On a bridge outside Berlin one gloomy morning 50 years ago Friday stood Francis Gary Powers, the pilot of a CIA spy plane that was shot down over the Russian Ural mountains. He had waited 21 months for this moment. He had survived a plane crash, weeks of harsh interrogation and the brutal conditions of a Soviet prison. He was on the threshold of freedom, and his heart was thumping heavily. Read full article > >

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A spy swap’s legacy persists, 50 years on

Pursues “religious freedom.”

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Rubio Challenges Contraceptive Rule

Any parliamentary move to regulate newspapers would “open a Pandora’s box” which could stifle freedom of speech, the chairman of the Press Complaints Commission says.

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Press body keen for ‘fresh start’

BOCA RATON, Fla. — GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum , campaigning under the banner “faith, family and freedom,” has made his life story central to his political identity. He often mentions his seven kids — one of whom is gravely ill — a son who died hours after birth, and his wife of two decades as proof that he not only preaches conservative values but lives by them in his daily life. Read full article > >

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Daughter’s illness is quandary for Santorum

The National Park Service said Friday that it will begin enforcing its long-standing regulation prohibiting camping on federal parkland at the Occupy sites at McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza at noon Monday. Read full article > >

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Occupy D.C. must stop camping overnight on Monday, Park Service says

BAGHDAD — Iraq “cracked down harshly” on freedom of expression and assembly in 2011 by intimidating, beating and detaining activists and journalists, Human Rights Watch said Sunday in its World Report 2012 . Read full article > >

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New human rights report details crackdowns in Iraq

It is an achievement of the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street movements to have raised large issues of economic freedom and economic inequality. It is a paradox that their arguments have generally been vague, ideological and unhelpful. Read full article > >

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The Americans no one wants to talk about

CAIRO — The Muslim Brotherhood’s powerful political wing has backed down from demands that Egypt’s new parliament should have the right to quickly replace the military-appointed government. The secretary general of the Freedom and Justice Party, which is poised to win by far the most seats of any party in the lower house of the next parliament, said that the party wants to avoid conflict when the legislature is seated Jan. 23 and get through the transitional phase without angering the country’s military rulers. Read full article > >

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Egyptian Islamist party backs down from demand to form government

Travel offered freedom and meant never having to commit to just one thing, or to one person.

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Modern Love: A Place to Lay My Heart – Modern Love

Travel offered freedom and meant never having to commit to just one thing, or to one person.

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Modern Love: A Place to Lay My Heart – Modern Love

Travel offered freedom and meant never having to commit to just one thing, or to one person.

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Modern Love: A Place to Lay My Heart – Modern Love

CAIRO — The dominant showing by the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party in Egypt’s first post-revolution elections puts the country on a collision course, analysts say, with emboldened Islamists and the entrenched military set to vie for power. The Brotherhood, which was the leading opposition force under now-deposed leader Hosni Mubarak, has emerged as the country’s most viable political power. While votes are still being counted in the last of three stages of elections for parliament’s lower house, the Brotherhood expects to take more than 40 percent of seats and could claim an outright majority on Jan. 23, when the new parliament is scheduled to convene. Read full article > >

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Egypt’s Islamists could soon challenge generals

Have you ever seen a glummer or grouchier bunch of presidential aspirants than the current GOP crop? You’d be working those frown lines, too, I guess, if you thought, as Rick Santorum does, that this year’s race will decide “ whether we will be a free people .” Or believed, as Michele Bachmann told Sean Hannity on Monday, that Iran might go nuclear before Inauguration Day. Read full article > >

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Republican candidates are glum and glummer

CAIRO — Egyptian authorities stormed the offices of three American democracy-building organizations and at least 14 other groups Thursday in what human rights activists called an unprecedented move against civic associations by the country’s military rulers and the caretaker government. Security forces and public prosecutors raided the Cairo offices of the National Democratic Institute, the International Republican Institute and Freedom House — all based in Washington. They also raided Germany’s Konrad Adenauer foundation and at least 13 Egyptian nongovernmental organizations, according to the state news agency MENA. Read full article > >

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Egyptian security forces raid offices of U.S., other democracy groups

For Roman Catholic bishops, a fight over adoption rules in Illinois is a prime example of what they see as an escalating campaign by the government to trample on their religious freedom.

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Bishops Say Rules on Gay Parents Limit Freedom of Religion