J.K. Rowling, author and creator of the Harry Potter phenomenon, partnered with Sony to create Pottermore, an interactive website that will be available in October 2011. Despite the wide range of guesses from a massively multi-player online role-playing game to a treasure hunt to a sequel, the Pottermore website will allow Potter-crazed fans to journey through the story lines of the books, starting with ... "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," according to a statement from Rowling's media team (Clark). "It's the same story with a few crucial additions, the most important of which is you,"...

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... at the new legislation, which they called discriminatory. This bill allows gay and lesbian couples to enjoy most of the rights and benefits that married couples in Rhode Island enjoy (Goodnough), The bill has already passed in Rhode Island's House of Representatives, and the governor already expressed his willingness to sign it. However, it comes as a little too late for most gay rights ... sex marriages were passed into law Goodnough). "You're never going to see us trumpet civil unions," said Ray Sullivan, campaign director for Marriage Equality Rhode Island, the group that strongly bac...

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... ! News). The sludge burst from its reservoir last week, killing eight people. The European Union and environmental groups are worried that the sludge could spread down the Danube River, resulting in long-term consequences for many nations. Emergency workers are currently trying to build temporary barriers to slow down the sludge before it reaches the Danube River. They will then scoop ... ...

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The Occupy movement that began months ago in New York and has since grasped hold of the rest of the country turned violent for the first time on November 2nd in Oakland when a small group of protestors smashed the windows of a Wells Fargo bank branch during a protest of wealth inequalities. The Occupy Oakland movement scheduled a noon rally in front of City Hall and then a free lunch afterward. The day's events were planned to wrap up with a "general strike mass convergence, rally, and labor cookout." Each of these were intended to be peaceful protests, but a small faction began passing out fl...

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Following a series of political assassinations of Afghanistan's political leaders, the United States' military officers have seen dramatic improvement in securing the country. Following the assassination of Osama bin Laden, President Obama announced the hasty drawdown of the extra "surge" troops he ordered to finish off the al-Qaeda regime. However, there have been several recent acts of violence that have some officials worried. Following the assassination of Ahmed Wali Karzai, the president's half-brother, a suicide car bomber attacked a police headquarters, killing twelve policemen and a ch...

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... were enraged at their president's move, which they see as an attempt to set up a successor (Hadid). Since the announcement, Cairo has been engulfed in chaos. Looting and lawlessness ran rampant through the streets. Many residents are boarding up their homes to protect against thugs roaming the streets with sticks, knives ... to leave, not just his government. We will not stop protesting until he goes," said Mohammed Mahmoud, a protestor in the city's main Tahrir Square. Although tanks were deployed to Tahrir Square, no reports have surfaced about clashes between the army and the protesto...

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... . After the argument, Freeman chose not to wait for her ride and instead decided to walk home but never made it (CBS News). On August 3, 2000, her body was found in a wooded area about eight miles from her hometown of Coquille. The autopsy revealed that she had died from "homicidal violence." The only piece of evidence found was a single tennis shoe ... his father protested that he had removed the liner because of a fuel leak. Neighbors also reported that a bonfire was held at the McGuffin household the day after Freeman disappeared (Lohr). In October of 2009, Freeman's mother, Cory Cour...

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... solid signs of chloroform or decompositions inside the trunk of Casey's car were produced by the prosecutors, who claimed that Caylee's body was stashed in the trunk. Furthermore, Caylee's exact cause of death could not be determined because her body was too badly decomposed when it was found ( ... "right down to the cause of death" (Alvarez). Baez approached the jury with a different story. The defense argued that Caylee accidentally drowned in the family swimming pool, and her panicked grandfather, George Anthony, helped Casey to conceal the death. Furthermore, they argued that Casey h...

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... , constructed by Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, is a revised draft of the plan proposed earlier this month, that also resulted in great controversy. Changes to the second draft include higher domestic cuts than the original version, as well as a decrease in the health care savings from overhauling the medical malpractice system. Unlike the original proposal, the revised version does not call for ... a cap on medical malpractice awards, but instead recommends a change in how awards are made (Andrew and Kuhnhenn). The proposals that did not change from the original draft include a gradua...

