Air Services (SAS) and various positions on the ground that involve direct combat. Before last month, the ruling logic was that women were not physically strong enough to do these jobs. When the new standards come into place, women with a high fitness level will hopefully be enticed by the range...