General news

• Obama tells Cuban dissidents he will discuss rights with Castro

  13-03-2016 23:50 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Daniel Trotta HAVANA (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama promised one of Cuba's most prominent dissident groups he would raise the issues of freedom of speech and assembly with Cuban President Raul Castro during his March 20-22 visit to the Caribbean island. In a letter dated March 10, Obama praised the work of the Ladies in White, which marches weekly to protest Cuba's Communist government, and defended his policy of seeking to normalize relations with Cuba as good for its people. U.S. s
  
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• Oregon tops out West for first No. 1 seed in program history

  13-03-2016 23:31 via news.yahoo.com
  
  LAS VEGAS (AP) — Oregon had its best regular season in 77 years and turned the Pac-12 championship game into a laugher.
  
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• Palestinian teacher wins $1 million Global Teacher Prize

  13-03-2016 23:28 via news.yahoo.com
  
  DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A Palestinian primary school teacher who grew up in a refugee camp and educates her students about non-violence won a $1 million prize for teaching excellence on Sunday, beating out 8,000 other applicants from around the world.
  
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• Trump says of campaign protesters: 'I don't hear their voice'

  13-03-2016 23:20 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Doina Chiacu and Bob Chiarito WASHINGTON/BLOOMINGTON, Ill. (Reuters) - Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump refused to take responsibility on Sunday for clashes at his campaign events and criticized protesters who have dogged his rallies and forced him to cancel one in Chicago last week. When a protester interrupted his speech on Sunday at an airport hangar in Bloomington, Illinois, minutes after it began, Trump derided him as a "disrupter" and told the cheering crowd: "Don't wor
  
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• Radwanska advances to 4th round at Indian Wells

  13-03-2016 22:58 via news.yahoo.com
  
  World No. 3 Agnieszka Radwanska breezed past Romania's Monica Niculescu 6-2, 6-1 to reach the fourth round of the WTA and ATP Tour's Indian Wells tournament on Sunday. The third seed from Poland needed just 87 minutes to eliminate Niculescu following a tough two-hour, 41-minute second round contest which she won 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 over Slovak Dominika Cibulkova. "I knew I would have to be patient," Radwanska said of playing Niculescu.
  
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• Erdogan says attacks like Ankara blast will not weaken Turkey's resolve

  13-03-2016 22:43 via news.yahoo.com
  
  ANKARA (Reuters) - Attacks like the car bombing in Ankara will only bolster Turkey's resolve in fighting terrorism and it will never give up the right to defend itself, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday. In a statement hours after a car bombing killed 34 people in the capital city, Erdogan said terrorist organizations were targeting civilians because they were losing their struggle against the security forces. Turkey had become a target because of regional instability in recent years, he s
  
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• Merkel's CDU in poll hammering as backing for populist AfD surges

  13-03-2016 22:41 via news.yahoo.com
  
  German Chancellor Angela Merkel's party suffered a major setback in key state polls Sunday over her liberal refugee policy, while the right-wing populist AfD recorded a surge as it scooped up support from angry voters. Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) was defeated in two of three states in regional elections, and scored a historic low 27 percent in its stronghold Baden-Wuerttemberg where it came in second place after the Greens, final results for the southwestern state showed. The popul
  
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• The Latest: US condemns attack in Turkish capital

  13-03-2016 22:39 via news.yahoo.com
  
  ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — The Latest on an explosion in Turkey's capital, Ankara (all times local):
  
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• The Latest: Rubio says Trump shares blame for violence

  13-03-2016 22:37 via news.yahoo.com
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the 2016 presidential race two days before critical contests in Florida, Ohio, Missouri, North Carolina and Illinois (all times Eastern Daylight Time):
  
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• Farmworkers protest by home of Wendy's billionaire chairman

  13-03-2016 22:37 via news.yahoo.com
  
  PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Hundreds of protesters, many farmworkers, led by Ethel Kennedy, demonstrated near the home of Wendy's fast food chain's chairman in hopes of convincing the company to pay a penny-per-pound fee for its tomatoes to supplement some farmworkers' wages.
  
