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- Lebanon says 11 dead, 48 injured in Israeli strikes on Beirut
- Panama lashes out at EU over tax haven 'outrage'
- Erdogan says Gaza 'shame of humanity', calls for permanent ceasfire
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- 'Good opportunity': Nagelsmann upbeat despite Germany's long injury list
- Hurricane whips up bitter US election battle
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- Lebanon state media says Israeli strikes hit central Beirut
- No answers on strike on reporters in Lebanon one year on: watchdog
- Ramharack picks four wickets as Windies beat Bangladesh in Women's T20 World Cup
- France's City of Light switches to climate-resilient power cables
- Djokovic hails Nadal 'legacy' as Alcaraz in 'shock' over retirement
- Obama hits campaign trail for Harris
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- Djokovic tells Nadal: 'Your legacy will live forever'
- Ethel Kennedy, wife of RFK, dead at 96
- Zelensky denies ceasefire with Russia under discussion on trip
- Florida battered by hurricane, floods but spared 'worst-case scenario'
- After long fight for glory, Nadal leaves with a legacy of memories
- Home hopes Zheng and Wang through to last-eight in Wuhan Open
- UN peacekeepers say Israel fired on Lebanon HQ, injuring 2
- UK's William and Kate in first joint public engagement since cancer treatment
- Alcaraz out as top players pay tribute to Nadal at Shanghai Masters
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- Alcaraz, Sinner pay tribute to 'unbelievable' Nadal at Shanghai Masters
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- Zelensky touts 'victory plan' against Russia in Macron talks
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- Zelensky meets Macron in Paris as part of European tour
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- England in sight of victory after Brook's triple hundred
- Juventus readmitted to ECA after failed Super League revolt
- World number 2 Alcaraz knocked out of Shanghai Masters by Machac
- Leaders of Egypt, Eritrea, Somalia meet amid regional tensions
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US prisons ban 'staggering' number of books: campaigners
Tens of thousands of books are banned from US prisons, a new report said Wednesday, including a primer on drawing, a book about tying knots and textbooks teaching inmates foreign languages.
Prison authorities across the country cite vague "security" fears or worries over sexual content for their bans, which prevent some of America's 1.2 million inmates from reading often innocuous-sounding texts sent by friends, campaigners, publishers or bookstores.
A study by PEN America, a literacy and free expression advocacy group, found widely differing and often inconsistently enforced policies resulted in a "staggering" number of books never making it past a prison mailroom.
Victims of the censorship included "The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo" a memoir by Amy Schumer, Sun Tzu's classic military manual "The Art of War" and "Anyone Can Draw: Create Sensational Artwork in Easy Steps."
"Bans for purported sexual content were applied extremely broadly, from books on menopause to issues of Cosmopolitan and Rolling Stone, to art and medical books," the campaign group said in its report "Reading Between the Bars."
Only around half of America's 50 states keep a centralized list of banned books, with many others implementing ad-hoc systems often at a prison mailroom level, the group says.
Of those states that did know which books were banned, Florida was the most enthusiastic censor, refusing almost 23,000 titles to its prison population. Texas was second with around 10,000.
Reasons for the bans were varied, but the report found they were often very broad.
In Michigan, for example, "Spanish at a Glance" was not permitted because authorities believe it posed a "threat to the good order and security of the facility."
"(The book) may be used by prisoners to learn to communicate in a language that staff at the facility does not understand."
The pressure group communicated with inmates who said the rationale for banning the written word appeared wholly at odds with other aspects of prison life.
"Robert Blankenship, incarcerated in Virginia, notes that in Virginia prisons, the "Game of Thrones" novels are banned, but his prison airs the full, unedited HBO series on the facility televisions," the report said.
The group found the most censored title in the US is "Prison Ramen" -- a cookbook banned in 19 states offering recipes that can be made in a cell.
P.Stevenson--AMWN