Panetta to head the CIA

1/6 11:45:23 AM

WASHINGTON -- President-elect Barack Obama's selection of an old White House hand to head the CIA shows a preference for a strong manager over an intelligence expert. Obama's decision to name Leon Panetta to lead the ...
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Nation's health spending rises, but not so much

1/6 11:45:23 AM

WASHINGTON -- Health care continued to take up a greater share of the economy in 2007, as spending on hospitals, doctors and other services increased 6.1 percent to $2.2 trillion. There was a silver lining in the n ...
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Iowa lawmakers to focus on recovery from floods

1/6 10:35:02 AM

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Despite a state budget crisis and a crumbling national economy, Iowa legislators will nonetheless take on one of the most expensive problems in state history -- flood recovery. No one is sure of th ...
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Our Milky Way galaxy is larger than once thought

1/6 10:35:02 AM

WASHINGTON -- Take that, Andromeda! For decades, astronomers thought when it came to the major galaxies in Earth's cosmic neighborhood, our Milky Way was a weak sister to the larger Andromeda. Not anymore. The Mi ...
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Death certificate: Travolta's son was killed by a seizure

1/6 11:05:02 AM

FREEPORT, Bahamas -- Jett Travolta's body shows no sign of head trauma and his death certificate says he was killed by a seizure, an undertaker said Monday, after doctors performed an autopsy on the 16-year-old son ...
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New York City's New Year's Eve ball to rise again

1/6 10:35:02 AM

NEW YORK -- Happy new year -- in reverse! The massive Waterford crystal ball that descended in Times Square to ring in 2009 is being lit again and sent back up a 141-foot flagpole, where it will remain year-round. The ball -- 12 feet i ...
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Former policeman, teen arrested after Georgia standoff

1/6 10:35:02 AM

MADISON, Ga. -- A 13-hour hostage standoff at a Georgia motel ended peacefully Monday when a former South Carolina police officer and a teenage girl surrendered, freeing his estranged wife and infant son. FBI spoke ...
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Clues sought in deadly Texas shelter blaze

1/6 10:35:02 AM

PARIS, Texas -- A table piled with donated clothes is being eyed as the potential origin of a fire that killed five people at a Texas homeless shelter, forcing some residents to flee into the cold streets barefoot ...
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Search starts for Kansas boy now missing 10 years

New archbishop of Detroit prays for 'hope'

Former S.C. trooper pleads guilty in excessive force case

Fabulous fib is named Wisconsin club's top lie of 2008