Poisoned Lottery Winner's Kin Were Suspicious

Urooj Khan had just brought home his $425,000 lottery check when he unexpectedly died the following day. Now, certain members of Khan's family are speaking publicly about the mystery -- and his nephew told ABC News they knew something was not right.

"He was a healthy guy, you know?" said the nephew, Minhaj Khan. "He worked so hard. He was always going about his business and, the thing is: After he won the lottery and the next day later he passes away -- it's awkward. It raises some eyebrows."

The medical examiner initially ruled Urooj Khan, 46, an immigrant from India who owned dry-cleaning businesses in Chicago, died July 20, 2012, of natural causes. But after a family member demanded more tests, authorities in November found a lethal amount of cyanide in his blood, turning the case into a homicide investigation.

"When we found out there was cyanide in his blood after the extensive toxicology reports, we had to believe that ... somebody had to kill him," Minhaj Khan said. "It had to happen, because where can you get cyanide?"

In Photos: Biggest Lotto Jackpot Winners

Authorities could be one step closer to learning what happened to Urooj Khan. A judge Friday approved an order to exhume his body at Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago as early as Thursday to perform further tests.

Lottery Winner Murdered: Widow Questioned By Police Watch Video

Moments after the court hearing, Urooj Khan's sister, Meraj Khan, remembered her brother as the kind of person who would've shared his jackpot with anyone. Speaking at the Cook County Courthouse, she hoped the exhumation would help the investigation.

"It's very hard because I wanted my brother to rest in peace, but then we have to have justice served," she said, according to ABC News station WLS in Chicago. "So if that's what it takes for him to bring justice and peace, then that's what needs to be done."

Khan reportedly did not have a will. With the investigation moving forward, his family is waging a legal fight against his widow, Shabana Ansari, 32, over more than $1 million, including Urooj Khan's lottery winnings, as well as his business and real estate holdings.

Khan's brother filed a petition Wednesday to a judge asking Citibank to release information about Khan's assets to "ultimately ensure" that [Khan's] minor daughter from a prior marriage "receives her proper share."

Ansari may have tried to cash the jackpot check after Khan's death, according to court documents, which also showed Urooj Khan's family is questioning if the couple was ever even legally married.

Ansari, Urooj Khan's second wife, who still works at the couple's dry cleaning business, has insisted they were married legally.

She has told reporters the night before her husband died, she cooked a traditional Indian meal for him and their family, including Khan's daughter and Ansari's father. Not feeling well, Khan retired early, Ansari told the Chicago Sun-Times, falling asleep in a chair, waking up in agony, then collapsing in the middle of the night. She said she called 911.

"It has been an incredibly hard time," she told ABC News earlier this week. "We went from being the happiest the day we got the check. It was the best sleep I've had. And then the next day, everything was gone.

"I am cooperating with the investigation," Ansari told ABC News. "I want the truth to come out."

Ansari has not been named a suspect, but her attorney, Steven Kozicki, said investigators did question her for more than four hours.

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Football: Spurs draw a blank as QPR inch towards safety

LONDON - Tottenham Hotspur failed to tighten their grip on third place in the Premier League on Saturday after being held to a 0-0 draw at Queens Park Rangers, who moved off the foot of the table.

The game at Loftus Road marked Emmanuel Adebayor's last game for Spurs before he joins up with the Togo squad at the Africa Cup of Nations, while Ryan Nelsen played for the hosts despite having this week agreed to become player-coach of Major League Soccer club FC Toronto.

Spurs striker Jermain Defoe came closest to opening the scoring in the first half with a dipping 20-yard strike that crashed back off the post, with QPR goalkeeper Julio Cesar reacting brilliantly to save Adebayor's follow-up.

The hosts' best chances both fell to Shaun Wright-Phillips, but he could not find the target on either occasion.

Julio Cesar also thwarted Defoe in the second period, while Tottenham full-back Kyle Walker whipped a free-kick inches over the crossbar.

Following the shock 1-0 win at Chelsea in their previous outing, QPR have clawed themselves above Reading and are now four points from safety with 16 games to play.

