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storylines being hyped at E3: cutthroat capitalism, interactive TVs, intergalactic affairs, handheld doodads and clandestine conspiracy theories, just to name a few.
• The Martian Chronicles was just "mind-blowing at the time," said Adrian Chmielarz -- creative director at "Gears of War: Judgment" developer People Can Fly -- of Bradbury's short story collection about telepathic aliens. "The way (game developers') brains work, we read everything -- anime, comic books, everything -- and hope that someday our work will result in similar greatness."
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• UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Against the backdrop of a new massacre in Syria, international envoy Kofi Annan on Thursday will propose tasking a group of world powers and key regional players including Iran to come up with a strategy to end the 15-month conflict, U.N. diplomats said.
• Annan will present the United Nations with a plan for creating a "contact group" whose final proposal must be acceptable to Syria's allies Russia and China, which have blocked all U.N. action, as well as the U.S. and its European allies, who insist that President Bashar Assad must go, they said.
• There has also been talk about a meeting of key world leaders on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Mexico later this month to discuss the growing crisis in Syria and possible next steps, the diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because consultations have been private.
• "It's time for all of us to turn our attention to an orderly transition of power in Syria that would pave the way for democratic, tolerant, pluralistic future," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters Wednesday before leaving Azerbaijan for Turkey.
• The violence in Syria has grown increasingly chaotic in recent months, and it is difficult to assign blame for much of the bloodshed. The government restricts journalists from moving freely, making it nearly impossible to independently verify accounts from either side. The opposition blames government forces and militias that support them known as shabihas while the government blames rebels and "armed terrorist groups."
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