VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope John Paul has beatified a 17th-century friar credited with halting a Muslim invasion of Europe.
More than 300 years after his death, Marco d’Aviano cleared the last step before sainthood, as the pope recognised the friar’s miraculous work including curing a nun who had been bedridden for 13 years.
History books [...]

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According to the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party: 50% of second year secondary pupils have no basic writing skills.
41% of second year secondary pupils fail reading standards.
In 1997/98 there were 743 incidents of violence against school staff in scottish schools, in 1998/99, 1898; in 1999/2000, 3803; in 2000/2001, 4501; in 2001/2002, 5412.
Whereas at the same [...]

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Ma tha sibh airson iarrtas a chur a-staigh airson thiocaidean, sgrìobhaibh gu:
An t-Seirbheis Eaglais Phàrlamaideach / Kirking Applications
Seirbheis Fiosrachaidh a’ Phobaill
Pàrlamaid na h-Alba
Dùn Èideann
EH99 1SP
Faodaidh sibh a sgrìobhadh thugainn anns a’ Ghàidhlig.
Gu mì-fhortanach, chan urrainn dhuinn gabhail ri iarrtasan fòn airson thiocaidean airson an tachartais seo.
Faodaidh sibh a chur a-staigh airson [...]

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FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. troops have shot dead at least 13 Iraqis staging an anti-American protest in the town of Falluja overnight, residents say, in a clash likely to fuel anger at the U.S. presence in Iraq.
Residents of the town 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad told Reuters on Tuesday that between [...]

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The Queen will address the new Scottish Parliament in June, it has been announced.
Presiding Officer Sir David Steel has also revealed that there is to be a service of blessing for the new parliamentary session.
The traditional “kirking” will take place in St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh on 6 May, the night before [...]

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Posters put up by mistake in Edinburgh encouraging voters to participate in the Welsh elections have been removed.
The Electoral Commission, whose sub-contractors were responsible for the error, said an investigation was under way.
The incorrect hoardings were spotted on at least three different sites in the capital.
A Scottish version will replace the posters as [...]

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Police are continuing to question a 35-year-old man re-arrested in connection with the murder of school teacher Jane Longhurst.
The man, who has not been named, was being detained by detectives hunting the killer of the 31-year-old from Brighton, whose burning body was found last Saturday.
Police have been searching the man’s flat in Waterloo Street in [...]

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The Ministry of Defence has refused to comment on a report that two British soldiers were arrested in Syria after crossing over the border.The pair were released two weeks ago following a visit to Damascus by Foreign Office Minister Mike O’Brien, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.Mr O’Brien meet the Syrian president Bashar Assad during [...]

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Most Britons regard France as their least reliable ally and have warmed to the United States since the war in Iraq, according to poll.The MORI poll in the Financial Times newspaper showed that 55 percent of Britons regard France as their least reliable ally.
By contrast, 73 percent of those polled considered the United States [...]

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A former Toronto teacher fired for associating with white supremacists marched through downtown London yesterday to protest the city’s proposal for a hate-free community.
Paul Fromm, director of the Canadian Association for Free Expression, joined seven other people, including representatives of two white supremacist groups — Northern Alliance and Canadian Heritage Alliance — in [...]

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Plus de guerre fracticide / Nie wieder Bruderkriege German-French friendship
This split-CD is symbolizing it. Six titles each, two in English, the rest in the language of each country. Hauptkampflinie defines the speed. Fraction also continues where it had stopped with their part of the “Vox Europa-Sampler”. In addition a great booklet with all texts and [...]

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Thieves who took paintings by Picasso, Gauguin and Van Gogh left a message saying they wanted to highlight slack security at the Manchester art gallery.The paintings were taken from the Whitworth Art Gallery, probably at the weekend, and were found on Monday morning following an anonymous tip-off.A police source said the thieves wrote a message [...]

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Aon Chànan. Iomadh Cultar?
Bu chòir a bhith pròiseil à ioma-chànanas seach a bhith a’ cruthachadh Alba aona-chànanach.
Chuir Riaghaltas na h-Alba iomairt shanasachd chudthromach air bhog bho chionn ghoirid: Aon Alba. Iomadh Cultar.
‘S iad amasan na h-iomairt seo a bhith a’ cur an aghaidh gràin cinnidh agus a bhith a’ brosnachadh ioma-chultarachd ann an Alba [...]

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THE first group of Afghan asylum seekers to be forcibly deported from the UK since the fall of the Taliban regime were expected to be flown out of the country today.
The group of around 30 were set to be escorted on to a flight leaving Gatwick Airport, becoming the first asylum seekers in eight [...]

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FORGET sex and drugs and think more of school biology and chemistry lessons.
The steamy antics of the characters in the hit TV series The Book Group are thought to have encouraged hundreds of Scots to join reading clubs.
But instead of the wife-swapping, drug-taking and gay sex enjoyed by members of the hit [...]

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THE government of Taiwan yesterday took the harshest measures yet seen to stop the spread of SARS to its soil.
The island of 21 million people closed its borders to all visitors from the four countries worst affected by the disease - Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore and mainland China.
Hong Kong, Taiwan’s largest trading [...]

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ONE of Scotland’s most respected judges has written to the Scottish Executive, warning ministers that radical plans to change education law could fall foul of the Human Rights Act.
Lord McCluskey, a semi-retired High Court judge, has contacted Jim Wallace, the justice minister, raising deep concerns about the draft Education (Scotland) Bill.
Under the proposals, [...]

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TIKRIT, Iraq (AFP) - Saddam Hussein’s 66th birthday went off without the traditional state-run fanfare as Iraqis met to form a new government.
However, in his former fiefdom of Tikrit, many were still celebrating in their own low-key ways.
In Baghdad, where a year ago Iraqis were being shepherded between speeches hailing Saddam’s glory, the [...]

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Now that the campaign to topple Saddam Hussein appears to be over, even U.S. President George W. Bush admits he is a fan of the public relations style of former Iraqi information minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf.
“He’s my man, he was great,” Bush enthused in an interview with NBC’s Tom Brokaw on [...]

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Riding on the back of successes in the north of England, the British National Party are fielding a wave of candidates in the South West in next week’s local elections.
But the strategy marks a departure for the far right group as they seek to exploit disaffected Conservative supporters rather than disillusioned Labour voters.
The [...]

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