Chelsea will hope to capitalise on the points dropped by Spurs later on Saturday when they visit Stoke City, where victory will take them above Andre Villas-Boas' side into third place.

Everton, meanwhile, can close to within a point of Tottenham if they win at home to Swansea City, who stunned Chelsea 2-0 in the away leg of their League Cup semi-final at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday.

The top two are both in action on Sunday, with leaders Manchester United hosting Liverpool and second-place Manchester City visiting Arsenal.

Elsewhere on Saturday, two teams hovering nervously above the relegation zone, Aston Villa and Southampton, meet at Villa Park.

Reading welcome West Bromwich Albion to the Madejski Stadium, Newcastle United visit Norwich City, Sunderland are at home to West Ham United and third from bottom Wigan are away at Fulham.

- AFP/ir

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Accused in 'Hindu terror blasts' took part in 2002 Gujarat riots?

NEW DELHI: The accused in the series of blasts linked to Hindu terror had also participated in the 2002 Gujarat riots that claimed over 1,600 lives. Investigations by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) have found that some of those accused in blasts such as the Samjhauta Express, Hyderabad's Mecca Masjid, Ajmer Dargah and Malegaon had gone to Gujarat during the 2002 riots on the instructions of slain RSS pracharak Sunil Joshi.

The new revelation shows that the radicalized group's tilt towards violence had begun much before they started exploding bombs in Muslim-dominated places like Malegaon and Hyderabad.

Sources said, Lokesh Sharma, who has been arrested in connection with the Samjhauta Express and 2006 Malegaon blasts, has revealed during interrogations that following the burning of 59 kar sevaks in a train near Godhra in February, 2002, by Muslim fundamentalists, there was lot of pent-up anger among right-wing Hindu groups even in Madhya Pradesh. As the riots broke out in Gujarat, Joshi asked Lokesh to head to Gujarat and participate in the riots, sources said.

"Lokesh has said that he duly followed the orders and also killed several people during the riots as part of a mob," said an official privy to the interrogation. Lokesh, however, is not aware if Joshi himself or others in the group also took part in the riots.

NIA, however, suspects that if Joshi had sent Lokesh, he could have asked others close to him to carry out a similar task. Other accused in NIA's custody, however, have not revealed any information as yet on this. Rajender Chaudhary, Manohar Singh, Dhan Singh and Lokesh Sharma are in NIA custody in connection with several blasts.

"Initially, however, there actions were not well organized or coordinated and most acted independently. Although, their extreme radicalization had begun after the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition," said the official.

However, the first recorded anti-minority crime against the group members traces back to 2001, when they had shot a nun in the face from a running bike on Ujjain-Dewas road in MP. This was followed by participation in Gujarat riots, and then lobbing a grenade at a mosque in Jammu in 2004 that led to death of two persons and 15 others getting injured.

It was in 2004 that the group first got organized under the leadership of Pragya Singh Thakur, who had called the accused to Ujjain Kumbh Mela and discussed carrying out coordinated attacks on minority religious places and gatherings. What followed was a series of attacks and blasts ranging from 2005 bid on the life of acquitted accused in 2001 Parliament attack case S A R Geelani in Delhi, blasts in Malegaon in 2006, Samjhauta Express, Ajmer Dargah and Mecca Masjid in 2007, and again in Malegaon in 2008.

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Pictures: Civil War Shipwreck Revealed by Sonar

Photograph by Jesse Cancelmo

A fishing net, likely only decades old, drapes over machinery that once connected the Hatteras' pistons to its paddle wheels, said Delgado.

From archived documents, the NOAA archaeologist learned that Blake, the ship's commander, surrendered as his ship was sinking. "It was listing to port, [or the left]," Delgado said. The Alabama took the wounded and the rest of the crew and put them in irons.

The officers were allowed to keep their swords and wander the deck as long as they promised not to lead an uprising against the Alabama's crew, he added.

From there, the Alabama dropped off their captives in Jamaica, leaving them to make their own way back to the U.S.

