Posts Tagged ‘Washington’
Written by Rahul on 04 September 2009
Washington, Sept 4 (ANI): Nicotine replacement therapy at least four weeks before surgery can almost halve the risk of poor wound healing in smokers, suggest researchers.
“It is not easy to quit smoking just before an operation,” said Professor Peter Sawicki, the Institute’s Director.
“But people who smoke are more likely to have complications after surgery than people who do not smoke,” he added.
Experts from German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) have revealed that nicotine replacement therapy can help people quit smoking and avoid complications after surgery.
It helps reduce withdrawal symptoms when people stop smoking by giving them nicotine through a patch or chewing gum.
The study has shown that only 14 percent of the patients who smoked had problems with wound healing if they had nicotine replacement therapy at least four weeks before surgery, compared to 28 percent of the patients who did not have nicotine replacement therapy.
“Anaesthetics and surgery put a strain on the body’s oxygen supply as it is,” said Professor Sawicki.
“Smoking reduces the amount of oxygen that is available in the blood even more, making it more difficult for wounds to heal – a process which requires oxygen,” he added.
The study appears on informedhealthonline.org. (ANI)
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Written by Rahul on 04 September 2009
Washington, Sept 4 (ANI): People who are poor at saving money are likely to have impulsive behaviour such as overeating, smoking and infidelity, according to a new study.
The study conducted through the BBC website measured people’s financial impulsivity by asking whether they would they prefer to receive 45 pounds in three days or 70 pounds in three months.
The findings revealed that nearly half of those who preferred the smaller-sooner sum of money were more likely to show a raft of other impulsive behaviours.
“One of the big questions about people’s financial planning is whether decisions to spend or save come from personal knowledge and experience of money matters or whether they reflect someone’s personality more generally,” said Dr Stian Reimers, ESRC Centre for Economic Learning and Social Evolution at UCL.
“Our research shows that people with an impulsive money-today attitude ignore the future in other ways.
“For example, they are more likely to smoke and more likely to be overweight, which may reflect a preference for immediate pleasure of nicotine and food over long-term good health,” Reimers added.
Moreover, people who chose to take the smaller-sooner amount of money were also more likely to admit to having had an affair in recent years.
The study also showed that those most likely to make impulsive financial choices were young, poorly educated, and on lower incomes.
“Learning to make decisions that lead to long-term happiness, not just instantaneous gratification, could benefit us all. Simple techniques can help reduce impulsivity: like imagining how you’d feel about your decision in a year’s time, or trying to avoid making decisions in the heat of the moment,” Reimers added.
The study appears in journal Personality and Individual Differences. (ANI)
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Written by Rahul on 04 September 2009
Washington, September 4 (ANI): Actress Hilary Swank has urged people to support a new scheme to rehouse unwanted pets.
The ‘Million Dollar Baby’ star became an ambassador for the Home 4 the IAMS Holidays Pet Adoption Campaign, which helps animals in shelters find new owners.
“I’m so proud to be working to help raise awareness about the importance of pet adoption,” Contactmusic quoted her as saying.
“Last year, the program’s adoption goal was to get one million pets adopted in just three months, but this year the goal is even bigger.
“We’re on a mission to find loving homes for 1.5 million orphaned pets between October 1st and January 4th,” she added.
The animal loving Oscar-winner has previously adopted many pets, most recent being her two dogs, Karoo and Rumi. (ANI)
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Written by Rahul on 17 August 2009
Washington, August 17 (ANI): Health experts in India will begin clinical trials to determine the efficacy of the first dry powder inhalable vaccine for measles next year, according to a report.
Presented at the 238th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in Washington on Sunday, the report points out that measles sickens millions of infants and children, and kills almost 200,000 annually in India.
Dr. Robert Sievers, who leads the team that developed the dry-powder vaccine, said that it was a perfect fit for use in back-roads areas of developing countries, which often lack the electricity for refrigeration, clean water, and sterile needles needed to administer traditional liquid vaccines.
