| Trump missile defense review calls North Korea 'extraordinary threat' Posted: 18 Jan 2019 12:00 PM PST  The open acknowledgment in the Missile Defense Review of U.S. plans to counter Russian and Chinese technological advances likely will alarm those nations. It marked a departure from the approach taken by Republican Trump's Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, to tamp down concerns by major nuclear powers about expanding U.S. missile defenses. "Our goal is simple: To ensure we can detect and destroy any missile launched against the United States - anywhere, anytime, anyplace," Trump said at the Pentagon.
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| California storms: At least five people killed after heavy rain and snow cause devastation Posted: 17 Jan 2019 04:18 AM PST  At least five people have died in severe rain and snowstorms that blanketed parts of California with at least five feet of snow in the Sierra Nevada mountains this week, besides triggering flooding and mudslides, officials said. Forecasters expect the bitter weather to push eastwards into the Rockies and US Midwest through the weekend, while the California Highway Patrol said rain-slicked highways led to two fatal accidents that killed four people. A family of three, including a one-year-old baby, died in El Dorado County on Tuesday, after their car spun across a rain-soaked freeway to hit another car, the San Francisco Chronicle said.
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| AP Explains: Trump says wall will stop drugs, facts differ Posted: 17 Jan 2019 04:41 PM PST  PHOENIX (AP) — In his demands that Congress set aside $5.7 billion for a border wall, President Donald Trump has insisted that a new physical barrier would stop heroin entering the U.S. from Mexico.
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| 'Total internet shutdown' in Zimbabwe: provider Posted: 18 Jan 2019 03:58 AM PST  Zimbabwe imposed a "total shutdown" of the internet on Friday, a major provider told customers, after protests early this week triggered a ruthless security crackdown. The internet had been partially restored after a first shutdown started on Tuesday. "We were served with another directive for total shutdown of the internet until further notice," Econet, the country's biggest provider, said in a text message on Friday.
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| Mexican airline trolls Americans with brilliant ad Posted: 18 Jan 2019 06:53 AM PST  While the debate over immigration and a border wall between the United States and Mexico has helped grind the U.S. federal government to a halt, Mexico's national airline, AeroMexico, is trolling Americans with a new ad called "DNA Discounts." The ad features purported residents of Wharton, Texas, a town about 60 miles southwest of Houston, professing a variety of opinions about Mexico and its citizens. The ad also drops some knowledge about the long history of immigration from Mexico to the U.S., and notes that many in southern and southwestern states have a touch of Mexican DNA. Things get flipped when the airline reveals it's offering flight discounts to Americans, including those Wharton residents, based on the amount of Mexican DNA they have (i.e., 18 percent DNA equals an 18 percent discount). That certainly turns opinions around. As one recipient says, "I love discounts!" Of course, it's such a brilliant ad, it's hard to tell if those Wharton residents are real or just actors and if this whole DNA discount thing is real or satirical. Aeromexico, which has gotten political before, isn't saying much, but we've reached out for comment and will update this post when we hear back. Either way, it's a brilliant gambit that undermines the vitriol so many Americans have expressed at our neighbors to the south, and does so without ever directly mentioning the political turmoil, the wall, or even President Trump. Instead, it directs that energy at a sense of shared community, including the tagline, "There are no borders within us." Not a bad way to spread a powerful message.
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| 'We're going to electrify the F-Series,' Ford exec says Posted: 17 Jan 2019 07:19 AM PST !['We're going to electrify the F-Series,' Ford exec says]( "'We're going to electrify the F-Series,' Ford exec says") Ford F-150 and Super Duty surprises are in the works as Ford executives lay out plans for strengthening the company.
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| Congressional Democrats move to stop U.S. Census citizenship question Posted: 16 Jan 2019 05:59 PM PST  Democrats in the U.S. Congress on Wednesday were moving ahead with legislation to prevent the Trump administration from adding a citizenship question to the 2020 Census, following a court decision this week blocking inclusion of such information. Representative Carolyn Maloney, a senior Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, told reporters that she is re-introducing her bill, which was ignored by Republicans in 2017-2018 when they controlled the House of Representatives.