Delgado wants to dig even further into the crew of the Hatteras. He'd like see if members of the public recognize any of the names on his list of crew members and can give him background on the men.

"That's why I do archaeology," he said.

(Read about other Civil War battlefields in National Geographic magazine.)

Published January 11, 2013

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Poisoned Lottery Winner's Kin Were Suspicious

Urooj Khan had just brought home his $425,000 lottery check when he unexpectedly died the following day. Now, certain members of Khan's family are speaking publicly about the mystery -- and his nephew told ABC News they knew something was not right.

"He was a healthy guy, you know?" said the nephew, Minhaj Khan said. "He worked so hard. He was always going about his business and, the thing is: After he won the lottery and the next day later he passes away -- it's awkward. It raises some eyebrows."

The medical examiner initially ruled Urooj Khan, 46, an immigrant from India who owned dry-cleaning businesses in Chicago, died July 20, 2012, of natural causes. But after a family member demanded more tests, authorities in November found a lethal amount of cyanide in his blood, turning the case into a homicide investigation.

"When we found out there was cyanide in his blood after the extensive toxicology reports, we had to believe that ... somebody had to kill him," Minhaj Khan said. "It had to happen, because where can you get cyanide?"

In Photos: Biggest Lotto Jackpot Winners

Authorities could be one step closer to learning what happened to Urooj Khan. A judge Friday approved an order to exhume his body at Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago as early as Thursday to perform further tests.

Lottery Winner Murdered: Widow Questioned By Police Watch Video

Moments after the court hearing, Urooj Khan's sister, Meraj Khan, remembered her brother as the kind of person who would've shared his jackpot with anyone. Speaking at the Cook County Courthouse, she hoped the exhumation would help the investigation.

"It's very hard because I wanted my brother to rest in peace, but then we have to have justice served," she said, according to ABC News station WLS in Chicago. "So if that's what it takes for him to bring justice and peace, then that's what needs to be done."

Khan reportedly did not have a will. With the investigation moving forward, his family is waging a legal fight against his widow, Shabana Ansari, 32, over more than $1 million, including Urooj Khan's lottery winnings, as well as his business and real estate holdings.

Khan's brother filed a petition Wednesday to a judge asking Citibank to release information about Khan's assets to "ultimately ensure" that [Khan's] minor daughter from a prior marriage "receives her proper share."

Ansari may have tried to cash the jackpot check after Khan's death, according to court documents, which also showed Urooj Khan's family is questioning if the couple was ever even legally married.

Ansari, Urooj Khan's second wife, who still works at the couple's dry cleaning business, has insisted they were married legally.

She has told reporters the night before her husband died, she cooked a traditional Indian meal for him and their family, including Khan's daughter and Ansari's father. Not feeling well, Khan retired early, Ansari told the Chicago Sun-Times, falling asleep in a chair, waking up in agony, then collapsing in the middle of the night. She said she called 911.

"It has been an incredibly hard time," she told ABC News earlier this week. "We went from being the happiest the day we got the check. It was the best sleep I've had. And then the next day, everything was gone.

"I am cooperating with the investigation," Ansari told ABC News. "I want the truth to come out."

Ansari has not been named a suspect, but her attorney, Steven Kozicki, said investigators did question her for more than four hours.

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White House insists Obama will push for assault weapons ban

The White House on Friday strongly denied reports that the administration is shying away from pursuing a ban on so-called assault weapons because it would be too difficult to push through Congress.

A White House spokesman, Matt Lehrich, insisted that President Obama will pursue a ban on military-style assault weapons despite what is expected to be fierce opposition from the National Rifle Association and its allies on Capitol Hill.

The New York Times reported Friday that the White House had calculated that an assault weapons ban would be too politically difficult to pass. The newspaper pointed to Thursday’s remarks by Vice President Biden, who is leading the administration’s task force on gun violence. Biden spoke publicly for 15 minutes and mentioned several proposals that could become part of the administration’s legislative agenda – including a ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines and universal background checks — but did not mention the assault weapons ban.

