| Bye, sequestration! (For now. Maybe.) Posted: 10 Dec 2013 04:14 PM PST  Bipartisan budget negotiators reached a compromise Tuesday. Will Congress agree?
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| China: Smog is good for you Posted: 10 Dec 2013 09:46 AM PST  Chinese government says smog also makes you funnier, assists in national defense.
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| On eve of Newtown anniversary, $100 million in mental health aid Posted: 10 Dec 2013 01:46 PM PST  By Jeff Mason and Roberta Rampton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced a new push to increase access to mental health services with $100 million in new government funding nearly a year after a school shooting rampage in Newtown, Connecticut. Biden, who spearheaded a failed Obama administration campaign for stronger gun control measures following the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, met with families of the victims and mental health advocates. "The fact that less than half of children and adults with diagnosable mental health problems receive the treatment they need is unacceptable," he said in a statement. President Barack Obama has said the worst day of his presidency was December 14, 2012, the day a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at the school before turning a gun on himself.
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| Obama-Castro handshake draws criticism Posted: 10 Dec 2013 10:09 AM PST  Sen. John McCain likens the greeting with the Cuban leader to shaking hands with Hitler.
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| Mystery 'Tips for Jesus' tipper identified in NYC Posted: 10 Dec 2013 08:25 AM PST  The generous mystery tipper who has been leaving waiters and waitresses across the country thousands of dollars in "Tips for Jesus" was identified by a New York City waiter as Jack Selby, former PayPal vice president.
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| Bipartisan budget deal reached Posted: 10 Dec 2013 04:37 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — Shedding gridlock, key members of Congress reached a modest budget agreement Tuesday to restore about $63 billion in automatic spending cuts from programs ranging from parks to the Pentagon.
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| Obama scrutinized at memorial Posted: 10 Dec 2013 09:28 AM PST  An unexpected handshake. A selfie. A seat change. Obama was under the microscope Tuesday.
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| Study: Good looks mean good grades Posted: 10 Dec 2013 11:12 AM PST  If you have a symmetrical face. If you have nice teeth. If you can be accurately described as "pretty darn good looking, all things considered" then good news — you have yet another advantage you might not have known about. You're more likely to get good grades.
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| Will anyone care if Congress fails to pass a budget resolution? Posted: 10 Dec 2013 11:36 AM PST  Failing to pass a budget won't ruin anyone's Christmas.
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| Six, including four kids, found alive in northern Nevada Posted: 10 Dec 2013 12:15 PM PST  RENO, Nev. (AP) — A member of a search team on Tuesday found two adults and four children who had been missing in the frigid mountains of northern Nevada for the past two days.
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| Snowstorm cripples travel, closes schools and government Posted: 10 Dec 2013 12:59 PM PST  PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A snowstorm pushed into New England on Tuesday, making for messy travel conditions after causing widespread school and government closures in the nation's capital and elsewhere along the Eastern seaboard.
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| Regulators seek to curb risky Wall Street trades with new rule Posted: 10 Dec 2013 01:23 PM PST  By Emily Stephenson and Douwe Miedema WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. banks will no longer be able to make big trading bets with their own money after regulators on Tuesday finalized the Volcker rule and shut down what was a hugely profitable business for Wall Street before the credit crisis. After struggling for more than two years to craft the complex rule, five regulatory agencies signed off on the nearly 900-page reform that included new tough sections narrowing carve-outs for legitimate trades. The rule is expected to eat into revenues at large investment banks such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, even if many have already wound down some of their trading desks in anticipation of the rule's release, and may spark legal challenges. That's going to be a really important document," said Bradley Sabel, a lawyer at Shearman and Sterling in New York.
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| Obama: Make Mandela's life work your own Posted: 10 Dec 2013 11:22 AM PST  The U.S. president urged the world to carry on his legacy.
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| Nobel Peace laureate urges holdouts to join chemical weapons pact Posted: 10 Dec 2013 08:28 AM PST  The head of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo today, appealed to the remaining six countries outside the Chemical Weapons Convention to join the organization's quest to rid the world of chemical weapons. OPCW director general Ahmet Üzümcü said that there was no longer any "reasonable defense" for Angola, Egypt, Israel, Myanmar, North Korea, and South Sudan not to ratify the convention after the recent international reaction to the use of chemical weapons in Syria. "It is my fervent hope that this award will spur on efforts to make the Chemical Weapons Convention a truly universal norm," Mr. Üzümcü told the hundreds of Nobel Lecture attendees at Oslo City Hall. "We cannot allow the tragedy that befell the people of Ghouta [site of the Aug. 21 chemical attack in Syria] to be repeated."
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| Obama shakes hands with Cuba's Raul Castro Posted: 10 Dec 2013 02:41 PM PST  HAVANA (AP) — It was the briefest of moments, just seconds, two presidents shaking hands and exchanging pleasantries amid a gaggle of world leaders together to honor the late Nelson Mandela.
