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Flashback: Hookers, Spies Cases Full Of Dollars...How BP [and the British government] Spent £45m To Win 'Wild East' Oil Rights

Glen Owen
Mail On Sunday
2007-05-15 06:16:00

The following report appeared on Sunday 13th May 2007 on the UK daily's Mail on Sunday website. It has since been pulled without explanation. The report is based on the testimony of a former high level BP employee, Les Abrahams, and details how in the 1990's British Petroleum, in league with the British government and MI6, used every scurrilous and immoral tactic imaginable, including orchestrating the overthrow of Azerbaijan's democratically elected governments, to secure the Baku region oil supplies and massive profits for themselves.

The image below is a 'for the record' google screen shot showing that this story was indeed published by the Daily Mail on Sunday last, if only for a few hours. For those few hours, we had a taste of real and responsible reporting, before the cabal British government, intelligence agency and big business stepped in to deny the public the Truth about the corruption and psychopathy that goes to the heart of "political leadership" in the "developed" Western world today. The story follows.



Click here for the google cache of the article.

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U.S. News
Ethics Committee Continues Craig Review

DAVID ESPO
Huffington Post
2007-09-06 16:42:00

To the dismay of fellow Republicans, Sen. Larry Craig launched a determined drive to save his seat on Wednesday, vowing to stay in office if allowed to withdraw his guilty plea in a men's room sex sting.

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Republican Christian Homosexual Military Prostitute Commentator Writes Book Blasting Media's 'Liberal Bias'

Mark Fitzgerald
Editor and Publisher
2007-09-06 16:40:00

Two years after he became a famous, or infamous, White House correspondent, Jeff Gannon is back with a book excoriating his former colleagues, and recounting his days of reporting "behind enemy lines" at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

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Time magazine calls for "universal national service" in US

Barry Grey
WSWS
2007-09-06 15:48:00

Timed to coincide with the reconvening of Congress and the renewal of the fraudulent official "debate" on the Iraq war, Time magazine has published an edition with a cover story entitled "The Case for National Service."

The coincidence is hardly accidental. It underscores the political fact that behind the squabbling between the Bush administration and the Democratic-controlled Congress over the best means for ensuring "success' in Iraq, there is a growing consensus within the American ruling elite and both of its parties in favor of reinstituting a military draft.

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Langley jets grounded on Sept. 14 following nuclear mishap

STEPHANIE HEINATZ
Daily Press
2007-09-06 13:53:00

Hampton's Langley Air Force Base will be free of jet noise Sept. 14.

The service's Air Combat Command, headquartered at Langley, has ordered all jet fighters and bombers to remain grounded so airmen can review safety procedures and protocol, an Air Force spokesman said.

Langley is home to three fighter squadrons, which fly the F-15 Eagle and F-22A Raptor.

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Embattled US professor who accused Jews of using Holocaust to stifle criticism agrees to resign

Ron Grossman
Chicago Tribune
2007-09-06 09:32:00

The long-running confrontation between embattled professor Norman Finkelstein and DePaul University ended today without the dramatics he had promised.

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Ohio congressman found dead in apartment

JIM ABRAMS
AP
2007-09-06 02:39:00

Ohio Rep. Paul Gillmor, a Republican whose political career covered four decades, has died, party officials said. "Born, raised and educated in our home state of Ohio, Paul never lost sight of the reason he came to Congress - to serve this great institution and his constituents with dedication and distinction," House Republican Leader John Boehner, also of Ohio, said in a statement.

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UK & Euro-Asian News
UK jets 'chase Russian bombers'


BBC
2007-09-06 09:54:00

The UK's Royal Air Force has launched fighter jets to intercept eight Russian military planes flying in airspace patrolled by Nato, UK officials say.

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Apocalypse now - "We need to consider nightmares in order to cure us of our utopian delusions"

Stuart Jeffries
The Guardian
2007-07-07 06:25:00

Viewed by many as a Cassandra, John Gray sees himself as a usefully perverse thinker. His latest book argues that Richard Dawkins's atheism is inspired by Christianity

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Brussels not in favour of dividing Kosovo


AFP
2007-09-06 02:08:00

The European Commission voiced opposition Wednesday to dividing Kosovo, unless both Belgrade and Pristina agree to the idea as a way to resolve the problem of the breakaway Serb province's status.

