| As Tropical Storm Harvey rages in Texas, Trump drops hodgepodge of tweets Posted: 27 Aug 2017 12:40 PM PDT  President Trump took to Twitter Sunday to indicate he was monitoring Tropical Storm Harvey, but wedged between well wishes were off-topic missives.
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| As Officials Attempt To Protect Dams, More Houston Neighborhoods Deal With Flooding Posted: 28 Aug 2017 02:29 PM PDT  HOUSTON – While officials in Houston used controlled releases of water from dams to try to keep them from failing amid relentless rainfall, residents of the Fleetwood neighborhood wedged between the Addicks and Barker reservoirs dealt with a new onslaught of flooding from the dams themselves.
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| Houston Mayor Defends Decision to Not Issue Mandatory Evacuation Orders Posted: 27 Aug 2017 08:40 AM PDT  Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said it was not feasible to put "2.3 million people on the road," saying the controversial 2005 Hurricane Rita evacuation had taught the city a lesson.
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| Prosecutor: 2 charged in death of missing North Dakota woman Posted: 28 Aug 2017 02:03 PM PDT  Two suspects in the death of a pregnant woman in North Dakota will face three charges including conspiracy to commit murder, a prosecutor said Monday.
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| ‘Our Town Is Destroyed’: Texans Face Hurricane Harvey Destruction Posted: 28 Aug 2017 03:43 AM PDT  Hurricane Harvey landed in Texas and has been marked as the worst natural disaster in Texas history. The originally category 4 storm has left most of southeast Texas underwater, here's what some Texans facing the storm had to say.
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| Joel Osteen's Houston Megachurch Blasted For Closing As Thousands Are Displaced Posted: 28 Aug 2017 01:20 PM PDT  Hurricane Harvey has dumped over 30 inches of rain throughout parts of Southeast Texas since it made landfall on Friday evening. Dozens of Houston-area churches, schools and community centers opened their doors to offer temporary shelter to survivors, while other local houses of worship organized volunteer teams to help with relief efforts. One church, however, drew criticism online for remaining shut.
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| Armed men destroy two dozen logging trucks in Chile indigenous dispute Posted: 28 Aug 2017 01:09 PM PDT  A group of armed men claiming to represent the nation's indigenous Mapuche people hijacked and burned 29 logging trucks in southern Chile on Monday morning as a years-long conflict with forestry companies heated up. "We're going to combat violence and we are not going to allow minoritarian groups, which don't value dialogue, to ruin the great effort all regional actors in the south are doing to promote development and overcome exclusion," Chilean President Michelle Bachelet said in televised remarks. Many Mapuche leaders doubt all such attacks are carried out by indigenous people, saying non-indigenous groups with a radical political agenda may be involved.
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| This photo of Harvey flooding at Houston airport is totally fake Posted: 28 Aug 2017 11:55 AM PDT 
There's all kinds of incredible and distressing imagery coming out of Hurricane Harvey, but as ever, you need to check before pressing E to pay respects. The photo above is doing the rounds on social media, purportedly showing Houston airport after the flooding of Hurricane Harvey. It's a staggering image -- and not unbelievable, given the very real photos of flooded highways going around -- but also totally fake.
The picture was actually made by digital artist Nickolay Lamm for search engine company StorageFront as part of a series showing the effect on rising sea levels. The picture most widely being circulated shows what LaGuardia airport would look like after 25 feet of sea level rise, but there are others in the same series that show the effect of five feet and 12 feet of rise. https://twitter.com/MadniSwagger/status/902168731182346240 https://twitter.com/lauslahti/status/902131284998311936 https://twitter.com/v7dge/status/902116956442120192 Workers at Houston airport have said on social media that although the airport is affected by the storm, it's not anything like the image here. The FAA closed the airport to commercial traffic on Sunday, and all roads to and from the airport are also closed. That caused a number of Southwest passengers to become stranded at the airport, and the airline ended up airlifting them to safety on Sunday. There are still a number of aircraft left on the ground at Hobby, Houston's smaller airport. The FAA expects the airport to remain closed until August 30th at the earliest, although non-emergency flights do continue to operate.
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| India, China to pull back troops from border confrontation Posted: 28 Aug 2017 04:22 AM PDT  NEW DELHI (AP) — India and China have agreed to pull back their troops from a face-off in the high Himalayas where China, India and Bhutan meet, signaling a thaw in the monthslong standoff, India's government said Monday.
