Word: townes
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...Marja, along the Helmand River. In the biggest land and air offensive in the nine-year long war against Taliban and al-Qaeda forces, more than 15,000 coalition forces, backed by wave after wave of 90 helicopters and aircraft, sealed off Marja and seized key positions inside the town and on its periphery...
...public overwhelmingly approved the decision to renew Switzerland's heroin-distribution program in 2008. "They are powerful instruments for launching new laws and correcting policies, and they are an integral part of our culture," says Andreas Auer, director of the Centre for Research on Direct Democracy in the town of Aarau. "The federal government has learned to adapt to and live with this system. And while more than half of popular votes are favorable to its views, there remains a margin of uncertainty that is healthy to a truly democratic government." (See TIME's photo-essay "Strays to the Rescue...
...launched by President Nicolas Sarkozy's government three months ago with much hype and patriotic ebullition - a series of 100-plus town hall meetings across France to debate what it means to be French in the 21st century. And even after opponents on the left and right alike criticized the initiative as a Machiavellian way of casting immigrants, their French-born children and especially Muslims as a threat to France's national identity, government officials defiantly took the initiative to term. This week it ended with a whimper, however when authorities issued a list of largely symbolic measures intended...
...Polls showed that a majority of people initially supported having the discussion about national identity. But those numbers quickly reversed themselves as media commentators attacked the debates for stigmatizing foreigners and their children and as conservative politicians participating in the town hall meetings made what many considered to be racist or xenophobic comments. For example, a conservative mayor in eastern France argued that the country would be "eaten up" by immigrants who already constitute "10 million (people) we pay to do [expletive]," while a former right-wing minister warned that France risked disappearing "when there are as many minarets...
...Roland K, a 74-year-old former developer, testified in a Bavarian court this week that they didn't intend to kidnap the victim, identified as James A. He said he and his friend and fellow investor, 60-year-old Wilhelm D, met with the investment specialist in the town of Speyer in June 2009 for a "final chat" about getting their money back. But when they realized that their savings were gone for good, he said they became enraged. (See the top 10 crime stories...