Washington set to legalize marijuana use without Justice Department guidance

Adults in Washington state will be able to smoke marijuana legally when it is officially decriminalized Thursday, even though the Justice Department has offered no guidance on the conflict with federal drug laws. Prosecutors throughout the state have begun dismissing hundreds of misdemeanor marijuana cases, according to authorities there, and state and local police are being retrained...

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Football: Beckham's US adventure ends with victory

LOS ANGELES: The Los Angeles Galaxy rallied with three goals in the second half on Saturday to capture a second straight MLS Cup crown with a 3-1 win over Houston in David Beckham's farewell match in North America.Robbie Keane, Omar Gonzalez and Landon Donovan scored goals for the heavily-favoured Galaxy who clinched their fourth MLS Cup title by beating the Dynamo for the second consecutive...

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FDI in retail to safeguard international market mafias' interest: BJP

NEW DELHI: India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today said retail reform is a step taken by the Congress led-federal government to safeguard the interests of the international market mafias at the cost of national interest.BJP vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said on Saturday that voting inside the parliament would decide as to who is in favour of national interest and who is working...

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Photos: Kilauea Lava Reaches the Sea

Into the Sea Photograph by Hugh Gentry, ReutersA spectacular natural phenomenon was on display early this week as lava from a vent in Hawaii's Kilauea volcano flowed into...

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Police: KC Chiefs Player Killed Girlfriend, Self

Jovan Belcher, a linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs, committed suicide today in front of his coaches and police officers outside the team's stadium, shortly after he fatally shot his girlfriend, police said."We heard that they had been arguing in the past [and] as far as recently, they'd been arguing before the shooting occurred this morning," Kansas City Police spokesman...

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Palestinians need separate vote to join IMF: spokeswoman

WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund said on Friday that the UN vote to recognize Palestine as a non-member observer state does not mean the Palestinians will automatically become members of the financial institution.In response to an AFP query, spokeswoman Wafa Amr said United Nations recognition "by itself has no direct effect on a possible application for membership of the IMF.""The...

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BJP complaints to Election Commission against cash transfer scheme

NEW DELHI: A BJP delegation on Friday lodged a formal protest with the Election Commission (EC) against the Centre's announcement of the direct cash transfer scheme ahead of Gujarat polls. The delegation, comprising senior leader L K Advani and Leaders of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, has alleged violation of the model code of conduct and demanded...

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Photos: Kilauea Lava Reaches the Sea

Into the Sea Photograph by Hugh Gentry, ReutersA spectacular natural phenomenon was on display early this week as lava from a vent in Hawaii's Kilauea volcano flowed into...

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3 Dead After Attack at Wyo. Community College

Three people are dead after an attack at Casper College, a Wyoming community college, that may have involved a type of bow and arrow.The college was shut down Friday morning after the attack."Emergency Alert: All classes and activities are cancelled today," read a message posted on the school's website.Initial calls came in just after 9 a.m. reporting a "traumatic injury" on...

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US, Israel isolated in downplaying Palestine vote

WASHINGTON: The United States and Israel downplayed on Thursday the Palestinians' new upgraded status at the UN, saying it changed nothing in actual practice and even made peace with the Jewish state a remoter prospect.Palestinians rejoiced at the historic albeit largely symbolic vote at the UN General Assembly in New York, firing guns into the air in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank,...

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Fighting for free speech: 'Law needs overhaul, not cosmetic job'

Cyber experts cautiously welcomed guidelines to regulate registration of offences under section 66-A of the Information Technology Act, saying they were at best "cosmetic action". The guidelines stipulate no offence under the section can be registered without prior approval of an officer below the rank of a deputy commissioner of police (in non-metros and rural areas) or rank of inspector general...

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Pictures: Inside the World's Most Powerful Laser

Photograph courtesy Damien Jemison, LLNLLooking like a portal to a science fiction movie, preamplifiers line a corridor at the U.S. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's National Ignition Facility (NIF).Preamplifiers work by increasing the energy of laser beams—up to ten billion times—before these beams reach the facility's target chamber.The project's lasers are tackling "one of physics' grand...

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Palestinians Win Statehood Status at U.N.

The U.N. General Assembly voted today to approve Palestinians' request to be upgraded to a "non-member observer state," defying opposition by the U.S. and Israel.Before the vote, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told the General Assembly that it "is being asked today to issue the birth certificate of Palestine."Of the 193 countries in the General Assembly 138 voted to recognize...

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‘Fiscal cliff’ talks bogged down by dispute over cost of retirement programs

Negotiations to avert the year-end “fiscal cliff” advanced at a glacial pace Wednesday, with a dispute over how to tackle the soaring cost of federal retirement programs emerging as the latest roadblock to progress. Democrats complained that Republicans have yet to name their price for enacting legislation that would preserve tax cuts for the vast majority of Americans next year while...

