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• In June, an AP investigation found that officials implementing the plan in one county spent millions of federal dollars on sewage plants and water tanks that may not be needed for decades.
• The AP found the state-hired engineering firms based the plan on projections of huge growth in many areas. However, other studies estimated much more modest growth, and populations in many coastal areas actually declined, in part because Katrina displaced thousands of residents whose homes were destroyed.
• ___

• BEIRUT (AP) -- Syria's state-run TV says the country's prime minister has been fired less than two months after taking up his post.
• Riad Hijab is a former agriculture minister and a loyalist in President Bashar Assad's ruling Baath party.
• He was appointed as prime minister on June 23. The TV did not immediately give a reason why Hijab was dismissed from his post Monday. It says Omar Ghalawanji, Hijab's deputy prime minister, was named as a temporary replacement.
• The announcement came hours after a bomb attack ripped through the third floor of the state TV building in Damascus, causing heavy material damage and light injuries.
• A deadly uprising has convulsed Syria for the past 17 months.

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• EL-ARISH, Egypt (AP) -- Officials say Egypt has deployed at least two helicopter gunships to the Sinai Peninsula in the hunt for militants behind the killing of 16 Egyptian soldiers at a checkpoint along the border with Israel.
• Security and military officials said Monday that more aircraft were expected to arrive in the town of El-Arish ahead of a military campaign against the militants in the area. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
• Suspected Islamists on Sunday evening attacked the Egyptian checkpoint, killed the troops, then stole two of their vehicles and burst through a security fence into Israel. Israeli aircraft then halted their assault.

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