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... that the storage tank had a capacity of 27.7 million gallons and had just refilled. According to them, more oil has been collected in the cleanup process than was reported to have been leaked. The explosion occurred after workers continually injected an agent to strip sulfur from oil after ... an oil storage tank was replenished by a tanker. Afterwards, workers released oil from other tanks in the area to prevent another explosion (The Huffington Post). Cleanup efforts were much more immediate than those that followed the Gulf incident. 40 oil ... officials, oil company workers, and vo...

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... Jason Baldwin were released from prison, where they were currently serving out their sentences for the murder of three second-graders in West Memphis, Arkansas in 1993. Steven Branch, Christopher Byers, and Michael Moore were found dead in a ditch with their bodies mutilated and hog-tied by their own shoestrings. Police immediately suspected Echols, Misskelley, and Baldwin ... CNN). Echols, who was given the death sentence because he was believed to be the ringleader while the other two allegedly involved were sentenced to life in prison, said he was "very much in shock, very overwhelmed....

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... Rubin). NATO helicopters came to the aid of the Afghan security forces killing three suicide bombers on the roof. A fourth bomber was killed in the beginning of the attack, but it is unclear whether he detonated his bomb or was shot by the security forces. However, several ... were armed and there were at least two explosions which we believe were the suicide vests detonating. Then Afghan National Security Forces who were in the hotel and were clearing the hotel worked their way onto the roof and were securing the roof" (Rubin). Samoonyar Mohammad Zaman, ... However, this recent attack...

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... Israel's right do defend itself and to knowingly violate Israeli law" (JTA). "The flotilla has nothing constructive. There is nothing humanitarian or anything that has to do with Palestinian welfare in the organizing of this flotilla," said Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor. He added that the flotilla participants are "extremists" (Chick). The U.S. Department of State spokeswoman ... the participants are taking "irresponsible and provocative" actions and urged them to use "established and efficient" measures to get aid to Gaza (Chick). The Foreign Press Association ...

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... include .com, .org, .info, .edu. and .net (Stevenson). This new rule will allow major corporations and companies to register almost any word, in any language, as their domain ending (Gross). "Icann has opened the Internet's naming system to unlease the global human imagination. Today's decision respects the rights ... of groups to create new Top Level Domains in any language or script. We hope this allows the domain name system to better serve all mankind," said Rod Beckstrom, President and Chief Executive ... Officer of Icann (IBTimes). Icann is a nonprofit group, founded in 1998, that...

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... , a former New York City Sanitation Department police officer, and two other unidentified men. The majority of the men all worked at the Brooklyn station house sometime in the past. These eight men accepted thousands of dollars in bribes to drive a caravan of M-16 rifles and handguns, as well as stolen merchandise, across state lines. For these crimes, they face charges of conspiracy ... to transport and receive stolen property across state lines (Rashbaum). Ironically, the men's plot was uncovered after an FBI confidential informant received a traffic ticket and tried to have it erased ...

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... is a current New York Assemblyman who formerly served as a member of the New York City council. Last year, he was elected to the state Assembly but failed in his campaign for city comptroller in 2009 (Carnia). "It is expected that David Weprin will be unanimously supported by the Democratic parties of Brooklyn and Queens," said Evan Stavisky (Koplowitz). Weprin will meet with ... their redistricting process to cut down two congressional seats due to population losses. The winner of the special election winner will serve out the remainder of Weiner's term, which ends in January 2013 (Car...

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... openings nationwide and weakened his job approval standing with the public. Obama vowed to begin a $500 million initiative which will use technological innovations to create jobs and spur growth in clean energy and advanced manufacturing. To reach these goals, the government will join teams with universities and corporations to jumpstart the manufacturing sector, specifically targeting cutting-edge research and ... During his visit, Obama was inspired by mini-robots that explored water and sewer pipes (Kuhnhnen). Pittsburgh is an important city for Obama's plan to build up the middle cla...