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| Startling Image of Flooded Texas Nursing Home Prompts Rescue Posted: 27 Aug 2017 08:37 AM PDT  An image of elderly women in a Texas nursing home surrounded by waist-deep flood waters went viral on social media on Sunday, prompting an emergency evacuation of the facility.
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| Before Harvey Hit, Trump Voided A Federal Rule To Protect Infrastructure From Future Flooding Posted: 28 Aug 2017 10:30 AM PDT  President Donald Trump, who will visit Texas on Tuesday for a first-hand look at Hurricane Harvey's deluge of rainfall, flooding and destruction, may have already made preparedness for similar natural disasters more difficult.
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| 30 Detainees Suspected Of Using Underground Tunnel To Illegally Enter U.S. Posted: 26 Aug 2017 06:05 PM PDT  Border Patrol agents detained 30 undocumented immigrants Saturday in San Diego County on suspicion of illegally entering the country using a hidden underground tunnel.
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| Historic Floods Hit Houston as Hundreds Rescued from Water Posted: 27 Aug 2017 08:32 AM PDT  Officials reported answering thousands of calls from people trapped in Houston on Sunday as torrential rain from deadly Hurricane Harvey caused "catastrophic flooding" in the city and across southeast Texas.
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| Hurricane Harvey's Stinging Nightmare: Floating Fire Ant Colonies Posted: 28 Aug 2017 03:40 PM PDT  As if the catastrophic floods in Houston haven't done enough damage, people are now reporting large colonies of fire ants floating on the rising water.
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| Anti-racism activists to march from Charlottesville to Washington Posted: 28 Aug 2017 01:14 PM PDT  Anti-racism activists will begin a 10-day march on Monday from Charlottesville to Washington to protest against a far-right rally in the Virginia city and what they called President Donald Trump's reluctance to condemn its white nationalist organizers. The "March to Confront White Supremacy" is the latest demonstration following the Aug. 12 rally in Charlottesville, when one woman was killed after a man drove a car into a crowd of anti-racism counterprotesters.
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| Jailed Samsung heir appeals against conviction Posted: 27 Aug 2017 10:15 PM PDT  Lawyers for the jailed heir to the Samsung empire filed an appeal against his conviction on Monday as South Korean media divided on the ruling that put the country's top business leader behind bars. Lee Jae-Yong, the de-facto head of Samsung Electronics, was found guilty last week of bribing South Korea's ousted president Park Geun-Hye and sentenced to five years in prison. The official website of the Seoul Central District Court showed that Lee's lawyer Kim Jong-Hoon filed an appeal on Monday but gave no further details.
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| Divers find remains of all missing from USS McCain collision Posted: 27 Aug 2017 09:44 PM PDT  SINGAPORE (AP) — Divers have recovered the remains of all 10 sailors who went missing after the USS John S. McCain and an oil tanker collided near Singapore last week, the U.S. Navy said Monday.
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| Clever Dog Spotted Leaving With a Bag of Food During Hurricane Harvey Posted: 28 Aug 2017 02:35 PM PDT  Otis got loose during the storm and found the dog food at a lumberyard near his home.
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| Cajun Navy joins rescue efforts in Texas as Hurricane Harvey causes massive flooding Posted: 28 Aug 2017 09:47 AM PDT  The Cajun Navy departed Louisiana on Sunday, heading straight to where they are needed most -- Southeast Texas.
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| GOP Illinois Governor Signs Major Voting Reform Into Law Posted: 28 Aug 2017 07:37 AM PDT  Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) signed a law Monday authorizing different state agencies to automatically register voters when they interact with them, marking a huge victory for voting advocates after Rauner vetoed similar legislation a year ago.
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| First lady appears to borrow from Michelle Obama's playbook Posted: 27 Aug 2017 02:24 PM PDT  Bare arms and a belted waist, a White House vegetable garden and parents in the residence: Melania Trump is borrowing pages from Michelle Obama's playbook.
