Premise: Hudson's mother, Darnell Donerson, 57, and brother, Jason Hudson, 29 were found dead in Donerson's home on October 24 and the body of Hudson's 7-year-old nephew, Julian King was found four days later in a stolen SUV. A handgun police say is tied to the case was found nearby, but Reuters reports that Bond did not comment on any evidence in the case.

Hypothesis: Jason Hudson was Jennifer's brother.


Premise: The word in the galley food queues is that we could do with more men, and the kit does keep wearing out, but that's due to the conditions here, said Corporal Martin Page.

Hypothesis: Martin Page was sent on a mission to Afghanistan.


Premise: Japan's Toshiba Corp. announced Tuesday that it has developed the first laptop computer with its new HD DVD drive: a next-generation disc format it is promoting over a rival standard pushed by Sony Corp.

Hypothesis: Toshiba Corp.'s headquarters is in Japan.


Premise: Akmal's colleague, Walter Murray of the Gulf Intelligence Monitor agreed, saying it would be foolish for the group to alienate potential supporters in the West and endanger the fruits of years of lobbying western governments with such attacks. Murray felt the bombers were more likely "...loose cannons..." in Iran's military or intelligence services. According to Iranian top national security official Ali Agha Mohammadi, "[t]he terrorists of Ahvaz infiltrated Iran from the region of Basra" in southern Iraq." He added that "[t]hese terrorists have been trained under the umbrella of the Americans in Iraq."

Hypothesis: Walter Murray works with Akmal.


Premise: While the total population for Missouri increased by 2.8 percent, the Hispanic population shows a 24.9 percent increase between 2000 and 2004.

Hypothesis: Missouri's population is 2.8 million.


Premise: BEA Arthur seemed the very definition of a tough showbiz broad. Tall, astringent, imperious -- she looked like someone who didn't suffer fools and could cut them down with a withering look or a well-aimed barb, delivered in that famous contralto. And it was, for the most part, all an act, says her close friend of more than 40 years, Angela Lansbury. "Bea was absolutely the antithesis of the characters she portrayed," Lansbury says. "She was sensitive -- really, really sensitive -- and self-conscious. But she covered it up by becoming this deep-voiced comic.

Hypothesis: Angela Lansbury is an actress.


Premise: Sirhan Sirhan, a Jordanian immigrant, was convicted of murdering Kennedy and is serving a life term at Soledad Prison.

Hypothesis: Sirhan Sirhan killed Kennedy.


Premise: The Iraqi Foreign Minister, Mohammad Said Al-Sahaf, met today with the new ambassadors and briefed them "on the Iraqi diplomacy directives of escalating the move toward lifting the blockade imposed on Iraq and developing relations with various countries of the world."

Hypothesis: Mohammed Said AL-SAHAF met with the ambassadors and briefed them on Iraq's diplomacy directives.


Premise: Slavkov, accused in the Salt Lake scandal but later cleared, said he had been approached by Takatch.

Hypothesis: Slavkov, defendant in the scandal of Salt Lake but that later was exculpated, in fact said that Takatch.


Premise: IT must rate as the literary snub of the 20th century. T S Eliot, one of Britain's greatest poets, rejected George Orwell's Animal Farm for publication on the grounds of its unconvincing Trotskyite politics. Eliot, a former director of Faber and Faber, the publisher, wrote his rejection in a highly critical letter in 1944, one of many private papers made available for the first time by his widow Valerie for a BBC documentary. When Orwell submitted his novel, an allegory on Stalin's dictatorship, Eliot praised its "good writing" and "fundamental integrity".

Hypothesis: T.S. Eliot wrote "Animal Farm".


Premise: With the arrival of the torch to Rome, it begins the ritual of the 2006 Winter Olympics of Turin. The torch will travel across Italy transported by more than 10'000 carriers and it will arrive in Turin on February 9, 2006, where the Winter Olympics will be inaugurated, after 11'000 km (6,835 miles) of travel. On November 27 the flame was burned on the altar of Hestia in Olympia, in Greece, and delivered to the first torch carrier, pole vaulter Kostas Fidippidis. The first Italian to carry the olympic flame is the marathoner Stefano Baldini, winner of gold medal at the Olympics in Athens. He received the torch from the President of the Italian Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.

Hypothesis: The Winter Olympics will be inaugurated in Turin.


Premise: Neverland Valley Ranch, owned by Michael Jackson, is to be sold at auction on March 19, 2008, unless Jackson pays over US$24 million. Financial Title Company, the trustee of his Santa Barbara County, California, home and amusement park, has foreclosed on the property. They notified Jackson of the foreclosure and sale on Monday. Jackson had only just recently paid an overdue property tax bill of $600,000.

Hypothesis: Michael Jackson is the owner of Neverland.


Premise: Picture a Janis Joplin robot sitting on a park bench talking about the Summer of Love, singing "Me and Bobby McGee" and introducing a David Bowie robot.

Hypothesis: Robots serve as wax singers in the Rock Hall of Fame.


Premise: A car bomb exploded outside a U.S. military base near Baji.

Hypothesis: A car bomb exploded outside a U.S. military base near Beiji.


Premise: Russia doesn't excel in auto manufacturing, but it is tops in other areas. The country's great wealth in oil, natural gas, and metals, in addition to generating revenue for the government, is creating a new middle class that craves European, Japanese and American cars.

Hypothesis: European cars sell in Russia.


Premise: Not counting the 1986 catastrophe at Chernobyl, where the nuclear reactors are of a different design, the industry has so far succeeded.

Hypothesis: The catastrophe at Chernobyl happened in 1986.


Premise: A doctor from Michigan helped an Oregon woman with Alzheimer's disease commit suicide.

Hypothesis: Dr. Kevorkian assisted Janet Adkins to use his suicide device.


Premise: Al-Jazeera broadcasts to millions of Arab viewers from headquarters in Doha, Qatar.

Hypothesis: Al-Jazeera has occasionally run into problems with authorities in other Arab countries.


Premise: Diana, Princess of Wales died on Sunday, 31 August 1997 following a car crash in Paris. There was widespread public mourning at the death of this popular figure, culminating with her funeral at Westminster Abbey on Saturday, 6 September 1997.

Hypothesis: Lady Diana died in Paris.


Premise: UK foreign secretary Douglas Hurd will meet President Carlos Menem in Argentina next week.

Hypothesis: Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd visited Argentina.


Premise: That natural increase accounted for 56 percent of Missouri population growth during the past four years.

Hypothesis: Missouri's population is 56.


Premise: Police have arrested the owner of a mattress factory in Hay Hassini, Casablanca, Morocco which burned down in a disaster that claimed 55 lives. His son, who was the factory's manager, was also arrested. Those killed ―35 of whom were women ―were trapped inside by locked fire exits, which were barricaded to stop theft during working hours. "The people who died were either asphyxiated or burned," commented a firefighter. 17 were wounded. Moustapha Taouil of the Casablanca civil protection service said the blaze was triggered by an inadequatly maintained electric saw on the ground floor. The initial fire quickly engulfed all four storeys of the building.

Hypothesis: Casablanca is a Moroccan city.


Premise: The hurdler suspended in 1993 for taking the anabolic steroid Nandrolone was cleared after a three judge arbitration panel ruled that the case against her could not be proved beyond reasonable doubt .

Hypothesis: Nandrolone is a steroid.


Premise: The International Olympic Committee has leapt to the defence of the drug-testing lab at the centre of the Merlene Ottey doping case. Athletics' governing body, the IAAF, last week cleared Ottey of accusations of steroid use and lifted a two-year ban after their arbitration panel said the IOC-accredited lab in Lausanne improperly tested Ottey's urine sample.

Hypothesis: Sportswomen have been accused of doping.


Premise: The kidnappers want the Kuwaiti firm that employs the men to stop doing business in Iraq and to pay compensation to the victims of U.S. strikes in Falluja.

Hypothesis: The kidnappers paid compensation to the victims of the U.S.


Premise: The British government did not initially purchase the weapon and civilian sales were modest. However the U.S. Civil War began in 1860 and the governments of both the United States and the Confederacy began purchasing arms in Britain.

Hypothesis: During the Civil War the government of the United States bought arms from Britain.


Premise: Rehnquist, appointed to the court in 1972 and promoted to chief justice in 1986, was the longest-serving chief justice since 1910 and among the longest-serving jurists in the court's history.

Hypothesis: Rehnquist served the second-longest tenure, as chief justice, in US history.


Premise: I want to go back again. But I am afraid, honestly, I am afraid. Propaganda against me made people think I am terrorist., said el-Nashar.

Hypothesis: El-Nashar is accused of terrorism.


Premise: On June 29, 1995, the Space Shuttle Atlantis made history when it docked with the Russian Mir space station, as shown in this photograph.

Hypothesis: US shuttle Atlantis docks with the Mir space station.


Premise: Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist John Updike has died of lung cancer at a hospice near his home in Beverly Farms, Massachusetts. He was 76. Born John Hoyer Updike in Reading, Pennsylvania in 1932, he documented ordinary ―if highly sexualized ―American life in around 50 works, beginning with The Poorhouse Fair in 1959. He once said that his books were about "the American small town, Protestant middle class".

Hypothesis: John Updike won the Pulitzer Prize.


Premise: The participation of women in parliament in Mauritius is expected to increase as more female candidates have contested Monday's election.

Hypothesis: Women are poorly represented in parliament.


Premise: CNET reporter James Kim has been found dead in the southwestern Oregon wilderness after getting lost with his family on November 25. Kim, 35, was found at 12:00 noon Wednesday, half a mile away from the Rogue River. His wife Kati Kim, 30-years-old, and her two young children were found alive on December 4 after they waved an umbrella to a private helicopter. Kati and her two children were airlifted out of the area and transferred by ambulance to Three Rivers Community Hospital in Grants Pass. Kati suffered frostbite on two toes, but it is expected that she will be in good condition.

Hypothesis: James Kim worked for CNET.


Premise: Figures released today show that the number of organs donated by New Zealanders in 2006 has decreased by four to a new record low of 25. In 2005 the number of organs donated equalled 29, a previous record low in New Zealand. Before 2005 the number of organ donations averaged 40, an already low number by international standards.

Hypothesis: Organ transplant saves lives.


Premise: British newsreader Natasha Kaplinsky gave birth to a baby boy earlier this morning at around 08:30 BST. She had been on maternity leave since August 21. Kaplinsky had only been working with Five News just over a month when she announced she was pregnant. Her husband of three years, investment banker Justin Bower announced "We're absolutely thrilled." Kaplinsky first started to work for the BBC in 2002 after a two year tenure with Sky News. She started on the BBC Breakfast show but later moved onto the BBC Six O'Clock News and later became only the third woman to present the BBC Ten O'Clock News. She left the BBC in October 2007. She also spent a short time with ITV News. Five News released a statement saying "Her colleagues here at Five News are delighted too - and we've sent our best wishes." They also said both Kaplinsky and the baby are doing fine.

