Egyptians narrowly back Islamist-shaped constitution, say rival camps

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptians voted narrowly in favor of a constitution shaped by Islamists and which opponents said was a recipe for deepening divisions in the nation, officials in rival camps said on Sunday after the first round of a two-stage referendum. The result based on unofficial tallies, if confirmed for this round and repeated in Saturday's second stage, may give Islamist President...

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Britain looks to Chinese tourists for Christmas cheer

LONDON - With their shelves spilling over with festive goodies, London's department stores are working hard to attract Christmas shoppers -- but Chinese visitors are the particular target of a charm offensive.Hotels, retailers and the government are stepping up efforts to woo big-spending Chinese visitors in a bid to bounce back from Britain's longest recession in half a century.Congee...

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Google will alter search to end FTC antitrust inquiry, says report

The Federal Trade Commission may bring its two-year antitrust investigation of Google to a close by allowing the company to make voluntary changes to its search business, according to a report.The search giant is said to be readying an announcement about changes to its use of "snippets," bits of text culled from sites such as Yelp and TripAdvisor and displayed in search results, Politico reports,...

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Conn. dad recalls loving, creative 6-year-old

NEWTOWN, Conn. Fighting back tears and struggling to catch his breath, the father of a 6-year-old gunned down in Friday's school shooting in Connecticut told the world about a little girl who loved to draw and was always smiling, and he also reserved surprising words of sympathy for the gunman. Robbie Parker's daughter Emilie was among the 20 children who died in the one of the worst attacks on...

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Conn. Victim's Father Remembers 'Loving' Daughter

(Image credit: Emilie Parker Fund/Facebook)Emilie Parker, the little girl with the blond hair and bright blue eyes, would have been one of the first to comfort her classmates at Sandy Hook Elementary School, had a gunman’s bullets not claimed her life, her father said.“My daughter Emilie would be one of the first ones to be standing and giving support to all the victims because that’s the kind...

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NATO says Syrian Scuds hit "near" Turkey

BEIRUT (Reuters) - NATO accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces of firing Scud missiles that landed near to the Turkish border, in explaining why it was sending anti-missile batteries and troops to the bloc's frontier. The Syrian government, which finds itself under attack from rebels in the capital Damascus and by a diplomatic alliance of Arab and Western powers, denies firing...

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Hundreds hold vigil after US school massacre

NEWTOWN, Connecticut: Hundreds of people attended a mass Friday night at a church in Newtown, Connecticut, paying tribute to the victims of the elementary school massacre that left at least 27 dead.The church was so packed that dozens of people crowded outside the St. Rose of Lima Catholic church -- just a mile from the Sandy Hook elementary school where the tragedy took place."This is...

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Put your phone into 'car mode' with these dashboard apps

Sadly, Android's original Car Home app is incompatible with most modern versions of the OS. (Credit:Google)My firstAndroid phone, the original Motorola Droid, was one of the first phones to debut Google Maps Navigation. Now, Google knew that this feature would get drivers interested in using their Android phones in the car and that the tiny virtual buttons and shortcuts that worked well when the device...

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Hundreds pack Conn. church for vigil after rampage

Updated 11:39 PM ET NEWTOWN, Conn. Twenty-six candles — one for each of the victims — flickered on the altar Friday as hundreds of grief-stricken residents gathered for a vigil in memory of the children and staff killed in a shooting rampage at a school in this Connecticut town. With the church filled to capacity, hundreds spilled outside, holding hands in circles in the cold night air and saying...

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Conn. Shooter Adam Lanza: 'Obviously Not Well'

Adam Lanza of Newtown, Connecticut was a child of the suburbs and a child of divorce who at age 20 still lived with his mother.This morning he appears to have started his day by shooting his mother Nancy in the face, and then drove her car to nearby Sandy Hook Elementary School, armed with two handguns and a semi-automatic rifle.There, before turning his gun on himself, he shot...

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U.S., rebels urge gloomy Moscow to help oust Assad

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria's rebel leadership and the United States seized on Russian pessimism over President Bashar al-Assad's future to urge Moscow to help push its ally into ceding power and end the battles closing in around his capital. "We want to commend the Russian government for finally waking up to the reality and acknowledging that the regime's days are numbered," the U.S. State...

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China shares up over 3% on data, policy hopes

SHANGHAI: Chinese shares were up more than three per cent in afternoon trade on Friday on fresh signs of an economic recovery and hopes new policies will emerge from a key government meeting, dealers said.The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index jumped 3.02 per cent, or 62.24 points, to 2,123.72.British banking giant HSBC said on Friday its preliminary purchasing managers' index (PMI) hit...

