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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 5, 2008

NATION

Justices Will Hear Cursing In Hallowed High Court

WASHINGTON - Come Election Day, there almost certainly will be cursing at the Supreme Court.

The justices are scheduled to hear a case that day concerning profanity on television, and it will be hard for the advocates in the case to describe its facts without using four-letter words. The appeals court argument, which involves swearing by Cher and Paris Hilton on a prime-time awards show, would have made a sailor blush.

When Cher appeared on the Billboard Music Awards in 2002, she used a four-letter word connoting sex. The next year, on the same show, banter between Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie included that word and another obscenity.

The case is on the docket for the new term, which starts Monday, and involves the significant but perhaps not momentous First Amendment issue.

WORLD

U.S. Diplomatic Gesture Gets A Cool Reception In Iran

TEHRAN, Iran - Now the ball is in Iran's court.

Last week, the United States granted a rare waiver allowing a U.S.-based Iranian American lobbying group to set up shop here in what some people consider a gesture of diplomatic outreach. But Iranian officials, who also must grant permission for the American-Iranian Council to open a branch, have responded coolly to the modest olive branch.

The New Jersey-based council, which describes itself as a think tank, advocates friendly ties between Iran and America.

Aging Turtles Mated, But Eggs Don't Hatch

SUZHOU, China - She's around 80 years old. He's 100. Breathless scientists watched as the world's most endangered turtles successfully mated.

But the attempt to breed the last known female Yangtze turtle with the last known male in China has failed because the eggs didn't hatch, disappointed conservationists said Saturday. The elderly pair can try again next year.

A wire report

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