| Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah dies Posted: 22 Jan 2015 03:53 PM PST  King Abdullah's expected successor is his 79-year-old half-brother, Prince Salman.
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| Tsarnaev attorneys renew bid to move Boston bombing trial Posted: 22 Jan 2015 12:45 PM PST  Citing juror bias, attorneys for accused bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev are pushing to move his trial out of Boston.
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| Harry Reid speaks out against Obama’s trade plan Posted: 22 Jan 2015 10:46 AM PST  Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada on Thursday threw cold water on President Barack Obama's plans to pursue trade agreements in 2015, one of the few points of bipartisan interest from his State of the Union address earlier this week.
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| N.Y. state Assembly speaker charged with fraud in corruption probe Posted: 22 Jan 2015 02:49 PM PST  By Nate Raymond and Sebastien Malo NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, one of the state's most powerful politicians for more than two decades, was charged on Thursday with pocketing $4 million from bribery and kickback schemes. Silver, a Democrat who has served as the highest-ranking state assemblyman since 1994, was accused in a federal criminal complaint in New York, as authorities moved to seize $3.8 million in proceeds tied to the alleged corruption. The 70-year-old Silver, a licensed lawyer who represents Manhattan's Lower East Side, is known as one of Albany's three most powerful men, alongside Governor Andrew Cuomo and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos. He became the latest addition to a long line of New York politicians implicated in corruption scandals.
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| Obama says hopes Supreme Court rules in favor of gay marriage Posted: 22 Jan 2015 02:58 PM PST  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama said on Thursday he hoped the Supreme Court would issue a ruling that would prevent states from banning gay marriage when it rules on the issue later this year. The court last week agreed to decide whether states can ban gay marriage. Obama has said previously that he is in favor of allowing same-sex couples to wed. "I'm hopeful the Supreme Court comes to the right decision," Obama said during an interview on YouTube. (Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Sandra Maler)
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| Pennsylvania high court halts any charges against attorney general Posted: 22 Jan 2015 04:33 PM PST  By Elizabeth Daley PITTSBURGH (Reuters) - The Pennsylvania Supreme Court temporarily halted the filing of charges against Attorney General Kathleen Kane in a media leak case while it decides whether the appointment of a special prosecutor assigned to investigate her was legal, her lawyer said on Thursday. The court will hear oral arguments in March to determine whether the appointment of Special Prosecutor Thomas Carluccio by Judge William Carpenter was a potentially illegal conflict of interest, said Lanny Davis, an attorney who represents Kane. "If the Supreme Court rules he is unconstitutional, everything he's done is illegal," Davis said, adding that any investigation into the Democratic attorney general would need to start from scratch. A special grand jury recommended charges of perjury and obstruction against Kane in connection with an allegedly illegal media leak to the Philadelphia Daily News.
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| Obama won't meet with Netanyahu during controversial U.S. visit Posted: 22 Jan 2015 09:38 AM PST  The White House says the trip is scheduled too close to the Israeli elections.
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| GOP pushes abortion bill through House on March for Life Day Posted: 22 Jan 2015 03:30 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — With thousands of abortion protesters swarming the city in their annual March for Life, Republicans muscled broadened abortion restrictions through the House on Thursday after a GOP rebellion forced leaders into an awkward retreat on an earlier version.
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| Top NY politician charged with 5 criminal counts Posted: 22 Jan 2015 07:11 AM PST Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was arrested after a lengthy corruption investigation. |
| Bill Belichick: 'I don't have an explanation' Posted:  Bill Belichick: 'I don't have an explanation'
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| Orrin Hatch is the happiest senator in Washington Posted: 22 Jan 2015 01:13 AM PST  The longest-serving Republican senator talks about his role as the Senate's bipartisan mediator and his friendship with Elizabeth Warren.
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| Jobless claims off seven-month high Posted: 22 Jan 2015 07:30 AM PST  The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell last week from a seven-month high, pointing to continued improvement in labor market conditions. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits slipped 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 307,000 for the week ended Jan. 17, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Some, however, wondered if some of the elevation in claims reflected layoffs in the oil industry in the wake of plunging crude prices. "It is unclear at this point whether or not this move up in the trend reflects issues seasonally adjusting the data around the holidays or if it represents a more meaningful deterioration in the labor market," said Daniel Silver, an economist at JP Morgan in New York.
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| Eight civilians killed in shelling of Ukraine bus Posted: 22 Jan 2015 03:12 PM PST  By Natalia Zinets and Alessandra Prentice KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Thursday his troops were holding the line against separatists and Russian forces after a sharp increase in attacks and the withdrawal of government defenders from Donetsk airport. Poroshenko, who told the World Economic Forum on Wednesday that Russia had 9,000 troops inside Ukraine, met defense chiefs to work on a plan to "regroup and stop aggression." "Across all front lines we are firmly holding our positions," he told the meeting, at which he reported that enemy attacks were 10 times more intensive than before. Earlier on Thursday at least eight civilians were killed when a trolleybus was hit by an artillery shell or mortar at a public transport stop in the southern district of Donetsk, which is largely controlled by separatists. Kiev said 10 Ukrainian soldiers were killed overnight, six at the airport complex, a symbolic target where a small group of government defenders had been holding out against Russian-backed separatists for months.
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| NY Assembly speaker arrested, suspected of graft Posted: 22 Jan 2015 05:34 AM PST  Sheldon Silver, one of the most powerful politicians in NYC, is in FBI custody.
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| House GOP abruptly drops plans to debate abortion bill Posted: 21 Jan 2015 07:38 PM PST  A bill banning most late-term abortions is dropped after a revolt by GOP women and others.
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| Hundreds displaced in New Jersey apartment building fire Posted: 21 Jan 2015 09:47 PM PST  EDGEWATER, N.J. (AP) — Hampered by winds and frigid temperatures, firefighters battled a huge fire Wednesday night at a New Jersey apartment complex that sent flames sky high and smoke visible from New York City across the Hudson River.
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| Newtown votes to raze home of gunman in school massacre Posted: 21 Jan 2015 05:09 PM PST  NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) — Officials in Newtown have voted to tear down the home where Adam Lanza lived before he carried out the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
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