“That report is false,” Lehrich said in a statement Friday morning. “Like I told the Times, the President has been clear that Congress should reinstate the assault weapons ban and that avoiding this issue just because it’s been politically difficult in the past is not an option. He’s also stressed that no single piece of legislation alone can solve this problem, which is why he has asked Vice President Biden to explore a wide array of proposals on topics ranging from gun laws to mental health to school safety.”

Obama has publicly said he supports banning assault weapons, as well as requiring universal background checks for all gun sales and prohibiting high-capacity ammunition magazines. And his administration is reviewing other proposals, including mental health and school safety initiatives, as part of a comprehensive agenda.

The gun industry has long opposed an assault weapons ban in particular, and that measure is likely to face high hurdles in Congress. For many years, most Republicans and some Democrats have blocked efforts to ban assault weapons. Some now say, however, that the political climate has changed in the wake of last month’s elementary school massacre in Newtown, Conn., that killed 20 small children and six adults.

The federal assault weapons ban, which prohibited the manufacturing for civilian use of 19 models of semiautomatic weapons, including certain rifles and shotguns, passed in 1994 and expired in 2004.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) plans to introduce legislation this month to reinstate and stiffen the assault weapons ban. Her proposal would expand the classification of assault weapons, banning the sale and manufacture of about 120 firearms, including semiautomatic rifles and military-style pistols.

Obama has said he supports Feinstein’s efforts, although it is unclear whether he would throw his weight behind her bill or push a different assault weapons ban.

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Chinese shipping companies switching to RMB for transactions

SINGAPORE: More Chinese shipping companies are asking for renminbi (RMB) to be used as the settlement currency for shipping freight rates.

The shipping sector is seeing growing usage of the Chinese currency.

To help Chinese shippers manage their exposure, major shipping broker, Freight Investor Services, has even launched a freight derivative in Chinese Yuan last month.

A forward freight agreement (FFA) allows ship owners, charterers and speculators to hedge against the volatility of freight rates.

It gives contract owners the right to buy and sell the price of freight for future dates.

FFAs are built on an index composed of a shipping route for tanker (ship) or a basket of routes for dry bulk, contracts are traded "over the counter" on a principal-to-principal basis and can be cleared through a clearing house.

International settlements in renminbi have been on the rise.

Beijing has been promoting the wider use of its currency globally through bilateral currency swaps and trade settlement deals.

Global transaction services organisation SWIFT noted a 24 per cent surge in yuan settlement in November 2012 as compared to a month before.

Shipowners like First Ship Lease Trust Management said it is a natural development for charter rates to shift from US dollars to renminbi as a significant volume of goods being transported is also priced in Chinese Yuan.

Guy Broadley, director at Freight Investor Services said: "China's involvement in the commodity story over the last 10 years is obviously been very great... last year, China's dry bulk commodity imports were equivalent to about 44 per cent of global seaborne trade. We feel that it is important for Chinese traders to be able to hedge that price risk by having a RMB-denominated contract."

But shipping analysts believe this trend is limited to small and medium-sized Chinese shipping companies, which transact the bulk of their trades domestically.

Jayendu Krishna, senior manager at Drewry said: "China has a lot of restrictions in terms of foreign currencies and because of the restrictions they are not really able to trade in what exists today is the US-denominated transactions. So, with the introduction of this RMB-denominated FFA, probably more Chinese players will be interested because they are able to hedge against the risk of the freight volatility."

Currently, most shipping chartering is settled in US dollars.

Shekaran Krishnan, partner at Ernst & Young said: "It would make a lot of sense for them to have the revenue which is the freight revenue in local RMB because it is a natural arbitrage against the cost they have to pay locally and if they have it in local currency, they can avoid the currency fluctuation that they are exposed to."

Given the limited supply of the Chinese yuan, analysts do not see the renminbi replacing the US dollar anytime soon, as the shipping industry is still very much a US dollar-dominated business.

- CNA/xq

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We only fired back, India tells Pak as LoC remains tense

JAMMU/NEW DELHI: Pakistani troops fired at Indian posts in Jammu and Kashmir again on Friday, leading to an exchange of fire between Indian and Pakistani army across the Line of Control (LoC).