Hypothesis: Natasha Kaplinsky and Justin Bower  got married three years ago.


Premise: Mark Allen, the company's president and chief operating officer, will become the new CEO.

Hypothesis: Mark Allen is appointed as chief operating officer.


Premise: Oqueli was to fly to Nicaragua to join an international Socialist delegation, which will observe the Nicaraguan electoral campaign.

Hypothesis: Oqueli was a member of the Socialist party.


Premise: In 1927 Harnold Lamb wrote a biography of Genghis Khan, and following on its success turned more and more to the writing of non-fiction, penning numerous biographies and history books until his death in 1962.

Hypothesis: Harnold Lamb authored many biographies.


Premise: U.S. officials said they hope to install Aristide presidential palace in Port-au-Prince about 10 days after U.S. troops land in Haiti, a schedule that an Aristide aide said is acceptable to the ousted president

Hypothesis: Port-au-Prince is in Haiti.


Premise: US-based News Corporation (formerly based in Australia) has announced its purchase of IGN Entertainment, a US-based online media group, for US$650 million. IGN's assets include popular video game sites IGN.com and GameSpy.com, as well as movie and game review site Rotten Tomatoes. IGN will become part of the News Corporation's Fox Interactive Media division, which will expand the company's online presence to become the fourth largest online media company, with over 70 million individual users and 12 billion page views per month when the takeover is complete.

Hypothesis: News Corporation is located in Australia.


Premise: Macedonian Milcho Manchevski's "Before the Rain" and Taiwanese Tsai Ming-liang's "Aiqing Wansui/Vive L'Amour" shared the Golden Lion award for best film.

Hypothesis: Before the Rain and "Vive L'Amour" won the Golden Lion.


Premise: Nonetheless, a literacy rate of 96 percent put Cuba on a par with such highly developed countries as Japan, France, the Soviet Union, Switzerland and Italy, Campo said.

Hypothesis: The literacy rate in Cuba is 96%.


Premise: At least eight people have been killed in a suicide bomb attack on Sri Lanka's army headquarters, while the head of the army has been seriously injured. Lt Gen Sarath Fonseka is said to be in a stable condition after surgery in Colombo, where the attack happened. The military has blamed Tamil Tiger rebels for the attack and launched air strikes on their positions in the east.

Hypothesis: People were killed in suicide attacks.


Premise: There are many Baroque churches of the Counter-Reformation period, including the Jesuit Church next to the cathedral and the Church of the Holy Cross, which contains Chopin's heart.

Hypothesis: Sigismund made Warsaw the capital of Poland in 1611.


Premise: The public phase of a capital campaign to raise money for the Kroc Center at the Mid-South Fairgrounds has begun. The goal is to raise $3.9 million for the facility located just south of Central on East Parkway. Once the money is raised, construction on the 15-acre, 100,000-square-foot facility can begin. The campaign has already raised more than $21.1 million. Once the funding is raised, the center will receive a $50 million gift from the Kroc Trust, which was created by McDonald's Corp. founder Ray Kroc and his wife, Joan. A gift of $1.5 billion was given to the Salvation Army to build 25 Kroc Centers across the country. Kroc Centers are designed to serve the needs of families in the neighborhoods surrounding the facilities.

Hypothesis: Ray Kroc is the founder of McDonalds.


Premise: The results of numerous epidemiological studies and recent clinical trials provide consistent evidence that diets rich in fruits and vegetables can reduce the risk of chronic disease.

Hypothesis: Fruits and vegetables prevent osteoporosis.


Premise: Capital punishment is a catalyst for more crime.

Hypothesis: Capital punishment is a deterrent to crime.


Premise: Iraq would have been an unsafe, unsecure country that did pose a threat to the world.

Hypothesis: A threat to the world would have arisen from Iraq.


Premise: Scientists and engineers in the APL Space Department have contributed to ocean remote sensing science and technology for more than a quarter century.

Hypothesis: Ocean remote sensing is developed.


Premise: The relocation has enabled the company to eliminate the use of cyanide and chrome in its plating work replacing it with a soaplike solution.

Hypothesis: Soap-like alternatives exist.


Premise: With its headquarters in Madrid, Spain, WTO is an inter-governmental body entrusted by the United Nations to promote and develop tourism.

Hypothesis: The WTO headquarters is located in Madrid, Spain.


Premise: The news comes as the owners of Kilroot announced plans to install clean-up equipment at the plant near Carrickfergus at a cost of Â£35 million.

Hypothesis: Owners announced plans to sell clean-up equipment.


Premise: The increased amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases (GHGs) are the primary causes of the human-induced component of global warming.

Hypothesis: Greenhouse effect changes global climate.


Premise: The poll also showed that a higher percentage of Americans (65%) believe that even if the investigation proceedings actually began, Clinton ought not to be removed.

Hypothesis: According to the poll, 65% of Americans believe that Clinton should be removed from office.


Premise: I've been trying to keep 'Office actions' to a minimum (partly in reaction to some fairly heavy-handed WP:OFFICE stuff in the past), and it would be helpful to be able to say that any given action was taken by the community, not by the Foundation, said Godwin on Wikipedia's Administrators' noticeboard on May 2, the same day of the EFF's press release. 'Office actions' are changes directly authorized by the Foundation which are made to content on any of the Wikimedia projects. The edits are made by staff members working for the Foundation's head office located in San Francisco, California. Edits of this nature are generally "removals of questionable or illegal Wikimedia content following complaints," according to Wikipedia's policy on 'Office Actions.'.

Hypothesis: California includes the city of San Francisco.


Premise: A number of undergraduate schools and colleges have also received it, as has the French Red-Cross, the abbey of Notre-Dame des Dombes, and the French railway company SNCF.

Hypothesis: The French railway company is called SNCF.


Premise: Preliminary tests identified the source of the outbreak as the highly contagious norovirus, which had struck several guests just before they boarded the cruise Nov. 3 in Rome, Carnival officials said.

Hypothesis: Norovirus is the source of the outbreak on the ship.


Premise: Gross domestic product, a measure of total output within the nation's borders, climbed at a 3% annual pace in the April-June period.

Hypothesis: Annual rate increase of 3% in second quarter much lower than forecasts.


Premise: California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) on Friday signed five bills into law that allow California to receive more than $17.5 billion in federal economic stimulus aid, but the funding will not be enough for the state to avoid $3 billion in tax increases and cuts to services to balance its budget, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The legislation changes eligibility reporting requirements for children enrolled in Medi-Cal and allows more people to qualify for unemployment insurance and extends the benefit by 20 weeks. Medi-Cal is the state's Medicaid program.

Hypothesis: Arnold Schwarzenegger is Austrian.


Premise: A.C. Milan is in second place with 13 points, after two first-half goals from captain Paolo Maldini earned them a 2-1 victory over Reggina.

Hypothesis: Paolo Maldini plays for Reggina.


Premise: Banning ivory is the surest road to extinction for the African elephant, argue leaders in those countries.

Hypothesis: The ban on ivory trade has been effective in protecting the elephant from extinction.


Premise: The two suspects belong to the 30th Street gang, which became embroiled in one of the most notorious recent crimes in Mexico: a shootout at the Guadalajara airport in May, 1993, that killed Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo and six others.

Hypothesis: Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo died in 1993.


Premise: How come a country (Vatican City), a so-called country, that is in essence 800 square acres of office space in the middle of Rome, that has a citizenry that excludes women and children, seems to attract the most attention in talking about public policy that deals with women and children? she demanded.

Hypothesis: The Vatican City is in Rome.


Premise: The greatest threat to life and property associated with a hurricane and tropical storm is storm surge.

Hypothesis: A tropical storm has caused significant property damage or loss of life.


Premise: Thus, China's President repeatedly sent letters and envoys to the Dalai Lama and to the Tibetan Government asking that Tibet "join" the Republic of China.

Hypothesis: Dalai Lama and the government of the People's Republic of China are in dispute over Panchen Lama's reincarnation.


Premise: Ralph Fiennes, who has played memorable villains in such films as 'Red Dragon' and 'Schindler's List,' is to portray Voldemort, the wicked warlock, in the next Harry Potter movie.

Hypothesis: Ralph Fiennes will play Harry Potter in the next movie.


Premise: In 1955, the Aurora Borealis, a coating applied to crystal stones to produce a "rainbow of colors" effect was introduced.

Hypothesis: The Aurora Borealis was discovered in 1995.


Premise: Meanwhile, thousands of soldiers from the first Gulf War are still suffering from severe symptoms that have been linked to what is now known as Gulf War illness, say veterans advocates.

Hypothesis: Many US soldiers developed Gulf War illness after the Gulf War.


Premise: These new results from Cassini may be the first evidence of gases originating either from the surface or possibly from the interior of Enceladus, said Dr. Michele Dougherty, principal investigator for the Cassini magnetometer and professor at Imperial College in London. Scientists have suspected Enceladus as geologically active and a possible source of Saturn's icy E ring. Enceladus is the most reflective object in the solar system, reflecting about 90 percent of the sunlight that hits it.

Hypothesis: Titan is the fifteenth of Saturn's known satellites.


Premise: San Salvador, Jan. 13, '90 (Acan-Efe) -The bodies of Hector Oqueli and Gilda Flores, who had been kidnapped yesterday, were found in Cuilapa, Guatemala, near the border with El Salvador, the relatives of one of the victims have reported.

Hypothesis: Gilda Flores was kidnapped on the 13th of January 1990.


Premise: The US state of Kansas has ruled that science classes in public schools should include the teaching of intelligent design and the doubts it casts on Darwinian evolution.

Hypothesis: Intelligent design supports Darwinian evolution.


Premise: Once on the train (according to what the channel said was a leaked police statement, aired Tuesday night) a police officer pinned de Menezes down when another officer shot him.

Hypothesis: The leaked version said Mr. de Menezes was being restrained by an officer when he was shot by armed police.


Premise: The extraditables today claimed responsibility for the murder of Antioquia police commander colonel Waldemar Franklin Quintero, which occurred this morning in Medellin.

Hypothesis: police officer killed


Premise: Hughes loved his wife, Gracia, and was absolutely obsessed with his little daughter Elicia.

Hypothesis: Hughes was married to Gracia.


Premise: Three leading Japanese banks have announced an alliance forming the world's largest financial group. Fuji Bank, Dai-Ichi Kangyo and the Industrial Bank of Japan say their operations will be integrated by the spring of 2002.

Hypothesis: Merger of Japanese Banks creates the world's biggest bank.