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| Beachy Head chemical haze mystery deepens as police say gas not from France Posted: 28 Aug 2017 04:33 AM PDT  The mystery over a noxious chemical haze that drifted ashore along the Sussex coast and put scores in hospital has deepened as police have said it is unlikely to have come from France. Around 150 people needed hospital treatment for burning eyes, vomiting and sore throats after the mystery gas came ashore near Beachy Head on Sunday afternoon. People stand on a cliff at Beachy Head amidst mist, near Eastbourne Credit: Louisa Neale /Reuters A senior officer said on Sunday there had been previous incidents when "stuff has come across from industrial units in France." But officers on Monday said wind patterns suggested the cloud had not come from the Continent. 233 people were treated at the local hospital Credit: Eddie Mitchell Scientists suggested the haze had instead come from shipping in The Channel or had blown from further along the English coast. The haze had dispersed by Monday morning and police lifted an order for residents around the Eastbourne area to stay inside and close their windows. Thousands of visitors are expected to travel to the area as the Bank Holiday sees some of the hottest weather of the year. Sussex Police and East Sussex Fire Service are dealing with an incident in the Birling Gap area. (1/2)— Sussex Police (@sussex_police) August 27, 2017 Members of the public are advised by Fire Service to stay indoors and shut windows if you are in the Eastbourne area. (2/2)— Sussex Police (@sussex_police) August 27, 2017 Sussex Police said: "Neither the gas nor its source have been established, but agencies are continuing to investigate and have not ruled out either onshore or offshore locations, although it does appear that it did sweep in from the sea driven by onshore breezes. "However, weather models suggest that an onshore source in northern France is very unlikely." Birling Gap is evacuated after reports that chlorine gas has been leaked affecting people in the area. Credit: @Kyle_Crickmore/Twitter The Met Office scientists are helping police try to determine the source of the haze. Winds in the Channel on Sunday had been light and variable with some fog banks. A spokesman said a pocket of low-lying cold air had been covered by a blanket of warmer air in a phenomenon known as a temperature inversion. The phenomenon can mean that pollution becomes trapped and does not disperse. The spokesman said: "There's a possibility that it's something from a ship in the Channel and also the possibility that it came from the English Coast." In 2013, residents along the south coast complained after cloud of foul-smelling but harmless gas has leaked from a factory in north-west France. The leak was blamed on a chemical factory near Rouen releasing mercaptan, which is added to natural gas to give it a smell. The haze apparently reached land at Birling Gap at around 5pm on Sunday afternoon. Map: East Sussex toxic mist direction Kyle Crickmore, who had been enjoying the Bank Holiday weekend sunshine at the beach with his family, tweeted: "Some sort of chemical incident at Birling Gap, eyes are streaming and there's a strong smell of chlorine in the air." He had finished swimming when his eyes started stinging. He looked around and saw everyone on the beach also rubbing their eyes and coughing in what he described as "all sorts of strange behaviour". He told BBC News: "Then looking out towards the water, there was just this crazy foggy haze rolling in off the sea out of nowhere. It was definitely out of the ordinary considering it was a nice clear sunny day 10 minutes beforehand. "It was stupidly busy and it was a boiling hot day. It emptied in about 10 minutes which was quite staggering considering the amount of people who were there." The beachfront is popular with dog walkers and is a busy spot for tourists and locals enjoying the bank holiday sunshine. Dan Sankey wrote on Twitter: "Beautiful afternoon at Birling Gap cut short by some weird mist, burning everyone's eyes which led to the beach and cliff being evacuated." Sameer Jadhav tweeted: "Birling Gap some weird gas leak. People crying. Ambulances called. Don't go to Birling Gap at the moment". The effects felt by those caught in the cloud "prompted emergency services to warn people to stay away from the beaches and to keep doors and windows closed if living near the coast". Sussex Police said: "People living along the coast in the area have been advised to keep doors and windows shut and to move away from the Birling Gap area in particular." Specialist teams worked to decontaminate patients Credit: Eddie Mitchell The RNLI said that "possibly some kind of gaseous fumes" had drifted over the scene and a significant number of people on cliff tops had been struck down with symptoms including irritation, sore eyes and vomiting. East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust said there had been a "hazardous cloud moving across from Birling Gap to the Eastbourne area". By 10.30pm 233 patients had been treated at Eastbourne District General Hospital where they were being "decontaminated on site" by hospital staff. Fears from the coastguard that people could be trapped on the beach saw the RNLI launch all-weather lifeboats from Eastbourne and Newhaven to the Birling Gap area. Mist could be seen in the area Credit: Reuters
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| 14 Freezer Dinners That Are Better Than Takeout Posted: 28 Aug 2017 01:55 PM PDT |
| Trump Has Essentially Abdicated The Basic Responsibilities Of A President Posted: 27 Aug 2017 02:39 PM PDT  On Sunday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson suggested that the president of the United States does not speak for American values.
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| Hurricane Harvey much less damaging than Katrina, Sandy: Hannover Re Posted: 28 Aug 2017 07:11 AM PDT  Damages from Harvey, the hurricane and tropical storm ravaging Houston and the Texas Gulf Coast, are estimated to be well below those from major storms that have hit New Orleans and New York, according to Hannover Re on Monday. Hannover Re, one of the world's largest reinsurers, said that insured losses for Katrina in 2005 were around $80 billion, while losses from Sandy in 2012 were $36 billion. "We are far from Katrina and Sandy in magnitude in the case of Hurricane Harvey," a spokeswoman for the company said.
