Hagel wins key endorsement for Pentagon job

WASHINGTON: US defence secretary-designate Chuck Hagel cleared a key bar to his Senate confirmation Tuesday, winning the backing of a powerful Democrat who had been concerned about his stances on Iran and Israel.Senator Chuck Schumer said he met Hagel for 90 minutes on Monday and had been convinced to endorse the blunt former Republican senator to run the Pentagon in Obama's second term...

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X-Wing Fighter coffee table goes galactic in your living room

This just needs some "Star Wars" action figures to complete the look.(Credit:Barry Shields)If Luke Skywalker had a living room with a big-screen TV, he would also have a hand-carved X-Wing Fighter coffee table made of wood and glass. The detailed model looks like it's in mid-flight, except instead of blasting the forces of the Dark Side, it's calmly guarding your coffee.The table is designed so that...

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Facebook announces new site search feature

Facebook announced that it is launching a search engine for the social network called "graph search." At a press event in Menlo Park, Calif., Tuesday CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the social network is launching a search engine that will run inside of Facebook. "What is graph search? It's not web search," Zuckerberg told reporters. During a comparison of graph search with a web search, Zuckerberg demonstrated...

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Secret Revealed: Facebook Announces New Tool

How you search Facebook is about to change. In fact, just the act of searching Facebook is probably about to start.Facebook is trying to give Google a run for its money, with a new product called "Graph Search." It turns some of the personal information people have shared on Facebook into a powerful searchable database.For the social network's 170 million users in the U.S., it's...

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Syria war envelops region in "staggering" crisis: aid agency

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria's civil war is unleashing a "staggering humanitarian crisis" on the Middle East as hundreds of thousands of refugees flee violence including gang rape, an international aid agency said on Monday. Opposition activists said an air strike on rebel-held territory southwest of Damascus killed 20 people, including women and children, adding to the more than 60,000 people estimated...

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Sri Lanka seals impeachment with new judge

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka's president completed the controversial impeachment of the chief justice by choosing a successor Monday, his spokesman said, as lawyers vowed to keep up a battle for judicial independence.President Mahinda Rajapakse nominated a new chief justice who is expected to be confirmed by a parliamentary panel on Tuesday, his spokesman Mohan Samaranayake said.Rajapakse selected...

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Branch makes its conversation threads available to all

Branch home page(Credit:Jennifer Van Grove/CNET)Billed by Twitter's inventors as a new platform for high-quality public discourse, Branch today opened it doors to anyone who wants to fork off into conversations of more than 140 characters in length.Branch is essentially a modern, user-friendly version of the Internet forum. People create "branches" to discuss topics or links and invite their friends...

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George H.W. Bush discharged from hospital

Former US President George H.W. Bush gestures during a commemorative event in Berlin on October 31, 2009. The event under the motto "The Fall of the Wall and Reunification - the Victory of Freedom" was organized by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. AFP PHOTO DDP/ MICHAEL GOTTSCHALK GERMANY OUT (Photo credit should read MICHAEL GOTTSCHALK/AFP/Getty...

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Obama to Congress: 'We Are Not a Deadbeat Nation'

President Obama says the U.S. economy is "poised for a good year" but that progress could be threatened by political brinksmanship over the nation's debt limit."While I'm willing to compromise and find common ground over how to reduce our deficits, America cannot afford another debate with this Congress about whether or not they should pay the bills they've already racked up,"...

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France bombs Islamist stronghold in north Mali

BAMAKO/PARIS (Reuters) - French fighter jets pounded an Islamist rebel stronghold deep in northern Mali on Sunday as Paris poured more troops into the capital Bamako, awaiting a West African force to dislodge al Qaeda-linked insurgents from the country's north. The attack on Gao, the largest city in the desert region controlled by the Islamist alliance, marked a decisive intensification...

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