Roadside bomb kills Afghan district police chief

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Officials say a roadside bombing in southern Afghanistan has killed a district police chief, as the insurgents increasingly target Afghan security forces amid the drawdown of foreign troops.Ahmadulah Nazik, who is the administrator of Dand district in Kandahar province, said Rahmatullah Khan died Saturday while trying to reach a police outpost under Taliban attack.The killing...

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Google's Android software in 3 out of 4 smartphones

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Songs offer messages of hope at Sandy benefit show

NEW YORK (AP) — From "Livin' on a Prayer" to "The Living Proof," every song Friday at NBC's benefit concert for superstorm Sandy victims became a message song.New Jersey's Jon Bon Jovi gave extra meaning to "Who Says You Can't Go Home." Billy Joel worked in a reference to Staten Island, the decimated New York City borough. The hourlong event, hosted by Matt Lauer, was heavy on stars and lyrics identified...

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Floods render NYC hospitals powerless

NEW YORK (AP) — There are few places in the U.S. where hospitals have put as much thought and money into disaster planning as New York. And yet two of the city's busiest, most important medical centers failed a fundamental test of readiness during Superstorm Sandy this week: They lost power.Their backup generators failed, or proved inadequate. Nearly 1,000 patients had to be evacuated.The closures...

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Bloomberg cancels marathon amid outcry

RT @YahooSportsNBA: Jeremy Lin and James Harden are the NBA’s best backcourt. Do not argue. http://t.co/zsGlGTgp via @Yahoo...

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S. Korean candidate in late dictator dad's shadow

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Carrying a bouquet of flowers, South Korean presidential candidate Park Geun-hye stepped forward to honor one of the martyrs in her country's long struggle for democracy. A protester threw himself at her feet."How dare you come here?" the man shouted, sitting between Park and a statue of activist Chun Tae-il. Chun's 1970 labor protest suicide is seen as an expression of dissent...

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Apple rolls out iPad mini in Asia to shorter lines

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Apple fans lined up in several Asian cities to get their hands on the iPad mini on Friday, but the device, priced above rival gadgets from Google and Amazon.com, attracted smaller crowds than at the company's previous global rollouts. Apple Inc's global gadget rollouts are typically high-energy affairs drawing droves of buyers who stand in line for hours. But a proliferation...

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Blake Shelton pulls off surprise win at CMAs

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Winning the Country Music Association Awards' entertainer of the year is a top honor and always counted as a career high point. But for Blake Shelton it wasn't even the most memorable moment of an amazing Thursday night."The Voice" star took home three trophies, including his third straight male vocalist victory, but nothing compared to sharing song of the year with wife Miranda...

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Floods render NYC hospitals powerless

NEW YORK (AP) — There are few places in the U.S. where hospitals have put as much thought and money into disaster planning as New York. And yet two of the city's busiest, most important medical centers failed a fundamental test of readiness during Superstorm Sandy this week: They lost power.Their backup generators failed, or proved inadequate. Nearly 1,000 patients had to be evacuated.The closures...

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Gas stations scramble in Sandy's aftermath

NEW YORK (AP) — There's plenty of gasoline in the Northeast — just not at gas stations.In parts of New York and New Jersey, drivers lined up Thursday for hours at gas stations that were struggling to stay supplied. The power outages and flooding caused by Superstorm Sandy have forced many gas stations to close and disrupted the flow of fuel from refineries to those stations that are open.At the same...

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China: Pigeons must stay in coops during congress

BEIJING (AP) — Don't roll down the taxi windows. Don't buy a remote-controlled plane without a police chief's permission. And don't release your pigeons.Beijing is tightening security as its all-important Communist Party congress approaches, and some of the measures seem bizarre.Not only have taxi drivers removed the window handles from their doors, but their passengers must sign agreements promising...

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Apple's Cook fields his A-team before a wary Wall Street

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc Chief Executive Tim Cook's new go-to management team of mostly familiar faces failed to drum up much excitement on Wall Street, driving its shares to a three-month low on Wednesday. The world's most valuable technology company, which had faced questions about a visionary-leadership vacuum following the death of Steve Jobs, on Monday stunned investors by announcing...

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Man with bionic leg to climb Chicago skyscraper

CHICAGO (AP) — Zac Vawter considers himself a test pilot. After losing his right leg in a motorcycle accident, the 31-year-old software engineer signed up to become a research subject, helping to test a trailblazing prosthetic leg that's controlled by his thoughts.He will put this groundbreaking bionic leg to the ultimate test Sunday when he attempts to climb 103 flights of stairs to the top of Chicago's...

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Thousands still trapped in homes after Sandy

NEW YORK, N.Y. - People along the battered U.S. East Coast slowly began reclaiming their daily routines Thursday, even as crews searched for victims and tens of thousands remained without power after superstorm Sandy claimed more than 70 lives.The New York Stock Exchange came back to life, and two major New York airports reopened to begin the long process of moving stranded travellers around the world.New...

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Plague of office-buying wears at China's image

XILINHOT, China (AP) — In a small town in northern China's Inner Mongolia where sheep and cattle easily outnumber humans, Fan Chen paid a party boss three times an average urban resident's annual salary to become a local police chief.The scheme was exposed and fell apart, but it was hardly explosive news. It received just a one-line mention in state media. And a friend of Fan's defended him by saying...

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In hurricane, Twitter proves a lifeline despite pranksters

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - As Hurricane Sandy pounded the U.S. Atlantic coast on Monday night, knocking out electricity and Internet connections, millions of residents turned to Twitter as a part-newswire, part-911 hotline that hummed through the night even as some websites failed and swathes of Manhattan fell dark. But the social network also became a fertile ground for pranksters who...

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Swift's 'Red' sells 1.2 million copies in debut

NEW YORK (AP) — Taylor Swift's new album is called "Red," but its true color is a brilliant platinum. The 22-year-old sold 1.2 million copies of her latest album in its first week — the largest sales week for any album in a decade.Nielsen SoundScan confirmed the blockbuster sales on Tuesday night. "Red" marks Swift's second straight album to sell more than 1 million copies in its first week; "Speak...

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