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• University of California to overhaul sex harassment reviews

  13-03-2016 22:35 via news.yahoo.com
  
  OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — The president of the University of California system ordered a new process for reviewing sexual harassment claims against administrators after UC Berkeley faced a backlash over how it handled allegations against the dean of its law school.
  
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• Mass Brazilian protests demand president's impeachment

  13-03-2016 22:33 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Hundreds of thousands of Brazilians angered by corruption and deep recession flooded the streets of Latin America's biggest country Sunday to call for removing President Dilma Rousseff. Chanting "Dilma out!" and often draped in the bright yellow and green national flag, protesters across Brazil sought to pressure Congress into accelerating impeachment proceedings against the leftist leader. In Sao Paulo, the most populous city and an opposition stronghold, a sea of people filled the central aven
  
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• The Latest: Kentucky heads to Lexington to watch selections

  13-03-2016 22:30 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The Latest on Selection Sunday for the NCAA Tournament, with 32 automatic qualifiers and 36 at-large teams picked and placed into brackets (all times Eastern):
  
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• Syria peace talks set to struggle despite foreign pressure

  13-03-2016 22:28 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Tom Perry and Suleiman Al-Khalidi BEIRUT/GENEVA (Reuters) - Syria peace talks due to begin in Geneva this week look set to struggle, with the sides showing no sign of compromise over the issue at the heart of the five-year-long conflict: the future of President Bashar al-Assad. The U.N.-led talks getting under way on Monday with U.S. and Russian support are part of the first serious diplomatic effort toward ending the conflict since Moscow intervened last September with air strikes that have
  
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• APNewsBreak: Russia whistleblowers talk to anti-doping group

  13-03-2016 22:28 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The whistleblower in the Russian doping scandal has the support of anti-doping leaders in her quest to compete at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics this summer.
  
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• Fiji edge USA to reach Vancouver Rugby Sevens semi-finals

  13-03-2016 22:26 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Savenaca Rawaca's extra-time try lifted Fiji to a 31-26 victory over the United States on Sunday and into the semi-finals of the Vancouver Sevens World Series stop. Fiji, the reigning champions who came into the inaugural Vancouver event at BC Place stadium atop the series standings after a triumph in Las Vegas, rallied from a 19-5 deficit and will take on South Africa in a tantalizing semi-final between the top two teams in the standings.
  
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• Suicide car bombing kills 34 in central Ankara

  13-03-2016 22:24 via news.yahoo.com
  
  A suicide car bomb ripped through a busy square in central Ankara on Sunday, killing at least 34 people and wounding 125, officials said, the latest in a spate of deadly attacks to hit Turkey. The blast at a bus stop near Kizilay square is the second major attack in the heart of the Turkish capital in less than a month, after a suicide car bombing on February 17 targeting the military that killed 29 people, claimed by a dissident faction of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The fact t
  
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• Montoya wins at St. Pete to lead Team Penske to 1-2 sweep

  13-03-2016 22:22 via news.yahoo.com
  
  ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — There seemed little doubt that a Team Penske driver would win the IndyCar season-opening race even after Will Power was sidelined Sunday with a concussion.
  
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• NCAA tourney teams sweat seeding, bubble on Selection Sunday

  13-03-2016 22:13 via news.yahoo.com
  
  For Kansas, a top seed seems inevitable. For bubble teams like Monmouth, St. Mary's and Wichita State, Selection Sunday will be a long day.
  
