Foreign Minister Blames Sanctions for Syria’s Troubles

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Receiving a high-level United Nations delegation on Saturday in Damascus, Syria’s foreign minister blamed international sanctions for his country’s problems and called on the United Nations to help lift the measures, which were imposed to punish the government for its crackdown on pro-democracy protesters that spiraled into armed conflict. Government forces continued airstrikes...

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Google+ app for Android updated with new photo-sharing features, emoticons, GIFs and more

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Kelly Clarkson Is Engaged

By Mike Fleeman 12/15/2012 at 05:30 PM EST Brandon Blackstock and Kelly Clarkson Rick Diamond/Getty Kelly Clarkson's wait for a ring is over."I'M ENGAGED!!!!!" she announced Saturday on Twitter. "I wanted y'all to know!! Happiest night of my life last night!...

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Fewer health care options for illegal immigrants

ALAMO, Texas (AP) — For years, Sonia Limas would drag her daughters to the emergency room whenever they fell sick. As an illegal immigrant, she had no health insurance, and the only place she knew to seek treatment was the hospital — the most expensive setting for those covering the cost.The family's options improved somewhat a decade ago with the expansion of community health clinics, which offered...

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Actor decapitated student, killed girlfriend, DA alleges

Clinging to keepsakes and memories more than two years after their children were killed, the parents of two slain Orange Coast College students say the pain of reliving the details of their deaths in court can't match their desire for justice.On Thursday, the families of Juri "Julie" Kibuishi, 23, and Samuel Herr, 26, sat in Orange County Superior Court for a preliminary hearing to determine...

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Syrian Rebel Seeks Prisoner Exchange to Free Hostages

Lebanese Captives in Syria Speak Out: C.J. Chivers, a correspondent for The New York Times, spoke with two Lebanese men held captive in Syria for seven months. Syrian rebels accuse them and seven others of being members of Hezbollah.BAB AL-SALAM, Syria — When Syrian rebels stopped two buses of Lebanese travelers in the spring and took 11 passengers hostage, they set off a cascade of fallout: riots...

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Sony’s PlayStation 4 could lose to the next Xbox before it’s even released

I love all game consoles equally. My Xbox 360 is used equally as much as my PlayStation 3. The Wii — oh, I’ll just leave it at that. The current generation of consoles is all but over — 10-year life cycle be damned — and new consoles are rumored to be coming next fall. If not next fall, then in 2014. Whatever is the case, Sony (SNE) can’t afford to lag in third place again. Sure, the Xbox...

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Adam Lanza Identified as Gunman in Connecticut Shooting

By Stephen M. Silverman 12/14/2012 at 05:30 PM EST Woman speaking with state police at the scene Cloe Poisson/Hartford Courant/MCT/Getty As authorities continue to investigate Friday's horrific shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., details are beginning to emerge about...

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Fewer health care options for illegal immigrants

ALAMO, Texas (AP) — For years, Sonia Limas would drag her daughters to the emergency room whenever they fell sick. As an illegal immigrant, she had no health insurance, and the only place she knew to seek treatment was the hospital — the most expensive setting for those covering the cost.The family's options improved somewhat a decade ago with the expansion of community health clinics, which offered...

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Man sought to videotape girlfriend's murder for Christmas, DA says

A south Orange County man who solicited his ex-girlfriend's murder and asked that the killing be videotaped so he could watch it on Christmas was sentenced Thursday to 31 years to life in state prison. Mark Alan Jarosik, a Ladera Ranch resident, was in custody at the time of the murder solicitation, being held on suspicion of raping his former girlfriend.Jarosik, 46, was found guilty in...

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Rice Drops Bid for Secretary of State, Citing Opposition

WASHINGTON — Susan E. Rice, the Obama administration’s ambassador to the United Nations, has withdrawn her name from consideration for secretary of state, in the face of relentless opposition from Republicans in Congress over her role in the aftermath of the deadly attack on the American Mission in Benghazi, Libya. In a letter to President Obama, Ms. Rice said she concluded that “the confirmation...

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Verizon Offering $5 Shared 4G Plan for Samsung Galaxy Camera

Imagine the powerful Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone, except that it can’t make phone calls and its backplate has been replaced by a digital camera — handgrip, zoom lens, and all. That’s basically the Samsung Galaxy Camera in a nutshell, and whether it’s a small, awkwardly-shaped Android tablet or a digital camera that you can play Modern Combat 3 on depends on how you look at it.When the Galaxy Camera...

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Heather Dubrow Guest Stars with Reba McEntire on Malibu Country

TV Watch 12/13/2012 at 05:30 PM EST From left: Sara Rue, Reba McEntire and Heather Dubrow Nicole Wilder/ABC She's gone country! Malibu Country, that is. Real Housewives of Orange County star Heather Dubrow, who also goes by Heather Paige Kent, has landed a guest-starring...

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Study: People worldwide living longer, but sicker

LONDON (AP) — Nearly everywhere around the world, people are living longer and fewer children are dying. But increasingly, people are grappling with the diseases and disabilities of modern life, according to the most expansive global look so far at life expectancy and the biggest health threats.The last comprehensive study was in 1990 and the top health problem then was the death of children under...

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'Evil' actor killed college students, girlfriend says

A woman authorities say helped her then-fiance after he allegedly killed two people said at a news conference Tuesday night that she is "completely innocent." Rachel Mae Buffett, 25, addressed the media at her brother's Long Beach wine bar flanked by her brothers, sister and mother. She declared her innocence and vowed to assist Costa Mesa police in their ongoing investigation into the...

