Last month, Wadah Khanfar, erstwhile Director General of Al Jazeera and now President of the Sharq Forum, an independent think tank dedicated to developing long-term strategies for Mideast development and social justice, visited London. Appearing at the Frontline Club , Middle East monitor , London School of Economics and the Chaltham House , Khanfar discussed the Arab Spring, Al Jazeera, and political Islam.

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Wadah Khanfar Discusses The Arab Spring, Al Jazeera, and Political Islam

The BBC’s Director General, Mark Thompson, accuses the Iranian authorities of intimidating those working for its Persian service.

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BBC accuses Iran of intimidation

The assessment by James R. Clapper, the director of national intelligence, added new detail to similar analyses by American counterterrorism officials in recent months.

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Intelligence Chief Sees Al Qaeda Likely to Continue Fragmenting

The National Institutes of Health has placed a temporary moratorium on new studies using chimpanzees, it announced Thursday in response to a report that marks nearly all medical research on chimpanzees as scientifically unjustified. “Effective immediately, NIH will not issue any new awards for chimpanzee research” as the agency puts in a place a committee to review research proposals, NIH Director Francis Collins said during a press briefing. Read full article > >

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NIH temporarily bans new chimpanzee research

Mei-Hua Ru is the director of planning for John C. Liu, the New York City comptroller. She is also the architect of his campaign fund-raising network, which is now under investigation.

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Quiet but Powerful Aide Built Liu’s Fund-Raising Network

Gregg Schwarz frowned as he positioned himself, just so, in front of the wrought iron fence surrounding John Edgar Hoover’s grave, a place he has visited countless times but never before in anger. A retired FBI agent who joined the agency in 1972, the year Hoover died, Schwarz had hired a videographer to film him for YouTube expressing his displeasure with a movie that depicted Hoover as a repressed homosexual. In a dig at Clint Eastwood, the director of “J. Edgar,” Schwarz titled his video response, “Dirty Harry to Filthy Harry.” Read full article > >

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FBI agents upset over movie alleging J. Edgar Hoover was gay

Rush Hour director Brett Ratner resigns as a producer of the 2012 Oscar ceremony after using a derogatory term for gay men.

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Ratner resigns as Oscars producer

The UK has been subject to a “disturbing” number of cyber attacks, the director of communications intelligence agency GCHQ has said.

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‘Disturbing’ cyber attacks on UK

The first phase of the new Metrorail line to Dulles Airport could run as much as $150 million over budget, the head of the construction project said Wednesday. Executive Director Pat Nowakowski told the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority board during a meeting that the project is going to come in “very close” to its projected price tag of $2.8 billion. The 11 1 / 2  miles of rail will run from Falls Church through Tysons Corner to Reston. Read full article > >

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Metro line to Dulles could run $150 million over budget, official says

Personnel Director John Berry said Wednesday that his staff is working “around the clock” to fix bugs in the government’s revamped Web site for job seekers, who will get a three-week reprieve on application deadlines for most positions. “We’re not going to rest until we work through these problems,” the director of the Office of Personnel Management pledged. Read full article > >

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Deadline extended for federal job seekers

PHILADELPHIA — The early September rain feels like it’s flash-freezing skin on contact as Casey Patten stands outside Philip’s Steaks, a sliver of a sandwich shop in the south end of town. The co-owner of Washington-based Taylor Gourmet and his director of operations, Robert Coppock, are waiting for their cheesesteak order in a steady drizzle as the temperature drops and the winds rise at this open-air stand. There are definitely easier — and warmer — ways to secure lunch. Read full article > >

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Taylor Gourmet rolls into the cheesesteak business

The Congressional Budget Office is projecting that the nation’s unemployment rate will remain near 9 percent through 2012, representing a downgrade in the independent analyst’s economic prediction since a forecast released in August . CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf told members of a new congressional committee on deficit reduction created in the August debt deal that new economic data gathered in just the last few weeks has resulted in the dimmer projection. Read full article > >

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CBO head predicts slower economic growth before supercommittee

After 183 preview performances, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark finally opened Tuesday night-and even Julie Taymor, the director who was booted from the earlier version, was in attendance. But was it any good? “This singing comic book is no longer the…

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Spider-Man Musical a ‘Bore’

Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier was banned from the 2011 Cannes film festival for comments he made during a news conference showcasing his new film, ‘Melancholia’. As Sarah Anne Hughes reported : Lars von Trier has been expelled from the Cannes Film Festival after the director said he sympathized with Hitler and called himself a Nazi at a news conference Wednesday. Read full article > >

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Lars von Trier banned from 2011 Cannes Film Festival for Nazi comments

Who will succeed retiring FBI Director Robert Mueller? The answer could be none other than Robert Mueller. Associated Press sources say President Obama will request that Mueller serve an extra two terms in addition to the 10-year term he’s completing…

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Obama Wants Mueller to Stay at FBI