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Courtesy of Slate's "Today's Papers": Russia's "government shut down the country's last large independent television station Sunday". And the lower house of its Parliament "voted overwhelmingly last week to amend Russia's campaign laws to allow the authorities to shut down news organizations for campaign coverage deemed to be biased."

On a lighter note:

Howard Dean is running for president, The Washington Post has learned.

The former Vermont governor will announce his candidacy for the Democratic nomination today in his home town of Burlington.

In addition, The Post has learned that Dean has in fact been running for president for more than a year. This finding is based on numerous statements from Dean, including "I'm running for president," "I want to be president," "I intend to be the nominee of this party" and "I'm going to beat George Bush."