Army sources said Pakistan opened fire at posts close to the Line of Control (LoC) in the Krishna Ghati sector, around 250 km from here, in the afternoon.

"The Army offered a calibrated response to silence Pakistani guns," said the source. The firing lasted for half an hour.

"There were no casualties on this (Indian) side," the source said.

Pakistan has been firing on Indian positions daily violating a ceasefire agreement after its troops killed two Indian soldiers near LoC on Tuesday.

We only fired back, India tells Pakistan

The Indian envoy told the Pakistan government on Friday that the Indian Army gave a "controlled response" to "unprovoked" firing by Pakistani troops along the Jammu and Kashmir border.

Indian high commissioner Sharat Sabharwal conveyed this to Pakistan foreign secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani in Islamabad, the external affairs ministry spokesman said here.

Sabharwal was on Friday served a "note verbale" after Pakistan alleged that Indian firing and shelling along the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir killed a Pakistani soldier.

"As we understand it, there has been unprovoked firing by Pakistan in the Mandher sector and there was controlled response from our side," the spokesman said.

The Indian high commissioner also told the Pakistanis that the sanctity of the LoC "is the most important confidence building measure between India and Pakistan".

The two countries agreed to a ceasefire along the winding LoC, which divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan, in 2003. The truce has largely held on in the past decade.

The spokesman also reiterated India's refusal to involve any third party to probe the allegations and counter allegations from the two countries on the LoC.

India and Pakistan "have a mechanism to bilaterally solve such issues", the official said.

He said the Director Generals Military Operation of both countries were in contact. "We are fully capable of handling all these matters without involving the UN or any other third party."

Tensions between India and Pakistan have escalated in Kashmir since January 6 when a Pakistani solider was killed allegedly by Indian troops.

Two days later, two Indian soldiers were killed and beheaded near the LoC. Indian officials blamed Pakistani troops for the horror.

India summoned the Pakistani envoy on Thursday to lodge a strong protest.

The spokesman added that New Delhi and Islamabad were also discussing Pakistan's decision to prevent trucks from Jammu and Kashmir from entering Pakistani Kashmir.

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Google and Twitter Help Track Influenza Outbreaks

This flu season could be the longest and worst in years. So far 18 children have died from flu-related symptoms, and 2,257 people have been hospitalized.

Yesterday Boston Mayor Thomas Menino declared a citywide public health emergency, with roughly 700 confirmed flu cases—ten times the number the city saw last year.

"It arrived five weeks early, and it's shaping up to be a pretty bad flu season," said Lyn Finelli, who heads the Influenza Outbreak Response Team at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Boston isn't alone. According to the CDC, 41 states have reported widespread influenza activity, and in the last week of 2012, 5.6 percent of doctor's office visits across the country were for influenza-like illnesses. The severity likely stems from this year's predominant virus: H3N2, a strain known to severely affect children and the elderly. Finelli notes that the 2003-2004 flu season, also dominated by H3N2, produced similar numbers. (See "Are You Prepped? The Influenza Roundup.")

In tracking the flu, physicians and public health officials have a host of new surveillance tools at their disposal thanks to crowdsourcing and social media. Such tools let them get a sense of the flu's reach in real time rather than wait weeks for doctor's offices and state health departments to report in.

Pulling data from online sources "is no different than getting information on over-the-counter medication or thermometer purchases [to track against an outbreak]," said Philip Polgreen, an epidemiologist at the University of Iowa.

The most successful of these endeavors, Google Flu Trends, analyzes flu-related Internet search terms like "flu symptoms" or "flu medication" to estimate flu activity in different areas. It tracks flu outbreaks globally.

Another tool, HealthMap, which is sponsored by Boston Children's Hospital, mines online news reports to track outbreaks in real time. Sickweather draws from posts on Twitter and Facebook that mention the flu for its data.

People can be flu-hunters themselves with Flu Near You, a project that asks people to report their symptoms once a week. So far more than 38,000 people have signed up for this crowdsourced virus tracker. And of course, there's an app for that.

