| Man of the Year
Various international human rights and journalist organizations jumped to Kawwaz's defense. But the Iraqi government denied the claims, and stated it has spoken to members of the local police and even the family, all eleven of whom denied the accusations. Today, Gateway Pundit provided visual evidence that the family was indeed alive. Kawwaz's family appeared on Iraqi television, smiling and waving. The international media is quick to jump at claims such as this, without providing a critical eye on the sources. The media should have looked at who was behind this. AFP has it right in their report: Several Iraqi officials, including Sunni MPs Saleh al-Mutlaq and Hussein al-Falluji, attended the service along with hardline cleric Hareth al-Dari, the head of Iraq's Sunni Muslim Scholars Association who lives in Amman.
Library sponsors book burning
The library purchased 2,500 copies through the Big Read grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. The Graham County Library is the only library in Arizona to have ever been awarded the grant.Elliot said the Big Read is an initiative by the NEA designed to restore reading to the center of American culture."They (NEA) did a study over several decades that showed readership in America has declined about 10 percent every decade," Elliot said. "Right now, less than 50 percent of Americans read at least one book during the course of a year."Elliot said the NEA's goal is to present the books in ways that will get people interested in reading them.According to Elliot, the "books" used in the burning were mostly cardboard with some "old raggedy" books and some catalogues the library was going to throw away .While the demonstration was meant to encourage people to read rather than censor material, Elliot still expressed remorse at the sight of burning books."It's something that really hurts a librarian's heart," she said.
AGONY TURNS TO TRIUMPH FOR DENERIAZ
Kwan claimed a silver medal in Nagano in 1998 and bronze in Salt Lake City four years later. She will be replaced by Emily Hughes, the younger sister of 2002 gold medallist Sarah Hughes. Armin Zoeggeler claimed host nation Italy's first gold medal of the Games by retaining his luge crown at Cesana Pariol. The 32-year-old favourite dominated the event beating Russian Albert Demtschenko and Latvia's Martins Rubenis into silver and bronze. Zoeggeler said: "I knew I needed to stay really focused and I did because if you make a mistake everything is finished. "This was the most difficult medal of my career because there was a lot of pressure on me. I still don't believe I won the medal." Norway's Lars Bystoel clinched gold in the Normal Hill ski jumping after a second round jump of 135.5m saw him past Finn Matti Hautamaeki.
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