Iraq War: Conflicting reports on forthcoming troop departures

claim Both the Associated Press and the New York Times report that, despite prior reports to the contrary, the U.S. will not keep troops in Iraq past 2011 due to significant security concerns.
rebuttal However, a Reuters article says that both the White House and Pentagon deny this fact, claiming that no decision has been made. Which major news outlet do you believe on this issue? source

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There is video of this on YouTube. We’re linking it instead of posting it, because it’s that violent and difficult to watch. Here’s what happened: Two customers got unruly after a McDonald’s employee wouldn’t give them their food until he could check the $50 bill they handed over. The customers started slapping him, and then jumped over the counter to confront him. What these unruly customers didn’t know is that the employee, Rayon McIntosh, recently got out of jail for manslaughter, and the incident set him off. He got a hold of a metal pole and started beating them savagely. One of the customers suffered a broken arm and fractured skull. The result? Both the customers and McIntosh got charged, in McIntosh’s case with felony assault. The chain and franchise owner have both come out against McIntosh’s actions, but the video itself seems to support a reasonable cause for self-defense, even if McIntosh’s own reaction was too heavy-handed (to put it lightly). Watch the video and see what you think. source

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Those who are carrying out what is nothing less than urban guerrilla warfare are hurting the cause of people around the world who are trying to freely express their discontent with the world economic situation.
Italian Democratic Party leader Pierluigi Bersani • Separating the violent protesters in Rome from the overall occupy movement, while noting the damage they’re causing to the larger, nonviolent movement. Rome mayor Gianni Alemanno made a similar distinction, noting that “There are groups of violent people that need to be isolated.” It’s a good sign that Italian officials can see the difference between a peaceful movement and the violent elements attempting to co-opt it for their own reasons. source

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82 number of countries taking part in the October 15 protests, a global offshoot of Occupy Wall Street
951 number of cities where protests are taking place today — amazingly, it started with just one about a month ago
six number of continents that have some sort of event going on today; maybe Antartica has one too, possibly? source

» Highest and lowest saturations: While North America, Europe and South America have a particularly high number of protests, Africa, Asia and the Middle East are looking a little thin. Australia’s somewhere in the middle. While many of the protests have been peaceful, some have gotten violent, most notably in Rome, where anarchists drew attention away from peaceful protests.

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$450 the price per ton of runner peanuts, the kind of peanuts generally used to make peanut butter, last year
$1,200 the price per ton of runner peanuts this year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture source

» Raise prices? That’s nuts! The result of a fairly weak peanut harvest? You might have to reach for another product next time you want to make a sandwich. Kraft plans to raise prices of its Planters peanut butter by 40 percent next month; Peter Pan, the peanut butter that never grows up, will fly to a 20 percent higher price, and damn skippy, the makers of Skippy are watching the situation closely. The spread on this one is that it’s pretty likely your cookies are going to be less awesome next time around. Bummer. We kinda like your cookies.

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15 Oct 2011 21:55