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Saturday, August 21, 2010

Iran's First Nuclear Plant Begins Fueling

(CNN) -- Iran began fueling its first nuclear energy plant in the southern city of Bushehr on Saturday, the nation's state media reported.
The effort will help the country create nuclear-generated electricity, Press TV said.
The transfer of nuclear fuel was being watched by the International Atomic Energy Agency and senior officials from Iran and Russia, Press TV said.
Some Western nations have questioned whether the nuclear fuel will be used solely for electricity or would Iran eventually try to enrich uranium on its own, providing material for nuclear weapons.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Obama's Support for Ground Zero Mosque Draws Fire


President Obama is under fire after jumping into the middle of a cultural clash Friday night in favor of building a mosque near ground zero, a stance that has elevated the contentious issue to the presidential level ahead of a difficult election season for Democrats.
Some victims' advocates and Republicans have strongly condemned Obama's support for the mosque, which would be part of a $100 million Islamic community center two blocks from where nearly 3,000 people perished when hijacked jetliners slammed into the World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11, 2001.
"Barack Obama has abandoned America at the place where America's heart was broken nine years ago, and where her true values were on display for all to see," said Debra Burlingame, a spokeswoman for some Sept. 11 victims' families and the sister of one of the pilots killed in the attacks.
Building the mosque at ground zero, she said, "is a deliberately provocative act that will precipitate more bloodshed in the name of Allah."
Sally Regenhard, whose firefighter son was killed at the World Trade Center, said the president had failed to understand the issue. "As an Obama supporter, I really feel that he's lost sight of the germane issue, which is not about freedom of religion," she said. "It's about a gross lack of sensitivity to the 9/11 families and to the people who were lost."
Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., said the president is "wrong."
"It is insensitive and uncaring for the Muslim community to build a mosque in the shadow of ground zero," he said in a written statement.
"While the Muslim community has the right to build the mosque, they are abusing that right by needlessly offending so many people who have suffered so much," he said. "The right and moral thing for President Obama to have done was to urge Muslim leaders to respect the families of those who died and move their mosque away from ground zero. Unfortunately, the president caved into political correctness."

Friday, August 6, 2010

Wyclef Jean to Run for President of Haiti

(CNN) -- Hip-hop artist Wyclef Jean says he has submitted the necessary paperwork to run for president of Haiti, a country he left when he was a child.


Whoever steps in will also oversee the billions of dollars in international aid promised to the country since the quake.


Jean's announcement quickly became a top topic on the internet, with many debating whether the music star best known for rapping, playing the guitar and dancing, could actually lead a country.


One outspoken critic was actor Sean Penn, who has lived in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, for months to help manage 50,000 displaced Haitians living in a camp.

Penn said he questioned Jean's motives.

"What the Haitian people need now is a leader who is genuinely willing to sacrifice," Penn said. "I haven't seen or heard anything of him in these last six months that I've been in Haiti. I think he's an important voice. I hope he doesn't sacrifice that voice by taking the eye off the very devastating realities on the ground."

Penn mentioned past allegations that Jean mishandled funds from his nonprofit organization Yele Haiti and used some of the money donated for Haitians.

"He claims he didn't do it. That has to be looked into it," Penn said. "I've been there. I know what $400,000 could do for these people's lives."




Friday, July 23, 2010

It's 55 percent and wrapped in roadkill, is this the world's most 'shocking' beer?

You'd expect a lot from a bottle of beer costing $765. What you get is 55 percent alcohol — and served in a squirrel.

According to Scottish firm BrewDog, "The End of History" is the "strongest, most expensive and most shocking beer in the world."

Just 12 bottles were made and the company has already sold out. They will be shipped out to buyers in the United States, Canada, Italy, Denmark, Scotland and England next week.

The dead animals which were used to create the beers' unusual appearance were four squirrels, seven weasels and a hare.

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