PHILADELPHIA — The Washington Wizards had discussed progress frequently over the last week on the strength of a win against a Western Conference power and three losses by an average of six points. Then they arrived at Wells Fargo Center on a rainy Monday and regressed into the same disinterested outfit that dropped a franchise-worst eight in a row to begin the season. Read full article > >

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Wizards vs. 76ers: Philadelphia continues dominance of Washington with 103-83 win

The man believed to have killed four homeless men in Orange County over the last month is now in custody, according to law enforcement officials.

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Anaheim, Calif., Police Make Arrest in Killing of Homeless Man

ATLANTA — The number of twins born in the U.S. soared over the last three decades, mostly the result of test-tube babies and women waiting to have children until their 30s, when the chances of twins increase. In 2009, 1 in every 30 babies born in the U.S. was a twin, an astounding increase over the 1 in 53 rate in 1980, according to a government report issued Wednesday. Read full article > >

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Older mothers, fertility treatments driving a big increase in twin births, new CDC report says

Police in Northern Ireland receive, on average, 10 reports of rape each week over the last year.

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PSNI investigate 10 rapes a week

Loyal readers of The Federal Eye regularly complain about the long lines and grumpy postal workers working at the neighborhood post office. But visits to the local post office are way down, if you believe a new watchdog report. There were 59 million fewer visits to post offices in 2010 than in 2009, and visits are down 21 percent over the last decade, according to a new Government Accountability Office report . (Ironically — despite searching high and low for a number — the report doesn’t actually say how many visits were recorded in 2010.) Read full article > >

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How bad is it at the post office? Here are the numbers.

The online game’s makers reveal that almost a million people have stopped playing World of Warcraft over the last three months.

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Warcraft suffers subscriber slump

“The fact is we have a huge number of illegals that are coming into this country . . . they’re coming here because there is a magnet. And the magnet is called jobs.” — Texas Gov. Rick Perry, CNN debate, Oct. 18, 2011 “You put in place a magnet — you talk about magnets — you put in place a magnet to draw illegals into the state, which is giving $100,000 of tuition credit to illegals that come into this country. And then you have states, the big states of illegal immigrants are California and Florida. Over the last 10 years, they’ve had no increase in illegal immigration. Texas has had 60 percent increase in illegal immigrants.” Read full article > >

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Romney’s problematic claims about illegal immigration in Texas

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry will report raising at least $17 million in the third fundraising quarter, the campaign said Wednesday. The figure is likely to place the Texas governor ahead of his rivals in collecting contributions over the last three months. The Perry campaign said it had $15 million cash on hand as of Sept. 30. Perry, who entered the race in mid-August, amassed his total over just 49 days and received contributions from more than 22,000 donors from all 50 states, the campaign said. All but about $50,000 of his sum can be spent during the primary campaign, the campaign said. Read full article > >

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Rick Perry raises $17 million in third fundraising quarter

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley’s redistricting commission will release a plan in coming days to attempt to harness the Washington area’s surging — and largely Democratic — population growth over the last decade to help Democrats retake control of the House of Representatives. How far O’Malley (D) is willing to go to achieve that goal is now the question. Read full article > >

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O’Malley, Dems aim to use Md. as ‘weapon’ in redistricting fight for U.S. House

Red squirrel and hedgehog populations in the UK have continued to fall over the last decade, a report suggests.

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Report warns UK species declining

The number of under-25s being given weight-loss surgery on the NHS has quadrupled over the last three years.

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Gastric bands rise for under-25s

The US government wasted $30bn (£18bn) in contracts in Afghanistan and Iraq over the last decade, a bi-partisan spending commission finds.

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US ‘wasted $30bn on contracts’

Scientists estimate that poaching over the last decade has substantially slowed the recovery of the Swedish wolf.

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Poaching threatens Swedish wolves

DEAR AMY: My husband and I have been invited to the wedding of a dear friend’s son. I have just learned that a man I dated almost 20 years ago will be at the reception. The handful of times I have seen him over the last 20 years have been cordial. The problem is that my husband is jealous of any man I dated before I met him. I have never given him any reason not to trust me (and he says he does trust me), but I know that if this ex of mine attempts to greet me at the reception, things could get ugly. I know my husband’s emotions about this are immature, but it is what it is. Read full article > >

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Ask Amy: Husband’s jealousy could get ugly

This article written by Steven A. Cook originally appeared on ForeignPolicy.com on August 2, 2011 Read any newspaper, magazine, or journal article about Turkey over the last few decades, and the odds are that the Turkish military establishment was described as “staunchly secular,” “powerful,” “autonomous,” “dominant,” or all of these things. At times, it seemed that observers were in awe of the Turkish commanders, armed as they seemed to be with an uncompromising ideology and a will to act to ensure the security of Turkey’s republican and, importantly, secular political order. The ideals, cohesion, and strength of the armed forces stood in stark contrast with the weakness and corruption — especially during the 1990s — of Turkey’s civilian political leaders.

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Tarnished Brass