Premise: There is 'no indication of any security related event' that brought the plane down, said FBI spokesman Richard Kolko. Conditions of freezing drizzle, known as hard rime, were the most likely cause of the tragedy. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has announced that they would send a team to the crash site on Friday to begin the investigation. Lorenda Ward will serve as chief investigator with the assistance of NTSB Commissioner Steven Chealander and public affairs officer Keith Holloway. Ward has investigated several other plane crashes ―including the 2006 New York City plane crash that claimed the life of New York Yankees pitcher Corey Lidle.

Hypothesis: Corey Lidle was a resident of New York City.


Premise: The spread of AIDS in Africa is driven not by unsafe sex but by unsafe medical practice, according to research published last week.

Hypothesis: AIDS spreads in Africa.


Premise: Begun in 1989 with generous annual support from Lutheran Brotherhood (now Thrivent Financial for Lutherans), the Nobel Peace Prize Forum's stimulating array of programs has involved more than 21,000 participants and reached a much broader audience through national and regional media coverage.

Hypothesis: Lutheran Brotherhood received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.


Premise: A small bronze bust of Spencer Tracy sold for £174,000.

Hypothesis: A small bronze bust of Spencer Tracy made £180,447.


Premise: As an active member of the National Guard, he was called to duty in 1941. Although Kennon did not see active combat, he did not return home from World War II until May of 1945.

Hypothesis: Kennon was part of the National Guard.


Premise: Other wildlife, such as gemsbok, zebras and springbok, are also dependent on the Ugab wetlands.

Hypothesis: Zebras depend on the Ugab wetlands.


Premise: LONDON (Reuters) - Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has presented the struggling Formula One champions with a penitent's hood while warning them not to become a laughing stock. "It would be a euphemism to say people here were very angry, but these same people are also very determined to react," the team quoted him as saying after a 2-1/2 hour crisis meeting in Maranello on Tuesday afternoon. "I brought with me a monk's hood to make everyone understand that we have to tackle this season with humility, and made the point that I don't want to find us on some sort of TV comedy video programme after each race," he added.

Hypothesis: Montezemolo is the president of Ferrari and Fiat.


Premise: Evans Paul, the pro-Aristide mayor of Port-au-Prince, said he had been told that the money will go to American lobbyists, politicians and journalists to campaign against the return of Aristide, Haiti's first democratically elected president

Hypothesis: Aristide is the mayor of Port-au-Prince.


Premise: The settlement must be approved by Citigroup's board of directors and the board of Regents of the University of California, the lead plaintiff for investors in the case.

Hypothesis: The University of California's board of Regents still needs to ratify the settlement - as does Citigroup's board of directors.


Premise: Prices hit their lowest levels in five weeks Friday, with light, sweet crude for October closing at $63 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest settlement price since Aug. 5.

Hypothesis: Crude oil costs $63.


Premise: By clicking here, you can return to the login page.

Hypothesis: Click here to go back to the login page.


Premise: When she was barely 20 years old, Dutch singer Edsilia Rombley got her first large taste of international acclaim. Already a winner of the smaller imitation contest Soundmix Show, she decided to shoot higher. With a great deal of determination, she performed in front of hundreds of millions of television viewers at the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest in Birmingham, United Kingdom. Her song, the R&B flavored "Hemel en aarde" (Heaven and earth), placed fourth and gave her country their highest placing at Eurovision since their last win in 1975. No Dutch contestant after her has been able to place similarly.

Hypothesis: Edsilia Rombley is a Dutch singer.


Premise: Two midsummer cruises aboard Clipper Adventure Cruises' 140-passenger World Discoverer (July 8 and Aug. 9) will take you to the wind-swept cliffs of the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea, where cartoon-faced horned and tufted puffins stare.

Hypothesis: The Pribilof Islands are located in the Bering Sea.


Premise: The three drive-ins nearest to Madison, all less than an hour's drive, are: Big Sky Twin Drive-In Theatres in Wisconsin Dells, Highway 18 Outdoor Theatre, near Jefferson, and Sky-Vu Drive-In, near Monroe.

Hypothesis: Highway 18 Outdoor Theatre is located in Wisconsin Dells.


Premise: Then came the dozens of protesters who started camping out near Bush's ranch this month, led by a California mother who lost her son in the war and insists on speaking to the president.

Hypothesis: FBI whistleblower Coleen Rowley has also arrived in Texas, as has Becky Lourey, another mother who has lost her son in Iraq and a state senator in Minnesota


Premise: Morton's book was published January 15, and hit number one on Amazon.com's Top Sellers list on January 18. Yesterday, the book hit the number one spot on The New York Times Best Sellers list. The book is not for sale in Britain or Ireland, and the New York Post has reported that British tourists to the United States are buying copies of the book to bring back home. Morton makes some controversial assertions in the book, including that Cruise is second in command at the Church of Scientology, and that Scientology was the cause of Cruise and Nicole Kidman's separation.

Hypothesis: Tom Cruise is married to Katie Holmes.


Premise: The CBS Evening News commentary segment "Free Speech" , which made its debut with Katie Couric this month, was accused last Friday by Bill Maher of HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" of being "anything but free speech". Maher said he was asked by CBS News to appear on the segment. But when he asked if he could talk about religion, "that was a dealbreaker from the start". Instead, he said they would send over a list of "acceptable topics". CBS News executive producer Rome Hartman has since responded in an e-mail to TVNewser saying that, "Bill Maher was never told that he couldn't discuss religion in a Free Speech segment," and added, "In fact, Free Speech has already addressed religion and we expect others will in the future."

Hypothesis: Free Speech is a part of the CBS Evening News.


Premise: South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun Thursday asked the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) to investigate questions arising about the Foreign Ministry's response to the kidnapping of a South Korean in Iraq who was later killed by Muslim militants, according to Yonhap.

Hypothesis: Roh Moo-hyun asked the BAI to kidnap a South Korean in Iraq.


Premise: Besides producing this riverine sea, the deluge also nourishes the largest stretch of rain forest left on Earth. One-third of the remaining rain forest was in the Amazon basin and fires had consumed about 10% of it, an area twice the size of California.

Hypothesis: The Amazon rain forest is a vast area in South America.


Premise: The city continued to grow through much of the 20th century.

Hypothesis: The city continued to grow, but its services deteriorated.


Premise: Jahche Broughton, 15, was sentenced to life imprisonment and ordered to serve at least 12-and-a-half years behind bars for the murder on January 17 last year.  Miss Aim, 26, from Orkney, was killed as she made her way home from a night out with friends in the North Island resort of Taupo.   She suffered serious head injuries and later died in hospital.  A judge at the High Court in Rotorua told Broughton that the sentence took into account his age and guilty plea.  The teenager was 14 when he carried out the murder and is believed to be one of the youngest convicted criminals in New Zealand to be given a life sentence.

Hypothesis: Jahche Broughton is the murderer of Miss Aim.


Premise: Next year is the 50th anniversary of the Normandy invasion, an event that wouldn't have been possible without the Liberty ships. The volunteers hope to raise enough money to sail the O'Brien to France for the big D-Day celebration.

Hypothesis: 50th Anniversary of Normandy Landings lasts a year.


Premise: A 15ft (4.5 meter) northern bottle-nosed whale has been spotted swimming in the river Thames in Central London, UK. The "Thames whale" managed to swim up past the Thames barrier and under many bridges, reaching as far as Chelsea before it turned around just before Albert Bridge. TV news helicopters scrambled to provide live TV footage of the whale, and many spectators lined the banks of the river. The whale is said to be looking healthy, although some fear that the whale may beach itself as it tried to do before rescuers forced it back into the middle of the river. Normally found in the North Atlantic, there have been sightings of a second whale near Southend.

Hypothesis: The River Thames flows through London.


Premise: PST Chittagong, Bangladesh-- Muhammad Yunus, Bangladesh's "Banker to the Poor" who provides loans to help millions of people fight poverty by starting businesses, has won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Hypothesis: Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Prize for Peace.


Premise: Saint John's Cathedral is the oldest church in Warsaw.

Hypothesis: In the Old Town, the Gothic St . John's Cathedral and the red-brick fortifications known as the Barbican remain from the medieval period.


Premise: As a late September report by the Democrats points out, Republicans have done a poor job at getting their own small business bills through Congress even though they control both Houses and the White House.

Hypothesis: Republicans control both Houses and the White House.


Premise: U.S. Embassy spokesman Stanley Shrager said that the Americans hope to help Port-au-Prince's elected mayor, Evans Paul, return from hiding and resume his post as mayor of the city.

Hypothesis: Americans hope to help Evans Paul in the election for mayor of Port-au-Prince.


Premise: All U.S Embassy personnel in non-emergency positions and family members of U.S Embassy personnel who were evacuated as a result of the initial conflict have been authorized to return to Eritrea.

Hypothesis: U.S. Military evacuated U.S. citizens.


Premise: The Extra Girl (1923) is a story of a small-town girl, Sue Graham (played by Mabel Normand) who comes to Hollywood to be in the pictures. This Mabel Normand vehicle, produced by Mack Sennett, followed earlier films about the film industry and also paved the way for later films about Hollywood, such as King Vidor's "Show People" (1928).

Hypothesis: The Extra Girl was produced by Sennett.


Premise: GUS on Friday disposed of its remaining home shopping business and last non-UK retail operation with the €390m (£265m) sale of the Dutch home shopping company, Wehkamp, to Industri Kapital, a private equity firm.

Hypothesis: Wehkamp cost €390m.


Premise: The outlawed Basque political party in Spain, Batasuna, called, on Monday, parties in the Basque Autonomous Government to boycott the parliament decision to ban it.

Hypothesis: Spain's Basque party calls for the boycott of a parliament decision.


Premise: The Bills will announce the release of  12-year veteran Drew Bledsoe on Wednesday afternoon, leaving J.P. Losman as the No. 1 QB.

Hypothesis: The Bills announced that they will release the 33-year-old Bledsoe.


Premise: February 4, 2005, Iraq. With more than two-thirds of the 3.3 million votes counted in the Iraqi legislative election , the United Iraqi Alliance has a considerable lead over interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's Iraqi List which trails with approximately 17% of the current tally.

Hypothesis: The first free elections in Iraq were held in January 2005.


Premise: Jennifer Hawkins is the 21-year-old beauty queen from Australia.

Hypothesis: Jennifer Hawkins is Australia's 21-year-old  beauty queen.


Premise: Access to the underground workings at the La Camorra mine is via a ramp from the surface, excavated at a -15% grade and connecting numerous levels.

Hypothesis: La Camorra is a mine.


Premise: Chicago-based Boeing has already scrubbed three delivery slots in 2006 that had been booked by Air Canada.

Hypothesis: Boeing's headquarters is in Canada.


