| NSA reforms: Yes, we can spy, but should we? Posted: 18 Dec 2013 02:28 PM PST  White House says it will release an outside commission's recommendations for how to fix the NSA.
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| Georgia woman has one of two winning lottery tickets Posted: 18 Dec 2013 03:57 PM PST  ATLANTA (AP) — A Georgia woman who bought just one ticket and used family birthdays and lucky No. 7 to choose her numbers was one of two winners of the $636 million Mega Millions jackpot, the second largest in U.S. history.
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| Senate passes budget deal Posted: 18 Dec 2013 04:37 PM PST  Washington (United States) (AFP) - The US Senate passed a compromise two-year budget accord Wednesday, marking a truce in the fiscal wars that have plagued Washington and reducing the likelihood of a government shutdown in January. The measure, which already cleared the House and passed the Senate 64-36 with the support of nine Republicans and the entire Democratic caucus, now goes to President Barack Obama, who said he was "pleased" with the vote. The legislation was one of the final major accomplishments for Congress in 2013, which by all accounts has been a miserable year for US lawmakers. Obama described the agreement -- the first time in years that Congress has passed a budget -- as "a good first step away from the shortsighted, crisis-driven decision-making that has only served to act as a drag on our economy.
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| Economy gets vote of confidence Posted: 18 Dec 2013 01:32 PM PST  But the central bank suggests its key interest rate would stay lower for longer than promised.
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| New Obama adviser sorry for 'snark' Posted: 18 Dec 2013 08:35 AM PST  John Podesta apologizes to GOP leader for Jonestown cult comparison.
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| White House to release task force report on spying Posted: 18 Dec 2013 10:04 AM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House says it's releasing a task force report that recommends changes on how the National Security Agency collects intelligence data.
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| Senate passes budget deal Posted: |
| Romney's election night moment of truth revealed in new film Posted: 18 Dec 2013 08:44 AM PST  A new behind-the-scenes documentary coming to Netflix next month shows a more candid side of the 2012 presidential nominee.
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| Protest smooch seen around the world Posted: 18 Dec 2013 08:50 AM PST  The photo of a young Italian woman kissing a police officer's helmet visor during a protest has gone viral, with a police union threatening to sue her for "sexual violence". The 20-year-old student, Nina De Chiffre, was snapped by a photographer working for AFP as she went to kiss the policeman, Salvatore Piccione, at a protest against a new high-speed rail line in the Alps. Her act was interpreted by many as a loving gesture and proved a hit on social media, although the photographer Marco Bertorello and De Chiffre herself pointed out that it was intended as an act of mockery. Franco Maccari, the head of the COISP police union, earlier this month vowed to sue the protester for "sexual violence and insulting a public official".
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| India cuts duty-free booze, other perks after envoy's NYC arrest Posted: 18 Dec 2013 08:29 AM PST  By Shyamantha Asokan and Frank Jack Daniel NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India took retaliatory measures against the United States on Wednesday in a dispute over an Indian diplomat who complained of being stripped and forced to undergo "cavity searches" while in U.S. detention. The measures included a revision of work conditions of Indians employed at U.S. consulates and a freeze on the import of duty-free alcohol. Devyani Khobragade, a deputy consul general at the Indian Consulate in New York, was arrested on December 12 on charges of visa fraud and underpaying her housekeeper, an Indian national. India has responded furiously to what it considers the degrading treatment of a senior diplomat by the United States, a country it sees as a close friend.
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| Bipartisan budget agreement clears Congress Posted: 18 Dec 2013 03:59 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress sent President Barack Obama legislation Wednesday scaling back across-the-board cuts on programs ranging from the Pentagon to the national park system, adding a late dusting of bipartisanship to a year more likely to be remembered for a partial government shutdown and near-perpetual gridlock.
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| Witness describes car crash before woman was shot Posted: 18 Dec 2013 04:32 PM PST  DEARBORN HEIGHTS, Mich. (AP) — A young, drunk woman fatally shot on a man's porch in suburban Detroit was hurt, scared and confused a few hours earlier when she crashed her vehicle into a parked car, a witness testified Wednesday.
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| Improving US economy leads Fed to ease stimulus Posted: 18 Dec 2013 04:02 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve on Wednesday sent its strongest signal of confidence in the U.S. economy since the Great Recession, deciding that the nation's economic prospects are finally bright enough to withstand a slight pullback in stimulus spending.
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| Syrian air raids exact high toll on Aleppo Posted: 18 Dec 2013 01:11 PM PST  BEIRUT (AP) — In a withering four-day air assault, the Syrian government pummeled opposition-held neighborhoods in the northern city of Aleppo, leveling apartment buildings, flooding hospitals with casualties and killing nearly 200 people.
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| Egypt's Morsi to face new trial on terror charges Posted: 18 Dec 2013 01:13 PM PST  CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian prosecutors on Wednesday announced a new trial of ousted President Mohammed Morsi and the top leaders of his Muslim Brotherhood, accusing them of conspiring with Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran's Revolutionary Guard and militant groups to carry out a wave of terrorism to destabilize the country.
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| Officials ready up for winter-weather Super Bowl Posted: 18 Dec 2013 03:36 PM PST  EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — Standing amid giant piles of snow in the shadow of MetLife Stadium, Super Bowl organizers said Wednesday that they're prepared to deploy thousands of trucks and tons of salt to prevent snowy weather from interfering with the biggest football game of the year.