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| Snow: Flight cancellations now stretch into Sunday Posted: 18 Jan 2019 04:16 PM PST  Airlines are already canceling flights ahead of a new winter storm forecast to bring snow and ice from the Great Plains to the Midwest and Northeast.
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| American anchor for Iranian TV is arrested on visit to US Posted: 17 Jan 2019 12:34 AM PST  NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A prominent American anchorwoman on Iranian state television has been arrested by the FBI during a visit to the U.S., the broadcaster reported Wednesday, and her son said she was being held in a prison, apparently as a material witness.
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| More asteroids strike Earth since age of dinosaurs: study Posted: 17 Jan 2019 11:22 AM PST  Between two and three times as many asteroids have struck the Earth and the Moon since the age of the dinosaurs, when one massive space rock collision wiped them out forever, researchers said Thursday. The mounting pace began around 290 million years ago, and likely coincides with some kind of large cosmic smashup in the main asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, researchers reported in the US journal Science. The result was space debris, some of which made its way to the Earth and the Moon, leading to a rate of asteroid impacts 2.6 times higher than it was prior to 290 million years ago.
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| TSA officers open up about what the government shutdown is doing to their families Posted: 18 Jan 2019 07:22 AM PST  Shutdown threatens the financial security of TSA agents across the country, including at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport.
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| Trump Pushes for Funding to Expand U.S. Missile Defense Program Posted: 17 Jan 2019 09:49 AM PST  "Our goal is simple: to ensure we can detect and destroy any missile launched against the United States," Trump said Thursday in a speech at the Pentagon. The review, Trump said, calls for 20 new ground-based interceptors in Alaska as well as new radar and sensors to detect missiles.
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| Prince Phillip Was Involved in a Car Crash That Overturned His Range Rover Posted: 17 Jan 2019 11:02 AM PST  The Duke of Edinburgh was not injured
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| Winter storm disturbs travel as it rolls toward U.S. Midwest, Northeast Posted: 18 Jan 2019 02:21 PM PST  A major winter storm was expected to clobber a large swath of the northern United States with heavy snow, gusty winds and frigid temperatures making travel difficult and dangerous starting on Friday and through the weekend, forecasters said. The storm system will dump 6 to 10 inches (15 to 25 cm) of snow in the Plains and Midwest on Friday night and Saturday and as it moves east at least a foot of snow in parts of the Northeast on Saturday and Sunday, the National Weather Service (NWS) said in several advisories. The system was expected to also bring freezing rain, wind gusts of 35 miles (56 km) per hour and quickly dropping temperatures that will to dip into the teens and even below zero Fahrenheit in several areas, the service said.
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| Gillette Is Not Wrong Posted: 17 Jan 2019 03:30 AM PST  Is the new Gillette razor ad a radical feminist attack on masculinity — the commercial embodiment of a woke sensibility? The ad has been panned by some conservative commentators. Is it part of "a war on masculinity in America," as Todd Starnes argued on Fox News?
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| Violent Sex Offender Arrested Again After Woman Says He Forced Her into Prostitution Posted: 17 Jan 2019 01:17 PM PST  A violent sex offender in Memphis was taken into custody again after a woman claimed she was the victim of sex trafficking.
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| Iran newspapers, minister criticize US arrest of newscaster Posted: 17 Jan 2019 05:02 AM PST  DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran kept up its criticism Thursday of the FBI's apparent arrest of an American anchorwoman from Iran's state-run English-language TV channel, with its foreign minister saying "she's done nothing but journalism."