Premise: I will take a brief vacation with some priest friends after Christmas and then I will go on retreat at a monastery, Law, reading from a brief statement, told reporters.

Hypothesis: Law said he plans to take a brief vacation after Christmas and later retreat to a monastery.


Premise: Hippos do come into conflict with people quite often.

Hypothesis: Hippopotamus attacks human.


Premise: However, market players were more inclined towards weakening yen, as the yen plunged to its lowest levels since October 1998, after foreign exchange markets interpreted comments made by visiting U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill to mean that Washington is not opposed to a weak Japanese currency.

Hypothesis: The introduction of the euro has been opposed.


Premise: UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Iraqis had "shown again their determination to defy the terrorists and take part in the democratic process".

Hypothesis: Jack Straw holds the position of UK Foreign Secretary.


Premise: Ahern, who was travelling to Tokyo for an EU-Japan summit yesterday, will consult with other EU leaders by telephone later this week in an effort to find an agreed candidate to presidency of the European commission.

Hypothesis: EU leaders found an agreement about a candidate to the post of European commission president.


Premise: Twenty-two other miners were working at the nearby Kangjiayao mine at the time of the accident, although it is unclear if any of those miners were affected. Thousands of miners die in mining accidents each year in China. Today's accident comes just one day after 19 coal miners were killed in a mining accident in the Sulongsi mine in Chongqing, and one month after the largest accident in recent history killed 214 miners, in Fuxin, Liaoning Province.

Hypothesis: Liaoning Province is in China.


Premise: Chancellor Schroeder has presided over three years of almost zero growth in the economy and an unemployment rate that has remained stubbornly above four million people.

Hypothesis: More than four million people have remained stubbornly unemployed in the last three years.


Premise: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are to let Getty Images sell photos of their new baby Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt - and  have asked the proceeds go to charity. Angelina Jolie"While we celebrate the joy of the birth of our daughter, we recognize that 2 million babies born  every year in the developing world die on the first day of their lives. These children can be saved, but only if governments around the world make it a priority," the couple said, in a joint statement.

Hypothesis: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have a daughter.


Premise: Hepburn, a four-time Academy Award winner, died last June in Connecticut at age 96.

Hypothesis: Hepburn, who won four Oscars, died last June aged 96.


Premise: DAYTON, Ohio. A cargo plane bound for Montreal with a small quantity of hazardous chemicals crashed and exploded shortly after takeoff.

Hypothesis: Dayton is located in Ohio.


Premise: On February 1, 1990, during a spacewalk, Alexander Serebrov dons an experimental flying armchair that had been delivered to Mir with Kvant 2. Unlike U.S. astronauts, who flew untethered flights with a similar device, the Soviet cosmonaut remains attached to the station with a safety tether, since there is no space shuttle to pick him up in case of an emergency.

Hypothesis: US shuttle Atlantis docks with the Mir space station.


Premise: Six hostages in Iraq were freed.

Hypothesis: The four Jordanian hostages, kidnapped about a week ago, were freed.


Premise: In 1979, the very first cases of AIDS appeared in New York. Cases of the disease that had never been seen prior to 1979, but is now considered more deadly than the bubonic plague, continued to surface in California and New York, almost exclusively in homosexual men.

Hypothesis: AIDS spreads in Africa.


Premise: Injections of human stem cells seem to directly repair some of the damage caused by spinal cord injury, according to research that helped partially paralyzed mice walk again.

Hypothesis: Anderson and colleagues used fetal neural stem cells, a type that are slightly more developed than embryonic stem cells because they're destined to make cells for the central nervous system.


Premise: Stolen Warhol works recovered: Amsterdam police said Wednesday that they have recovered stolen lithographs by the late U.S. pop artist Andy Warhol worth more than $1 million. Dali's paintings are still missing.

Hypothesis: Millions of dollars of art were recovered, including works by Dali.


Premise: Alternately known as brash, emotional and brilliant, the maverick Kasparov could be a formidable opponent in the realm of politics.

Hypothesis: Don Brash is the leader of the New Zealand National Party.


Premise: Officials in Pakistan say parliamentary elections will be delayed until next month. VOA correspondent Nancy-Amelia Collins in Islamabad reports the Pakistan Election Commission says the delay is due to the destruction of election offices and materials in violence that broke out last week after Benazir Bhutto's assassination. Chief election commissioner Qazi Mohammed Farooq says the elections originally scheduled for January 8 are being postponed and will be held next month. "The polling will now be held on 18th February, 2008 instead of 8th January 2008," he said.

Hypothesis: Islamabad is a city in Pakistan.


Premise: As his jubilant nation cheered, Yunus told reporters in the capital of Dhaka that he wants "to work to create some more new things in the world" and would use the award money to start a company to produce inexpensive yet nutritious food for poor people and set up an eye hospital to treat impoverished patients.

Hypothesis: Yunus wants to start a company.


Premise: The exchanges resulted in greatly improved financial, oil, fisheries, and military issues, but Great Britain consistently refused to address the issue of sovereignty over the Falklands.

Hypothesis: Great Britain continues to refuse to discuss sovereignty issues.


Premise: Iraqi militants said Sunday they would behead Kim Sun-Il, a 33-year-old translator, within 24 hours unless plans to dispatch thousands of South Korean troops to Iraq were abandoned.

Hypothesis: translator kidnapped in Iraq


Premise: New York Times reporter Judith Miller broke her media silence by writing a column the newspaper published on Sunday. Her lengthy story recounted two testimonies, September 30 and October 12, she gave to a U.S. federal grand jury seeking information on the source of the Valerie Plame leak. The column described the testimony as one that relied heavily on her reporting notes given to special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald between her first and second  appearances.

Hypothesis: Judith Miller works for the New York Times.


Premise: It found that binge drinking in women aged 18 to 44 increased in the United States by 13 percent between 1999 and 2002.

Hypothesis: Female binge drinking rose 13 percent in three years.


Premise: The solar system is much more complicated now, astronomers say, than in 1930 when Clyde Tombaugh added Pluto to the inventory of wandering lights circling the Sun.

Hypothesis: Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh.


Premise: Sierra was arrested on December 2 outside a local bar, and is being held without bond. Police claim that after they arrived, she first assaulted an officer then attempted to bribe him by offering to perform a sex act on him. Only two weeks earlier she had pleaded no contest to charges of battery and possessing cocaine. If she is convicted of all the new charges, she could be imprisoned for up to 11 years, which would mean she would have the baby whilst still in prison. Sierra earlier pled not guilty to all charges.

Hypothesis: Jessica Sierra once reached the finals of "American Idol".


Premise: Kozlowski and the company's former chief financial officer, Mark Swartz, were sentenced, on Monday, to up to 25 years in prison.

Hypothesis: Two former bosses of US manufacturer, Tyco, have been sentenced to up to 25 years in jail for stealing more than $150m (£m) from the company.


Premise: One year after shareholders approved a massive expansion in its pool of stock options, eBay is asking for more.

Hypothesis: Shareholders approved expansion for one year.


Premise: Sara Jane Moore, 77, who tried to assassinate Former United States President Gerald Ford in 1975 was paroled from prison in California this afternoon. Moore tried to assassinate Ford outside of the St. Francis Hotel in downtown San Francisco on January 15, by firing one shot, which missed because a bystander grabbed Moore's arms just seconds before she fired the gun. The bullet missed hitting Ford in the head by inches.

Hypothesis: Sara Jane Moore is no longer in prison.


Premise: Sweden-based airline Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) said it will reduce payrolls by 8,600 jobs as part of its "Core SAS" restructuring plan. The airline will cut 3,000 staff directly and eliminate 5,600 by divesting business ventures, reducing the workforce by 40% to 14,000. The restructuring  comes after SAS posted losses of 6.32 billion Swedish krona in 2008. The company is also to sell airBaltic and Spanair and its stakes in Air Greenland,  BMI, Estonian Air, Skyways Express, Spirit Airlines and Trust. Spanair is to be sold for €1. The company intends to switch to concentrating on its core  Nordic market.

Hypothesis: European Airlines are cutting jobs.


Premise: In late 2006, Aneta Krawczyk accused the party's leader Andrzej Lepper of having offered her political favours for sex in 2001, and then said he had been the father of her youngest child. She said the same of Lepper's close collaborator and MP, Stanislaw Lyzwinski, and accused him of rape and sexual abuse. She also said that Popecki, who had been Lyzwinski's aide, had tried to induce a miscarriage by giving her a labour-inducing drug called oxytocin.

Hypothesis: Andrzej Lepper is no longer the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development.


Premise: A man has died after riding the Expedition Everest roller coaster at Walt Disney World's Animal Kingdom in Orlando, Florida. The man, identified as Jeffery Reed, 44 from Navarre, was given CPR after being pulled off the ride unconscious, and was taken in an ambulance to Celebration Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Reed had no external signs of injuries, and police are investigating to determine whether or not Reed may have had any pre-existing medical conditions. An autopsy is to be performed on the body, but details have not yet been released.

Hypothesis: Walt Disney World is in Florida.


Premise: Total coal stocks with the thermal power stations came down to 9.6 million tonnes on March 3, 2003 from 11 million tonnes on October 1, 2002.

Hypothesis: Coal stocks rise.


Premise: Talks between the Boston Globe and its unions continued past a midnight deadline amid threats that the newspaper could be closed within weeks. Its owner, The New York Times, said it would file a notice with the government on Monday that it would shut the paper if there was no agreement on cost cuts. The owners want the unions to agree to $20m (£13.4m) in money saving measures. Guaranteed jobs for life are expected to be a sticking point, with the unions saying they are not negotiable.

Hypothesis: The Boston Globe is owned by The New York Times.


Premise: González Márquez, Felipe is a Spanish political leader. After joining what was then the Spanish Socialist Workers' party, González became its secretary-general and revived it from the moribund position into which it had fallen under Franco.

Hypothesis: Felipe González is the President of Spain.


Premise: Hunting reef sharks is now banned throughout Maldivian waters. The government decision has made the Indian Ocean archipelago the first nation in the region to outlaw the practice. Shark numbers have plummeted in the Maldives in recent years because a significant minority of fishermen target sharks for their lucrative fins, which are used in shark-fin soup, a luxury Asian dish. Once its fins have been cut off, the shark is often returned to the sea where it suffocates over many painful hours.

Hypothesis: Due to the decreasing number of sharks, Maldives have banned the hunt of reef sharks.


Premise: Benjamin Vanderford, 22, said he posted the 55-second clip, which shows a knife sawing against his neck, on an online file-sharing network in May.

Hypothesis: Mr Vanderford said he filmed his own mock execution in a friend's garage to show how the media could be fooled.


Premise: Accompanied by Sioux prayers and the keening of Scottish bagpipes, a plain cotton shirt was returned to South Dakota this past summer.