Both Finelli, a Flu Near You user, and Polgreen find the new tools exciting but agree that they have limits. "It's not as if we can replace traditional surveillance. It's really just a supplement, but it's timely," said Polgreen.

When people have timely warning that there's flu in the community, they can get vaccinated, and hospitals can plan ahead. According to a 2012 study in Clinical Infectious Diseases, Google Flu Trends has shown promise predicting emergency room flu traffic. Some researchers are even using a combination of the web database and weather data to predict when outbreaks will peak.

As for the current flu season, it's still impossible to predict week-to-week peaks and troughs. "We expect that it will last a few more weeks, but we can never tell how bad it's going to get," said Finelli.

Hospitals are already taking precautionary measures. One Pennsylvania hospital erected a separate emergency room tent for additional flu patients. This week, several Illinois hospitals went on "bypass," alerting local first responders that they're at capacity—due to an uptick in both flu and non-flu cases—so that patients will be taken to alternative facilities, if possible.

In the meantime, the CDC advises vaccination, first and foremost. On the bright side, the flu vaccine being used this year is a good match for the H3N2 strain. Though Finelli cautions, "Sometimes drifted strains pop up toward the end of the season."

It looks like there won't be shortages of seasonal flu vaccine like there have been in past years. HealthMap sports a Flu Vaccine Finder to make it a snap to find a dose nearby. And if the flu-shot line at the neighborhood pharmacy seems overwhelming, more health departments and clinics are offering drive-through options.

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Teen to Hero Teacher: 'I Don't Want to Shoot You'

A California teacher'sbrave conversation with a 16-year-old gunman who had opened fire on his classroom bullies allowed 28 other students to quickly escape what could have been a massacre.

Science teacher Ryan Heber calmly confronted the teenager after he shot and critically wounded a classmate, whom authorities say had bullied the boy for more than year at Taft Union High School.

"I don't want to shoot you," the teen gunman told Heber, who convinced the teen gunman to drop his weapon, a high power shotgun.

Responding to calls of shots fired, campus supervisor Kim Lee Fields arrived at the classroom and helped Heber talk the boy into giving up the weapon.

"This teacher and this counselor stood there face-to-face not knowing if he was going to shoot them," said Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood. "They probably expected the worst and hoped for the best, but they gave the students a chance to escape."

One student, who police say the shooter had targeted, was shot. He was airlifted to a hospital and remains in critical, but stable condition, Youngblood said. He is expected to undergo surgery today.

Two other students received minor injuries. One suffered hearing loss and another fell over a table while evacuating. Heber received a wound to his head from a stray pellet, police said.

Taft Midway Driller/Doug Keeler/AP Photo

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Police said the teen, whose name has not been made public because he is a minor, began plotting on Wednesday night to kill two students he felt had bullied him.

Authorities believe the suspect found his older brother's gun and brought it into the just before 9 a.m. on Thursday and went to Heber's second-floor classroom where a first period science class with 20 students was taking place.

"He planned the event," Youngblood said. "Certainly he believed that the two people he targeted had bullied him, in his mind. Whether that occurred or not we don't know yet."

The gunman entered the classroom and shot one of his classmates. Heber immediately began trying to talk him into handing over the gun, and evacuating the other students through the classroom's backdoor.

"The heroics of these two people goes without saying. ... They could have just as easily ... tried to get out of the classroom and left students, and they didn't," the sheriff said. "They knew not to let him leave the classroom with that shotgun."

The gunman was found with several rounds of additional ammunition in his pockets.

Within one minute of the shooting, a 911 call was placed and police arrived on the scene. An announcement was made placing the school on lockdown and warning teachers and students that the precautions were "not a drill."

The school had recently announced new safety procedures following last month's deadly shooting at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school in which 20 young children were killed. Six school staffers, including the principal, were killed as they tried to protect the children from gunman Adam Lanza.

The school employs an armed security guard, but he was not on campus Thursday morning.

Youngblood said the student would be charged with attempted murder, but the district attorney would decide if he was to be tried as an adult.

Some 900 students attend Taft Union High School, located in Taft, Calif., a rural community in southern California.

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