Venezuela lawmakers elect Chavez ally as Assembly chief

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan lawmakers re-elected a staunch ally of Hugo Chavez as leader of the National Assembly on Saturday, putting him in line to be caretaker president if the socialist leader does not recover from cancer surgery. By choosing the incumbent, Diosdado Cabello, the "Chavista"-dominated legislature cemented the combative ex-soldier's position as the third most powerful...

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Tennis: Spain defeat Serbia to win Hopman Cup

PERTH, Australia: Spain upset Serbia's world number one Novak Djokovic and teammate Ana Ivanovic 2-1 to win their fourth Hopman Cup in an emotional final which finished in the early hours of Sunday.The Spanish pairing of Fernando Verdasco and Anabel Medina Garrigues were underdogs against the top-seeded glamour Serbian pairing of Djokovic and Ivanovic.However, the Spaniards came from behind...

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Views of a living Mars take the rouge off

This could have been Mars back before the dinosaurs built a super space ramp to our planet, at least according to software engineer and artist Kevin Gill.(Credit:Kevin Gill)What if the Red Planet weren't always in that constant state of blushing? Kevin Gill, a software engineer who also re-engineers planets every now and then, imagines Mars might long ago have looked quite a bit more like the aqua-green...

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India police deny they delayed helping rape victim

An Indian family lights candles in memory of a gang-rape victim in New Delhi, India, Saturday, Jan. 5, 2013. Passers-by refused to stop to help a naked, bleeding gang-rape victim after she was dumped from a bus onto a New Delhi street, and police delayed taking her to a hospital for 30 minutes, the woman's male companion said in an interview. / AP Photo/Altaf Qadri NEW DELHI Police in New...

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4 Dead After Aurora, Colo., SWAT Standoff

Four people were killed, including the gunman, during a hostage standoff this morning at a townhouse in Aurora, Colo., police said.Police pumped tear gas into the home in an attempt to get the gunman to leave, and then went into the home and shot him, ABC News Denver affiliate KMGH-TV reported.The three people found dead in the home are believed to be relatives of the shooter,...

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Abbas sees Palestinian unity as Fatah rallies in Gaza

GAZA (Reuters) - President Mahmoud Abbas predicted the end of a five-year split between the two big Palestinian factions as his Fatah movement staged its first mass rally in Gaza with the blessing of Hamas Islamists who rule the enclave. "Soon we will regain our unity," Abbas, whose authority has been limited to the Israeli-occupied West Bank since the 2007 civil war between the two factions,...

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Delhi gang-rape victim's boyfriend speaks out

NEW DELHI: The boyfriend of a 23-year-old woman who died after a brutal gang rape on a New Delhi bus spoke out Friday for the first time about the savage attack that has sparked protests across the nation and his own trauma over his inability to save her.The 28-year-old man, who suffered a fractured leg and other injuries in the attack, has been deeply traumatised and is currently at his...

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What will you buy next: Tablet, phablet, laptop, or convertible?

The Lenovo Yoga 13 combines laptop and tablet, but maybe CES will reveal even better convertibles.(Credit:Lenovo)I'm about to start packing for CES, which kicks off next week in Las Vegas, and I'm having a devil of a time deciding what tech to bring.My phone, sure, but what else? Do I go laptop or tablet? If I choose laptop, am I better off with a convertible? If I choose tablet, do I want something...

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House passes $9.7B Sandy relief bill

The House today passed a bill approving more than $9 billion in aid for regions impacted by superstorm Sandy, the first of two Sandy relief measures making their way through Congress between now and the end of the month. The measure, which allows FEMA to temporarily increase the National Flood Insurance program's borrowing limit by $9.7 billion, needed two thirds support to pass through the House....

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Cleaners Blamed in Deadly Meningitis Outbreak

Jan 4, 2013 11:41am Credit: Minnesota Department of Health/AP PhotoThe pharmacy at the heart of the fungal meningitis outbreak says a cleaning company it hired should share the blame for the tainted steroid injections that caused more than 600 illnesses in 19 states, killing 39 people.Click here to read about the road to recovery for fungal meningitis victims.The...

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Syria rebels in push to capture air base

AZAZ, Syria (Reuters) - Rebels battled on Thursday to seize an air base in northern Syria, part of a campaign to fight back against the air power that has given President Bashar al-Assad's forces free rein to bomb rebel-held towns. More than 60,000 people have been killed in the 21-month-old uprising and civil war, the United Nations said this week, sharply raising the death toll estimate...

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US auto sales roared in 2012 despite cliff worries

CHICAGO: US auto sales roared ahead in 2012, with Chrysler once again outpacing its American rivals with double-digit gains as General Motors and Ford posted modest growth on Thursday.All three posted strong sales last month, with Ford registering its best December in six years, and GM and Chrysler scoring their best December in five years.For the year GM sold nearly 2.6 million vehicles...

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Pinterest acquires recipe sharing Punchfork

Pinterest announced its first acquisition today and it's one for the foodies -- Punchfork, a visual bookmarking site focused on sharing recipes.Punchfork's CEO Jeff Miller said he's joining the engineering team at Pinterest and shutting down the Punchfork site and apps soon."Initially, support for Punchfork will continue, but we will soon be retiring the Punchfork site, API and mobile apps," Miller...

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200 arrested in international child porn investigation

WASHINGTON U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says more than 200 adults have been arrested in a five-week, international investigation of child pornography. ICE Director John Morton says 123 child victims were identified in the investigation, which ended in early December. It found 110 victims in 19 U.S. states. The others were living in six countries. Morton says the investigation is part...