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| The Coolest Real-Life Lego Cars You Can Buy Posted: 17 Jan 2019 11:21 AM PST |
| Sniffer dogs, bomb experts comb through Kenya attack site Posted: 17 Jan 2019 07:03 AM PST  Kenyan police aided by bomb experts and sniffer dogs on Thursday resumed their search of the Nairobi hotel complex struck by Islamists as police arrested nine more suspects over the attack which left 21 dead and 28 injured. A police source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they were confident there were no more people trapped inside the hotel or surrounding office buildings after the 20-hour assault unleashed on Tuesday, during which some 700 civilians were rescued. Five gunmen with the Al-Qaeda-linked Somali militant group Al-Shabaab attacked the DusitD2 hotel and office complex on Tuesday afternoon.
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| Students appear to perform Nazi salute in 'sickening' photo, superintendent says Posted: 18 Jan 2019 01:53 PM PST ![Students appear to perform Nazi salute in 'sickening' photo, superintendent says]( "Students appear to perform Nazi salute in 'sickening' photo, superintendent says") High school officials in Indiana are investigating after a picture posted on social media appeared to show students using a Nazi salute.
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| Rudy Giuliani: 'I never said there was no collusion' with Russia Posted: 16 Jan 2019 09:40 PM PST  Rudy Giuliani, the personal lawyer of Donald Trump, insisted he "never said there was no collusion" between the president's 2016 election campaign and Russia – only that Mr Trump himself was not involved. Speaking to CNN's Chris Cuomo, the former New York mayor said he did not know if others involved in the campaign had worked with Russia. "I never said there was no collusion between the campaign, or between people in the campaign," Mr Giuliani said. "I said the President of the United States," he added. "There is not a single bit of evidence the President of the United States committed the only crime you can commit here, conspiring with the Russians to hack the DNC." U.S. President Donald Trump said earlier this week he was "insulted" by the suggestion he might have been working for Russia Credit: AP Earlier this week, Mr Trump had insisted he "never worked for Russia" following two bombshell reports. "It's a disgrace that you even ask that question," he told reporters on the White House's South Lawn. "It's all a big fat hoax." In the first report, The New York Times said the FBI opened an investigation into whether Mr Trump was acting on Russia's behalf soon after he became president. Meanwhile, The Washington Post detailed what it said were the unusual lengths taken by Mr Trump to hide the contents of his conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Both men's comments come as Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation looms large in the background, punctuated by guilty pleas, convictions and indictments of former Trump associates. These include his former national security advisor Michael Flynn, former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort and Trump's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen. Manafort has admitted to sharing polling data with a Russian during the 2016 presidential race, according to a court filing inadvertently made public by his lawyers. CNN reported that the intended recipients were two pro-Russia Ukrainian oligarchs. But on Wednesday, Mr Giuliani suggested that was "not collusion". "Polling data is given to everybody," he told CNN.
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| Celebrities Are Fighting Over the 'Keto' Diet. Here's What Science Says About How Healthy It Is Posted: 17 Jan 2019 10:04 AM PST  'I don't understand. Like, why would anybody think this is a good idea?' celebrity trainer Jillian Michaels fumed
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| Canada dismisses China's warning of repercussions over Huawei ban Posted: 18 Jan 2019 01:38 PM PST  Canada's government on Friday dismissed China's warning of repercussions if Ottawa banned Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL] from supplying equipment to 5G networks, saying it would not compromise on security. China's ambassador to Canada issued the threat on Thursday as relations between the two nations continued to deteriorate after a senior Huawei executive was arrested in Vancouver last month on a U.S. extradition warrant. China has also detained two Canadians.
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| More snow! Airlines expand change fees as new storms approach Posted: 17 Jan 2019 06:31 PM PST  Airlines are waiving change fees as two more winter storms are set to move across the Midwest, Ohio Valley and Northeast from Thursday into the weekend.