Hypothesis: A Sioux ghost shirt was returned by a Scottish museum.


Premise: Jean-Claude Trichet, the European Central Bank president, made it clear, on Wednesday, that he would oppose unwarranted political attempts to remove Antonio Fazio: the Bank of Italy governor, engulfed in controversy over his handling of bank takeover bids.

Hypothesis: Antonio Fazio works for the Bank of Italy.


Premise: The United States government has filed a civil lawsuit against BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. (BPXA) alleging that the company "violated federal clean air and water laws" by "illegally discharging" more than 200,000 gallons crude oil during two oil spills in 2006 on Alaska's North Slope in Prudhoe Bay. BPXA previously pleaded guilty to one count of criminal negligence in illegally discharging the oil and paid US$20 million in damages. As a result of the plea, the lawsuit was filed saying that they "failed" to prepare for such a disaster by implementing "certain [sic] spill prevention measures" as the law requires.

Hypothesis: Prudhoe Bay is situated in North Slope.


Premise: Christoffer's family was identified only as an Air Force family living in Southern California.

Hypothesis: Air Force is an organisation based in Southern California.


Premise: That film wasn't too successful, but then 'WarGames,' which was successful, came out right when I won the Tony for 'Brighton Beach' in 1983.

Hypothesis: The film "WarGames" was shot in 1983.


Premise: In 1997, insurance companies paid out $51.6 billion for prescription drugs.

Hypothesis: Insurance companies cover prescription drugs.


Premise: Tony Shalhoub won best actor in a comedy for "Monk", and James Spader won best actor in a drama for "Boston Legal."

Hypothesis: James Spader won best actor for "Boston Legal."


Premise: On Sunday December 14, 2008, an Iraqi journalist for an Egyptian Newspaper named Muntazer al-Zaidi was tackled by authorities after he threw his shoes at former United States president George W. Bush during a press conference in Baghdad. Bush had made a surprise last visit to Iraq to sign a new security pact brokered by Iraq and the U.S. Bush ducked as the flying shoes zipped past him, barely missing the now former U.S. president.

Hypothesis: A man threw a shoe at the Prime Minister.


Premise: The law once required settlers to clear 80% of their land in two years to win ownership.

Hypothesis: Before the late 1980's some nations even gave land and tax credit to individuals and companies slashing, burning, and exploiting the forest.


Premise: In an interview with the Sci Fi Wire, Robert Shaye, co-chairman of New Line and executive producer of The Lord of the Rings, said that New Line does not want to do any films, including The Hobbit, with Mr Jackson in the future. "I do not want to make a movie with somebody who is suing me. It will never happen during my watch." "I don't care about Peter Jackson anymore. He wants to have another $100 million or $50 million, whatever he's suing us for," Mr Shaye said.

Hypothesis: New Line wants to work with Peter Jackson.


Premise: Martin was taken to New Orleans Ochsner Foundation Hospital, where nurse Jinny Resor said he was treated for dehydration.

Hypothesis: Jinny Resor is employed at Ochsner Foundation Hospital.


Premise: Saddam Hussein was being treated with "dignity and respect."

Hypothesis: Saddam Hussein was being treated as a dignitary.


Premise: John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, approved this museum as the world's first museum to honor John Lennon.

Hypothesis: Yoko Ono is John Lennon's widow.


Premise: At a low-key ceremony, Albanian and British officials agreed to bury all outstanding differences caused by the 'Corfu Channel incident'.

Hypothesis: The dispute between Albania and the UK about the Corfu incident lasted a long time.


Premise: Rather than deterring crime, capital punishment actually increases the level of brutality in society.

Hypothesis: Capital punishment is a deterrent to crime.


Premise: By buying local companies, Philip Morris and its subsidiary inherit informal trade contacts cultivated under Soviet rule that may help to smooth any future moves east.

Hypothesis: American tobacco companies used state tobacco monopoly liberalization.


Premise: The comments made by Wells today, regarding the commissioner of baseball, do not in any way reflect the views of the club, Sox said in a statement.

Hypothesis: David Wells' comments drew a quick response from the players' union and the commissioner's office.


Premise: The agency identified five of the men as Palestinians, four of whom lived in East Jerusalem and held Jerusalem identity cards allowing them to move about Israel.

Hypothesis: They included Palestinian residents of east Jerusalem, who carry identity cards allowing them free movement in Israel.


Premise: South African President Thabo Mbeki, the main mediator in Côte d'Ivoire's peace process, said on Sunday that Pretoria is heightening its intervention in the West African nation to pave the way for elections later this year.

Hypothesis: Pretoria is located in Côte d'Ivoire.


Premise: Rising house and stock prices have made many people feel more wealthy and have helped to support consumer spending, a key ingredient of the economy's good health.

Hypothesis: A long spell of low interest rates and low risks for investors has especially encouraged investment in homes.


Premise: Protest votes as citizens of the 25 EU nations punished their governments for everything from high unemployment to involvement in Iraq.

Hypothesis: Citizens of the 25 EU nations are punished by their governments for everything.


Premise: Maine knows he killed Lennon and that he is also a child molester. During the '92 election George Bush admitted twice on TV "Nobody likes who shot John... I know the media is fascinated with this story but..."

Hypothesis: John Lennon was killed in 1992.


Premise: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged all 70 nations attending a conference on Afghanistan's future to help the country succeed. She told delegates at the one-day event in The Hague that the international effort there had been "undermanned and underfunded" over recent years. Among the countries to offer help has been US foe Iran. The conference comes after the US announced a major policy rethink on its approach towards Afghanistan. The meeting, called by the UN, comes amid widespread concern that not enough progress has been made since the US-led invasion in 2001. Support for Afghan reconstruction is being sought beyond the mainly-Western countries which have troops there.

Hypothesis: Hillary Clinton is the US Secretary of State.


Premise: Bogota, 4 May 88 - The dissemination of a document questioning Colombia's oil policy, is reportedly the aim of the publicity stunt carried out by the pro-Castro Army Of National Liberation, which kidnapped several honorary consuls, newsmen, and political leaders.

Hypothesis: The Army Of National Liberation are supporters of Castro.


Premise: Preliminary results from the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL), released 15 December 2005 by the US National Center for Education Statistics, indicate gains and losses in literacy among minority adults between 1992 and 2003.  The nationally representative study among US adults age 16 and older found the over-all average prose and document literacy remained relatively unchanged, but quantitative literacy improved 8 points (on a scale of 500.) Results among minorities were mixed, with White and Asian/Pacific Islander minorities scoring significantly higher than Hispanic or Black ethnicities; Hispanic subjects in particular had sharp decreases in prose and document literacy (-9% and -8%, respectively) and quantitative illiteracy remained unchanged with 50% of subjects scoring at less than basic literacy levels.

Hypothesis: The National Assessment of Adult Literacy is a project held by the US National Center for Education Statistics.


Premise: Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA), headquartered in Montvale, New Jersey, is responsible for the sales, marketing and service of all Mercedes-Benz and Maybach products in the United States.

Hypothesis: MBUSA is based in New Yersey.


Premise: Sunday Express, a tabloid newspaper from the UK reported an anonymous source claiming to be an insider to merger talks between Wells Fargo Bank and Barclays Bank. The rumoured merger would be a radical break in the kinds of mergers Wells Fargo has done and has said it will continue to do (it is assumed that Wells with the higher market capitalization would be the buyer). Wells Fargo has previously shown no desire to engage in retail banking outside the United States, and has only expanded internationally in its Consumer Finance business and with certain business services.

Hypothesis: Barclays Bank is one of the UK tabloid newspapers.


Premise: Born in 1946, into a family many of whose members belonged to liberal professions, Radwa Ashour studied English Literature at Cairo University. She is now Professor of English Literature at Ain Shams University, a novelist, the wife of Palestinian poet Mourid Al-Barghouti and Umm Tamim.

Hypothesis: Rwada Ashour is a Palestinian poet.


Premise: Robert Szabo concludes that circumcision, as practiced by Muslims, would be the most immediately effective intervention for reducing HIV transmission since it is done before men are sexually active.

Hypothesis: It is incorrect to assert that circumcision prevents HIV infection.


Premise: The 500,000 eligible, Muslim voters are likely to reward Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats (SPD) in the September 18 parliamentary election, for its anti-Iraq war position and pro-Muslim policies.

Hypothesis: Gerhard Schroeder belongs to the Social Democrats.


Premise: A priest who served in the Diocese of Metuchen in the mid-1980s has been sentenced to life in prison for sexually abusing a Massachusetts boy.

Hypothesis: Pedophile gets life in prison


Premise: The treaty requires that members comply with guidelines on deficits, public debt and other fiscal benchmarks by the end of 1997 if they are to qualify for taking part in the introduction of a new, single European currency in 1999.

Hypothesis: The European single currency was introduced in 1999.


Premise: Yoko Ono, widow of murdered Beatles star John Lennon, has plastered the small German town of Langenhagen with backsides.

Hypothesis: Yoko Ono was John Lennon's wife.


Premise: Nicholas Cage's wife, Alice Kim Cage, gave birth Monday, to Kal-el Coppola Cage, in New York City, said the actor's Los Angeles-based publicist, Annett Wolf.

Hypothesis: Kal-el Coppola Cage is the son of Nicholas Cage.


Premise: Anna Politkovskaya was found shot dead on Saturday in a lift at her block of flats in the Russian capital, Moscow.

Hypothesis: Anna Politkovskaya was murdered.


Premise: Strong support was given to water conservation, recycling and demand reduction options, while storage augmentation (dam building) was rejected on the grounds that there would not be sufficient water to fill any new dams.

Hypothesis: Dam building prevents life-threatening situations.


Premise: Côte d'Ivoire, once a haven of stability in West Africa and the world's top cocoa producer, has been split in two since a failed coup against Gbagbo in September 2002, pitting rebels from the Muslim-dominated north against the Christian-populated south.

Hypothesis: Côte d'Ivoire is located in Africa.


Premise: The common binding of Catholic faith did little to prevent the Bavarians from slaughtering fellow believers in the 19th century under Prussian Protestant officers.

Hypothesis: 19 Bavarians are Catholic.


Premise: The presidents of Ecuador and Peru say they have agreed to work together to try to find a peaceful solution to their long-running border dispute.

Hypothesis: Peru debates border region with Ecuador.


Premise: Two weeks ago, China became the first nation to operate a maglev railway commercially, when officials inaugurated a 30-kilometer-long line between downtown Shanghai and the city's airport.

Hypothesis: Maglev is commercially used.


Premise: The Democrats' success in the 2006 elections means changes at the top in the House and Senate.

Hypothesis: Democrats won the 2006 elections.


Premise: The United Nations last night elected eight judges for the international war crimes tribunal that will try those accused of murders and other atrocities in former Yugoslavia since 1991.