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Sandy Hook Parents Cope With Students' Return

Sandy Hook parents put their children on school buses this morning and waved goodbye as the yellow bus rolled away, but this first day back since the pre-Christmas massacre is anything but normal for the families of Sandy Hook Elementary School.Erin Milgram, the mother of a first grader and a fourth grader at Sandy Hook, told "Good Morning America" that she was going to drive...

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U.N. lifts Syria death toll to "truly shocking" 60,000

AMMAN/GENEVA (Reuters) - More than 60,000 people have died in Syria's uprising and civil war, the United Nations said on Wednesday, dramatically raising the death toll in a struggle that shows no sign of ending. In the latest violence, dozens were killed in a rebellious Damascus suburb when a government air strike turned a petrol station into an inferno, incinerating drivers who had rushed...

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New Jersey town's schools get armed cops

NEW YORK: Amid a national debate on how to stop gun massacres in public places, one town in New Jersey began posting armed police at every school on the restart of the academic year Wednesday.The new policy was the town of Marlboro's response to anguished questions over security in the wake of December's massacre in which a gunman shot 20 young children and six staff dead at an elementary...

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Facebook conquers Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia and Vietnam

Facebook continues to make progress in its colonization of planet earth. With more than 1 billion active users, Facebook is the leading social network in 127 countries, according to Alexa data compiled by Vincenzo Cosenza. Much of the recent growth has come from higher penetration in Asia. In recent months, Facebook has become the leading social network in Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia and Vietnam,...

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Sandy Hook survivors welcomed at new school

A man waves to a child on a bus on the first day of classes after the holiday break, in Newtown, Conn.,Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2013. / AP Photo/Jessica Hill Updated 1:21 p.m. ETMONROE, Conn. The children who escaped last month's shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown were welcomed Wednesday to a school in a neighboring town that was overhauled specially for them. Play VideoOrientation...

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Lawmakers Furious at Boehner Over Sandy 'Betrayal'

Republican lawmakers from New York and New Jersey whose storm-ravaged residents are desperate for federal aid are fuming at their party's leaders for refusing to hold a vote on a $60 billion disaster relief package despite promises that help was on the way."This was a betrayal," Rep. Michael Grimm, R-N.Y., told ABC News.com. "It's just reprehensible. It's an indefensible error...

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About 60 crushed to death in Ivory Coast stampede

ABIDJAN (Reuters) - About 60 people were crushed to death in a stampede outside a stadium in Ivory Coast's main city of Abidjan after a New Year's Eve fireworks display, the government said on Tuesday. The incident took place near Felix Houphouet Boigny Stadium where a crowd had gathered to watch fireworks, emergency officials said. One of the injured, speaking to Reuters...

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Venezuela frets over ill Chavez as 2013 begins

CARACAS: Somber Venezuelans began 2013 fretting over their ubiquitous and garrulous leader Hugo Chavez, wondering what the future holds as the president wages a tough battle with cancer in a Havana hospital.Chavez won re-election in October and is supposed to be sworn in on January 10, but that seems up in the air now, stoking the prospect of major upheaval in a nation that sits atop the...

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Paris Apple Store robbed of more than $1 million in goods

Apple's Paris store near the Paris Opera House, in a photo taken during the iPhone 5 launch this past September.(Credit:Stephen Shankland/CNET)Armed robbers broke into the Apple Store in Paris on New Year's Eve and made off with more than a million dollars' worth of merchandise, according to reports.Masked suspects wielding handguns forced their way into the store through an employee entrance as a...

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The art of the "fiscal cliff" deal

Nobody said it would be easy. Senators voted in the pre-dawn hours of New Year's Day to pass the long-sought agreement on the "fiscal cliff" and the House readies for its turn as soon as today, which, if the House passes it, would officially avert the tax hikes and spending cuts that technically took effect at midnight (the deal, when signed by the president, will make the new tax rates and spending...

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White House Revels in Fiscal Cliff 'Victory'

Jan 1, 2013 12:13pm It’s hard to find anyone in Washington happy about the outcome of the “fiscal cliff” brinksmanship.But inside the Obama White House, senior officials are elated by what they call a significant presidential achievement:  breaking longstanding Republican intransigence on taxes.The deal passed by the Senate early this morning, with the endorsement...

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State Department made "grievous mistake" over Benghazi: Senate report

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The State Department made a "grievous mistake" in keeping the U.S. mission in Benghazi open despite inadequate security and increasingly alarming threat assessments in the weeks before a deadly attack by militants, a Senate committee said on Monday. A report from the Senate Homeland Security Committee on the September 11 attacks on the U.S. mission and a nearby...

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Singapore ushers in 2013 with fireworks display at Marina Bay

SINGAPORE: It was a celebration full of song, dance and a magnificent display of fireworks as Singapore ushered in 2013 at the Marina Bay countdown.Spectators thronged the Marina Bay area to soak up the celebrations as the nation counted down to the New Year!And with a slew of performances... there was something for everyone.Whether it was grooving to the beats of regional acts like Korean...

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BMW cars to get LTE WiFi

BMW's new LTE WiFi hotspot snaps into the cradle dock in the console, giving everyone in the car a fast Internet connection.(Credit:BMW)Audi and Ford include WiFi hotspots in some of their models, but BMW maintains its high-performance reputation by offering an accessory for WiFi at LTE data speeds, the first time acar has boasted this type of connectivity.BMW's LTE adapter snaps into any BMW equipped...

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