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| NASA’s Cassini spacecraft spotted fresh rainfall on Saturn’s moon Titan Posted: 17 Jan 2019 08:39 AM PST  NASA's Cassini orbiter has been dead for well over a year now, but its incredible discoveries continue to trickle in as researchers pore over data and images it collected while it was active. Consequently, studies focused on the orbiter's findings continue to crop up on a regular basis, such as a recent study from University of Idaho in Moscow doctoral student Rajani Dhingra, who, along with her colleagues, found evidence of rainfall on the north pole of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, in an image taken on June 7th, 2016. This indicates that summer had arrived on the moon's northern hemisphere later than climate models had predicted. "The whole Titan community has been looking forward to seeing clouds and rains on Titan's north pole, indicating the start of the northern summer, but despite what the climate models had predicted, we weren't even seeing any clouds," said Dhingra, lead author of the study. "People called it the curious case of missing clouds." Dhingra and her colleagues spotted a reflective feature near the north pole of Titan in the aforementioned image -- a feature which covered approximately 46,332 square miles -- which had never appeared before, and didn't appear when Cassini passed by again. Dhingra concluded that the reflective nature of the feature was due to sunlight reflecting off of a wet surface, which she believes was the result of a methane rainfall event. This is the first time summer rainfall has ever been observed on Titan. While Earth experiences four seasons over the course of a year, a single season on Titan lasts seven Earth years. When Cassini reached Titan, clouds and rainfall were observed in the southern hemisphere, signaling a southern summer. Climate models predicted the rain would move to the northern hemisphere "leading up to the northern summer solstice in 2017," but the clouds still hadn't appeared by 2016. The images above should help reseachers understand why this was the case. We want our model predictions to match our observations. This rainfall detection proves Cassini's climate follows the theoretical climate models we know of," Dhingra said. "Summer is happening. It was delayed, but it's happening. We will have to figure out what caused the delay, though."
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| Burkina Faso: Body of Canadian found days after abduction Posted: 17 Jan 2019 07:29 AM PST ![Burkina Faso: Body of Canadian found days after abduction]( "Burkina Faso: Body of Canadian found days after abduction") OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) — A Canadian national has been found dead a day after reports of his kidnapping by suspected jihadists in Burkina Faso's volatile north near the Niger border, the West African nation's security ministry said Thursday.
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| Women’s March Leader Refuses to Acknowledge Israel’s Right to Exist Posted: 18 Jan 2019 08:31 AM PST  Embattled Women's March co-chairwoman Tamika Mallory refused to acknowledge the state of Israel's right to exist during a recent interview on PBS's The Firing Line and seemed to suggest that, unlike Palestinians, Israelis were not "native" to the region. Mallory, who has been forced in recent days to confront questions about her association with notorious anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan, acknowledged during the interview that "all people have the right to exist" but would not address the legitimacy of the Israeli state. The Women's March lost the support of the Democratic National Committee and a host of other prominent liberal groups this week after Mallory defend her past praise for Farrakhan during a Monday appearance on The View.
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| Six suspects in court over Nairobi hotel attack Posted: 18 Jan 2019 10:55 AM PST  Six suspects, including a Canadian national, appeared in a Kenyan court on Friday in connection with a radical Islamist attack on a Nairobi hotel complex that left 21 dead. A magistrate granted a request from the prosecution to detain four men and one woman for 30 days while investigations continue. The suspects are accused of "possible involvement" in the almost 20-hour siege of the DusitD2 hotel and office complex by a suicide bomber and four gunmen who were killed by security forces, a court document said.
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| Omaha airport reopens after Southwest Airlines plane goes off runway Posted: 18 Jan 2019 05:11 PM PST The airport tweeted out a statement Friday afternoon about the incident, and followed up with several additional tweets.