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• Al-Qaeda claims deadly attack at Ivory Coast beach resort

  13-03-2016 22:11 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Grand-Bassam (Ivory Coast) (AFP) - Heavily-armed men gunned down 16 people at an Ivory Coast resort Sunday in an attack claimed by an Al-Qaeda affiliate, leaving bodies strewn on the beach as fears grow of a mounting jihadist threat in West Africa. A witness in the resort town of Grand-Bassam told AFP they heard one of the assailants shouting "Allahu Akbar" -- Arabic for "God is greatest". Fourteen civilians and two special forces troops were killed in the shooting spree targeting three hotels,
  
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• Turkey to release results of bomb investigation Monday: minister

  13-03-2016 22:04 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Turkish authorities will release the name of the organization responsible for a car bombing in the capital Ankara that killed 34 people once the investigation finishes on Monday, Turkey's interior minister said. "I believe the investigation will be concluded tomorrow and the findings will be announced," Efkan Ala said in comments broadcast live on television.
  
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• Syria peace talks set to resume amid ceasefire warnings

  13-03-2016 22:01 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Syria's warring sides gathered in Geneva Sunday for UN-brokered indirect peace talks as the United States and France warned the Damascus regime against trying to disrupt the fragile ceasefire. United Nations Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura met representatives of both delegations on Sunday for "informal meetings" ahead of the negotiations. In Paris, after meeting European allies, US Secretary of State John Kerry hit out at comments by his Syrian counterpart who said talk of removing President Bash
  
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• Turkish court orders ban on Facebook, Twitter after blast: broadcasters

  13-03-2016 21:52 via news.yahoo.com
  
  An Ankara court ordered a ban on access to Facebook , Twitter and other sites in Turkey on Sunday, after images from a car bombing in the Turkish capital were shared on social media, broadcasters CNN Turk and NTV reported. Turkey last year blocked access to Twitter over the sharing of photographs of a prosecutor being held at gunpoint by far-left militants.
  
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• Second car bomb in a month kills 32 in Turkish capital Ankara

  13-03-2016 21:52 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Ece Toksabay and Orhan Coskun ANKARA (Reuters) - A car bomb tore through a crowded transport hub in the Turkish capital of Ankara on Sunday, killing at least 32 people and wounding at least 75 more, the second such attack in the administrative heart of the city in less than a month. The blast, which could be heard several kilometres away, sent burning debris showering down over an area a few hundred metres from the Justice and Interior Ministries, a top courthouse, and the former office of th
  
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• Egypt media says country is facing Euro-Islamist conspiracy

  13-03-2016 21:52 via news.yahoo.com
  
  CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian media and lawmakers have accused the Muslim Brotherhood of bribing European Parliament members to adopt a resolution stating a "grave concern" that Egyptian authorities might be culprits in the torture and killing of an Italian graduate student in Egypt.
  
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• Rubio's political reckoning arrives in Florida primary

  13-03-2016 21:45 via news.yahoo.com
  
  MIAMI (AP) — Florida Sen. Marco Rubio was among the Republican Party's biggest stars when he burst onto the national stage in the tea party wave of 2010. Now, he is facing a home-state showing on Tuesday that could devastate his 2016 presidential campaign and damage his political brand for years to come.
  
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• Pole-winner Power misses IndyCar opener

  13-03-2016 21:43 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Australian driver Will Power, the pole position winner for Sunday's IndyCar Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, will miss the season opener over a Florida street course due to a stomach illness. The Roger Penske Racing Team announced a day after Power set a track record to win his sixth career St. Petersburg pole that Spain's Oriol Servia will replace Power behind the wheel.
  
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• Louisiana, Mississippi: Thousands of homes damaged in floods

  13-03-2016 21:30 via news.yahoo.com
  
  NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Widespread flooding in Louisiana and Mississippi has damaged thousands of homes and the risk of more flooding played out Sunday as rain-filled rivers rose over banks.
  
