Time and private resources have been volunteered while homes and hearts have been opened to the dispossessed.

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One option would have been a bionic hand, but he volunteered for the pioneering surgery.

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"He volunteered the detail, it must have been excruciatingly embarrassing for him to give the detail, but give it he did, " she said.

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At the same press conference he volunteered to stay on for a while if a successor had not been named by the time he was due to go.

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So far, however, French officials have been at pains to say little about the situation and, when pressed, have volunteered only that it is an internal matter for Algerians.

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Smedinghoff volunteered for an assignment at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul and had been working there since July, her parents said in a statement.

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After a tour of duty in Caracas, Venezuela, Smedinghoff volunteered for an assignment at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul and had been working there since July, her parents said.

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After a tour of duty in Caracas, Venezuela, Smedinghoff volunteered for an assignment at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul and had been working as a public diplomacy officer there since July, her parents said in a statement.

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