“Childhood vaccines that can be inhaled and delivered directly to mucosal surfaces have the potential to offer significant advantages over injection. Not only might they reduce the risk of infection from HIV, hepatitis, and other serious diseases due to unsterilized needles, they may prove more effective against disease,” he said.
“Many serious infections, such as the measles virus, can enter the body through inhalation. Measles vaccine dry powders have the potential to effectively vaccinate infants, children and adults by inhalation, avoiding the problems associated with liquid vaccines delivered by injection,” he added.
Sievers, of the University of Colorado, Boulder, has revealed that he took inspiration for the new vaccine from research on how people inhale tiny airborne droplets of air pollutants.
To create an inhalable vaccine, he and his colleagues a patented process known as the Carbon Dioxide-Assisted Nebulization with a Bubble Dryer (CAN-BD).
The researcher said that the weakened measles virus is mixed with “supercritical” carbon dioxide – part gas, part liquid – to produce microscopic bubbles and droplets, which then are dried to make an inhalable powder.
The powder is puffed into a small, cylindrical, plastic sack, with an opening like the neck of a plastic water bottle, and administered.
“By taking one deep breath from the sack, a child could be effectively vaccinated,” Sievers said.
He says that, in animal tests, the inhaler has been found to be just as effective in delivering measles vaccine as the traditional injection.
The researchers are now working on an inexpensive dry powder inhaler that would deliver measles or influenza vaccines to developing nations, and could be used elsewhere.
They believe that the new method may also do away with the problem of people refusing inoculations because of their fear of needles.
Sievers says if the inhaler passes final safety and effectiveness tests, the Serum Institute of India Ltd. expects a demand growing to 400 million doses of measles vaccine a year.
“Human clinical trials are expected to begin next year in India, after animal safety studies are completed this year.
About two-thirds of the world’s deaths due to measles occur in that nation. Worldwide, several hundred people die every day from measles-related disease,” he said. (ANI)
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Written by Rahul on 14 August 2009
Washington, Aug 14 (ANI): Kanye West’s girlfriend Amber Rose insists she has no qualms about being dubbed a “bisexual freak stripper” because she has nothing to be ashamed of.
The model, who has rekindled her relationship with the hip-hop star after briefly splitting from him in February, insists she has always been.
The 26-year-old beauty insists she was always open with Kanye, 32, about her unconventional past.
“Yeah, they label me a bisexual freak stripper that f**ks Kanye on a daily basis. You know, ‘Amber Rose, the f***ing bisexual, dyke, freak, whatever the f**k.’ To answer that, I’m extremely open with my sexuality. I can be in love with a woman, I can be in love with a man,” Contactmusic quoted her as telling Complex magazine.
“Kanye knew my life, so when it was, ‘Oh Kanye, do you know she was a stripper, that she used to date girls?’ he was like, ‘Tell me something I don’t know!’ ” she added. (ANI)
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Written by Rahul on 14 August 2009
Washington, Aug 14 (ANI): A 70-year-old great grandmother has got rid of her 30-year hacking cough with the help of non-stick coating in frying pans.
Helen Butterwick, 70, has become the first person in the UK to have her throat rebuilt with Teflon.
She went under the knife after doctors diagnosed her with a collapsed windpipe.
Surgeon Joseph Marzouk has already applied Teflon in other surgeries with great results.
“The op itself is very rare – I’ve done it 17 times in ten years but this is a first with Teflon,” the Sun quoted Marzouk as saying.
“I told doctors, ‘I don’t need to cook a full English on my windpipe. But it’s great to breathe normally again,” said Helen.
Hubby David joked: “At last I’ll get a good night’s sleep.” (ANI)
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Written by Rahul on 11 August 2009
Washington, Aug 11 (ANI): Insufficient sleep may contribute to the development of insulin resistance and reduced glucose tolerance, which in turn may increase the long-term risk of diabetes, concludes a new study.