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• Ivory Coast: Extremists kill 14 civilians, 2 special forces

  13-03-2016 21:24 via news.yahoo.com
  
  GRAND-BASSAM, Ivory Coast (AP) — At least six armed men attacked beachgoers outside three hotels Sunday in Grand-Bassam, killing at least 14 civilians and two special forces, sending tourists fleeing through the historic Ivory Coast resort town. Bloody bodies were sprawled on the beach before being taken away by security forces and Ivorian Red Cross workers.
  
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• Tuesday's US primaries shaping up as referendum on Trump

  13-03-2016 21:20 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Five major American states vote Tuesday in a crucial test for the White House race, with Donald Trump hoping to lock in the Republican nomination despite a barrage of attacks over his firebrand tactics. Dubbed "Super Tuesday 2" by US media, the latest key date of the November 2016 election cycle will see Democratic and Republican contests in the states of Florida, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina. The first three states are winner-take-all in terms of delegates for the Republican race
  
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• Syrian government says peace talks need to start slowly

  13-03-2016 21:19 via news.yahoo.com
  
  GENEVA (Reuters) - Syria's U.N. ambassador, Bashar Jaafari, head of the government delegation at the Geneva peace talks, rejected opposition demands on Sunday to move quickly into substantive talks about a political transition when negotiations start on Monday. "There's nothing called a transitional period," Jaafari said. "These are wordings that we have to be careful about. This discussion will come at the appropriate time," he said, adding the talks needed to work on preparatory issues first.
  
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• Defending champion leading in Alaska's Iditarod race

  13-03-2016 21:18 via news.yahoo.com
  
  ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Defending champion Dallas Seavey was leading Sunday in Alaska's Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, gunning for his fourth win in the nearly 1,000-mile (1,600-kilometer) contest, with his father among his closest rivals.
  
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• Historian claims he has solved Italy's literary mystery

  13-03-2016 21:01 via news.yahoo.com
  
  ROME (AP) — An Italian historian claims he has solved of one of Italy's biggest literary mysteries: the true identity of author Elena Ferrante.
  
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• Italian investigators study dynamics of deadly avalanche

  13-03-2016 20:56 via news.yahoo.com
  
  CAMPO TURES, Italy (AP) — Relatives of six backcountry skiers who were killed in an avalanche in the Italian Alps paid their final respects Sunday as investigators sought to piece together how such a huge block of snow could have dislodged when the risks were so moderate.
  
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• German voters batter Merkel over migrant policy

  13-03-2016 20:55 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Madeline Chambers and Tina Bellon BERLIN (Reuters) - Voters punished Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives in three German regional elections on Sunday, giving a thumbs-down to her open-door refugee policy and turning in droves to the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD). The result is a big setback for Merkel, who has led Europe's biggest economy for a decade, and could narrow her room for manoeuvre as she tries to convince her European Union partners to seal a deal with Turkey to
  
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• Al Qaeda gunmen kill 16 in Ivory Coast beach attack

  13-03-2016 20:55 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Ange Aboa and Joe Penney GRAND BASSAM, Ivory Coast (Reuters) - Gunmen from the North African branch of Al Qaeda killed 16 people, including four Europeans, at a beach resort town in Ivory Coast on Sunday, the latest in a string of deadly attacks across West Africa. Six shooters targeted hotels on a beach at Grand Bassam, a weekend retreat popular with westerners about 40 km (25 miles) east of the commercial capital Abidjan, before being killed in clashes with Ivorian special forces. "Six atta
  
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• Actress : I only wanted to document Mexican drug lord's life

  13-03-2016 20:49 via news.yahoo.com
  
  MEXICO CITY (AP) — Actress Kate del Castillo says in an article published Sunday that she only met secretly with Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman for a project to document his life in a movie, and denied suggestions she had received any money from the drug lord.
  