"The EU sticks to the guiding principles of the Contact Group, and this does not include partition," EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said during a joint press conference with Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic.

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Cyprus rivals still far apart after rare talks


AFP
2007-09-06 02:08:00

Rival Greek- and Turkish-Cypriot leaders held a rare face-to-face meeting on Wednesday, but in three and a half hours of talks they failed to make headway on ending the island's 33-year division.

Neither Cyprus President Tassos Papadopoulos nor Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat took reporters' questions after the encounter on neutral ground in the UN-patrolled buffer zone.

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Around the World
Bush in the Land of Oz: "We're kicking ass" in Iraq

Phillip Coorey
Sydney Morning Herald
2007-09-06 17:24:00

John Howard, he pointed out again yesterday, first met George Bush in Washington on September 10, 2001.

We all know that the events of the next day cemented a friendship unprecedented for leaders of the US and Australia.

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Australia: Bush a dunderhead, says Greens leader


The Australia
2007-09-05 10:07:00

US President George W. Bush is a "dunderhead" for thinking Australia's security depends on keeping troops in Iraq, Greens leader Bob Brown says.

Mr Bush said today it was important for Australia's security that its troops stayed in Iraq.

"It's important, in my judgment, for the security of America and for the security of Australia that we hang in there with the Iraqis and help them," Mr Bush said at a joint press conference with Prime Minister John Howard.

Senator Brown said: "He would say that, because when it comes to Australia's interests, he's a dunderhead and Iraq has made us less safe".


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US Democratic hopeful Kucinich meets Assad, blasts Bush


Associated Press
2007-09-06 13:28:00

US Democratic presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich, on a Mideast visit that included a stop in Syria, said the country lambasted by the Bush administration deserves credit for taking in more than a million Iraqi refugees.

Kucinich, a strong anti-war opponent who trails far in the US presidential polls, also said he won't visit Iraq on his trip to the region because he considers the US military deployment there illegal.

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MEXICO: Key Video Evidence Blocked in Child Sex Ring Trial

Diego Cevallos
IPS
2007-09-06 16:14:00

Prosecutors in a case involving the sexual abuse of children in Mexico have failed to hand over to the courts 10 video recordings and 70 photos that show the accused, who claims to have friends in high places, in compromising circumstances with minors.

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Manufactured famine! Over four million to face food shortages in Zimbabwe early 2008


AFP
2007-09-06 02:08:00

The number of people facing serious food shortages in Zimbabwe is expected to grow to 4.1 million over the first quarter of next year, the Canadian ambassador to the African country said on Wednesday.

"This figure is expected to increase dramatically in the coming months due to a combination of factors, including poor harvests and the prevailing difficult economic situation," Roxanne Dube said at a ceremony where Canada donated 3.5 million Canadian dollars (3.3 US million dollars (2.4 million euros) to the World Food Programme (WFP) to be used to feed starving Zimbabweans.

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Musharraf Considers State of Emergency

Griff Witte
Washington Post
2007-09-05 18:40:00

A top adviser to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf acknowledged Tuesday that the general's options for staying in power are increasingly bleak and said that a declaration of emergency is being considered as a way of keeping him in office.

Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League, said that while a complete military takeover under martial law had been ruled out, a state of emergency that would allow for the postponement of elections for up to a year and the curtailment of individual liberties was still on the table. "Martial law is a very harsh word," Hussain said in an interview. "Emergency rule is not so harsh."

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Big Brother
It's coming! Air France to trial biometric boarding cards


AFP
2007-09-06 03:26:00

French airline Air France said Wednesday it planned to trial biometric boarding passes that would allow passengers to be fast-tracked through airport checks using a scan of their fingerprint.

Passengers who volunteer to take part in the pilot scheme, from end 2007, will be asked to load a digital record of their index print onto an individual chip card, Air France officials told a press conference.


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Axis of Evil
'Israel gives US unreliable intel'

AP AND HERB KEINON
Jerusalem Post
2007-09-06 02:39:00

Israeli intelligence about Palestinian groups that a US-based Muslim charity aided was often unreliable, a former senior US diplomat testified at the organization's trial on terrorism-support charges.