The study has been accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism (JCEM).
Sleep curtailment is characterized by physical inactivity and overeating.
The new study examined whether reduced sleep duration itself may increase the risk of developing diabetes when combined with physical inactivity and overeating.
Researchers in this study subjected a group of healthy middle-aged men and women to two controlled 14-day periods of sedentary living with free access to food and 5.5 or 8.5 hour bedtimes. When the subjects had their bedtimes decreased from 8.5 hours to 5.5 hours they showed changes in their response to two common sugar tests, which were similar to those seen in people with an increased risk of developing diabetes.
“Our findings raise the possibility that when the unhealthy aspects of the Westernized lifestyle are combined with reduced sleep duration, this might contribute to the increased risk of many overweight and sedentary individuals developing diabetes,” said Plamen Penev, MD, PhD, of the University of Chicago and a senior author of the study.
“If confirmed by future larger studies, these results would indicate that a healthy lifestyle should include not only healthy eating habits and adequate amounts of physical activity, but also obtaining a sufficient amount of sleep,” the expert added. (ANI)
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Written by Rahul on 10 August 2009
Washington, August 10 (ANI): Amy Winehouse apparently takes advice from a 13-year old girl, who happens to be her goddaughter.
The troubled singer considers young Dionne Bromfield to be her best friend, and says that they both have great fun together.
“All the time I’ll come to her and say, ‘Dionne, I don’t know what to do about this.’ She’ll say something that makes complete sense. Me and Dionne are best friends,” Contactmusic quoted her as saying.
She said: “We’re not just godmother and daughter, we’re best friends. All I do with Dionne is play guitar with her and sing with her. And kiss her and cuddle her.”
Winehouse, who has fought alcohol and drug addiction in recent years, mentioned that she preferred playing with the kid to focussing on her business.
She added: “I went into business about seven years ago when I first signed my publishing deal.
But I’m not good with that side of things, I’m good at the creativeness. The record company director is me. But all me and Dionne do is creative (activities), we’re not good at dealing with business. That’s not us. That’s bulls**t.”
Amy recently divorced from husband Blake Fielder-Civil. (ANI)
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Written by Rahul on 10 August 2009
Washington, August 10 (ANI): Nicole Richie is not letting her pregnancy take a toll on her work schedule, for the socialite is continuing to toil hard for her fashion range.
The mum-to-be, who is expecting her second child with rocker boyfriend Joel Madden, said that she wanted to make sure her fashion empire reached the pinnacle of success.
“I have my second collection of House of Harlow 1960 (jewellery range) coming out in November, and my regular clothing line coming out in Spring 2010 along with my shoe line,” Contactmusic quoted her as telling People magazine.
“I’ve been working extremely hard. It’s amazing,”
The ‘Simple Life’ star recently launched a new line of maternity wear for clothing company “A Pea in the Pod”. (ANI)
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Written by Rahul on 10 August 2009
Islamabad, Aug. 10 (ANI): Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit has claimed that no accord on drone attacks exists between Pakistan and US.
The News quoted Basit, as saying that drone attacks had caused more damage than benefit to Pakistan, and Islamabad is perusing dialog with Washington to resolve this issue.
“Due to our close collaboration with US in war on terror, we can devise solution to the problems through positive diplomacy as no other option is left with us”, he remarked.
Responding to a question on the presence of US troops on Pak-Afghan border, Basit said Islamabad doesn’t want NATO forces to withdraw from the insurgency-hit region in haste.
“We don’t want presence of US and NATO forces in the region for a longer period. The situation which arose from withdrawal of Russian forces from Afghanistan created more difficulties for Pakistan.
“Therefore, forces pull out in haste is not correct. We don’t want another civil war on soil of Afghanistan,” he stressed.
