tagged w/ International News
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/10/north-korea-south-navy-ships-exchange-fire
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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6907919.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=797093
AS an expedition from Chinese state television worked its way across the remote Tibetan plateau earlier this year, the explorers were amazed by what they found.
The plateau has been called the world’s third largest ice store after the North and South Poles. Yet according to Chinese scientists, the “third pole” is warming up faster than anywhere else on earth.
The TV team found bare rock where glaciers had retreated. Lakes had dried up. Lush grassland had turned to desert. The livestock was dead, the farmers impoverished.
They brought back a visual lesson in global warming so stark that censors allowed the programme makers to broadcast a frank exposé. Their film attracted the attention of the Communist party’s leaders and has put climate change at the centre of a remarkably open debate in China ahead of a summit on the issue in Copenhagen next month.
It means that when President Barack Obama arrives in China next weekend he will find his hosts ready to talk about dozens of measures to slow the rate of global warming. He will not find them willing to agree to calls by rich countries for Beijing to accept a binding cap on carbon emissions — a condition that commentaries in the Chinese media have defined as politically unacceptable.
Any compromise might break an international deadlock and allow a treaty to be signed. However, even if that now looks unlikely to happen — and the United Nations official leading the talks accepts this — the fact is that China has woken up to the damage in an unprecedented way.
The speed and scale of change on the Tibetan plateau have made Chinese leaders react to something they understand — a potential threat to the future of China itself.
They are clearly seeking to mould opinion in favour of “greener” policies after decades of a highly polluting dash for economic growth that has poisoned China’s rivers and darkened its skies.
Last month, for example, researchers discovered that levels of black carbon in the ice core of the Tibetan plateau had soared since the 1990s because of smokestack industries and coal fires in millions of homes.
The plateau’s 36,000 glaciers, which once extended for 18,000 square miles, could vanish before mid-century if present rates of warming persist. More than 80% of them are in retreat. The overall area has shrunk by 4.5% in the past 20 years.
Most ominous of all, in the area that Chinese know as Sanjiangyuan, where three mighty rivers rise — the Yangtze, the Yellow and the Mekong — the headwaters run shallow and weak, threatening the water supplies for hundreds of millions of people.
“In the 1970s and 1980s, here was rich grassland and sheep grazed everywhere, but the weather has become hotter and drier,” a Tibetan herder, Sonarenqin, 39, told the TV crew.
“Five years ago my family had 300 sheep and 30 yaks. Now I have no sheep at all and merely a few yaks,” an 80-year-old Tibetan named Seluo added. “Our life has become so hard that we live on handouts.”
In the past 30 years the thawing of permafrost, a layer of soil that is usually frozen all the year round, has changed the landscape profoundly.
“There were 4,077 lakes and now 3,000 of them have disappeared,” said Xin Hongyuan, a geologist in Qinghai, which shares the huge expanse of plateau with the Tibet autonomous region and the provinces of Sichuan and Gansu.
“The snow is thawing and the snowline has risen from 4,600 metres to 5,300 metres. The Jianggendiru glacier, which is the main water supply of the Yangtze, has been degenerating fast since 1970, and when the glaciers shrink there will be a water crisis in the Yellow and Yangtze rivers.”
The Yellow river, for example, supplies water to a fifth of China’s 1.3 billion population and serves 50 big cities along its 3,395 miles.
In recent years it has sometimes slowed to a trickle. Once it virtually stopped flowing for 226 days, causing urban waterpipes to run dry and confronting downstream provinces with huge financial losses.
Qin Dahe, an eminent scientist and explorer, has been permitted to disclose alarming official assessments of the causes to Xinhua, the state news agency. “Owing to global warming, glaciers on the QinghaiTibet plateau are retreating extensively at a speed faster than in any other part of the world,” he said.
Temperatures on the plateau have risen by an average of 0.32C every 10 years since 1961, about six times as fast as in the rest of China. In Tibet, it is hotter than at any time in the past half century, while in the south and west of Tibet there is between 30% and 80% less rainfall.
end of excerpt.http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6907919.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=79... more
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TEHRAN, Iran - -- A cry from the streets of Tehran put Iranian attitudes toward America at the center of a day of violent clashes Wednesday.
