BEIJING -- More than a year and a half after prominent civil rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng disappeared, China's government gave the first sign Friday that he is alive, saying he would be sent to prison for three years for violating his probation.A brief report by the state-run Xinhua News Agency did not answer key questions about Gao -- the condition of his health and his whereabouts now and in the 20 months since he disappeared, presumably at the hands of the authorities."Are they sending him to a proper prison? Which prison was he at before? Where were they hiding him?" said Gao's brother, Gao Zhiyi, who has been on a quest to find his sibling.Gao's wife said from the United States she was still uneasy because of the lack of information."When I heard what they said, all I could think was 'Oh, it means he's still alive,"' Geng He said, crying, in a phone interview with The Associated Press.Charismatic and pugnacious, Gao was a galvanizing figure for the rights

HYWGQUNITED NATIONS The U.N. Security Council on Friday ordered assets of two Libyan banks that had been under the control of Muammar Qaddafi to be unfrozen, clearing the way for the return of more than $40 billion to help the new government rebuild the country.The transitional government had asked the council's committee monitoring sanctions against Libya to lift the asset freeze on the Central Bank of Libya and its subsidiary, the Libyan Foreign Bank. There were no objections from any of the 15 council nations who comprise the committee by the deadline Friday evening so the sanctions were immediately lifted.Soon after, the U.S. government announced that it has rolled back most sanctions against Libya's banks, unblocking more than $30 billion in assets. And British Foreign Secretary William Hague said his government is seeking swift European Union action to pass the regulation required to release about 6.5 billion pounds ($10 billion) in assets frozen in Britain.Bi

as Contingency Operations account. That account pays for the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and other expenses. Lawmakers shifted costs for security and economic assistance, funds for the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development into the account, increasing the amount from $7.6 billion to $11.2 billionStill, the base budget is some $6 billion less than the current level and $8.7 billion below what President Barack Obama sought for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1. The bill does provide the full funds of $3.1 billion in security assistance for ally Israel.Reflecting concerns about uncertainty within the Egyptian government, the bill would restrict $1.3 billion in security assistance to Cairo and $250 million in economic assistance until the secretary of state certifies to Congress that Egypt is abiding by a 1979 peace treaty with Israel, military rulers are supporting the transition to civilian government with free and fair elections and "implem

UPPVYYQAP Photo/SepahnewsDec. 8, 2011: A photo by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards purportedly shows a U.S. RQ-170 Sentinel drone that Tehran says its forces downed earlier in the week, as the chief of the aerospace division of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, right, listens to an unidentified colonel.A senior U.S. official scoffed at claims that Iran "hijacked" the RQ-170 spy drone through a sophisticated attack on a navigational weakness in the secret surveillance craft.Using knowledge purportedly gleaned from "previously downed and captured drones," Iran was able to reprogram the GPS system in the U.S.-made RQ-170 Sentinel -- an advanced spy drone that was flying over Iranian territory before falling into the country's hands earlier this month, an unnamed Iranian engineer told the Christian Science Monitor.But American officials insist that neither weaponry nor technology brought down the spy drone."This claim is ludicrous," a senior U.S. offici

was overloaded and all police helicopter pilots were on vacation at the same time.Breivik told investigators he was surprised and had expected a SWAT team to swoop down within 15 minutes of his attack.A spokesman for the relatives and families of the victims said the internal investigation lacked self-criticism."They should have asked themselves whether they, hypothetically, could have acted faster," Trond Henry Blattmann said. "If they had done so they might have come up with a different answer."Soenderland said beside the boat breakdown there were few reasons to criticize the operation."That the boat was overloaded is a fact," he said, but he declined to comment on how the police could have acted more efficiently or faster. "Our task is not to evaluate a hypothesis," he said.Survivors have said they struggled to get through to police emergency lines shortly after Breivik began his shooting spree on the island because operators rejected calls because they were

arrested and charged with bigamy in 1974. He pleaded no contest and was sentenced to six months in Jail. He was released after 21 days and ordered to serve five years of probation. A judge also said Foster was not allowed to live with his families. Foster died from cancer in 2008. He was still married to all three women.Mark Easterday was arrested and charged with bigamy in 1999. Authorities were alerted to Easterday's multiple marriage by his first wife as part of a custody battle during their divorce. He ultimately pleaded no contest to adultery because the divorce was finalized before the bigamy case went to trial. Easterday was sentenced to probation.Easterday, who left Utah and is currently married to two women, told The Associated Press he believes the Browns are right to fear a bigamy prosecution."I know from experience that they do prosecute," Easterday said. I think they should change the law over the entire country. Why it is that in some places a w VKAOBPC

WDJBQWARSAW, Poland -- The chairman of Libya's National Transitional Council has called on Syria's president to step down, saying the Syrian people have the right to determine their own destiny.Mustafa Abdul-Jalil said Friday that Syrian President Bashar Assad should quit. He said Assad can always put himself up for election in a democratic vote to see if his people really want him.He says "if the Syrian people are willing to choose Assad, then let it be."Abdul-Jalil spoke at a development conference in Warsaw, Poland.The Libyan leader also called on countries with frozen Libyan assets to release them so the country can rebuild after its recent war. He says some of the money would go to job training for former fighters, many of them recovering from war injuries.

TPVtraining facility can run simultaneously and in coordination. So while one set of officers is driving the humvee and shooting a grenade launcher from its roof, they can see the other officers training in the next room, who are armed and on foot. Likewise, the officers on foot can see the humvee. The whole thing is like a life-sized video game on steroids.Why not just save the expense of building a facility like this and hit a shooting range? As David Smith, the programs manager explains it, this facility actually saves money. We wanted to go beyond a live-fire range, says Smith. Every time a real weapon is fired, expensive ammunition is used.And who could blow up vehicles on a range? Here, they can be blown up or shot at again and again. Officers can go through different scenarios thousands of times.Its all to prepare for what everyone hopes never happens, an attack on the plant.Their presence is a pretty good deterrent," Steve Erhart, the lead federal adminis SGQVWK

LUERXthe report investigating allegations of abuse dating back to 1945.The commission received some 1,800 complaints of abuse at Catholic schools, seminaries and orphanages and said that the institutions suffered from "a failure of oversight." It then conducted the broader survey of the general population for a more comprehensive analysis of the scale and nature of sexual abuse of minors -- both in the church and elsewhere.Based on a survey among more than 34,000 people, the commission estimated that one in 10 Dutch children suffered some form of abuse broadly in society. The number doubled to 20 percent of children who spent part of their youth in an institution like an orphanage or boarding school -- whether Catholic or not.The commission was set up last year under the leadership of former government minister Wim Deetman, who said there could be no doubt church leaders knew of the problem."The idea that people did not know there was a risk ... is untenable," he s

ocrat and a 44-year-old truck driver, who voted for Obama in 2008 and intends to support him again.Robin Dein, a 54-year-old homemaker, who is an independent, said she supported Republican John McCain in 2008 and has not been impressed with Obama's economic policies. She intends to support Romney if he wins the Republican nomination."(Obama) spent the first part of his presidency blaming Bush for everything, not that he was innocent, and now his way of solving anything is by spending more money," she said.Despite the soft level of support, many are uncertain whether a Republican president would be a better choice. Asked whom they would support next November, 47 percent of adults favored Obama compared with 46 percent for Romney, a former Massachusetts governor. Against Gingrich, the president holds a solid advantage, receiving 51 percent compared with 42 percent for the former leader of the House.The potential matchups paint a better picture for the president am PQJPGOW


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