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MORNING OPENERS (3#) -

We've been have stormy weather here for the past couple of days, which has interfered with blogging. So, I decided to start today with a few more off-beat stories:

# Hostile Troopers: Mariam Al Hakeem is reporting that girls at a school in Saudi Arabia have been attacked by a troop of baboons; these attacks have become a growing problem in the southern regions of Taif, Al Baha and Majarida recently.

# "The inaugural Sony World Photography Awards will be held in Cannes, France, between April 21 and 25. Top amateur honors have gone to Arup Ghosh of India. Professional shutterbugs nominated in 11 categories will find out in Cannes who has been named Photographer of the Year." See a gallery of the finalists here, too.

# Young Star Academy TV Celeb Joins Terrorists: A new al-Qaeda video is expected in three months from Al-Sahab featuring Hussein al-Ahmad, a Kuwaiti pop singer featured on the Star Academy TV show, who left for Afghanistan a few weeks ago in order to join al-Qaeda fighters in that country.

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