Wedding tragedy: Roof collapse kills 65 at party

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan  — About 65 people were killed when a roof collapsed during a wedding celebration in northern Afghanistan on Wednesday.

Munshi Abdul Majid, the governor of Baghlan province, said the accident occurred in the Jilga district as guests gathered in the early afternoon.

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Majid said the wedding party was being held in a three-story house.

"One of the floors collapsed," Majid told Reuters. "Women and children form the bulk of fatalities."

Majid said he did not know whether the bride and groom were among the casualties. However, police said 12 children had been killed.

Jawad Bashart, a spokesman for the provincial police, said that 40 people were also injured. He said the house was overcrowded and was made of mud bricks.

Most of the dead were women who were celebrating separately from the men on the top floor, Bashart added.

Houses in Afghanistan are often flimsy structures of mud and wood, constructed with little or no oversight by civil authorities.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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Tea Party beware!

Ross Douthat has a warning for tea Partiers today: not to be seduced by the Republicans who promised tax cuts but ignore spending cuts. He wants to recall its meat is not only with Democrats, but also with Republican candidates who have lost their conservative way TP movement:

Its eccentric elements in spite of this, the tea parties have something vital for the country: a vocal, activist to crop at a time when politicians need desperately to their spines reinforced thereon the gasto.Pero constituency is easy to imagine the movement (which, after all, includes a lot of the recipients of social security and Medicare!) be awash with rhetorical nominations to the Constitution and the General discipline that never get specific spending promises.

Definitely worth a read.

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In Case You Don’t Understand: ABC’s New Tea Party Voting Guide

There are many trying to make sense of the Tea Party. What is it? Why is it? Who is it? Pollster Scott Rasmussen, along with Douglas Schoen, just released a book on it: Mad As Hell: How the Tea Party Movement Is Fundamentally Remaking Our Two-Party System.
Underscoring that there are those who don’t understand the movement, ABC released today “ABC News’ Guidebook to Tea Party Candidates.”
“ABC News has compiled a comprehensive guidebook to all the Tea Party-backed U.S. Senate, House, and gubernatorial candidates and where they stand on key issues,” a story on ABC’s site says.

So what type of information does the guide give those who are uninformed? Such groundbreaking revelations as Sharon Angle supports gun rights, opposes abortion, and wants to give education dollars to those closest to the children (state and local authorities) — or as ABC puts it “shut down the Department of Education.”
What about Coloradan Ken Buck? His platform is so different that ABC had to make sure voters understood exactly what they are getting if they vote for Buck. For example, a vote for Buck is a vote for gun rights and a vote against quote-unquote “big government.”
The question then: does the guide show that the media just doesn’t get it, or that America doesn’t? I think the information included in the guide answers the question.
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