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  1. WHO Loses Count of Swine Flu Cases

    During swine flu’s first months, the World Health Organization broke down the numbers of new cases by country to show where the virus was spreading. Then, in July, the WHO quietly announced that it was abandoning its count. While this may seem alarming, counting cases has long been counterintuitive. The problem with an exploding epidemic—Britain’s chief medical officer says 100,000 people caught the swine flu in a week—is that the resources it takes to count it grow just as fast. “You can’t devote . . . resources to just surveillance,” says Marc Lipsitch, a Harvard professor of epidemiology. So what can authorities do? Track trends—specifically, how the virus is mutating (U.S. officials recently spotted young swine-flu patients having seizures). By last Friday, the pandemic had spread to nearly every country. From now on, understanding swine flu no longer means asking how many. But instead, what kind?


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  2. Shirking Somalia to Save It

    Why foreign troops should leave.

    Somalia has become synonymous with the term “failed state.” Even now, after nearly two decades of civil war and a dismaying string of failed foreign interventions, the end of the country’s long humanitarian catastrophe seems no closer. Recently, Western security experts have begun to warn that the capital city, Mogadishu, could be overrun by Al-Shabab, an armed Islamic extremist group the U.


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  3. D'Angelo is Alive and (Not So) Well and Living in Richmond

    How does it feel? Parsing the rumors about the return of onetime R&B sensation D’Angelo, it feels anguished. And sad. And even a little pathetic. You most likely remember D’Angelo, whose real name is Michael Eugene Archer, from the video that made him famous. It was for “Untitled (How Does it Feel),” from his 2000 Grammy-winning release, Voodoo, and there is really only one thing to remember: D’Angelo naked, ripped to the core, the camera lingering on his torso.


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  4. Energy Dependence

    What the rest of the world can teach the US about nuclear power.

    Wait, how do you build a nuclear-power plant? As the United States zeroes in on green energy, this is exactly the question new nuclear firms are scrambling to answer. It's a wonder, considering the U.S. invented nuclear power more than a half-century ago. But it died here in its adolescence as cost overruns marred the industry and opposition grew from anti-Cold War activists and local pols glad for the power but skittish about a meltdown in their backyard.


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  5. ‘Indispensable And Imperfect’

    U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice changes America's diplomatic approach.

    Since the United States invaded Iraq in 2003 without U.N. support, the country's engagement with the world body has wavered between grudging participation and downright hostility. When he assumed office, President Obama signaled an immediate change in tone by appointing Susan Rice, a national-security expert who worked on terrorism and Africa during the Clinton administration, as the American U.


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