Edward Abingdon, who served as US consul-general in Jerusalem during the 1990s, said the Israelis had an "agenda" and provided "selective information to try to influence US thinking."

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Construction of kangaroo courts! U.S. builds for future at Guantanamo

Jane Sutton
Reuters
2007-09-06 02:08:00

The U.S. military is building a mobile courtroom complex on an unused runway at the Guantanamo Bay naval base and plans to be ready by March to conduct as many as three terrorism trials at a time.

The $10 million project will add two new courtrooms to the existing one, which is being fitted with a new computer projection system to display evidence for the war crimes tribunals set up to try suspected al Qaeda operatives held at the U.S. naval base in eastern Cuba.


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Middle East Madness
What's next for Nahr al-Bared

Jamal Ghosn
Electronic Lebano
2007-09-06 15:42:00

Victory celebrations are dominating the Lebanese airwaves for the foreseeable future and presidential election "campaigns" here are in full swing. The issue of reconstructing the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp will never see the light of day in any of the Lebanese media outlets, whether pro-government or opposition -- just like the humanitarian crisis at Baddawi refugee camp has failed to capture any front page headlines over the past three months. The sole exception being when the disgruntled double-refugees attempted to return home, only to find themselves accused of attacking the Lebanese army. An assault by the army resulted in the death of three returning Palestinian refugees. Apparently human suffering with no potential political gain is not newsworthy.


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Sara, Mahmoud and Yehya

Yassmin Moor
The Electronic Intifada
2007-09-05 15:06:00

©PCHR
Sarah, Mahmoud and Yehya Abu Ghazal


Sarah Abu Ghazal's school uniform still lay on her mattress, untouched as she had left it before running out after her cousins Mahmoud and Yehya Abu Ghazal on Wednesday, 29 August. She was to begin the fourth grade on 2 September, but her friend Amani, who has accompanied her to school since the first grade, would walk alone this year. Sarah's mother had bought her the blue school uniform, blue jeans and the black shoes just the day before she was killed by Israel tank fire. Her mother waited until the last minute to buy Sarah's school supplies because she was waiting for her husband's salary which he had not received since June. Still full of life, Sarah was readying her new clothes for the start of the school year when Yehya called for her to come out and play.


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Iran offers Syria aid following Israeli jet incursion

Dudi Cohen
Ynet
2007-09-06 14:04:00

Iran's ambassador to Damascus, Mohammad Hassan Akhtari, assured security officials in Syria that Teheran would be ready to offer Damascus any assistance it may need, Iranian media reported on Thursday afternoon following a resurgence of tensions between Israel and Syria.

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Syria air defense fires on Israeli jet

Khaled Yacoub Oweis
AP
2007-09-06 09:50:00

Syria accused Israel of bombing its territory on Thursday and warned it could respond, but Israel Radio carried a denial there had been an air strike.

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US Citizens Detained by Israel for Having Palestinian Roots

MEG LAUGHLIN
St. Petersburgs Times
2007-09-06 09:34:00

A large Lakeland family has been split in two temporarily by complex Israeli travel restrictions that forced the mother to leave seven of her children behind when they attempted to fly home.
©St. Petersburg Times
The Yacoub family in Lakeland, all U.S. citizens, has run into problems trying to leave Israel after a summer trip to visit family in the West Bank. Israeli authorities refused to let seven of the children return to the U.S. with their mother. Wedad Yacoub (back, right) was permitted to take three of her youngest children (front, left to right) Rany Yacoub, 10, Ameera Yacoub, 5, and Amani Yacoub, 3.




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Spreading Freedom! U.S. air strike in Baghdad kills 14: police


Reuters
2007-09-06 02:39:00

A U.S. air strike on a Baghdad neighborhood overnight killed 14 people and demolished several houses, the police said on Thursday.

U.S. military spokesmen could not immediately be reached for comment.

Two police sources said the air strike took place at about 3 a.m. (7 p.m. Wednesday EDT) in the Washash neighborhood, a stronghold of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army militia, in western Baghdad's Mansour district.

Comment: Demolishing houses with 500kg bombs in the middle of the night in residential neighbourhoods? And they say they care about the loss of innocent lives?