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| GM executive to be 1st woman to head major car co. Posted: 10 Dec 2013 04:19 PM PST  DETROIT (AP) — Mary Barra has spent the past three years as General Motors' product chief, making cars that drive better, last longer and look good in showrooms.
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| 6 missing adults, children found alive in Nevada Posted: 10 Dec 2013 04:25 PM PST  RENO, Nev. (AP) — A desperate search for a couple and four children missing for two days in the below-zero cold of Nevada's rugged mountains turned jubilant Tuesday when rescuers guided in part by cellphone signals and footprints in the snow found them alive and well near their overturned Jeep.
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| AP Interview: Egypt's Moussa defends draft charter Posted: 10 Dec 2013 12:31 PM PST  CAIRO (AP) — The chairman of a panel that wrote Egypt's draft constitution defended the document Tuesday as guaranteeing democracy and freedoms, but he offered cautious criticism of a recent law restricting street protests.
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| Suit: Marine's body sent home to Pa. without heart Posted: 10 Dec 2013 03:07 PM PST  PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The parents of a Marine sergeant who died while stationed in Greece say that they discovered weeks after his funeral that his body had been sent home without a heart — and that the Department of Defense later gave them somebody else's heart in its place.
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| Figure skating champ Lysacek out of Sochi Games Posted: 10 Dec 2013 03:37 PM PST  Evan Lysacek woke up every morning praying this would be the day the excruciating pain in his left hip — "like you're being electrocuted" — would subside. And every day when he stepped on the ice, the searing throb of pain reminded him that passion alone can't fuel a dream.
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| Modest Eastern snowstorm brings closures, delays Posted: 10 Dec 2013 02:57 PM PST  PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A modest snowstorm pushed through New England on Tuesday, causing messy travel conditions and widespread school and government closures along the Eastern seaboard despite bringing less accumulation than expected.
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| GM names Mary Barra CEO, 1st woman to head car co. Posted: 10 Dec 2013 03:28 PM PST DETROIT (AP) — Mary Barra has spent the past three years as General Motors' product chief, making cars that drive better, last longer and look good in showrooms. |
| Ukraine's leader makes offer; critics say no deal Posted: 10 Dec 2013 01:08 PM PST  KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Aiming to defuse a political standoff that threatens his leadership, President Viktor Yanukovych called Tuesday for the release of the demonstrators arrested in the massive protests sweeping Kiev and vowed that Ukraine is still interested in integrating with Europe.
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| Gunmen abduct Syria's leading human rights lawyer Posted: 10 Dec 2013 02:07 PM PST  NABEK, Syria (AP) — Masked gunmen abducted a leading Syrian human rights lawyer and three other prominent activists in a rebel-held Damascus suburb Tuesday in a new sign that al-Qaida linked militants who have joined the fight against President Bashar Assad are trying to silence rivals in the opposition movement.
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| 2 French troops die disarming C. African rebels Posted: 10 Dec 2013 02:52 PM PST  BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — More than 500 people have been killed over the past week in sectarian fighting in Central African Republic, aid officials said Tuesday, as France reported that gunmen killed two of its soldiers who were part of the intervention to disarm thousands of rebels accused of attacking civilians.
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| Local leaders planning for climate effects Posted: 10 Dec 2013 02:36 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — When it comes to climate change, local officials have a message for Washington: Lead or get out of the way.
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| Weapons watchdog receives Nobel Peace Prize Posted: 10 Dec 2013 02:22 PM PST  OSLO, Norway (AP) — Recalling the "burning, blinding and suffocating" horrors of chemical weapons, the head of a watchdog trying to consign them to history accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on Tuesday, as prize winners in medicine, physics and other categories also took bows for their awards.
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| Snow blankets U.S. East; Washington offices, many schools closed Posted: 10 Dec 2013 01:15 PM PST  The East Coast's first significant snowfall of the season dumped as much as 6 inches on northern Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware and southern New England, according to the National Weather Service. By midday the storm had blown through Washington, D.C., where federal government offices were shut for the day, the Office of Personnel Management said. In neighboring Delaware, Governor Jack Markell announced state offices were shut and urged residents to stay off dangerously slick roads. "People were just sliding into one another." In Oklahoma, the medical examiner said winter weather was responsible for 11 deaths ranging from traffic accidents on icy roads to falling into icy waters.
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| Oregon football player suspended for snowball fight Posted: |
| Obama, Cuba's Raul Castro shake hands Posted: |
| World leaders, South Africans honor Mandela Posted: 10 Dec 2013 07:12 AM PST  Obama received a warm welcome from the crowd as addressed Mandela's legacy.
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| World leaders gather to honor Mandela Posted: 10 Dec 2013 01:04 AM PST  WATCH LIVE: Some 100 heads of state join tens of thousands of South Africans.
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