"Emotions are high, and it's a struggle for us all to make sense of something so senseless, but let us keep this young student, his family, and Mr. Poland's family in our thoughts and prayers, " he said.

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Such hopeful features have helped promote fresh interest among young Polish Jews and quite a few Gentiles in Poland's Jewish history since the communist era, when many Poles of Jewish background thought it wise to blur their ancestry.

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The standoff began last Tuesday after the 66-year-old bus driver, Charles Albert Poland, tried to stop Dykes boarding the bus and seizing two young boys, aged six and eight.

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Many of the brightest young researchers now prefer to look for jobs in the West or go into business in Poland.

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Remembering his father's murder during the Nazi occupation, the young Kolakowski accepted communism as an alternative both to Nazi militarism and to the failures of Poland's pre-war system of semi-authoritarian capitalism.

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The 34 percent of young American adults enrolled in college puts the United States behind Hungary, Belgium, Ireland, Poland, Greece and Korea -- which ranked the highest, with 53 percent.

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