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• Trump on campaign protesters: 'I never hear their voices'

  13-03-2016 20:45 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Doina Chiacu and Bob Chiarito WASHINGTON/BLOOMINGTON, Ill. (Reuters) - Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump refused to take responsibility on Sunday for clashes at his campaign events and lashed out at protesters who have dogged his rallies, forcing him to cancel one in Chicago last week. When a protester interrupted his speech in Bloomington, Illinois, on Sunday minutes after it began, Trump derided him as a "disrupter" and told the cheering crowd, "Don't worry about it - I don'
  
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• The Latest: Defending champ leading in Alaska's Iditarod

  13-03-2016 20:43 via news.yahoo.com
  
  ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The Latest on the Iditarod Sled Dog Race (all times local):
  
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• Richard Simmons: Is he really missing?

  13-03-2016 20:40 via rss.cnn.com
  
  While there is no actual evidence that Richard Simmons is "missing," that hasn't stopped the Internet from looking for the fitness guru.
  
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• Huge Moroccan protests against UN chief's stance on W Sahara

  13-03-2016 20:38 via news.yahoo.com
  
  RABAT, Morocco (AP) — Up to 1 million Moroccans marched through their capital Sunday to protest the U.N. secretary-general's remarks about the contested Western Sahara territory.
  
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• Nationalists strong, setback for Merkel party in German vote

  13-03-2016 20:24 via news.yahoo.com
  
  BERLIN (AP) — A nationalist, anti-migration party powered into three German state legislatures in elections Sunday held amid divisions over Chancellor Angela Merkel's liberal approach to the refugee crisis, projections showed. Merkel's conservatives lost to center-left rivals in two states they had hoped to win.
  
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• PKK or affiliates behind Ankara bombing, initial findings suggest: official

  13-03-2016 20:14 via news.yahoo.com
  
  ANKARA (Reuters) - Initial findings suggest the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) or an affiliated group was responsible for a car bombing in the Turkish capital Ankara on Sunday that killed 27 people and wounded 75 more, a security official said. "According to initial findings, it seems that this attack has been carried out either by the PKK or an affiliated organization," the official told Reuters. (Reporting by Orhan Coskun; Writing by David Dolan; Editing by Nick Tattersall)
  
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• Egypt minister fired after comments about Prophet Muhammad

  13-03-2016 20:03 via news.yahoo.com
  
  CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's government spokesman says the prime minister has fired the justice minister, two days after he said on TV he would even imprison the Prophet Muhammad if he committed a crime.
  
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• France's Hollande denounces 'cowardly' Ivory Coast attack

  13-03-2016 19:56 via news.yahoo.com
  
  French President Francois Hollande on Sunday denounced a "cowardly attack" on Sunday that killed at least ten people including a French man and several members of the security forces at the resort town of Grand Bassam in Ivory Coast. "France will bring its logistical support and intelligence to Ivory Coast to find the attackers. It will pursue and intensify its cooperation with its partners in the fight against terrorism," Hollande said in a statement.
  
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• Photos: Blast in Ankara

  13-03-2016 19:53 via rss.cnn.com
  
  An explosion in the Turkish capital of Ankara killed several people on Sunday, March 13, according to state-run media.
  
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• Explosion in Turkey

  13-03-2016 19:53 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Turkish media is reporting an explosion occurred in the country's capital of Ankara.
  
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• Investigators study dynamics of deadly Italy avalanche

  13-03-2016 19:36 via news.yahoo.com
  
  ROME (AP) — Relatives of six backcountry skiers who were killed in an avalanche in the Italian Alps have paid their final respects as investigators piece together how such a huge block of snow could have dislodged.
  
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• Ivory Coast: At least 5 dead after attack on beach, hotels by at least 6 armed men

  13-03-2016 19:35 via news.yahoo.com
  
  ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — Ivory Coast: At least 5 dead after attack on beach, hotels by at least 6 armed men.
  
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• Car bomb in Turkey's capital kills at least 27, wounds 75

  13-03-2016 19:34 via news.yahoo.com
  
  ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A car bombing in Turkey's capital has killed at least 27 people and wounded around 75 others on Sunday, officials said.
  
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