On the question of Afghan infiltration into Pakistani territory, he said there are several training camps operating in Afghanistan which were not in the knowledge of Afghan authorities, and this had led to increasing the problems for Pakistan. (ANI)
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Written by Rahul on 29 April 2009
Washington, Apr 24 (ANI): Hannah Montana star Miley Cyrus has revealed that she never asks her dad Billy Ray for advice on her love life, as he is rarely sympathetic about it.
Cyrus, 16, who had split from Jonas Brothers star Nick Jonas last year, and is currently dating model/musician Justin Gaston, says that she keeps her relationship woes to herself, as her dad is of no help.
“Dad just doesn’t get it. He’s just like, ‘Suck it up and get over it! You’ll find another one! There’s more fish in the sea and he wasn’t that good-looking anyway!’ He actually did say that once,” Contactmusic quoted her as telling Hello magazine.
“He’s a harsh man to my boyfriends. He’s usually cool with them when they’re with me… But once it’s over – once they dump me or I dump them – then he’s always down for bashing them,” she added. (ANI)
Tags: advice, ANI, Apr, Billy Ray, boyfriends, Contactmusic, cool, Cyrus, dad, fish, Fish In The Sea, hannah montana, Harsh Man, help, Justin Gaston, life, love, Love Advice, love life, magazine, man, Miley, miley cyrus, model, More Fish In The Sea, musician, nick jonas, relationship, sea, star, suck, Washington, woes, year
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Written by Rahul on 29 April 2009
Washington, Apr 24 (ANI): Mel Gibson’s alleged lover Oksana Grigorieva’s racy new photos have surfaced on the web.
Sizzling photos of Oksana, who’s the mother of former ‘James Bond’ star Timothy Dalton’s son, have surfaced on gossip site Radaronline.com.
Grigorieva has been held responsible for breaking Gibson’s 28 years of marriage with Robyn, after she was allegedly photographed embracing him in Costa Rica earlier this year, reports Fox News.
The site also reports that model has since been putting up in a four-bedroom house paid for by the “Braveheart” star. (ANI)
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Written by Rahul on 29 April 2009
Washington, Apr 24 (ANI): Latino popstar Jennifer Lopez says her 14-month-old daughter has her attitude.
The 39-year-old singer/actress for the first time opened up about her twins in an interview on Rachael Ray’s show.
Lopez said that her daughter Emme has divalike tendencies.
“We call her Emme-tude because we’re like, ‘She’s giving us Emme-tude right now,’ ” People magazine quoted her as saying.
“She gets that from her dad. I’m kidding – she gets it from me,” she added.
Talking about twin son Max, ‘Love Don’t Cost a Thing’ hitmaker said he’s her mouth.
“Me and Marc are always claiming he’s got my head and he’s got my mouth,” she added. (ANI)
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Written by Rahul on 20 April 2009
Washington – A small plane plunged into a home in Florida on Friday shortly after taking off from a nearby airport.
The twin engine Cessna crashed in Oakland Park after taking office from Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport, a police spokeswoman said. There was no preliminary information about fatalities.
“We are waiting to hear word of possible injuries or possible casualties,” Veda Coleman Wright, a spokeswoman for the Broward Sheriff’s Office, said.
Firefighters were on the scene dousing flames in the gaping hole the plane left in the house. (dpa)
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Written by Rahul on 20 April 2009
Washington – In a landmark ruling Friday, US President Barack Obama’s administration found that greenhouse gases threaten US air quality and public health, setting the stage for new limits on industry emissions that cause global warming.
The so-called “endangerment finding” by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had long been anticipated by environmental groups and marks the latest shift on US climate policy since Obama took office in January.
The ruling, which now has to be submitted for public comment for 60 days, would allow the government to regulate greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide under existing clean air laws in the United States.
“This finding confirms that greenhouse gas pollution is a serious problem now and for future generations,” EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said in a statements.
Former president George W Bush had rejected imposing mandatory limits on climate-damaging pollution and the decision comes nearly two years after the US Supreme Court ruled that the EPA must consider regulating greenhouse gases under the existing Clean Air Act, a 1990 US law governing air pollution.