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... too fast. On the other hand, they have also criticized Republicans for contradicting the conservative principles that the party was founded on by spending too much money when they were in power also (Spillius). At Tea Party gatherings, many advocate doing away with the Federal Reserve, the federal income tax, countless agencies, bailouts, and stimulus packages. Some even call for the ... , and Medicaid. They remedy the problems caused by the recession with secession, tax boycotts, states nullifying federal laws, and citizen militias. Although many of the Tea Party groups differ slightly ...

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... from 4,611 to 1,925 per year from 2001 to 2007 had texting not existed. Because of its existence, fatalities actually increased to 5,870 in 2008 (Hanes). LaHood referred to the recent onslaught of fatalities caused by cell phones as "an epidemic. It's an epidemic because everyone has ... everyone thinks they can use it while driving. They can't" (Hanes). Although distracted driving covers anything from talking on a cell phone to eating in the car, cell phone usage most likely tops the charts. Many celebrities have adopted strong anti-cell phone usage campaigns to reiterate the message ....

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... will be no time to waste when he gets there. The new president will be facing the challenges of having to deal with two wars in which his country is embroiled, ensuring his country are safe from the threat of terrorism, and work toward helping the United States economy break ... hold true, that could be done within 16 months of his taking office. Obama will also have to address the problem of terrorism. Historically, transitions in the American government, when the government is assumed to be at its weakest, have been prime striking moments for terrorists to launch attacks. Even the ......

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... if the jails get overcrowded (Ryan). Murray was convicted on November 7th of involuntary manslaughter of Michael Jackson. Since then, he has lost all of the medical licenses he held in three different states. Murray's lawyer joked about his job prospects post-jail time, which included working as a coffee barista or as a Wal-Mart greeter. Murray will have little chance of ... dangerous" (Ryan). Judge Pastor went on to criticize Murray's tactics of administering surgical anesthetic for insomnia as "horrible medicine" practice, citing that Murray was more interested in his $150,000 a month...

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... she called "questionable" behavior during the sting operation (Messana). "There was no pre-existing plot," said Judge Colleen McMahon after a three-hour hearing in a Manhattan federal court. "The government came upon a man incapable of committing an act of terrorism on his own. I have never heard anything ... and then made those fantasies come true. Only the government could make a terrorist out of Mr. Cromitie, whose buffoonery is positively Shakespearean in its scope" (Hays). She did however berate the defendants for the anti-Semitism and for being "willing to kill, maim and destroy f...

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... launched a campaign to free al-Sharif, collecting more than 100,000 signatures and calling on 156 countries for support. A few Saudi women even committed the crime themselves, turning the key in the ignition to begin a motorized protest (Dougherty). The Saudi Women for Driving, a coalition for women's rights activists, bloggers, and academics campaigning for the right to drive, expressed their ... disappointment by Clinton's public silence. Previously, Clinton announced women's rights a top issue for American diplomacy (Dougherty). "Quiet diplomacy is not what we need right now," the gr...

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... Robert M. Gates stepped forward to confirm the announcement (Thompson). The war between the United States and Afghanistan began nearly a decade ago when the Taliban was stripped of its power in 2001 during a U.S. invasion for hosting al Qaeda and its leader, Osama bin Laden. After the Taliban regrouped from the initial attack just weeks after the September 11 tragedy, they ... fought back against the government, U.S. troops, and other Western allies in Afghanistan. After the recent capture of bin Laden, Karzai began pushing peace talks, although his efforts had not yet allowed the gover...

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... under the debris who were asleep inside. Several other homes on the quiet street were also damaged (McDonnell). "NATO regrets the loss of innocent civilian lives and takes great care in conducting strikes against a regime determined to use violence against its own citizens," said Canadian air force Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard (McDonnell). A United Nations Security Council mandate ordered NATO ... 11,500 NATO sorties, Kadafi's government has yet to relinquish control of the capital and much of western Libya, leaving only the eastern third of the nation and several pockets in the west to the...

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