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Chinese arbitrators rule against brain-damaged Foxconn worker

This is the gate of the Fosconn factories in Shenzhen.(Credit:Jay Greene/CNET)Chinese labor arbitrators have ruled against the father of a Foxconn worker severely injured in a factory explosion last year, according to documents reviewed by Reuters.Zhang Guangde -- Zhang Tingzhen's father -- took Foxconn to court in October, a year after his sone was hit with a massive electrical shock while repairing...

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Donation-based hospital rescues Afghanistan's wounded

(CBS News) KABUL - In Afghanistan, an American soldier and two Afghans were killed by a car bomb Thursday. It happened near the U.S. airbase in Kandahar, a few hours after Defense Secretary Leon Panetta left there to meet with Afghan President Karzai. Taliban attacks have grown more frequent, causing a sharp rise in civilian casualties. There's one place where many of those lives are saved or lost....

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Health-Exchange Deadline Looms

All of the Affordable Care Act, also known as "Obamacare," doesn't go into effect until 2014, but states are required to set up their own health care exchanges or leave it to the federal government to step in by next year. The deadline for the governors' decisions is Friday.The health insurance exchanges are one of the key stipulations of the new health care law. They will offer...

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Assad's forces fire Scuds in Syria escalation: U.S. official

WASHINGTON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have fired Scud missiles at rebels trying to overthrow Syria's government, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday, a step seen as an escalation in Assad's struggle to retain power. U.S. officials said they were unaware of any previous instances in which Scuds were used against the rebels since the start...

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China 'lacks leverage' over N. Korea: state media

BEIJING: Beijing lacks leverage over North Korea and will block moves for strong new sanctions for fear of weakening its position further, Chinese state media said Thursday following Pyongyang's rocket launch.China is the North's sole major ally, considered the nation with the most influence over Pyongyang, and after Wednesday's rocket flight US officials urged it to intervene.But in an...

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Google Maps returns to iOS as an app after Apple's removal

Screen shots of Google's new Maps app for iOS.(Credit:Google)Once banished from Apple's iOS, Google Maps has returned to the mobile platform in the form of a standalone app.The official Google Maps app returned to Apple's App store this evening. As expected, the new free app includes turn-by-turn navigation, just like itsAndroid counterpart, as well as public transit directions, integrated Street...

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In cautionary move, Europe centralizes bank oversight

BRUSSELSEuropean Union finance ministers reached an agreement early Thursday to create a single supervisor for their banks - one of the most significant transfers of authority from national governments to regional authorities since the creation of the euro currency. Under the deal, banks with more than $39 billion in assets supervised or those that represent a significant proportion of their national...

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McAfee Lands in Miami: I'm Free

Software mogul John McAfee has been released from detention in Guatemala City and has landed in Miami.Immediately upon landing, according to passengers on the plane, McAfee's name was called and he was whisked off the aircraft. Federal officials escorted the 67-year-old Internet antivirus pioneer through customs spirit him out a side door, out of the view of reporters, according...

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North Korea's new leader burnishes credentials with rocket

SEOUL/TOKYO (Reuters) - North Korea successfully launched a rocket on Wednesday, boosting the credentials of its new leader and stepping up the threat the isolated and impoverished state poses to its opponents. The rocket, which North Korea says put a weather satellite into orbit, has been labeled by the United States, South Korea and Japan as a test of technology that could one day deliver...

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China raps N. Korea over rocket launch

BEIJING: China on Wednesday rapped North Korea over its long-range rocket launch, demanding North Korea comply with UN resolutions against using ballistic missiles, the official news agency Xinhua said."Pyongyang should... abide by relevant UN Security Council resolutions... which demands the DPRK not to conduct 'any launch using ballistic missile technology' and urges it to 'suspend all...

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Facebook reigns as the best place to work

Maybe it's the ability to influence a billion people or maybe it's the deluxe campus and free food, but Facebook employees have come out in full force and voted their company the best place to work this year. Company review site Glassdoor annually compiles the 50 best places to work based on comments from employees in dozens of companies. This year, nearly half a million reviews were submitted that...

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Suspect, two others, killed in Ore. mall shooting

Updated 10:30 p.m. ET PORTLAND, Oregon A gunman opened fire in a suburban Portland shopping mall Tuesday, killing two people and wounding another before apparently killing himself as people were doing their Christmas shopping, authorities said. One other person was reported injured. Clackamas County sheriff's Lt. James Rhodes said authorities were still trying to get more details about the situation...

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