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| AP-GfK poll: Obama int'l ratings top domestic ones Posted: 18 Dec 2013 10:54 AM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's approval ratings for handling foreign policy issues generally top his ratings for most domestic issues, including the economy and health care, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll. But the poll also suggests a majority of Americans want the president to pull troops out of Afghanistan faster than he's doing, and many are skeptical about a tentative nuclear deal with Iran.
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| Holiday shopping season: A disappointment so far Posted: 18 Dec 2013 02:48 PM PST  NEW YORK (AP) — Sparse crowds at malls and "50 percent off" signs at The Gap and other stores offer clues as to how this holiday season is shaping up so far: It's the most discount-driven one since the U.S. was in a deep recession. It's also the most disappointing for stores.
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| Task force urges limit on NSA snooping Posted: 18 Dec 2013 01:57 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — A presidential advisory panel has recommended sweeping limits on the government's surveillance programs, including requiring a court to sign off on individual searches of phone records and stripping the National Security Agency of its ability to store that data from Americans.
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| Hero guide dog assured good home after NY rescue Posted: 18 Dec 2013 02:52 PM PST  NEW YORK (AP) — The guide dog that leaped onto subway tracks after his blind owner lost consciousness and fell off a station platform is assured a loving home after his retirement.
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| Haiti faults orphanage run by well-off US church Posted: 18 Dec 2013 09:50 AM PST  PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — At the Olde Good Things antique store on Manhattan's Upper West Side, a French crystal chandelier can go for tens of thousands of dollars. A marble mantel sells for more than $20,000 and hand-carved dinner tables are priced even higher.
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| Defense bill gives Obama rare Guantanamo victory Posted: 18 Dec 2013 03:22 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — Up to half the terror suspects held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay could be closer to heading home under a bipartisan deal reached in Congress that gives President Barack Obama a rare victory in his fight to close the prison.
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| Govt: 500 killed in South Sudan violence Posted: 18 Dec 2013 01:04 PM PST  JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — At least 500 people, most of them soldiers, have been killed in South Sudan since Sunday, a senior government official said, as an ethnic rivalry threatened to tear apart the world's newest country.
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| Store owner learns during interview that she'll get $1M for selling lotto ticket Posted: 18 Dec 2013 02:33 PM PST  Young Soo Lee was told she'd receive $1 million for selling one of the two winning Mega Millions lottery tickets. Only, she won't get anything.
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| Obama meets with NSA task force Posted: 18 Dec 2013 07:42 AM PST  The president appointed the panel to review privacy issues and government surveillance.
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| Report: Pippa Middleton engaged to boyfriend Nico Jackson Posted: |
| Egypt's Morsi to be tried for 'espionage', Hamas ties Posted: 18 Dec 2013 09:10 AM PST  Egypt's deposed president Mohamed Morsi and ex-aides will stand trial for "espionage" that helped a "terrorist" campaign involving the Palestinian militant Hamas and jihadists, the prosecution said Wednesday. Morsi, an Islamist toppled by the military in July after a single year of turbulent rule, is already on trial for his alleged involvement in the killings of opposition protesters. Prosecutors had been investigating his alleged links to Hamas during mass prison breaks in an early 2011 uprising against ousted strongman Hosni Mubarak, when Morsi and other Islamist prisoners escaped. He and 35 others, including former aides and leaders of his Muslim Brotherhood, now stand accused of "espionage for foreign organisations abroad to commit terrorist attacks in the country", a state prosecution service statement said.
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| Obama selects gay athletes for Sochi delegation Posted: 18 Dec 2013 04:00 AM PST  The president sent Russia a clear message about its treatment of gays and lesbians.
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| Iran says nuclear talks with world powers to resume Posted: 18 Dec 2013 09:24 AM PST  Tehran is hoping for limited relief from sanctions.
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| Russia adopts amnesty likely to free Pussy Riot, help Greenpeace 30 Posted: 18 Dec 2013 04:35 AM PST  Russia's parliament on Wednesday approved an amnesty which lawyers said would free two jailed members of punk band Pussy Riot and enable 30 people arrested in a Greenpeace protest against Arctic oil drilling avoid trial. The lower house of parliament passed the amnesty, which President Vladimir Putin proposed to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the passage of Russia's post-Soviet constitution. Lawyers said the amnesty, which could enter into force this week, would lead to the early release of Pussy Riot members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, whose two-year sentences over an anti-Putin protest in a cathedral have been criticized in the West as excessive.
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| Two winners in $636M Mega Millions drawing Posted: 18 Dec 2013 12:40 AM PST  Lottery officials say the winning tickets were sold in California and Georgia.
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| Bipartisan budget agreement nears final passage Posted: 18 Dec 2013 12:41 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate lined up Wednesday to give final congressional approval to legislation scaling back across-the-board cuts on programs ranging from the Pentagon to the national park system, adding a late dusting of bipartisanship to a year more likely to be remembered for a partial government shutdown and near-perpetual gridlock.
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| South Sudan leader offers talks as violence spreads Posted: 18 Dec 2013 08:22 AM PST  Juba (AFP) - South Sudan's President Salva Kiir offered Wednesday to hold talks with his arch-rival he accuses of leading a coup bid that has sparked days of fierce fighting in the world's youngest nation.
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