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The Loan Gunmen
Venezuela's Overnight Rate Surges as High as 120%

Alex Kennedy
Bloomberg
2007-09-06 15:41:00

Venezuela's interbank overnight rate soared to as high as 120 percent after the central bank said it would halt some of its lending operations to financial institutions.

The rate hovered at about 40 percent at midday New York time, traders said. That's up from an average daily rate of 8.7 percent since Aug. 1. Banco Central de Venezuela suspended its repurchase agreements yesterday, three days after President Hugo Chavez prodded policy makers to stop acting as an ''oxygen tank'' for banks that needed cash.

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Australian Central Bank to Buy Mortgage-Backed Debt

Laura Cochrane
Bloomberg
2007-09-06 15:34:00

Australia's central bank said it will buy debt backed by home loans to add cash to the financial system, after the U.S. subprime credit rout eroded demand for asset-backed securities and drove up interest rates.

The rate banks charge each other for three-month loans fell 15 basis points from yesterday's 11-year high of 7.06 percent after the Reserve Bank of Australia said in a statement today it will buy top-rated bonds linked to mortgage payments. Asset- backed commercial paper and bank bills are also eligible for its money market operations.

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Mortgages in foreclosure at record high

Patrick Rucker
Reuters
2007-09-06 14:56:00

WASHINGTON - The rate of home loans in foreclosure rose to a record high in the second quarter of 2007 as more homeowners in California, Florida and other states could not refinance their adjustable-rate mortgages, a trade group said on Thursday.


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Is China quietly dumping US Treasuries?

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
telegraph.co.uk
2007-09-06 13:20:00

A sharp drop in foreign holdings of US Treasury bonds over the last five weeks has raised concerns that China is quietly withdrawing its funds from the United States, leaving the dollar increasingly vulnerable.

Data released by the New York Federal Reserve shows that foreign central banks have cut their stash of US Treasuries by $48bn since late July, with falls of $32bn in the last two weeks alone.

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Countrywide to cut 900 jobs in mortgage divisions


Reuters
2007-09-06 13:18:00

Countrywide Financial Corp, the largest U.S. mortgage lender, said on Wednesday it would cut 900 jobs across the country, primarily in its mortgage production divisions.

The move follows a previous round of layoffs last month, when the mortgage lender cut an unspecified number of workers in a unit that lends to borrowers who generally have little or no documentation.

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Fed injects 31.25 billion dollars into markets


AFP
2007-09-06 13:16:00

The Federal Reserve added 31.25 billion dollars in temporary reserves to the US money markets Thursday in three different operations, the latest move to keep credit markets from drying up.

The New York Fed added 7.0 billion dollars in 14-day repurchase agreements, 16 billion in seven-day repurchase agreements and 8.25 billion in one-day repos.

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The Living Planet
1 missing as heavy rains fall on much of Texas


AP
2007-09-05 15:27:00

Much of North Central Texas was under a flood warning and authorities were searching for a woman swept away by moving water after torrential rains inundated several areas early Wednesday.

Searchers were combing a creek in the San Antonio suburb of Helotes for a 29-year-old woman. Police say the woman, Christina Marie French, and her 24-year-old male companion escaped early Wednesday morning from a car that was swept from a flooded bridge. They were clinging to branches, waiting for help. The man was rescued, but the woman was swept away by the flood waters.

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Another earthquake shakes Mexico's Gulf of California


Reuters
2007-09-05 15:19:00

An earthquake hit Mexico's Gulf of California on Tuesday, not far from the site of a stronger quake recorded on Saturday, but there were no immediate reports of damage.

The magnitude 5 quake hit about 100 miles north of the resort of Los Cabos on the tip of Baja California, at a depth of 6.2 miles, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

©Reuters
An earthquake hit Mexico's Gulf of California on Tuesday, not far from the site of a stronger quake recorded on Saturday.



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Strong typhoon closes in on Tokyo


AFP
2007-09-06 15:13:00

A strong typhoon closed in on Tokyo Thursday, bringing downpours and gusts that injured 18 people and disrupted hundreds of flights, officials and reports said.

Japan went on alert for landslides and floods as it braced for Typhoon Fitow, which is expected to hit the capital and its vicinity by early Friday.

