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inch tablets it's presumably designed to compete with, including Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle Fire and Google Inc.'s Nexus 7.
• Apple Inc. is expected to unveil the new device during a presentation in San Jose, Calif., starting at 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT).
• ___
In scramble to find weapons, Syrian rebels score some successes in getting more advanced gear
• ALEPPO, Syria (AP) -- It was long past midnight, but the rebel commander couldn't sleep until his fighters returned from the Turkish border with the latest shipment of gear meant to help them battle the Syrian army. Wearing camouflage pants and black flip-flops, he waited anxiously, his eyes bloodshot.
• In the morning, his team arrived with their prize: a single suitcase of night-vision goggles. For the first time, his brigade's snipers would be able to strike back at night against regime snipers who already have night-vision capabilities in the street-by-street fights for territory in the battleground city of Aleppo.
• "We need one for every fighter," said the commander, Osama, who leads one of the rebel brigades fighting in Aleppo. Still, the small number in the shipment "is better than nothing. We will surprise the enemy when we start using them." He said the goggles were provided by a "sympathizer" in Europe, but refused to elaborate.
• Piece by piece, Syria's rebels are slowly expanding their arsenal and getting their hands on more advanced weapons. The process still appears to be haphazard and improvised, far from the reliable, organized pipeline that rebels have sought for much of the 19-month-old uprising against the regime of President Bashar Assad. Instead, it often remains a scramble by individual units in the highly fragmented rebel forces to obtain what they can. Most units still rely on their staple arsenal of automatic weapons, hand grenades and rocket-propelled grenades, adapted to fit their needs.
• But there have been notable advances. Most importantly, anti-aircraft missiles have made their first appearances in rebel hands in recent weeks, a weapon that some fighters boast could turn the tide against the regime.
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'White Birthday'? After 2-year campaign, Seattle man persuades Billy Idol to play his party
• SEATTLE (AP) -- Michael Henrichsen has ideas about how he might celebrate (Continued on page 40)
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