"Obama, Obama!" protesters chanted on a day marking the 30th anniversary of the U.S. Embassy takeover. "Either you're with them, or with us."TEHRAN, Iran - -- A cry from the streets of Tehran put Iranian attitudes toward... more
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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ioi_0jtO9RjMwPNRoXNCndRPRq3gD9BOQJC00
The Associated Press-By MOHAMMED DARAGHMEH
RAMALLAH, West Bank — The Palestinians should give up seeking an independent state and pursue a single country in which they would enjoy equal rights with Israelis, the chief Palestinian negotiator in Mideast peace talks said Wednesday.
The remark by Saeb Erekat was not a novel idea — prominent Palestinians, including past negotiators, have floated it before, usually when efforts to achieve a negotiated solution to the decades old-conflict with Israel are faltering as they are now.
Barack Obama's push to restart the peace talks has faltered, largely due to disagreements over further construction of Israeli settlements in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, lands the Palestinians want for their hoped-for state.
Some 500,000 Israelis now live in the West Bank and east Jerusalem in settlements built by Israel since capturing the territories in 1967. Israel promised to halt all settlement activity in a 2003 peace plan, but construction has never stopped.
Israel has rebuffed calls from the Obama administration to freeze all settlement construction, instead offering to limit it in the West Bank while retaining the right to continue building in Jerusalem.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says he will not resume negotiations until all settlement construction stops.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has spent much of this week seeking to clarify the American position.http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ioi_0jtO9RjMwPNRoXNCndRPRq3gD9BOQJC00... more
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http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/11/04/iran.hostage.protests/index.html?eref=rss_world
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ixeFBxfLzaSjs8Mb8cuFmtPOT6-wD9BOQFOG0
Tehran, Iran (CNN) -- Protesters clashed with police at a central Tehran square on Wednesday while government supporters nearby marked the 30th anniversary of the U.S. Embassy capture with chants of "Death to America."
Scenes in the Iranian capital turned ugly yet again as riot police and pro-government Basij militia turned out in force to quash anti-government sentiment.
At least 2,000 opposition supporters, sternly warned by authorities to stay home, marched defiantly at Haft-e-Tir Square, witnesses said. Many held up their hands in a V sign. Others shouted "Allahu Akbar," or "God is great," a slogan of protest. Police blocked all roads leading to the square, prompting massive traffic jams.
Witnesses described helmet-clad security personnel beating demonstrators with batons and firing tear gas at Haft-e-Tir Square and in a neighborhood a few kilometers north.
"I had never seen that many riot police and security personnel," a witness told CNN. "They were brought in by the busloads. As soon as crowds gathered somewhere, riot police were there within minutes."http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/11/04/iran.hostage.protests/index.html?eref=rss_wor... more
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/8341737.stm
Israel's navy has intercepted a ship carrying hundreds of tonnes of weapons 160km (100 miles) off its coast, the military says.
The cache included rockets and missiles, the military said, adding that they originated in Iran and were destined for Hezbollah militants.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the arms were "destined to strike Israel's cities".
The Antiguan-flagged vessel has been towed to the port of Ashdod.
In recent months Israel has stepped up efforts to combat the smuggling of arms to Hamas and Hezbollah militants.
'Numerous weapons'
The Israeli military said marines had boarded the ship after its captain agreed to the search and that no force was used.
The country's deputy defence minister, Matan Vilmai, said the ship's crew were not thought to have been aware of the smuggling operation.http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/8341737.stm
Israel's navy has intercepted a ship... more
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http://photos.thefirstpost.co.uk/features/2005/07/images/080201nipmann.jpg
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/equatorialguinea/6500134/Simon-Mann-on-a-private-jet-to-Britain.html
Simon Mann, the freed mercenary, has flown out of Equatorial Guinea in a private jet heading for Britain.
The 57-year-old former SAS officer, who was pardoned after being convicted of plotting to overthrow the Government in a "dogs of war" coup, left at around 7am destined for Luton airport with his sister Sarah and brother Edward.
Once settled back in Britain, Mann will be questioned by Scotland Yard.
The Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command will quiz Mann about the possible involvement of London-based millionaire Ely Calil and Sir Mark Thatcher, son of the former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Mann, an Old Etonian, implicated them as organisers and financiers of the failed plot during his trial. Mr Calil and Sir Mark may also be questioned by the British police.
Jose Olo Obono, who was the chief prosecutor in Equitorial Guinea at Mann's trial and is now President of the Supreme Court, confirmed: "Simon Mann has left the country. He left on a private jet bound directly for Britain with his brother and sister."
Mr Obono said he was confident Mann would assist Scotland Yard detectives investigating the failed coup.