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| Tour Dominic West and Catherine Fitzgerald's Historic Home Posted: 17 Jan 2019 06:00 AM PST |
| Netflix tidying guru sparks charity shop boom Posted: 18 Jan 2019 11:38 AM PST  A Netflix tidying guru has sparked a charity shop boom, as branches of Salvation Army, Scope and the British Heart Foundation have said she has led to increase in donations. It comes as decluttering expert Marie Kondo has rapidly risen to fame with her "KonMari" household organisation method, which promises to provide not only a de-cluttered house, but also a clean mind. Through her hit Netflix show she is teaching those with messy tendencies to get their homes in order by throwing out old and unwanted items to create a calmer home environment. Many people following the craze claim her various techniques have helped their mental health, and are adamant that a clean and organised home helps them feel calm. Charity shops across the country said they had seen donations of clothes double over the past few weeks since Ms Kondo's show was released on the streaming service. Marie Kondo, the author of the international best-seller, "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up," became famous for advising readers to transform their lives by sifting through all their belongings, one by one, embracing those that "spark joy" and bidding a fond but hasty farewell to the rest Credit: Natsuno Ichigo They say they are able to identify items which have come from people who have watched the show as they are folded according to her "signature fold", which sees items placed upright to reduce creasing. For example, according to the method socks should be lain flat as a pair, with one sock on top of the other. The toe is folded inward about an inch from the top, then into to the centre, and then in half so it stands upright. A branch manager for disability charity Scope also said she was able to recognize items donated by KonMari fans due to their immaculate presentation on arrival at the store, adding that the folding hack had led to more donations due to more space being available inside plastic sacks. The Salvation Army said that although shops usually experience an increase in donations after Christmas, shop managers had seen a larger than usual volume of donations. It comes amid a decline in charity shops across the UK with numbers down by more than 100 in first half of 2018, according to Third Sector magazine. Yorkshire and Humber was the only region that saw more charity shops open than close, it said. Charity shops have come under criticism in recent years for pricing items for middle class bargain hunters, rather than the poorest people in society who rely on cheap second hand clothing to dress themselves.
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| Bid to keep U.S. sanctions on Russia's Rusal fails in Senate Posted: 16 Jan 2019 06:57 PM PST  Senators voted 57-42 to end debate on the measure, as 11 of Trump's fellow Republicans broke from party leaders to join Democrats in favor of the resolution, amid questions about Trump's relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. To keep the administration from lifting the sanctions, the measure must pass both the House and Senate and muster the two-thirds majority needed in both chambers to override an expected Trump veto. Many members of Congress have been questioning the U.S. Treasury Department's decision in December to ease sanctions imposed in April on the core businesses of Deripaska - Rusal, its parent, En+ , and power firm EuroSibEnergo - watering down the toughest penalties imposed on Russian entities since Moscow's 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
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| Chevy Pulls Commercial Claiming Superior Reliability Posted: 18 Jan 2019 06:22 AM PST  A consumer group challenges the automaker's small-print disclaimer-who's right?
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| Canada Feud Damaging China's Reputation, Trudeau Envoy Says Posted: 17 Jan 2019 01:51 AM PST  Ambassador John McCallum told reporters Wednesday that China's prosecutions of Canadian nationals risked undermining their own interests among the world's business community. McCallum, a former lawmaker, said he believed that argument would prove more compelling to Chinese officials than seeking support from business and foreign governments to pressure Beijing.
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| Tunnel through an Australian mountain? No problem, says Elon Musk Posted: 16 Jan 2019 06:19 PM PST  Australia could become a test ground for another of Elon Musk's massive infrastructure projects after the maverick billionaire tweeted a "bargain" price to build a tunnel through a mountain to solve Sydney's traffic woes. Musk in 2017 made a Twitter pitch -- and followed through with the offer -- to build what was the world's biggest battery in an Australian state to solve its severe energy crisis. The entrepreneur behind electric carmaker Tesla has most recently turned his sights on tackling city traffic via low-cost tunnels created by his Boring Company, and in December unveiled a sample project near Los Angeles.