The US is taking its first steps as a nation to confront climate change,” said Vickie Patt of the climate group Environmental Defense Fund. “EPAs action is a wake up-call for national policy solutions that secure our economic and environmental future.”
The EPA’s ruling could pave the way for tougher federal standards on emissions from cars, power plants and other sources global warming.
But it remains unclear how far the administration will use this authority. Congress is considering new legislation this year to create a cap-and-trade system that would force polluting companies to pay for their emissions.
Jackson, while not yet announcing any new limits, said the “solution” to global warming was finding ways to encourage green energy technologies. (dpa)
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Written by Rahul on 08 April 2009
WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama plans to ease restrictions on travel to Cuba for Cuban-Americans, but will keep in place a 47-year US
economic embargo on the communist island, his special envoy to an upcoming regional summit said on Monday.
Special envoy Jeffrey Davidow also said the administration planned to increase the maximum amount of money Cuban-Americans can send to relatives on the island.
“We can expect some relaxation or changes in terms of restrictions of family remittances and family travels. This does not include the lifting of the embargo,” Davidow said at a State Department press briefing.
Asked if the Cuba policy changes could come ahead of the April 17-18 Summit of the Americas, in Trinidad and Tobago, he said: “I would not be surprised.”
Davidow, however, refused to say how far reaching the changes might be.
The Wall Street Journal on Friday quoted unnamed administration officials saying Obama was planning to lift travel and remittance bans on Cuba that his predecessor George W. Bush tightened in 2004 to include a once-every-three-years limit on visits by Cuban-Americans to their relatives on the island.
“The President has said he wants to allow Cuban-Americans to have more contact … They are the best possible ambassadors,” Davidow said Monday.
Other sources also said Obama would announce an easing of Cuba sanctions before he visits Mexico, ahead of the Latin American summit.
Davidow said the administration was opposed to a petition by Latin American governments that Cuba be allowed to take part in future Latin American summits Davidow said definitely not.
“For all the reports and speculation about changes in Cuba, the fact remains that the situation in that country, as it relates to the freedom of its own citizens, has not seen much change,” the former US ambassador to Mexico said.
“Our relationship with Cuba is a complex one,” he said, adding however that the issue of Cuba’s summit participation could come up at the meeting.
“The structure of the summit offers plety of opportunity for discussion,” he said.
Cuba’s revolutionary leader and former president Fidel Castro on Sunday called on Latin American countries to openly show their opposition to the US embargo on Cuba at the summit, which he called a “trial by fire.”
Almost all governments in the region support ending the embargo, but most have shied overting saying so out of fear of risking good relations with the United States.
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Written by Rahul on 08 April 2009
WASHINGTON: An American state Senate
has adopted a resolution asking the Obama Administration and the US Congress to give “diplomatic
recognition” to Tibet and take “forceful” action to end “repression” of human rights by China in the Himalayan region.
Passed by the Vermont state Senate, the resolution called on the US Congress and the international community to treat the plight of the Tibetan people as an “urgent matter of highest priority.”
The resolution adopted last week sought recognition of the Tibetan political autonomy and also urged the US Congress and the Obama Administration to ask China to sincerely negotiate with the representatives of the Dalai Lama to solve the Tibet Problem.
Condemning the continuing “repression” of the Tibetan people, the Vermont state Senate expressed its solidarity with the individuals who participated in the anti-China protests that occurred around the world on March 10.
The resolution emphasised that the people of Tibet “lived in peace and harmony for centuries” and that the “army of the People’s Republic of China illegally invaded” the peaceful Himalayan region.
Alleging the Tibetans have been deprived of any right to self-determination, the resolution said “it is now nearly impossible” for the people of Tibet to continue their “distinctive cultural practices and religious observances.”
The resolution also highlighted those Tibetans who were killed, and those who remained missing or were in prison in the aftermath of China’s crackdown on Tibetans in March 2008.
