Wednesday,  March 26, 2014 • Vol. 16--No. 253 • 28 of 35

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Obama, dismissive of Russian influence and power, still rallies opposition to its aggression

• BRUSSELS (AP) -- President Barack Obama is using Vladimir Putin's audacious annexation of Crimea to make the delicate argument that Russia is no world power but that its actions threaten Europe's order and demand a punishing international response.
• The president, stepping up the task of solidifying broad-based support against Russia, was in Brussels Wednesday, a day after dismissing Russia as a mere "regional power" that was threatening its neighbors "not out of strength, but out of weakness." He said that as president, he worried more about a nuclear device in Manhattan than he did about Russia.
• It was the kind of brush-off-your-shoulder language sure to antagonize the nationalistic Putin, but it also belied the time and energy Obama and European leaders have devoted to isolate Russia and fashion a menu of sanctions designed to stop Moscow's aggression.
• Obama comes to Brussels to shore up commitments he received from allies in The Hague, Netherlands, to reassure Eastern European members of NATO that the alliance will stand by them and to make a larger point about European security a quarter-century after the fall of the Iron Curtain.
• Obama will blend heavy symbolism with diplomacy Wednesday and conclude with his only speech of the weeklong, four-country trip, tying the current Ukraine crisis to his vision of the United States and Europe as anchors of democracy and international law.
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Mudslide searchers press on with dogs, bare hands after discovery of more bodies

• ARLINGTON, Wash. (AP) -- With search and cadaver dogs leading the way, rescuers using small bulldozers and their bare hands pushed through sludge strewn with splintered homes and twisted cars to find 10 more bodies in the debris of a Washington state mudslide, authorities said.
• Despite the grim discoveries as the search entered its fifth day Wednesday -- and the likelihood that more bodies will be found -- officials were still hoping to find survivors.
• "We haven't lost hope that there's a possibility that we can find somebody alive in

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