North Korea launches rocket in defiance of critics

SEOUL/TOKYO (Reuters) - Isolated and impoverished North Korea launched its second long- range rocket of 2012 on Wednesday and may have finally succeeded in putting a satellite into space, the stated aim of what critics say is a disguised ballistic missile test. The rocket was launched just before 10 a.m. Korean time (0100 GMT) and overflew the Japanese island of Okinawa. A rocket launch...

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Brief Facebook outage after infrastructure change

SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook was unreachable briefly on Monday after the social network made a change to part of its infrastructure dealing with routing traffic to its online address."Earlier today, we made a change to our DNS infrastructure and that change resulted in some people being temporarily unable to reach the site," Facebook said in response to an AFP inquiry."We detected and resolved...

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All politicians aren't criminals: Sukhbir Badal

AMRITSAR: Completely disowning the leaders of his Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) found to be involved in recent criminal activities, Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Badal, who on Monday visited the house of ASI Ravinderpal Singh, who was shot dead by an Akali leader, said all politicians are not criminals."If some low rung Akali leader or his remote relative was is involved in some criminal case,...

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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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Guilty Verdict in Lottery Winner's Murder

DeeDee Moore, the Tampa woman accused of swindling and then killing lottery winner Abraham Shakespeare, was found guilty today of first degree murder and other charges, after she declined to take the stand and the defense rested without calling a single witness.In addition to the murder charge, Moore was also found guilty of possessing and discharging a firearm resulting in...

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Unknown attackers fire at Cairo protesters, nine hurt

CAIRO (Reuters) - Nine people were hurt when unknown attackers fired at protesters camping at Tahrir Square in central Cairo on Tuesday, according to witnesses and Egyptian media, as opponents and supporters of President Mohamed Mursi's plans to vote on a new constitution geared up for a day of street demonstrations. Police cars surrounded the square, the first time they had appeared...

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Iranian experts at N. Korea's rocket site: report

SEOUL: A group of Iranian missile experts are in North Korea offering technical assistance with a planned long-range rocket launch condemned by the international community, a report said Monday.The Iranians were invited after Pyongyang's last rocket launch in April ended in failure, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper said, citing a Seoul government official."A car seen at the... launch site has...

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India misguided, paranoid over China: Guha

Shreya Roy Chowdhury, TNN Dec 8, 2012, 06.12AM ISTMUMBAI: A good half-hour into the discussion on 'India, China and the World', historian Ramachandra Guha issued a disclaimer—all the three members on the panel had been to China only once. "We should learn their language, promote quality research, and have a panel on China driven by Chinese scholars," he said. And that was the general tenor of the...

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Smokers celebrate as Wash. legalizes marijuana

SEATTLE (AP) — The crowds of happy people lighting joints under Seattle's Space Needle early Thursday morning with nary a police officer in sight bespoke the new reality: Marijuana is legal under Washington state law.Hundreds gathered at Seattle Center for a New Year's Eve-style countdown to 12 a.m., when the legalization measure passed by voters last month took effect. When the clock struck, they...

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Remains of Banda Superstar Jenni Rivera's Jet Reported Found

UPDATED: Multiple reports, including one from Gerardo Ruiz Esparza, Mexico's Secretary of Communications and Transports, confirm that the remains of the private jet carrying Jenni Rivera have been found, with no survivors. Rivera, 43, was one of seven passengers.Rivera's father, Pedro, confirmed the news of his daughter's passing to reporters stationed outside of his home in Lakewood,...

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