©TSR


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New virus, Israeli acute paralysis virus, may be killing bees

Maggie Fox
Reuters
2007-09-06 15:01:00

WASHINGTON - A newly discovered virus may be killing bees or may be making some bees vulnerable enough to disappear, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday.

While the virus probably does not alone account for what scientists call colony collapse disorder, or CCD, it could help explain what is happening to bees across the United States, they said.

The virus, called Israeli acute paralysis virus, or IAPV, was discovered in Israel in 2004 and is new to science.


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Emergency regime announced in Tuva over forest fires


Itar-tass
2007-09-04 11:15:00

An emergency regime has been announced in four regions of Tuva, republic in south-central Siberia, over big forest fires, a duty officer of the republic's forest agency told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.

Over the past 24 hours the number of fire beds increased from 32 to 36 scorching big acreage of 1,900 hectares. Dry weather triggered Tuva's forest fires in late August.

Local weather forecasters say heat waves exceeding 30 degrees above zero will continue and no rains are expected.


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Felix's Toll Rises, Henriette in Mexico

By ARIEL LEON
Associated Press
2007-09-05 22:37:00

PUERTO CABEZAS, Nicaragua - Doctors threw together a makeshift clinic Wednesday to tend to the injured after powerful Hurricane Felix flooded their hospital and wrecked villages on Nicaragua's Caribbean coast. Remnants of the storm drenched Central America in rain and the death toll rose to at least 18 with dozens more missing.


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Health & Wellness
Chickens culled in southern Russia after bird flu outbreak


RIA Novosti
2007-09-05 16:01:00

About 22,000 birds have been culled at a poultry farm in south Russia's Krasnodar Territory following a bird flu outbreak, local emergency services said Wednesday.

Specialists from the local veterinary watchdog have launched a set of measures to contain the spread in the Bryukhovetsky District, including health checks, thermal processing of seeds, and scaring wild birds away from farms. Revaccination of domestic birds in the region is underway.

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Science & Technology
Race for 'next big thing' in Silicon Valley

Richard Waters
The Financial Times
2007-09-05 20:15:00

Silicon Valley's annual coming-out season for tech start-ups is about to turn into a stampede.

In the next few weeks, the wraps will be removed from some 150 new companies and products at a handful of events in California competing to identify the tech industry's Next Big Thing.

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UK plan to track asteroid threat


BBC News
2007-08-31 17:59:00

UK space scientists and engineers have designed a mission to investigate a potentially hazardous asteroid.

The 300m-wide (980ft) rock, known as Apophis, will fly past Earth in April 2029 at a distance that is closer than many communications satellites.

Astrium, based in Stevenage, Herts, wants a probe to track the asteroid so its orbit can be better understood.

©Astrium
Under the proposal Apex would rendezvous with Apophis in January 2014 and spend three years sending data back to scientists and engineers on Earth. From the data, orbit modelling would enable an accurate prediction of the risk of collision with our planet.


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Our Haunted Planet
Meteorite shower sparks sea alarm in UK


BBC News
2007-09-06 14:13:00

A meteorite shower is suspected to have caused a spate of emergency calls off the coast of north-east England.

Coastguards were alerted to what appeared to be red flares being fired into the sky off Saltscar Buoy, near Redcar, Teesside, on Wednesday night.

A lifeboat was launched but the search was called off after a large number of similar calls came in along the coast, spanning from Tyneside to Humberside.

©MCA



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Don't Panic! Lighten Up!
Osama shows up at APEC summit


CityNews
2007-09-06 14:50:00



How trusted is Canada around the world? Consider this: Prime Minister Stephen Harper is in Australia for a meeting of Asia-Pacific leaders in Sydney. But little did he know that his presence and the Canadian flag would be used to pull off a bizarre gag that hasn't left security forces there laughing.


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Cops: Pair Announced Pot Sale Out Window


Associated Press
2007-09-05 21:58:00

BOSTON - Announcing the sale of pot out of a dorm room window is probably not a good idea when two police officers are within hearing range.

A pair of former Northeastern University freshmen are facing drug and other charges after prosecutors said one of them leaned out his dorm window on Sunday and loudly told a woman in the dorm opposite his that he and his roommate were selling pot.


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