A 6.3 magnitude earthquake hit central Italy on Monday, killing 150 people and injuring about 1,500. The earthquake was centered in the town of L’Aquila, located about 60 miles east of Rome in the Abruzzo region.
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Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People’s Bank of China, called for a new global currency controlled by the International Monetary Fund on Monday. The plan calls for the creation of a new international currency reserve to replace the dollar. This would mean the global financial system would not be as dependent on Western countries. Xiaochuan claims the new system would provide more stability if it were controlled by the IMF, arguing against using one nation’s currency for international payments. A similar proposal was recently made by Russian officials.
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European leaders met Sunday in Brussels, Belgium for an emergency summit meeting to discuss the worldwide financial crisis.
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Recent reports revealed that two nuclear submarines, one French and one British, collided in the Atlantic Ocean in the beginning of this month. The HMS Vanguard of Britain and Le Triomphant of France were both carrying nuclear missiles on board when they collided deep underwater. Military officials said the collision posed no real risk of detonating the nuclear missiles and an investigation to the cause of the crash is underway.
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President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan has lost his status as a White House darling, according to an article in The New York Times. Then-senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. reportedly stood up in the middle of a dinner last February with the Afghan president and walked out when Karzai denied claims that corruption ran rampant in his government.
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Nazi war criminal, Aribert Ferdinand Heim, also known as “Dr. Death,” reportedly hid in Cairo, Egypt until his death in 1992.
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The alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, announced Monday that he wanted to plead guilty to murder and war crime charges in a military court in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
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Terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India left at least 183 people dead with bodies still being cleared Saturday after the three-day siege.
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Shots fired Sunday at a security checkpoint near the South Ossetia border were directed toward the president of Georgia and the president of Poland.
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China announced Sunday an enormous $586 billion stimulus package in order to increase domestic spending for two years.
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An investigation in Mexico City last week revealed that many of those involved in narcotics trading were working in the upper levels of the Mexican government. According to The New York Times, it has been a well-known fact for years that drug gangs bribe the local police forces and that corruption and infiltration are rampant among law enforcement officials.
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U.S. officials confirmed that American special operations forces carried out a raid Sunday on Syria resulting in the death of an Iraqi militant, who allegedly brought weapons across the Iraq border.
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Leaders of the world will hold an emergency summit to deal with the current global financial crisis. French President Nicholas Sarkozy, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso and President George W. Bush met last weekend at Camp David, Md. They discussed the economic turmoil rippling throughout the globe and planned to hold an emergency summit to seek solutions to the current state of the world economy.
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Vladimir V. Putin, prime minister of Russia, faces the global financial crisis as his nation — which months ago seemed at the peak of its economic success — recently lost $1 trillion dollars in the stock market. The government was forced to embrace a bold rescue plan to save the banks after numerous stock market crashes in recent weeks.
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Thai protests leave hundreds injured Street battles in Thailand left nearly 400 people hurt after anti-government protesters trampled through roads surrounding the Parliament building on Tuesday, trapping hundreds of lawmakers inside. Members of Parliament remained sequestered in the building for more than five hours until police threw tear gas into the crowds to dissipate the protests.
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More detained in milk recall Officials in China announced yesterday they have detained 22 people for allegedly contaminating milk with a dangerous industrial chemical called melamine, creating one of the nation's worst food safety crises in years. The contamination has caused more than 50,000 children to become sick, resulting in at least four deaths. Thousands of products in China and worldwide have been recalled. The Chinese government suspects that the individuals arrested were intentionally poisoning the milk products.
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