Algerian army stages "final assault" on gas plant

ALGIERS/IN AMENAS, Algeria (Reuters) - The Algerian army on Saturday carried out a final assault on al Qaeda-linked gunmen holed up in a desert gas plant, killing 11 of the Islamists after they took the lives of seven more foreign hostages, a local source and the state news agency said. "It is over now, the assault is over, and the military are inside the plant clearing it of mines,"...

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RP's Jeyaretnam pledges 10% of salary to community projects if he becomes MP

SINGAPORE: Reform Party's candidate for the Punggol East by-election Kenneth Jeyaretnam has pledged to donate 10 per cent of his salary to community projects in the ward if he is elected as Member of Parliament.Speaking to reporters at Rivervale Mall on Saturday evening, Mr Jeyaretnam said this will also go some way towards funding his five-year plan for the constituency.Giving more details...

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Sign up for SimCity beta -- if you can

Trying to get into the SimCity beta is an exercise in patience, but at least the game looks beautiful.(Credit:Maxis/EA)Did you miss the last SimCity beta sign-up event? You're in luck, because EA and Maxis want to give you another chance to get in on the beta for the highly anticipated building game. There's a catch, though: beta builders only get to play a snapshot of game for up to one hour at any...

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Deadly, murky hostage crisis in Algeria continues

Last updated at 10:46 a.m. ET ALGIERS, Algeria About 30 foreign hostages are still unaccounted for three days into a bloody siege with Islamic militants at a gas plant deep in the Sahara, Algeria's state news service said Friday. The militants, meanwhile, reportedly offered to trade two American hostages for terror figures jailed in the United States, according to a statement received by a Mauritanian...

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Manti Te'o's Fake Girlfriend May Have Duped Others

Notre Dame star linebacker Manti Te'o's fake girlfriend "Lennay Kekua" may have hoaxed other unsuspecting suitors."Catfish" movie director and actor Ariel Schulman told "Good Morning America" today that he believes there may have been "a few other people duped by the fake Lennay character."Schulman and his brother Nev Schulman have been looking into the elaborate scam and claim...

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Sixty foreigners still caught in Sahara hostage crisis

ALGIERS (Reuters) - About 60 foreigners were still being held hostage or missing inside a gas plant on Friday after Algerian forces stormed the desert complex to free hundreds of captives taken by Islamist militants, who threatened to attack other energy installations. The attack, which plunged capitals around the world into crisis mode, is a serious escalation of unrest in northwestern Africa,...

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Forestville case not linked to release of new measures: URA

SINGAPORE : The sale of units in the Forestville executive condominium (EC) development was stopped because the developer had launched the project for sale based on a plan with unapproved changes, said the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).In an email reply to Channel NewsAsia on Friday, URA clarified that "the Forestville case should not be linked or confused with the release of the...

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Troubleshooting a freezing or hanging OS X menu bar

The OS X menu bar is a central location for accessing system resources in the Apple menu, application-specific menus, and also a number of system settings through menu extras that can be appended to the right side of the menu bar. Some extras that are on by default include the time and date, battery level, and volume control, but others can be added to the bar, including VPN status, keychain, the...

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Some children may lose autism diagnosis with age

Some children diagnosed with autism in early childhood may no longer have the disorder as they grow older, according to research funded by the National Institutes of Health. "Although the diagnosis of autism is not usually lost over time, the findings suggest that there is a very wide range of possible outcomes," said Dr. Thomas R. Insel, NIMH director, said in a press release. "For an individual...

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Manti Te'o Hoax Exposes 'Catfish' Internet Scams

Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick cited the documentary "Catfish" in trying to explain how he said star linebacker Manti Te'o became the victim of an elaborate hoax that duped him into believing that his online girlfriend died during the 2012 college football season."I would refer all of you, if you're not already familiar with it, with both the documentary called...

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