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| The Latest: Officer to plead not guilty after man's death Posted: 18 Jan 2019 02:09 PM PST ![The Latest: Officer to plead not guilty after man's death]( "The Latest: Officer to plead not guilty after man's death") NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Latest on the criminal case against a white Nashville police officer who shot and killed an armed black man who was fleeing (all times local):
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| Prince Philip crash: As Duke takes delivery of another Land Rover, will he be back on the road soon? Posted: 18 Jan 2019 05:50 AM PST  A replacement Land Rover, previously driven by the Duke of Edinburgh, has been delivered to the Sandringham estate in Norfolk, hours after his car was involved in a horror crash. A black Land Rover Freelander was driven into Sandringham inside a delivery truck on Friday morning. The Land Rover is the same model as the one Prince Philip, 97, was driving in yesterday's crash, which also involved a Kia. It is believed to be the same car he has been seen driving near to Balmoral in September 2018, with a shared number plate. Armed police were on hand as the replacement vehicle was delivered to Sandringham, where Prince Phillip is now recovering. The delivery driver backed the Land Rover out of the van, then drove it through the gates of the Sandringham estate. The Duke was not injured in yesterday's crash, and was checked over by a doctor as a precaution. The two people in the other car involved in the crash were taken to hospital and treated for "minor injuries" and then discharged. Police supervise the unloading of the car Credit: Geoff Robinson The Land Rover driven by the Duke in the accident was towed away after the crash which saw the car overturn and the windscreen smash. Photographs appeared to show the air bags deployed, with heavy scratches down the sides of the vehicle. The accident will be "investigated and any appropriate action taken", Norfolk Constabulary has said. Norfolk Police said they were following standard procedure where a road traffic collision resulted in injuries. Eyewitness Roy Warne has described how Philip asked if "everybody else was all right" in the aftermath of an accident which saw his car "tumbling" over the road. "The driver of the Kia, a 28-year-old woman, suffered cuts to her knee while the passenger, a 45-year-old woman, sustained a broken wrist," said police in a statement. The aftermath of the crash "Both casualties were treated at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn and were discharged last night. "Police can also confirm a nine-month-old baby boy was in the Kia at the time of the incident and was uninjured. "The male driver of the Land Rover was uninjured. "Both drivers were breath tested and provided negative readings." The police are expected to take statements from the Duke, the female driver of the Kia involved in the crash and any other relevant witnesses during their investigation. Buckingham Palace declined to comment on any changes to the Duke's health, after some witnesses said the Queen's consort had been left "very, very shocked" after the accident. Yesterday, a spokesman said he suffered "no injuries". Duke of Edinburgh car crash near Sandringham Estate Asked if he held a driving licence, a spokeswoman said: "The duke has got a driving licence and follows all the usual DVLA procedures."
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| Portugal promises no visas for Britons in any no-deal Brexit Posted: 17 Jan 2019 08:24 AM PST ![Portugal promises no visas for Britons in any no-deal Brexit]( "Portugal promises no visas for Britons in any no-deal Brexit") Britain is due to leave the European Union on March 29 but parliament's rejection this week of Prime Minister Theresa May's withdrawal agreement with Brussels has thrown those plans into chaos and opened up a range of outcomes, from quitting with no agreement on future relations to halting Brexit altogether. "At this moment we do not even know what the United Kingdom wants," Siza Vieira told Reuters in an interview late on Wednesday. "In the absence of an alternative proposal by the United Kingdom, what every (EU) member state is doing is adopting measures that allow them to react to a unilateral circumstance." Even without a Brexit deal, British citizens living in Portugal would retain rights including access to healthcare.
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| AccuWeather: Snow moves out, Bigger Storm This Weekend Posted: 18 Jan 2019 10:07 AM PST  Winter Storm Watches have been issued as we prepare for a winter wallop, which is expected to bring snow, rain and ice to different parts of our region.
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| Pelosi Accuses Trump of Endangering Security by Leaking Afghanistan Travel Plans Posted: 18 Jan 2019 08:14 AM PST  "the delegation has decided to postpone the trip so as not to further endanger our troops"
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