It is just four weeks before the Olympic torch relay sets off from Lands End on its 8,000 mile journey around the UK.

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VIDEO: Olympic torch relay rehearsals begin

ASTRAKHAN, Russia — For almost four weeks, few people in this onetime caviar capital in southern Russia knew that an opposition mayoral candidate here had been on a hunger strike to protest an election he says was stolen from him. Read full article > >

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Russia’s opposition movement tested in southern city

Aaron Rodgers made it look so easy Sunday at the Meadowlands, taking the Green Bay Packers down the field in the final minute for a field goal that won the game and kept his team’s unbeaten season intact with only four weeks to go. And in doing so, Rodgers added to the lore of a season that could be remembered as the greatest year an NFL quarterback ever has had. Already, experts say, it is clear that Rodgers’s 2011 season will have a prominent place in that conversation. Read full article > >

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Is the Packers’ Aaron Rodgers having the best season ever by a quarterback?

WASHINGTON — The number of people who applied for unemployment benefits last week fell to the lowest level since April, a sign that employers could be stepping up hiring. The Labor Department said Thursday that weekly applications dropped to a seasonally adjusted 390,000. It was the third decline in four weeks. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, fell to 400,000, also the lowest point since April. Read full article > >

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Applications for unemployment benefits fall to 390,000, lowest level since April

Bettye LaVette Veteran soul singer Bettye LaVette is not known as a songwriter, yet it doesn’t seem quite right to call her a cover artist. On Saturday night at a sold-out Atlas Theater, LaVette staked personal claims on songs by the Beatles, Fiona Apple and even George Jones. She did so partially by bypassing their original melodies, but also by putting these tunes in the context of having had what she called “a successful career six times . . . for four weeks or so.” Read full article > >

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At Atlas Theater show, Bettye LaVette puts her own spin on rock classics

Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech has been ruled out for up to four weeks with a knee injury.

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Injured Cech faces four weeks out

URAYASU, JAPAN — Nearly four weeks after Japan’s great earthquake, most of the 100,000 residents of this low-lying seaside town still have no plumbing. They relieve themselves in plastic bags — mixing in chemicals to harden the waste and hide the smell — and throw the bags into the garbage. Fortunately, trash collection, unlike sewage, water and gas services, has not been disrupted.

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Near Tokyo Disneyland, liquefaction turns town into a grim funhouse

Japanese fishermen have taken the offensive in their fight against the owner of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi power plant, angrily calling the utility’s actions insulting, incompetent and “unforgivable” over the course of the weeks-long nuclear crisis.

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Fishermen: Actions ‘unforgivable’

Stephanie Popofsky, a senior at Cornell University, had just finished her first round of midterms last fall, and was eager to relax. In four weeks, she watched the entire series of the CBS sitcom “How I Met Your Mother,” devouring 120 episodes.

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Younger TV watchers tossing the lineup guides — and sometimes the TV itself

Apple’s major stores sold out of iPad 2s within hours of putting them on the shelves on Friday, and the online store is showing a shipping delay of three to four weeks. Analysts believe the company sold 400,000 to 600,000 of the tablets in its first…

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Apple Sells Out of iPad 2s

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard undergoes successful surgery on his groin and will be out for up to four weeks.

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Gerrard out for a month after op

Manchester United midfielder Park Ji-Sung is ruled out for four weeks with a hamstring injury.

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Man Utd suffer Park injury blow

PARIS – After four weeks of steadily escalating riots across Tunisia, President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali lost his grip on power Friday. The country’s prime minister announced that he was taking over to organize early elections and usher in a new government.

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Tunisia’s president flees the country

As President Obama returns from Hawaii, he is weighing a major reshuffling of his staff that could see as many as eight people taking on new roles in the weeks ahead, Democrats familiar with the changes said Tuesday.

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Obama weighs major reshuffling of staff

Mayor Vincent C. Gray warned District residents to brace for “some very painful choices in the weeks and months ahead” during a 10-minute speech after he was sworn in Sunday before 3,500 people at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.

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Tax hike possible, Gray says