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Written by Rahul on 08 April 2009
WASHINGTON: UN Ambassador
Susan Rice says the US is asking the United Nations for “a clear and strong response” to North Korea’s missile
launch.
Rice said the US is calling for a security council resolution that would be binding under international law, so North Korea’s leaders understand “they can’t act with impunity.”
Rice called the launch “clearly a violation of international law.” She made her comments in an interview on CBS’ “The Early Show.”
Rice said the United States is in private consultations with key partners of the Security Council, which met in an emergency session Sunday. She said the private meetings would continue over the next few days.
Tags: Ambassador
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Written by Rahul on 08 April 2009
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez supported on Tuesday a call by U.S. President Barack Obama for a conflict-free 21st century, but added that the United States should apologise to Japan for the atomic bombs dropped at the end of World War Two.
“Obama said about 48 hours ago that the 20th century was a century of conflicts, and that the new century should be one of peace. That was a good statement,” Chavez told a news conference in Japan, in the latest conciliatory statement ahead of an Americas Summit next week.
Japan is ambivalent about atomic weapons, being the only country to have suffered nuclear attacks, but since World War Two has benefited from the protection of the nuclear-armed United States.
Chavez said on Sunday he wanted to reset relations with Washington after nearly a decade of tension, but in Tokyo he also dismissed Obama’s views on Venezuela as those of a “newbie” and he was wary after the previous administration of President George W. Bush, whom he labelled as immoral and unethical.
Obama is scheduled to attend the April 17-19 Americas Summit in Trinidad and Tobago and Chavez is also expected to attend.
Though Venezuela provides around 10 percent of U.S. oil imports, the OPEC nation for years maintained a harsh war of words with the Bush administration.
Chavez noted that, despite the long-running diplomatic rows, the United States remained the single biggest foreign investor in Venezuela.
“Anything is possible,” Chavez said of dealings with Washington, including an approach to the United States seeking closer relations.
Japan and Venezuela agreed on Monday on cooperation in developing oil and gas projects in the Latin American nation, deepening bilateral ties to help diversify sources of energy for the resource-poor Asian country.
In one of the projects, state-affiliated Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp (JOGMEC), Inpex Corp and Mitsubishi Corp will pursue a joint feasibility study with Venezuela on the Orinoco oil belt over the next two years.
Chavez said this project would be worth $8 billion over the next five years and projects signed with Japan would be worth $33.5 billion in investment for Venezuela.
Chavez took a cautious stance on North Korea’s weekend rocket test, calling for patience and caution.
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Written by Rahul on 08 April 2009
Washington – The 13 victims of Friday’s shooting at a service center for immigrants in a New York town included two US citizens and people from seven other countries.
The largest number of victims – four – were from China, ranging in age from 22 to 54, the Binghamton Press and Sun-Bulletin reported online Monday.
The information was released by city officials in Binghamton, where the shootings took place at the American Civic Association, which provides services to refugees and immigrants and classes to prepare them for US citizenship naturalization.
Among the victims of the killer, himself a Vietnamese immigrant, were a married couple from Haiti, who left behind a daughter, age 6, and a son, age 12.
The couple, Marc Henry Bernard, 44, and Maria Sonia Bernard, 46, worked in entry-level jobs at McDonalds, the Sun Bulletin reported.
The other victims came one each from Vietnam, Iraq, the Philippines, Pakistan and Brazil.
The two dead Americans were Roberta King, who was teaching the English class where most of the killings took place, and Maria Zobniw, a receptionist in the lobby. The alleged shooter, Jiverly Wong, 42, blazed into the centre firing two hand guns.
A second receptionist survived her wounds, as did three others who suffered gunshots.
Immigrants who aspire to US citizenship must pass a test in English on American civic life, and learning the language is the first step on the path.
The Press and Sun-Bulletin quoted from an e-mail sent by one of Zobniw’s relatives, who wrote that the victims were “simply all representative of (the) aspiration for the realization of the American dream.”
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