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| 5 Things To Know About Uber’s New CEO Posted: 27 Aug 2017 09:35 PM PDT  Iranian-born American businessman Dara Khosrowshahi has been heading online travel company Expedia since 2005.
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| Houston convention center gives refuge to Harvey's survivors Posted: 28 Aug 2017 05:32 PM PDT  HOUSTON (AP) — Patricia Cain entered the George R. Brown Convention Center barefoot and carrying two oxygen tanks. The first was empty. The second was given to her by the Houston Fire Department after the Coast Guard rescued her from her flooded home.
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| Nikolaj Coster-Waldau Breaks Down That Huge Jaime Moment On 'Game Of Thrones' Posted: 28 Aug 2017 07:53 AM PDT  Actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who's played Jaime on screen for seven years, was thrilled to know his character used his brain for once and saw right through Cersei's (Lena Headey) lies. After she meets with Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) following the dragon pit council, everyone assumes Cersei had a change of heart when she reemerges to tell them she will join the fight against the dead and send her army north.
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| Deadly clashes in Yemen rebel ranks spark fears of 'strife' Posted: 27 Aug 2017 07:55 AM PDT  A Yemeni colonel loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh and two Huthi rebels have been killed in Sanaa, in an unprecedented escalation of violence between the allies with Saleh's party warning it could push the capital into all-out war. An anti-government alliance between Saleh and rebel leader Abdul Malik al-Huthi has crumbled over the past week, with the two accusing each other of treason and back-stabbing. Witnesses in Sanaa, which Saleh and Huthi jointly control, said the ex-president's forces had spread in southern parts of the capital near the presidential offices, which Saleh still holds despite resigning in 2012.
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| Winter Cold Used To Kill Off Forest-Eating Beetles. Not Anymore. Posted: 28 Aug 2017 03:42 PM PDT  Ecosystems ravaged by climate change tend to reward to pests and invasive species.
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| Carjacker in America dragged down street with trousers falling off Posted: 28 Aug 2017 05:22 AM PDT  A man who attempted to hijack a car was filmed holding onto the door handle of the vehicle as it moved off, dragging him down the road and pulling his shorts down in the process. Extraordinary footage, filmed by witnesses in Kent, Washington, shows a large SUV approaching, with the man holding onto the door handle as he is dragged along a busy road. The vehicle then comes to a halt, and the half-naked man stands and momentarily opens the door of the car before the driver moves off again, with the man still clutching the door handle.
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| Report: Family of 6 drowned inside van after being swept away by hurricane flood waters Posted: 28 Aug 2017 01:26 PM PDT  A family of six, including four children, is believed to have drowned after their van was swept away by Hurricane Harvey's devastating flood waters, according to KHOU.
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| Donald Trump 'was planning Trump Tower in Moscow' as he embarked on presidential bid Posted: 28 Aug 2017 09:36 AM PDT  The controversy surrounding Donald Trump's links with Russia intensified amid reports that his company was negotiating to build a Trump Tower in Moscow during the early stages of his presidential campaign. The Washington Post reported that the Trump organisation was involved in discussions over proposals for a tower in late 2015 and early 2016. According to the paper Michael Cohen, the Trump Organisation's executive vice president, sent an email to Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov seeking his help in rescuing the stalled deal in January 2016. Mr Trump announced his candidacy for the presidency in June 2015 and the plans were scrapped in January last year, shortly before the presidential primaries began. The Donald Trump campaign's Russia connections Although the Trump organisation's desire to build a Trump Tower dates back to the 1990s, as a candidate the billionaire repeatedly denies that he had business interests in Russia while he was campaigning for the White House. The latest disclosures are certain to fuel a belief among Mr Trump's critics that his desire for a rapprochement with the Kremlin was commercially as well as politically driven. A special counsel and the Senate Intelligence Committee are both probing alleged Russian involvement in the presidential election. According to the Washington Post, Mr Trump was urged to go to Moscow to promote the plans by Felix Sater, a Russian born property developer. Plans were discussed for a Trump Tower in Moscow Credit: Selcuk Acar/Anadolu Agency He suggested that Mr Putin could be persuaded to say "great things" about Mr Trump. Although Mr Trump did not make the visit, Mr Putin did go out of his way to praise the billionaire businessman in December 2015. Responding to Mr Trump's conviction that the two men could "get along", Mr Putin said of the then aspiring Republican hopeful, "He is a bright and talented person without any doubt." Mr Sater, who appears to have been a middle man in the Moscow Trump Tower proposal, has long been a controversial figure. In May last year, the Telegraph disclosed that Mr Sater, a man who Mr Trump claimed he would not recognise, was not only a key figure in the billionaire's business ventures, but also had convictions for both fraud and stabbing somebody in the face with the stem of a margarita glass. The White House declined to comment as did Michael Cohen, the Trump Organisation's executive vice president. Mr Cohen's lawyer said he was co-operating with the congressional inquiries.
