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• AMSTERDAM (AP) -- The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical weapons says the United States has offered to help destroy some of the most lethal parts of Syria's chemical weapons stockpile,
• The organization's Director-General Ahmet Uzumcu said in a statement Saturday the U.S. government has offered to contribute "a destruction technology, full operational support and financing to neutralize" the weapons offshore, most likely on a ship in the Mediterranean Sea. The operation is to be completed with Syrian assistance by Dec. 31.
• The OPCW also wants nearly 800 tons of chemicals, many of which are industrial chemicals regularly destroyed at civilian facilities all over the world, to be destroyed by private companies as part of the organization's ambitious plan to completely eradicate Syria's chemical weapons program by mid-2014.
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• WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sometimes, all it takes is a $7 burrito gift card to get high school seniors to submit their college applications early.
• "You always have some students who say, 'I don't want to go to college,' but they don't realize whatever it is in life, they need to go to college for it," said adviser Martin Copeland at Theodore Roosevelt High School in the District of Columbia. "They don't realize it until May. For those students, these incentives work."
• President Barack Obama's goal is that by 2020, America will again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world. To reach it, more low-income and first-generation students must earn a degree.
• The first hurdle is getting these students to apply.
• Even as a larger percentage of students from every income go to college compared to the late 1980s, some don't even consider it. Cost is a huge factor, as is a lack of understanding about scholarships and student loans.
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