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Manning's suicide watch at US brig "senseless": doctor

FORT MEADE, Maryland: A US military psychiatrist testified on Wednesday that the harsh detention of WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning was "senseless" and that commanders totally ignored his advice to lift tough suicide watch measures.Captain William Hoctor, a Navy doctor who evaluated Manning about every week during his confinement at a Marine Corps brig in Quantico, Virginia, told the...

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Indira Gandhi lent Indian politics the dynastic shift: Ramachandra Guha

BANGALORE: The Congress led by Indira Gandhi fostered a generation of hero worship and dynasty politics after 1969. This inspired many others like Muthuvel Karunanidhi, who started off with noble intentions to fight against caste discriminations, to do the same and has led to a centralization of politics in present India, said Ramachandra Guha, on Wednesday. He was speaking during the launch of...

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Caterpillar Fungus Has Anti-Inflammatory Properties

In the Tibetan mountains, a fungus attaches itself to a moth larva burrowed in the soil. It infects and slowly consumes its host from within, taking over its brain and making the young caterpillar move to a position from which the fungus can grow and spore again. Sounds like something out of science fiction, right? But for ailing Chinese consumers and nomadic Tibetan harvesters, the parasite...

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Factory Workers: We Were Locked in, Flames Spread

More survivors of the factory fire in Bangladesh that killed more than 100 garment workers this weekend have told human rights and international labor groups they were actually locked in by security gates as the flames spread."The police and the fire department are confirming that the collapsible gates were locked on each floor," said Charles Kernighan, executive director of...

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Keeping the financial regulators on their toes

When members of Congress need factual information and insights into the effectiveness of the financial laws put in place after the 2008 economic crisis, they regularly turn to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and Orice Williams Brown. Initially as director and now as managing director of the GAO’s financial markets and community investment section, Brown and her staff have issued...

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US again says China not currency manipulator

WASHINGTON: The US Treasury on Tuesday again stopped short of labeling China a currency manipulator, noting gains in the value of the yuan, but said the currency remains "significantly undervalued."In a twice-yearly finding to answer congressional critics of China's overwhelming bilateral trade advantage, the Treasury declined to slap Beijing with the currency manipulator tag, a move that...

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Mamata to decide on voting over FDI

KOLKATA: With the Congress likely to garner a majority in Parliament over the FDI issue, the Trinamool Congress is yet to carve out its strategy in Parliament, in case Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar allows the debate under rule 184. Trinamool leaders have left it to Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee to decide whether the party will stage a walkout along with parties such as Samajwadi Party and Bahujan...

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Pictures: Falcon Massacre Uncovered in India

Photograph courtesy Conservation IndiaA young boy can sell bundles of fresh Amur falcons (pictured) for less than five dollars. Still, when multiplied by the thousands of falcons hunters can catch in a day, the practice can be a considerable financial boon to these groups.Since discovering the extent of Amur hunting in Nagaland this fall, Conservation India has taken the issue to the local Indian...

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Justice, House Try to Resolve Fast and Furious Suit

Nov 27, 2012 3:25pm The Justice Department said Tuesday that they will try to settle a lawsuit seeking to enforce a subpoena sought by the House Oversight and Government Reform committee to obtain documents related to the ATF’s botched gun trafficking case Operation Fast and Furious.Ian Gershengorn, the Justice Department deputy assistant attorney general,  and...

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In harassment case, Supreme Court ponders: Who qualifies as a supervisor?

Imagine this scene of workplace harassment, envisioned by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.: You really hate country music. The senior employee in your office picks the music everyone listens ...

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Eurozone agrees to release 43.7b euros to Greece

BRUSSELS: Eurozone finance ministers agreed early on Tuesday to release 43.7 billion euros in loans to Greece, after months in which Greece was starved of bailout financing.Two sources told AFP that the eurozone had agreed to release the money after a deal that could lead to a long-term debt write-down by currency partners, saying it would be handed over "in one go."The eurozone said...

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Ex-NSG commando Surender Singh holds forth on 26/11 symbolism

NEW DELHI: Anti-graft crusader Arvind Kejriwal was not the only one to tug at the hearts of people gathered at his party launch on Monday. There was a soldier, who seemed to exemplify the popular slogan 'Jai Jawan Jai Kisan.' Ex-NSG commando Surender Singh made his public speaking debut at the gathering, but narrated his plight in an articulate manner. Born in a poor farmer's family in Haryana's...

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Space Pictures This Week: Space "Horse," Mars Rover, More

High Horse Photograph by Greg Parker, Your Shot The Horsehead Nebula rears its pretty head in a November 17 photograph submitted to National Geographic's Your Shot photo community.Taken...

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Mom Fears Dad in Boy's Disappearance

The mother of 13-year-old boy Dylan Redwine, who disappeared a week ago during a court ordered visit to his father, fears that the dad may have done something to "remove Dylan from the situation."Dylan Redwine was last seen at the home of his father, Mark Redwine, when he vanished seven days ago."I was married to Mark for a lot of years, and I know the way he reacts to things,"...

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