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| 20 Gift Ideas For Literally Everyone On Your List Posted: 28 Aug 2017 11:44 AM PDT  Gift-giving can be incredibly stressful, particularly because each person on your list has different tastes.
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| Good Samaritans Rescue Fellow Citizens Amid Catastrophic Floods Posted: 27 Aug 2017 05:16 PM PDT  The citizens of Houston and nearby towns are showing amazing resilience in the face of catastrophic flooding from Hurricane Harvey.
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| Netanyahu: Iran building missile production sites in Syria, Lebanon Posted: 28 Aug 2017 03:25 AM PDT  By Jeffrey Heller JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Iran is building sites to produce precision-guided missiles in Syria and Lebanon, with the aim of using them against Israel. At the start of a meeting in Jerusalem with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Netanyahu accused Iran of turning Syria into a "base of military entrenchment as part of its declared goal to eradicate Israel." "It is also building sites to produce precision-guided missiles towards that end, in both Syria and in Lebanon.
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| The Pizzeria Everyone Is Obsessed With In Your State Posted: 28 Aug 2017 01:55 PM PDT |
| Kenya bans plastic bags, may fine violators up to $38,000 Posted: 28 Aug 2017 10:19 AM PDT  NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A ban on plastic bags came into force Monday in Kenya and those found violating the new regulation could be receive maximum fines of $38,000 or a four-year jail term.
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| 'Real Housewives of Orange County' Star Tamra Judge Is Battling Melanoma Posted: 28 Aug 2017 07:33 AM PDT  If the last 10 seasons of "Real Housewives of Orange County" have proved anything, it's that Tamra Judge is a survivor.
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| Teenager Tells 'Racist' Canadian Woman To 'Get Off' Train Posted: 27 Aug 2017 03:29 AM PDT  An investigation was launched after the video of the incident went viral after being posted on Facebook on Aug. 22.
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| 'No Fascist USA.' Thousands Protest Planned Right-Wing Rally at Berkeley Posted: 27 Aug 2017 01:44 PM PDT  There were a few skirmishes
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| When executives throw themselves in with the wolves Posted: 28 Aug 2017 03:16 AM PDT  Ernstbrunn (Austria) (AFP) - "When they lick your face, keep your mouth closed. -- are Nanuk and Una, two timber wolves reaching easily to waist height. The location is the Wolf Science Center, a unique institution in Ernstbrunn north of Vienna that compares and contrasts the behaviour and smartness of wolves and dogs, and also hosts training courses like this.
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| Rescuers Free Kitten Trapped Near Car Engine Posted: 28 Aug 2017 06:05 AM PDT  The kitten was trapped for hours.
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| Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan Welcome Daughter August Posted: 28 Aug 2017 01:52 PM PDT  Mark Zuckerberg just updated his Facebook status – to read father of two!
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| Whereabouts of former Thai PM Yingluck unknown, defense minister says Posted: 27 Aug 2017 11:18 PM PDT  By Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Panarat Thepgumpanat BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's defense minister on Monday said he did not know the whereabouts of former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, days after she failed to show up for a verdict in her trial for negligence at which she faced up to 10 years in prison. Yingluck, whose government was ousted in a 2014 coup, fled to Dubai via Singapore, sources in her Puea Thai Party said on the weekend. "We don't know where Yingluck fled and whether she has asked for asylum anywhere," Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwan, who is also a deputy prime minister, told reporters.
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| Transgender Service Members Make A Statement On VMAs Red Carpet Posted: 27 Aug 2017 05:10 PM PDT  Days after President Donald Trump signed a memo banning transgender soldiers from enlisting in the military, several service members are making a statement on the MTV Video Music Awards red carpet.
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| Anheuser-Busch Stopped Making Beer To Send Drinking Water To Hurricane Harvey Victims Posted: 28 Aug 2017 12:32 PM PDT  More than 50,000 cans of water have made it to flood-damaged communities.
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