(much more at link)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/equatorialguinea/6500134/Simon-Mann-on-a-private-jet-to-Britain.htmlhttp://photos.thefirstpost.co.uk/features/2005/07/images/080201nipmann.jpg... more
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http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE59S4DL20091029?sp=true
"LONDON (Reuters) - Leading banks have funded arms manufacturers, whose products include cluster bombs, to the tune of $5 billion in the past two years, despite an international accord to ban such weapons, a study said Thursday.
The report by Profundo consultancy and several NGOs said the banks loaned money to companies whose products include cluster bombs or their components.
It did not say the funds went directly to make cluster bombs. The manufacturers could use the money for any of their production lines.
The top five loan providers were Bank of America, Citigroup , JP Morgan, Barclays and Goldman Sachs, the study said.
The researchers used publicly available information, such as that supplied by stock exchanges and financial databases, to produce their study.
According to the research, the banks have provided financing for diversified manufacturer Textron, aerospace and defense group Alliant Techsystems and defense contractor Lockheed Martin , all based in the United States.
Cluster bombs, which open in mid-air and scatter a multitude of bomblets over a wide area, have killed and maimed tens of thousands of civilians, campaigners say.
Nations agreed to outlaw cluster bombs in May 2008. The resulting convention will come into force when 30 countries have ratified it -- 23 have already done so.
Neither the United States nor Britain, where the top five loan providers are based, have yet ratified the treaty.
The Convention on Cluster Munitions includes a ban on assisting anyone to make the bombs.
Bank of America and JP Morgan declined to comment while Citigroup and Goldman Sachs also had no immediate reaction."http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE59S4DL20091029?sp=true
"LONDON... more
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A federal court in New York ruled to reject Syrian-born Canadian Maher Arar's bid to sue US authorities after a 2002 incident at New York's John F. Kennedy airport in which Mr. Arar was the victim of mistaken identity and arrested for being allegedly linked to terrorism.
The arrest was made after the Canadian officials erroneously advised US officials Arar was linked to Islamic militants. Mr. Arar was exonerated of all charges and issued an apology by the Canadian government in 2007. The government also paid him 10.5 million Canadian dollars (8.9 million US dollars) as part of the settlement.
Mr. Arar was seeking a redress from the US government for their part in the situation because the US officials allegedly transferred him to a foreign country where he received harsh interrogation. This process is called extradordinary rendition.
The federal court ruled against Mr. Arar stating the court is not authorized to intervene in the case.
Mr. Arar's legal team will now take the case to the US Supreme court.A federal court in New York ruled to reject Syrian-born Canadian Maher Arar's bid to... more
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China says its army is ready for upcoming joint military exercises with Russia, aimed at enhancing both countries' ability to fight terrorism. The joint military exercises, named "Peace Mission 2009", will be held from July 22 to 26 on both countries' territories. About 1,300 army and air force personnel from each side will participate in the drill. The Chinese army had done several drills to prepare for the joint exercise at its base in Shenyang military command, in China's northeast Liaoning province.China says its army is ready for upcoming joint military exercises with Russia, aimed... more
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VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran ignored a U.N. deadline on Friday to respond to an international draft deal for it to cut an atomic stockpile the West fears could be used for weapons, and challenged the basis of the pact.
Iranian officials said they would give an answer only next week to the U.N.-drafted deal, which has been accepted by the other parties -- Russia, France and the United States.
They also said Tehran preferred to acquire enriched uranium abroad rather than send out its own for processing into fuel for nuclear medicine, as Western powers said it tentatively agreed to at Geneva talks on October 1 on ways to defuse growing confrontation over its disputed atomic aspirations.
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The U.N. nuclear agency said it had been told by Iran that it was considering the proposal "in depth and in a favorable light," but needed until the middle of next week to take a position -- flouting the IAEA's Friday deadline for responses.
It said International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei hoped Iran's reply "will equally be positive, since approval of this agreement will signal a new era of cooperation" after seven years of standoff.
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(more in full article - but really, who didn't see this coming? What do you guys think - is it imortant for them to abandon nuclear development of anything but power etc? And should other countries [ie not just Middle East] be disarming and disposing of the weapons as well? I think this world would be better off if no one had these blasted things.)VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran ignored a U.N. deadline on Friday to respond to an... more
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The United States has criticised the Goldstone report into Israel's war on Gaza, calling it one-sided.