Hypothesis: 11 judges in the Yugoslavia war tribunal were sworn in at the World court.


Premise: Although most Palestinians crossed into Egypt in order to shop and see relatives, Palestinian officials say that the recent border chaos enabled smugglers to bring drugs and weapons into Gaza.

Hypothesis: Egyptian and Palestinian border guards failed repeatedly in efforts to end the chaos and to close the border.


Premise: After the press conference, I met up with a Microsoft guy, John Traynor: senior director of segment marketing for the mobile devices division.

Hypothesis: John Traynor is an executive of Microsoft.


Premise: A Yorkshire pub affected by flooding in 2007 has been named CAMRA's National Pub of the Year for 2008. The Kelham Island Tavern in Sheffield's Kelham Island Quarter was in a "semi derelict" state when it was purchased in 2001. After it was re-opened in 2002 by licensee Trevor Wraith and manager Lewis Gonda, business quickly picked up and the pub has been awarded Sheffield CAMRA's local Pub of the Year award for the past four years. The pub won the award despite six weeks of closure a year and a half ago when the pub's cellar and floor were affected by the flooding of the River Don and the nearby Kelham goit. The pub also received Yorkshire CAMRA's Pub of the Year award in 2004 and 2007.

Hypothesis: The Kelham Island Tavern is situated in Sheffield.


Premise: George Hawi's assassination came on the heels of the conclusion of the last round of parliamentary elections, which saw a coalition of opposition candidates led by Saad Hariri, son of former Prime Minister of Lebanon Rafik Hariri , capture a majority of seats.

Hypothesis: Saad Hariri was elected Prime Minister of Lebanon.


Premise: A man suspected of stealing a million-dollar collection of hundreds of ancient Nepalese and Tibetan art objects in New York 11 years ago was arrested Thursday at his South Los Angeles home, where he had been hiding the antiquities.

Hypothesis: A man suspected of stealing a million-dollar collection of Nepalese and Tibetan art objects in New York was arrested.


Premise: Between 1978 and 1982, 32 states acknowledged the medical benefits and attempted to make cannabis available, but possession remains a federal offence. Among the states where marijuana is legally used for medical purposes are California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Arizona, and Nevada.

Hypothesis: In the Netherlands, people can legally have 32 grams of cannabis in their possession.


Premise: The ecological problems stem in large part from the fact that the brackish water and productive coastal wetlands and natural areas are often supplied with nutrient-rich irrigation return water, sometimes from rice farming. The Ebro Delta and its wetlands suffer similar water quality problems since they lie around the fringes of the large Delta farm region.

Hypothesis: The Ebro Delta is used for farming.


Premise: Also Friday, five Iraqi soldiers were killed and nine wounded in a bombing, targeting their convoy near Beiji, 150 miles north of Baghdad, the Iraqi military said.

Hypothesis: Three Iraqi soldiers also died Saturday when their convoy was attacked by gunmen near Adhaim.


Premise: The west has preferred to focus on endangered animals, rather than endangered humans. African elephants are hunted down and stripped of tusks and hidden by poachers. Their numbers in Africa slumped from 1.2m to 600,000 in a decade until CITES - the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species - banned the trade in ivory.

Hypothesis: The African elephant population was decimated by poachers.


Premise: Alleged terrorists today, killed Dolores Hinostroza, the mayor of Mulqui district, shooting her five times.

Hypothesis: The mayor of Mulqui district was murdered with a firearm.


Premise: IKEA offers fantastic and affordable solutions for your home furnishing needs.

Hypothesis: Ikea is a home.


Premise: The President George Bush administration, on Friday, ordered the sale of 30 million barrels of crude oil from the government's emergency stockpile in order to halt runaway oil prices triggered by Hurricane Katrina.

Hypothesis: The Bush administration will release 30 million barrels of crude oil from U.S. reserves.


Premise: The son of Italy's last king returned to his homeland Monday, ending more than a half-century of exile. Victor Emmanuel and his family landed at a military airport in Rome in a private plane and headed immediately for an audience with Pope John Paul II.

Hypothesis: Italian royal family returns home.


Premise: Anna Nobili, 38, spent years working as an exotic dancer and striptease artist at Milan night clubs but now she's a Catholic nun who describes herself a "ballerina for God". The Daily Mail reports that Sr Anna Nobili, a lap dancer turned nun is to perform a religious dance in front of an audience of Catholic cardinals and bishops. She swapped string bikinis and high heels for a nun's habit after a visit to the shrine of St Francis in Assisi, a place of pilgrimage for millions of Catholics in Umbria, in 2002.

Hypothesis: Anna Nobili is a nun.


Premise: In conversations with Ms. Robbins, it is understood that Armstrong Environmental Inc. has been retained by past or present owners or some combination of these parties.

Hypothesis: Ms Robbins is a co-owner of Armstrong Environmental Inc.


Premise: US military forces are evacuating U.S. citizens and citizens of 72 other countries from Liberia at the request of the U.S.

Hypothesis: U.S. Military evacuated U.S. citizens.


Premise: If toxic waste containg cyanide is not disposed of properly, it may drain into ponds, streams, sewers, and reservoirs.

Hypothesis: Leaks into environment are caused by bad disposal of toxic waste containing cyanide.


Premise: The mine would operate nonstop seven days a week and use tons of cyanide each day to leach the gold from crushed ore.

Hypothesis: A weak cyanide solution is poured over it to pull the gold from the rock.


Premise: Even though the charges were dropped on January 22, 2006, his Nobel Prize reception continues to provoke mixed feelings of pride and anger among Turks. On the other hand, as Pamuk intended, the criminal case brought international attention to freedom of speech in Turkey. In his Nobel speech, he defined literature as:  ... what a person creates when he shuts himself up in a room, sits down at a table, and retires to a corner to express his thoughts - that is, the meaning of literature... When a writer shuts himself up in a room for years on end, with this gesture he suggests a single humanity, a world without a centre.

Hypothesis: Pamuk won a Nobel Prize.


Premise: Prosecutors in South Africa are set to announce whether they will drop corruption charges against African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma. Mr Zuma is widely expected to become the country's next president after elections later this month. He is accused of graft, racketeering and money-laundering in connection with an arms deal signed with western companies in 1999. The 66-year-old denies the charges and says they are part of a political plot. Mr Zuma was first charged in 2005, but has yet to face trial.

Hypothesis: Jacob Zuma is 66 years old.


Premise: It would create an underclass of illiterate and impoverished residents, deprived of basic skills, including English-language skills, necessary for the integration of immigrant children into our society and our work force.

Hypothesis: Language skills are a means of social integration.


Premise: The Argentinian propaganda made the Gurkhas out to be evil savages who ate their PoW's. However instead of causing the Argentinian conscripts fight to the end, it caused them to run away, the Gurkhas never saw more than brief token resistance.

Hypothesis: The Gurkhas come from Nepal.


Premise: Arsenal sneaked a 1-0 victory over Birmingham at Highbury, taking advantage of Stephen Clemence's own-goal in the 81st minute.

Hypothesis: Arsenal lost to Birmingham.


Premise: Sources in Tegucigalpa reported that many Latin American countries are gearing up to face Hurricane "Mitch".

Hypothesis: South American countries are preparing for "Mitch"


Premise: When complete, over 2 million people are expected to be displaced. After wiping out the least desirable shanties, next in line for demolition are the illegal "well-off" shanties and neighborhoods, according to the legal and bureaucratic motions that have been executed toward cleaning up Mumbai's appearance by lowering the dominance of shanties, which make up 62 percent of Mumbai's housing.

Hypothesis: 200,000 shanties have been demolished.


Premise: According to the Spanish daily, this type of bacterium is prevalent in hospitals throughout the world, but the incidence of infection in Madrid hospitals is lower than the Spanish average. The head of the Neonatal Unit at 12 de Octubre Hospital, Carmen Pay's, explained that the bacterium is very adaptable "and keeps on learning". The father of the dead baby, an Ecuadorian named Angel Marcelo, was quoted as saying that the progress of the baby had at first been "tremendous", and that he had even been taken off the respirator, but that a few days later he began to cough up blood, dying soon afterwards.

Hypothesis: The Spanish daily is set in Madrid.


Premise: JERUSALEM, April 2 (Xinhua) -- Israel's new Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was questioned by police on Thursday over several criminal allegations, local news service Ynet reported.  National Fraud Unit investigators questioned the deputy premier, who is suspected of bribery, money laundering, fraud and breach of trust, for over seven hours, and another round is in the cards, said the report.  "Lieberman answered all of the questions he was asked, and will continue to do so in the future," his attorney Yaron Kostelitz was quoted as saying.

Hypothesis: Avigdor Lieberman is the Foreign Minister of Israel.


Premise: A matching fingerprint was discovered on the strap.

Hypothesis: A matching fingerprint was excavated from the strap.


Premise: Sharon warns Arafat could be targeted for assassination.

Hypothesis: prime minister targeted for assassination


Premise: The fight originated when Gilson Ramos da Silva, 21, a.k.a. "Gilson Aritana," a member of the ADA ("Amigos do Bairro") gang led other members into the "morro da Mineira" (Miner Hill) to sell drugs, Ricardo Teixeira Dias, a local police official said. The region is controlled by rival gang Comando Vermelho (Red Command), which does not approve of other gangs selling drugs in the region. Comando Vermelho members started attacking the rival members of ADA to protect their turf.

Hypothesis: Ramos da Silva killed 11 people.


Premise: It's a vote of confidence that the momentum is going to continue, Doyle said . The momentum also appears to be moving south . The Mexican election is the latest indication that the free-market reforms that have swept Latin America during the past decade are gaining political acceptance . In Brazil , prices rose sharply , reacting to the Mexico vote and to new polls favorable to free-market presidential candidate Fernando Henrique Cardoso .

Hypothesis: Fernando Henrique Cardoso is a presidential candidate.


Premise: Two bombs planted near an Islamic school in Pakistan killed eight people and injured 42 others yesterday in the latest outbreak of violence gripping the southern port of Karachi.

Hypothesis: 42 people killed in Karachi bomb attack.


Premise: Wal-Mart has received a lot of negative publicity recently, including allegations that it used illegal workers and made employees work without pay during lunch breaks, as well as complaints that it generally underpays employees.

Hypothesis: Wal-Mart faces allegations for underpaying employees.


Premise: Passions surrounding Germany's final match at the Euro 2004 soccer championships turned violent when a woman stabbed her partner in the head because she didn't want to watch the game on television.

Hypothesis: A man was stabbed because of a soccer game.


Premise: The 10-day-old "test-tube" baby elephant born at Colchester Zoo has found a name, thanks to the internet!