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IHT Rendezvous: In China, Fears Ours Would Be a 'One-Week Puppy'

BEIJING — China has many genuine pet lovers who care well for their dogs, but also many owners who don’t. The dog trade is virtually unsupervised and selling sick animals to unsuspecting customers is common. Animal shelters are full. The pet scene is tough. Buying a dog, which I write about in my latest Letter from China, can be a risky business.“Some breeders just want to make money. Some are real...

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AP PHOTOS: Top 10 Search Trends of 2012

NEW YORK (AP) — From the tragic to the downright silly, millions of people searched the Web in 2012 to find out about a royal princess, the latest iPad, a record-breaking skydiver and the death of a pop star.Google released its 12th annual “zeitgeist” report on Wednesday. The company calls it “an in-depth look at the spirit of the times as seen through the billions of searches on Google over the past...

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Eva Herzigová Expecting Third Child

Mom & Babies Celebrity Baby Blog 12/12/2012 at 05:00 PM ET Dave M. Benett/GettyThis model mama is expanding her brood!Eva Herzigová is five months pregnant with her third child, her agency Storm Models confirms to the Telegraph.She and husband Gregorio Marsiaj will welcome the baby in the spring.The...

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Congress examines science behind HGH test for NFL

WASHINGTON (AP) — A congressional committee has opened a hearing to examine the science behind a human growth hormone test the NFL wants to start using on its players.Nearly two full seasons have passed since the league and the players' union signed a labor deal that set the stage for HGH testing.The NFL Players Association won't concede the validity of a test that's used by Olympic sports and Major...

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Doctor caught with 1,000 child porn images, police say

A Santa Ana foot doctor was arrested Tuesday on a warrant accusing him of possessing more than 1,000 images of child pornography on his company computer. Dr. Pete Thomas, 58, of Coastline Podiatry in Santa Ana, surrendered to a judge Tuesday and was booked into Santa Ana jail before being released on $50,000 bail, Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said. The images were first discovered...

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Mandela Is Suffering From Lung Infection

Alexander Joe/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesIn Soweto, an area of Johannesburg, a resident walked past images of Nelson Mandela, the 94-year-old former president of South Africa and hero of the antiapartheid movement, who remained hospitalized on Tuesday. JOHANNESBURG — Former President Nelson Mandela, who has been hospitalized since Saturday, is suffering from a recurrence of a lung infection...

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Obama election tweet most repeated but Olympics tops on Twitter

(Reuters) – An election victory tweet from President Barack Obama — “Four more years” with a picture of him hugging his wife — was the most retweeted ever, but the U.S. election was topped by the Olympics as the most tweeted event this year.Obama’s tweet was retweeted (repeated) more than 810,000 times, Twitter said as it published a list of the most tweeted events in 2012. (http://2012.twitter.com/)“Within...

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Megan Fox 'Screamed for an Epidural' During Delivery

Mom & Babies Celebrity Baby Blog 12/11/2012 at 05:00 PM ET John Shearer/Invision/AP When it came to welcoming her first child, Megan Fox was prepared for the delivery to be a labor of love.But one contraction later, and the actress’s dreams of being drug-free went out the window.“It hurts so bad....

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APNewsBreak: DA investigating Texas cancer agency

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Texas prosecutor responsible for investigating public corruption among state officials said Tuesday that he has opened an investigation into the state's troubled $3 billion cancer-fighting agency.Gregg Cox, director of the Travis County district attorney's public integrity unit, told The Associated Press that an investigation has begun into the Cancer Prevention and Research...

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Actor's girlfriend says he killed, dismembered college students

Hours before he played the romantic lead in a community theater play opposite his real-life fiancee, authorities allege Daniel Patrick Wozniak shot and killed his neighbor.Not long after that evening’s performance, he slipped out of the Costa Mesa apartment he shared with his then-fiancee, Rachel Buffett, 25, and killed a second person , according to police, prosecutors and Buffett's account...

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Moscow Journal: Book Gives Russians Close-Up of American Minutiae

MOSCOW — After 20 years of opining on weighty bilateral issues like NATO expansion and ballistic missile defense, the political analyst Nikolai V. Zlobin recently found himself trying to explain, for an uncomprehending Russian readership, the American phenomenon of the teenage baby sitter. In Russia, children are raised by their grandmothers, or, if their grandmothers are not available, by...

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New leaks suggest Microsoft Office for iOS could launch soon

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Tom Cruise: I'm Spending Christmas with My Kids

By Phil Boucher 12/10/2012 at 05:15 PM EST Tom Cruise at the London premiere of Jack Reacher Dec. 10 Dave M. Benett/WireImage It's shaping up to be a very merry Christmas for Tom Cruise.Looking upbeat and winter-warm in a navy sweater and jeans at the London...

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Surprise: New insurance fee in health overhaul law

WASHINGTON (AP) — Your medical plan is facing an unexpected expense, so you probably are, too. It's a new, $63-per-head fee to cushion the cost of covering people with pre-existing conditions under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.The charge, buried in a recent regulation, works out to tens of millions of dollars for the largest companies, employers say. Most of that is likely to be passed...

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Man lived with murdered girlfriend's rotting corpse for months, DA says

Prosecutors say a Stockton man lived with his girlfriend's rotting corpse for months after killing her.In court last week, prosecutors alleged that the man hit is girlfriend on the head with a  a metal table pedestal, raped her and stabbed her 32 times.Devon Epps was evicted from his apartment in December 2011. The next day, when the apartment manager stopped by, they found a dead...

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