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    Published: May 13, 2008 at 6:46 PM
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    Published: May 13, 2008 at 6:44 PM
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    Published: May 13, 2008 at 6:36 PM
    BAGHDAD, May 13 (UPI) -- Iraqi citizens, local leaders and a representative from the Ministry of Education attended a ceremony marking the completion of a girls' school in Mahmudiyah.
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  • Outside View: Open letter to candidates
    Published: May 13, 2008 at 5:58 PM
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    Published: May 13, 2008 at 12:29 PM
    By HIBA DAWOOD
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    Published: May 13, 2008 at 12:14 PM
    By RICHARD TOMKINS
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    Published: May 13, 2008 at 12:00 PM
    By SHAUN WATERMAN
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    WASHINGTON, May 13 (UPI) -- Three men who hacked into the Dave and Busters restaurant chain and stole its customers' credit card data face federal fraud and conspiracy charges.
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    Published: May 13, 2008 at 10:01 AM
    By RICHARD TOMKINS
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  • Atlantic Eye: Of kings and kingmakers
    Published: May 12, 2008 at 3:05 PM
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    BLOIS, France, May 12 (UPI) -- Lord Holme of Cheltenham was the former chairman of the British Liberal Party -- a classic European free-market oriented, centrist party. He was chair of the English College Foundation in Prague, where we became friends. To his enemies, he spent 30 years as the phantom behind the scenes, the kingmaker. A member of Global Panel America's Advisory Board, he lost his fight to brain cancer last week.
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Predator crews reach operational milestone


Published: May 6, 2008 at 6:36 PM
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WASHINGTON, May 6 (UPI) -- U.S. Air Force officials say they have doubled their unmanned air vehicle combat air patrol capabilities over the last year in the war on terror.

The 24th MQ-1 Predator UAV combat air patrol is now in operation marking a milestone for the Air Force and a doubling of the Predator's capabilities with more than 13,400 hours of full motion surveillance for ground forces in conflict zones like Iraq and Afghanistan. The Predators are also equipped with air-to-surface AGM-114 Hellfire missiles to add an additional layer of protection, the Air Force reported.

Officials say along with the increased physical number of UAVs now in service, the Air Force has developed a remote split operation initiative where Predator missions are launched in areas where U.S. soldiers are deployed but are flown by crews back in the United States. The new operational concept allows for the maintaining of 24 continuous combat air patrols with the total fleet of 76 combat aircraft.

Prior to the remote split operational innovation, Predator crews were deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Officials say with regular troop rotation, only about 30 percent of the Predator forces were active in combat. "Under this remote model, the Air Force commits 85 percent of its aircrafts to combat operations … and reduces the number of Americans deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan to conduct these missions," the release said.

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