Hypothesis: baby elephant born


Premise: Baghdad had announced that it will stop cooperating with UNSCOM completely but indicated that it will not ask for their departure.

Hypothesis: Baghdad announced the complete halt in their cooperation with UNSCOM, and said also, that it will ask them to leave.


Premise: Fariba Ahmedi, a woman MP from Khandahar who was present at Ahmed-jan's funeral told the Associated Press, "The enemy of Afghanistan killed her, but they should know it will not derail women from the path we are on. We will continue on our way,". Sonja Bachmann, a U.N. political officer who knew Ahmed-jan well told the New York Times that Ahmed-jan "did a good job, she worked in a very low-key way and worked hard to raise awareness about women's issues."

Hypothesis: Fariba Ahmedi was friends with Sonja Bachmann.


Premise: Bukowski attracted the attention of John Martin who founded Black Sparrow Press in 1965 specifically to publish him.

Hypothesis: John Martin is the founder of Black Sparrow Press.


Premise: A statement said to be from al Qaida, claimed the terror group had killed one American and kidnapped another in Riyadh.

Hypothesis: A U.S. citizen working in Riyadh has been kidnapped after a colleague in the same company was shot dead yesterday.


Premise: The White House pressure, reported by Iraqi officials in Baghdad and an American official in Washington, on Sunday, was a change in the administration's hands-off approach to Iraqi politics.

Hypothesis: Washington is pressing Iraq's leaders to end weeks of political deadlock and to form a new government as soon as possible, US officials say.


Premise: This weekend, March 25 and 26, was a big weekend in the Ottawa area for Canadian Idol want a Be's. Canadian Idol is a national singing competition that is organized by CTV Inc. a Canadian broadcasting communications company for Canadian citizens. The television show, greatly based on "American Idol," has been on going for several seasons. In the past auditions have been know to have line-ups of thousands of people, however, this year after taking a tour around the new location it appears that line ups were manageable. Having the auditions at the St. Laurent Shopping mall [1] makes this easier said Idol's security coordinator Rick Paciorek.[2] Organizers have decided to change the way the auditions will "rock and roll."

Hypothesis: Canadian Idol is a competition for singers.


Premise: Fears were growing last night for the safety of a 'distressed' mother who has disappeared with her disabled nine-year-old daughter. Florist Jude Richmond, whose customers include the Royal Family, was last seen carrying cerebral palsy sufferer Millie Whitehead-Richmond as they left home on Sunday night. Mrs Richmond, 41, was said to have been devastated after splitting from her husband and business partner, Nicholas Richmond, earlier this year.  Police believe she became increasingly depressed after the split. She is said to be in a 'very vulnerable state of mind' at the time of her disappearance.

Hypothesis: Jude Richmond is a florist.


Premise: A recently created Danish clothing company is selling on the internet T-shirts in order to support the clandestine radio station of the Colombian guerrilla group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the graphical workshop of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). In fact the money will be used by these groups to carry on their terrorist activities. FARC activities include kidnappings, masacres, bombs, extortions and the drug trade. Fighters and Lovers is selling the T-shirts at 170 DKK (US$27.6), from which 35 DKK (US$5.7) are to be destinated to support both armed groups.

Hypothesis: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia teamed up with Fighters and Lovers.


Premise: South African President Thabo Mbeki, the main mediator in Cote d'Ivoire's peace process, said, on Sunday, that Pretoria is heightening its intervention in the West African nation in order to pave the way for elections later this year.

Hypothesis: Thabo Mbeki is a citizen of Cote d'Ivoire.


Premise: By 2010 the following countries have the potential to produce more oil than they have ever produced before: Saudi Arabia,  Iraq, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Kazakhstan and Bolivia.

Hypothesis: Kuwait produces more oil than any other country.


Premise: Loki Torrent, a site that tracks links to BitTorrent files, was sued by the motion picture industry for copyright infringement on December 14, 2004, but has decided to mount a legal defense. The site operators have set up a legal defense fund in order to raise the $30,000 per month they estimate will be necessary to cover legal costs. The suit was filed in a U.S. District Court in Texas on behalf of Columbia Pictures - a major movie studio. The lawsuit is part of the MPAA campaign to crack down on Internet piracy.

Hypothesis: Loki Torrent was sued for manslaughter.


Premise: With Washington hinting it might soften its tough stance to break the deadlock, top US negotiator, Christopher Hill, said the two sides needed to review the situation.

Hypothesis: Christopher Hill works for the US.


Premise: Consumers who take any of the contaminated pills could suffer minor stomach discomfort or possible cuts to the mouth and throat, the FDA said, adding that the risk of serious injury was remote.

Hypothesis: Contaminated pills could cause minor stomach discomfort or possible cuts to the mouth and throat.


Premise: The measures currently in force include a travel ban on senior government figures, but France has invited Mr. Mugabe to a Franco-African summit in Paris next month, angering several countries.

Hypothesis: France angered a number of countries, by inviting Mr. Mugabe to attend a Franco-African summit in Paris.


Premise: In Greek mythology Mount Olympus was the home of the gods and the site of the throne of Zeus, the chief deity.

Hypothesis: Mount Olympus is in Greece.


Premise: Now, President Barack Obama, discussing his plans for health care, has vowed to find "a cure" for cancer in our time and said that, as part of the economic stimulus package, he would increase federal money for cancer research by a third for the next two years. Cancer has always been an expensive priority. Since the war on cancer began, the National Cancer Institute, the federal government's main cancer research entity, with 4,000 employees, has alone spent $105 billion. And other government agencies, universities, drug companies and philanthropies have chipped in uncounted billions more.

Hypothesis: The headquarters of the National Cancer Institute are in Seattle.


Premise: Last month, native bird trappers have snared and caught the Luzon Buttonquail (Turnix worcesteri or Worcester's buttonquail) in Dalton Pass, a cold and wind-swept bird passageway in the Caraballo Mountains, in Nueva Vizcaya, located between Cordillera Central and Sierra Madre mountain ranges, in Northern Luzon. The rare species, previously known to birders only through drawings based on dead museum specimens collected several decades ago, was identified in a documentary filmed in the Philippines called Bye-Bye Birdie."

Hypothesis: Luzon Buttonquail is a rare species from the Philippines.


Premise: Yunus, who shared the 1.4 million prize Friday with the Grameen Bank that he founded 30 years ago, pioneered the concept of "microcredit." It allows very poor people, who don't qualify for traditional loans, to get loans of as little as a few dollars without collateral. The banks' shareholders are the impoverished people it supports.

Hypothesis: Yunus founded the Grameen Bank 30 years ago.


Premise: Journalists of the concealed BBC, that was made happen through advisers of London industralists, asked Slavkov.

Hypothesis: BBC undercover reporters, posing as consultants acting for London businessmen, ask Slavkov.


Premise: With $549 million in cash as of June 30, Google can easily afford to make amends.

Hypothesis: Some 30 million shares have been assigned to the company's workers.


Premise: Women are poorly represented in transactions financed by mortgage bonds.

Hypothesis: Women are poorly represented in parliament.


Premise: Confidential scriptural materials allegedly stolen from a church were not "trade secrets" as defined by California statute.

Hypothesis: Trade secrets were stolen.


Premise: Tens of thousands of Colombians and Venezuelans attended a free concert Sunday, held on a bridge linking the two countries. It was organized by Grammy-winning rock artist Juanes to celebrate the end of the diplomatic crisis between Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador, and to further improve peaceful relations within the region. The "Peace Without Borders" concert was staged atop the Simón Bolívar bridge, which connects the Colombian town of Cúcuta with the Venezuelan town of San Antonio del Táchira. "It would have been much more practical and simple to do it in a city," Juanes told the Miami Herald, "but the border is a symbol of peace between all countries. And this message is for everyone, all the countries in Latin America and the U.S. as well."

Hypothesis: Ecuador is now allies with Colombia and Venezuela.


Premise: The Beetle has achieved an unbelievable cult status across the world, not least because its creation marked the launch of what has since become the largest car company in Europe.

Hypothesis: Europe produces the 'Beetle'.


Premise: Immediately after 1990, however, Swedish fertility plummeted in another unique movement, and had fallen to 1.5 children per woman in 1998 and in 1999. This is the lowest birth rate in Sweden ever-although above the European average.

Hypothesis: Sweden is the European country with the highest birth rate.


Premise: Thousands of troops are being deployed to secure the city of Bogor, where Bush is to hold talks with his Indonesian counterpart, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Hypothesis: Bush is scheduled to visit the city of Bogor.


Premise: Blue Mountain Lumber said today it may have to relocate a $30 million project offshore in the wake of an Environment Court decision that blocked it from a planned development site on the Coromandel.

Hypothesis: Blue Mountain Lumber will locate a development site on the Coromandel.


Premise: Côte d'Ivoire's President Laurent Gbagbo promulgated new election laws on July 14, including the creation of an independent electoral commission to oversee the presidential vote, which is slated for October 30.

Hypothesis: New elections in Côte d'Ivoire will take place on July 14.


Premise: Also ruled out, for the moment, is any tie-up with a new alliance of Social Democrat dissidents and former communists known as the Left Party, which garnered 8.7%.

Hypothesis: It seems unlikely that there will be a coalition between Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats and Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union.


Premise: Fourteen guests and five crew remained ill and in isolation when the ship arrived at Port Everglades, Fla., according to a statement from Carnival Cruise Lines, a brand of Carnival Corp.

Hypothesis: The Carnival Cruise Lines is a brand of Carnival Corp.


Premise: Addressing a function organized here by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Anand said, the greatest and most urgent challenges of human rights in India were in the areas of maternal and child care, child education, child labor, child abuse and protection of minorities and weaker sections.

Hypothesis: Amnesty International takes care of human rights.


Premise: The Nobel committee said in a statement that "lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty."

Hypothesis: The Nobel committee plans to help people break out of poverty.


Premise: Armed police were deployed at UCL Hospital, near Warren Street tube station, after reports of a suspect entering the hospital. There was speculation that one of the bombers may have been injured and sought treatment at the hospital. A Scotland Yard spokesman had said "We are dealing with an incident at University College Hospital and we have armed officers deployed there. We cannot go in any further detail at this stage." A UCL spokeswoman confirmed that an email had been sent to staff asking them to be on the lookout for the suspect. At 16:00 a spokesman for the Metropolitan police confirmed that the incident was over, but armed police returned to the hospital 30 minutes later to search the premises. Police have now also confirmed this is unrelated to the explosions.

Hypothesis: Police report there has been an explosion in the tube station.


Premise: The decision by Uzbekistan was the latest development in diplomatic fallout with Washington over U.S. criticism about a violent crackdown against anti-government protestors last May.

Hypothesis: Uzbekistan protests against Washington.