In an interview with Al Jazeera's Shihab Rattansi, Justice Richard Goldstone challenged the US government to justify its claims that his findings are flawed and biased.
Goldstone said the attacks on him have become personal and he believes most critics have not even read the report.The United States has criticised the Goldstone report into Israel's war on Gaza,... more
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DIYARBAKIR, Turkey — Turkey on Tuesday hailed the "surrender" of Kurdish rebels in support of plans to end a 25-year conflict as thousands greeted militants released after more than 24 hours of questioning.
Rebel commanders insisted that they were not giving up arms yet and would fight on to achieve their rights a day after a 34-strong "peace group" of militants and sympathizers came in from Iraq carrying a list of proposals to end the violence.
Prosecutors initially released 25 of the group -- most of them Turkish Kurdish refugees -- pending trial on charges of links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and asked a court to put five others under formal arrest on similar charges, Muharrem Erbey, a lawyer following the proceedings, said.
The judge, however, also released them pending trial, he told AFP, adding that the four children who came with the group were not questioned.
"Welcome peace ambassadors! Kurdistan is proud of you!" chanted thousands of Kurdish demonstrators waiting outside the border area as the group, including rebels dressed in combat fatigues, climbed aboard a bus to travel to Diyarbakir, the largest city in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast.
The rebels made V-signs for victory as people lined along the road applauded them.
Speaking earlier in the day, Interior Minister Besir Atalay welcomed the group's arrival as a boost to Ankara's two-pronged plan to expand Kurdish freedoms and keep the PKK under military pressure.
"We expect these (surrenders) to continue. Let me underline that the (PKK) fighters in the mountains see that their way is a dead-end," Atalay was quoted by the Anatolia news agency as saying.DIYARBAKIR, Turkey — Turkey on Tuesday hailed the "surrender" of Kurdish rebels in... more
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An opposition party leader says that last week's regional polls held across Russia were stage-managed to ensure the victory of pro-Kremlin forces -- and he's not alone.An opposition party leader says that last week's regional polls held across Russia... more
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PRISTINA, Kosovo — Kosovo's authorities said Friday they have demarcated a disputed border with Macedonia, a scene of tensions in the past.PRISTINA, Kosovo — Kosovo's authorities said Friday they have demarcated a disputed... more
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A report released Thursday that shows the number of pot smokers in the world has grown to more than 160 million people has Canadian advocates renewing calls for legalization of the drug.
An Australian study, citing United Nations data from 2006 and published Thursday in the journal Lancet, found that about 166 million people aged 15-64 — or an estimated one in 25 in that age range — reported using cannabis. That's up from about 159 million people in 2005.
"It's not going away. So should one in 25 people be criminalized for smoking pot?" asked Eugene Oscapella, an Ottawa professor and spokesman for the Canadian Foundation For Drug Policy. "What this number says to me is the world is not drug free. Some people prefer alcohol over cannabis and some people prefer cannabis."
The foundation is urging the Canadian government to legalize and regulate marijuana, by allowing people to grow their own and taxing sales the way it regulates alcohol or tobacco.
While the Australian study found pot use was greatest in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand, followed by Europe, another report — from the United Nations — shows marijuana use in this country is actually the highest in the industrialized world.
That 2007 report, by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, found 16.8 per cent of Canadians aged 15 to 64 smoked marijuana or used other cannabis products in 2004. That's the most recent year for which statistics were cited.
"I'd say 70 or 80 per cent of my university students smoke pot and they are perfectly normal people," said Oscapella. "If you've ever tried it you know its no big deal. So why are we using criminal law to deal with this behaviour? That's the real issue."
Other figures — from Statistics Canada — show the number of Canadians using cannabis is on the rise, from 6.5 per cent of Canadians in 1989, to 7.4 per cent in 1994 and then to 12.2 per cent in 2002.
The largest concentration of marijuana use in Canada is in British Columbia, while residents of Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan had lower-than-average rates.
B.C. also leads the country in marijuana production with 40 per cent of Canadian cannabis produced there. That's followed by Ontario at 25 per cent and another 25 per cent in Quebec, the UN report said.
