AP Exclusive: Syrian rebels seize base, arms trove

BASE OF THE 46TH REGIMENT, Syria (AP) — After a nearly two-month siege, Syrian rebels overwhelmed a large military base in the north of the country and made off with tanks, armored vehicles and truckloads of munitions that rebel leaders say will give them a boost in the fight against President Bashar Assad‘s army.The rebel capture of the base of the Syrian...

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Woman hits ‘like’ on Facebook, gets arrested in India

The police in Mumbai arrested Monday a 21-year-old college student Shaheen Dhada for a Facebook status update and her friend Renu Srinivasan for clicking “Like” on the update. The case is the latest in a string of recent crackdowns on Internet speech in India.The update had criticized a general strike called by a political party, the right-wing Shiv Sena,...

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Repeat testing common among Medicare patients

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – In a new study, up to half – or more – of older adults on Medicare who had a heart, lung, stomach or bladder test had the same procedure repeated within three years.Those tests typically aren’t supposed to be routinely repeated, researchers said. For some of them, such as echocardiography and stress tests for heart function,...

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Comet to cut hundreds more jobs

19 November 2012 Last updated at 10:59 ETThe insolvent electrical chain Comet is cutting hundreds more jobs, its administrators have said. Deloitte said there would be a further 735 redundancies at its head office, central functions and across its home delivery network.This is in addition to 330 redundancies already...

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Turbulence on Cuba-Italy flight leaves 30 bruised

ROME (AP) — An airliner flying from Havana to Milan abruptly plunged some 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) when it hit unusually strong turbulence over the Atlantic on Monday, terrifying passengers and leaving some 30 people aboard with bruises and scrapes, airline officials said.The flight continued to Milan’s Malpensa airport after the plane’s captain determined...

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Wii U: New console launches in a sea of gadgets

NEW YORK (AP) — In the six years since the last major video game system launched, Apple unveiled the iPhone and the iPad, “Angry Birds” invaded smartphones and Facebook reached a billion users. In the process, scores of video game consoles were left to languish in living rooms alongside dusty VCRs and disc players.On Sunday, Nintendo Co. is launching the...

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One Direction top British single and album charts

LONDON (Reuters) – Boy band One Direction topped Britain’s singles and album charts on Sunday, outselling new releases from rock veterans Rod Stewart and the Rolling Stones, the Official Charts Company said.The English-Irish quintet shot to number one in the album charts with “Take Me Home”, with one of its tracks, “Little Things”, also taking first place...

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Questions of Blame Linger 34 Years After Jonestown

From the age of 13, Leslie Wagner Wilson had been indoctrinated in the California-based Peoples Temple, led by the charismatic Jim Jones, whose mission was to foster racial harmony and help the poor.But on Nov. 18, 1978, she and a handful of church members fought their way through thick jungle in the South American country of Guyana, escaping a utopian...

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Looking hard for reasons to give thanks

LONDON (Reuters) – With every year that passes, fewer and fewer people lead a life that is poor, nasty, brutish and short. So it is only right to step back, as America does this Thursday, to appreciate the bounties bestowed by economic progress.Yet this Thanksgiving, with the impact of the 2008 global financial crisis refusing to fade, will not feel like...

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Rebels in Congo reach door of Goma

GOMA, Congo (AP) — A Rwandan-backed rebel group advanced to within 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) of Goma, a crucial provincial capital in eastern Congo, marking the first time that rebels have come this close since 2008.Congolese army spokesman Col. Olivier Hamuli said the fighting has been going on since 6 a.m. Sunday and the front line has moved to just a...

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