Premise: World leaders expressed concern on Thursday that North Korea will quit six-party nuclear disarmament talks and will  bolster its nuclear weapons arsenal.

Hypothesis: World leaders have condemned North Korea for pulling out of talks.


Premise: Humans have won notable battles in the war against infection - and antibiotics are still powerful weapons - but nature has evolution on its side, and the war against bacterial diseases is by no means over.

Hypothesis: Bacteria is winning the war against antibiotics.


Premise: The Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet printed an article about the "intolerance page".

Hypothesis: Dagbladet is a Norwegian newspaper.


Premise: Bombs exploded in two Turkish cities Thursday only days before Turkey plays host to a NATO summit.

Hypothesis: Turkey plays host to suicide bombers.


Premise: In Africa today, the majority of infected people acquire HIV by the time they are in their 20s or 30s and, on average, die within ten years.

Hypothesis: 20-30 percent of people infected with HIV live in Africa.


Premise: Prime Minister Jos Manuel Duro Barroso resigns. He is to assume the presidency of the European Commission later in the year (the European Parliament approves him on July 22).

Hypothesis: New Portuguese prime minister is elected.


Premise: Stefano Falconi, director of finance at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has joined Carnegie Mellon as its vice president for administration and chief financial officer. Falconi succeeds Jeff Bolton, who left the university last July to become chief financial officer at the Mayo Foundation in Rochester, Minn.

Hypothesis: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) appoints Stefano Falconi as chief financial officer.


Premise: Japanese drug makers are now trying to build comprehensive independent operations in research and development, production and marketing.

Hypothesis: There are companies that have split the management of their Research and Development processes.


Premise: Nancy Vine, who sells tickets at the Big Sky drive-in, seven nights a week, is a daughter of Donald and Dorothy LeGros - part of the extended family that operates the drive-in.

Hypothesis: Nancy Vine is in business with Donald and Dorothy LeGros.


Premise: He determined that there were 1,678 illegal votes cast in the election, but he said Republicans had provided no real proof that illegal votes benefited Gregoire.

Hypothesis: Most of the illegal votes cast in the election went to Gregoire.


Premise: Fest : "In the Name of the Father" an Academy Award contender starring Daniel Day-Lewis as a man wrongly convicted for an IRA bombing, won the Golden Bear Award for best picture Monday at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Hypothesis: The Berlin International Film Festival awards the Golden Bear.


Premise: Announced early Wednesday morning at Nokia's GoEvent, in a plan to expand the company's revenue, Finland-based company Nokia Inc. is developing a mobile phone similar to its rival iPhone, which will be available in the near future for Nokia customers. The phone is expected to be available by 2008. Most of the features are the same as the iPhone's. They include music, games, and many other features, even ones that the iPhone may not have. Ovi (in Finnish meaning "Door") will be the door for more than 2 million songs and games available for download on the new device. Users will be able to download wirelessly in their own home or anywhere there is access to a computer.

Hypothesis: Nokia is a company based in Finland.


Premise: Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC) television head, Sandra Levy, has quit to become the director of development for "Channel Nine." Her new role is expected to focus on drama. ABC managing director Russell Balding said that Ms Levy had lifted audiences to "historically unprecedented" levels. However, Ms Levy came under fire during her ABC tenure for an overly conservative programming approach to major news stories - notably a sluggish response to coverage of the December 2004 South Asian Tsunami. She was criticised for refusing to interrupt regular programming to go to breaking news reports.

Hypothesis: Sandra Levy works for Channel Nine.


Premise: Sheehan, whose 24-year-old son, Casey, died last year in Iraq, started her antiwar demonstration along the roadside in Crawford, Texas, on Aug. 6, demanding to meet with the president.

Hypothesis: Ms. Sheehan, whose son was killed last year in an attack in Iraq, left her camp Thursday, for Los Angeles to be with her mother, Shirley Miller, who suffered a stroke.


Premise: Superintendent Frank Goodyer, who was caught by his own officers in the Wagga Wagga Local Area Command, was charged with driving at more than 45km/h over the speed limit, had his automatically license suspended for six months and fined A$1674. It was reported by Sydney radio station 2GB that it was Superintendent Frank Goodyer as the officer who was caught speeding by his own officers after the New South Wales Police released a media release which did not name the officer who was caught.

Hypothesis: Frank Goodyer was caught driving over the speed limit.


Premise: Police sources stated that during the bomb attack involving the Shining Path, two people were injured.

Hypothesis: Two people were wounded by a bomb.


Premise: Baghdad had announced that it will stop cooperating with UNSCOM completely but indicated that it will not ask for their departure.

Hypothesis: Baghdad will end it's cooperation with UNSCOM, and wants them to leave.


Premise: The owners of Phinda, the South African-based Conservation Corporation, could not have paid for a better advertisement for their philosophy of wildlife conservation: a people-based approach to conservation, which is slowly gaining ground in Africa as game reserves come under ever greater threat from hungry, poor and angry local populations.

Hypothesis: The South African-based Conservation Corporation threatens the local population.


Premise: The jet was carrying 152 tourists from Martinique, returning home after a week in Panama, officials said.

Hypothesis: The plane was returning to the French Caribbean island of Martinique, from Panama.


Premise: At least 58 people are now dead as a result of the recent flooding in Yemen, and at least 20,000 in the country have no access to shelter. Five people are also reported missing. The Yemeni government has pledged to send tents to help the homeless. The flooding is caused by the recent heavy rain in Yemen, which came as a shock due to the fact that the country only receives several centimeters of rain per year.

Hypothesis: Heavy rain caused flooding in Yemen.


Premise: Mayor Michael Bloomberg seemed ambivalent to the change, saying "I would like to see it stay the Freedom Tower, but it's their building, and they don't need me dumping on it. If they could rent the whole thing by changing the name, I guess they're going to do that, and they probably, from a responsible point of view, should. From a patriotic point of view, is it going to make any difference?".

Hypothesis: The Freedom Tower belongs to Michael Bloomberg.


Premise: Hubble is helping astronomers precisely calculate the age of the universe by providing accurate distances to galaxies, an important prerequisite for calculating age. Hubble measures the distances to neighboring galaxies by finding accurate "milepost markers," a special class of pulsating star called Cepheid variables. These, in turn, are being used to calibrate more remote milepost markers.

Hypothesis: Hubble discovers black holes.


Premise: Clint Brown, sports presenter for 3 News on TV3 in New Zealand has resigned amid the allegations that he had verbally attacked a taxi driver which resulted in him being admitted to hospital with a concussion and a broken eye socket. TV3 has confirmed that they have accepted the resignation of Brown. Rick Friesen, Chief Operating Officer of the TV Works division of CanWest MediaWorks NZ, that runs TV3, said: "We wish to acknowledge Clint's significant skills as a sports broadcaster, and thank him for his 17 years of very loyal service to TV3. Clint Brown is a passionate New Zealand sports fan, and he has been at the forefront of some of New Zealand's biggest sporting moments."

Hypothesis: Rick Friesen is employed at CanWest MediaWorks NZ.


Premise: The BBC's Tim Franks says frustrated British diplomats insist there have been several achievements but there is no doubt that the continued delay in reaching agreement on a budget for the EU hangs over all discussions.

Hypothesis: Diplomats agree on EU budget.


Premise: People who are deaf or have hearing impairments, those who are blind or have vision impairments, and those with mobility impairments may face unique challenges in an emergency. Their ability to detect a fire or escape its effects may be hindered by their impairments. As a result, people with these impairments are at a greater risk of death or injury due to fire.

Hypothesis: Deaf people encounter problems in the social community.


Premise: Meanwhile, in an exclusive interview with a TIME journalist, the first one-on-one session given to a Western print publication since his election as president of Iran earlier this year, Ahmadinejad attacked the "threat" to bring the issue of Iran's nuclear activity to the UN Security Council by the US, France, Britain and Germany.

Hypothesis: Ahmadinejad is a citizen of Iran.


Premise: The ball took one last turn and dropped into the cup for birdie, making Retief Goosen more than just the sole survivor of par at Pinehurst No. 2.

Hypothesis: Goosen managed a combined 25-over par for the closing round.


Premise: The body of Satomi Mitarai was found by a teacher after her attacker returned to class in bloody clothes.

Hypothesis: Mitarai's body was found by a teacher after her killer returned to their classroom covered in blood.


Premise: Canadian MP Belinda Stronach, 40, has reportedly cheated with Canadian hockey star Tie Domi. Domi and his wife were in court today getting divorced and both have now reached a temporary settlement in their divorce proceedings, less than an hour before the case was to be heard before Toronto's Superior Court. Stronach is refusing to comment on the divorce or say if she "wrecked" Domi's marriage. "If it wasn't for my husband's affair with Belinda, we wouldn't be getting a divorce," Leanne told the Toronto Star in an interview last night. Domi's wife claimed that the former Toronto Maple Leaf player told her if she did not hire a lawyer he would give her $1 million in cash and a $1.5-million house if she kept quiet about his affair with Stronach. If she contacted a lawyer, however, she "would get nothing."

Hypothesis: Leanne was married to Tie Domi.


Premise: Kaspars Ruklis, press official at the United States Embassy, told the Baltic News Service that Mrs. Bush chose to visit Latvia's Occupation.

Hypothesis: Kaspars Ruklis works for the United States Embassy.


Premise: The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd. raised $19.07 billion Friday after pricing its initial public offering at HK$3.07 (39 cents), the top end of its indicative price range, to become the world's biggest ever IPO.

Hypothesis: The merger of Japanese Banks creates the world's biggest bank.


Premise: Seal hunting has been a tradition in Norway for thousands of years, but has dwindled recently with only about half the annual 1,200 quota being killed each year.

Hypothesis: Seal-hunting endangers species.


Premise: Military ties between the two countries have been governed officially by an arms embargo imposed by Britain on Argentina.

Hypothesis: Britain has maintained an arm embargo.


Premise: As leaders gather in Argentina ahead of this weekends regional talks, Hugo Chávez, Venezuela's populist president, is using an energy windfall to win friends and promote his vision of 21st-century socialism.

Hypothesis: Chávez is a follower of socialism.


Premise: Bledsoe will be released by the Buffalo Bills, a move that upset the 33-year-old quarterback who started every game for the team the past three seasons.

Hypothesis: The Buffalo Bills are releasing Drew Bledsoe, their quarterback.


Premise: Germans vote for a party, rather than a person, and the left-of-center Social Democrats do not score as well in polls as Scharping himself.

Hypothesis: Rudolph Scharping is a member of the Social Democrats.


Premise: Despite Chinese assertions of control, tensions over the South China Sea's waters have continued to rise.

Hypothesis: There is a territorial waters dispute.


Premise: The death penalty is not a deterrent.

Hypothesis: Capital punishment is a deterrent to crime.