Unlike Canada, in Australia and New Zealand — where eight per cent of the population use cannabis — the numbers there are declining, the Australian study says. It says a similar trend is also happening in western Europe.A report released Thursday that shows the number of pot smokers in the world has grown... more
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Katie Couric speaks with former U.N. envoy Peter Galbraith, who was fired by a top official who now admits there is widespread election fraud in Afghanistan.Katie Couric speaks with former U.N. envoy Peter Galbraith, who was fired by a top... more
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An 18-year Counterintelligence and Counterterrorism Manager for the FBI has called for a Special Counsel to be appointed to investigate the allegations of FBI translator-turned-whistleblower Sibel Edmonds. John M. Cole, who now works as an intelligence contractor for the Air Force, made his comments during an audio interview released late last week with radio journalist Peter B. Collins.
He also offered a detailed insider's look at the concerns among high-level officials inside the Bureau as Edmonds' disturbing allegations began coming to light back in 2002, before they would be quashed for seven long years by the Bush Administration's unprecedented use of the so-called "State Secrets Privilege" to gag her.
Earlier last week, following the publication of a remarkable American Conservative magazine cover story interview with Edmonds --- detailing a broad bribery, blackmail, and espionage conspiracy said to have been carried out between current and former members of the U.S. Congress, high-ranking State and Defense Department officials and covert operatives from Turkey and Israel, resulting in the theft and sale of nuclear weapons technology on the foreign black market --- Cole had been quoted by the magazine confirming one of Edmonds' key allegations.
"I am fully aware of the FBI's decade-long investigation of" Marc Grossman, he said in response to the AmCon article/interview. Grossman had served as the third-highest ranking official in the Bush State Department and was alleged by Edmonds in the interview, and in a sworn, video-taped deposition a month earlier, to have been the U.S. ringleader for a massive Turkish espionage scandal reaching through the halls of power and into top-secret nuclear facilities around the country to the benefit of allies and enemies alike. Cole said that the FBI's counterintelligence probe "ultimately was buried and covered up," and that he believes it is "long past time" for an investigation of the case to "bring about accountability."
In his subsequent interview with Collins last week (audio and text excerpts posted below) Cole elaborated on those comments in much greater detail, noting that Edmonds has been "one hundred percent right on the money, on the mark" and confirming the existence of an "ongoing and detailed effort by Turkey to develop influence in the United States" through various illegal activities.
"Yes, I can confirm that," Cole told Collins, "That's true."
The FBI veteran executive also offered an insider's account of the panic that ensued inside the highest echelons of the bureau following Edmonds' first disclosure of information in 2002, recounting how an executive assistant director admitted to him at the time, just after the story first broke, "Well, all I know is that everything that Sibel is stating is true. I read her file. Everything she stated is, in fact, accurate."
Cole further describes how the concerns about Edmonds ultimately led to the Bush Administration's two-time use of the Draconian "State Secrets Privilege" in hopes of keeping her extraordinary information from becoming public. "Everybody at headquarters level at the bureau knew that what she was saying was extremely accurate."
"I know they didn't want her to go out and speak about it at all," Cole revealed, "and I know they were trying to figure out ways of keeping this whole thing quiet, because they didn't want Sibel to come out."
He also offered information which directly counters one of the criticisms of Edmonds' allegations as frequently offered by skeptics. Namely, that as a short time FBI contract translator --- even though she was tasked to review some seven years of counterintelligence wiretaps made from 1996 to 2002 --- she couldn't have had enough understanding of the full scope of the investigations to understand what was really going on.
More...An 18-year Counterintelligence and Counterterrorism Manager for the FBI has called for... more
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WASHINGTON, Oct 14 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama faces key decisions soon on the war in Afghanistan, where insurgent violence has reached its highest level since the Taliban was ousted from power in late 2001.
On one side of the White House debate are proposals to send at least 40,000 additional troops and trainers as part of a beefed-up counterinsurgency strategy advocated by the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal.
On the other side are plans to hold steady on troop levels in Afghanistan and concentrate on attacking al Qaeda targets along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and in Pakistan itself with the greater use of drones and special forces, a proposal backed by Vice President Joe Biden.
Obama could opt for a hybrid approach, officials said, whereby the administration would increase the number of troops in Afghanistan by a more modest amount and at the same time push for a more concerted campaign against al Qaeda and Taliban "safe havens" along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and within Pakistani territory.
Washington has 65,000 troops in Afghanistan and that figure is expected to reach 68,000 later this year. Other nations, mainly NATO allies, have some 39,000 troops in the country.
--------THE FOLLOWING ARE SOME POSSIBLE DIRECTIONS-- >WASHINGTON, Oct 14 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama faces key decisions soon on... more
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