S.Korea sheds some Christmas light on North

SEOUL: South Korean church groups have displayed Christmas lights near the tense border with North Korea, an official said on Sunday, despite concerns about a violent response from Pyongyang.Dozens of church leaders and followers put up the giant display -- featuring thousands of glittering light bulbs on a tree-shaped steel tower -- near the heavily-fortified border on Saturday, a defence...

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Delhi gang rape: Hazare calls for stricter laws

AHMEDNAGAR (Maharashtra): Extending his support to the protests by youths demanding justice for the Delhi gang-rape victim, anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare today called for stringent laws and fast-track trials in such cases. "Youths gathered on the streets to demonstrate are passionate patriots. Their anger and the non-violent ways of demonstration shows that they have full faith in the country's...

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Pictures: Fungi Get Into the Holiday Spirit

Photograph courtesy Stephanie Mounaud, J. Craig Venter InstituteMounaud combined different fungi to create a Santa hat and spell out a holiday message.Different fungal grow at different rates, so Mounaud's artwork rarely lasts for long. There's only a short window of time when they actually look like what they're suppose to."You do have to keep that in perspective when you're making these creations,"...

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Obama, Congress Waving Bye-Bye Lower Taxes?

The first family arrived in the president's idyllic home state of Hawaii early today to celebrate the holidays, but President Obama, who along with Michelle will pay tribute Sunday to the late Sen. Daniel Inouye at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, could be returning home to Washington sooner than he expected.That's because the President didn't get his Christmas...

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Tax fight sends GOP into chaos

The main thing that has held Republicans together philosophically is the belief in holding down taxes. Not one of them in Congress has voted for a significant increase in more than two decades. Now that very issue is tearing the GOP apart and making it an all-but-ungovernable majority for Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) to lead in the House. Disarray is a word much overused in politics....

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Egyptians vote on divisive new constitution

CAIRO: Egyptians voted on Saturday in the final round of a referendum on a new constitution championed by President Mohamed Morsi and his Islamist allies against fierce protests from the secular-leaning opposition.The proposed charter is expected to be adopted after already garnering 57 percent support in the first round of the referendum a week ago.But the slim margin and the low first-round...

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Newly elected Himachal MLA booked for murder, on the run

SHIMLA: Ahead of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting on Saturday to elect Himachal Pradesh's next chief minister, one of the party's newly elected legislators has gone underground after being booked in a murder case.Ram Kumar Chaudhary, a first-time MLA from Doon constituency in Solan district, is one of the four suspects in the murder of a 24-year-old woman in Panchkula in Haryana Nov 22."Police...

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Pictures: Fungi Get Into the Holiday Spirit

Photograph courtesy Stephanie Mounaud, J. Craig Venter InstituteMounaud combined different fungi to create a Santa hat and spell out a holiday message.Different fungal grow at different rates, so Mounaud's artwork rarely lasts for long. There's only a short window of time when they actually look like what they're suppose to."You do have to keep that in perspective when you're making these creations,"...

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Obama Still an 'Optimist' on Cliff Deal

Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty ImagesWASHINGTON D.C. – Ten days remain before the mandatory spending cuts and tax increases known as the “fiscal cliff” take effect, but President Obama said he is still a “hopeless optimist” that a federal budget deal can be reached before the year-end deadline that economists agree might plunge the country back into recession.“Even though Democrats and Republicans are...

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How Boehner’s Plan B for the ‘fiscal cliff’ began and fell apart

John A. Boehner’s week on the brink ended in a painfully familiar place. It began last week when President Obama delivered a stern message to the House speaker: If there was going to be a deal to tame the nation’s debt, it had to happen now. If they went over the “fiscal cliff,” it would only become harder to reach a deal, Obama said. The next day, Friday, Boehner (R-Ohio) phoned...

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