Italy's Monti: I'm Heading New Electoral Coalition

ROME (AP) — Italian Premier Mario Monti announced Friday he is heading a new campaign coalition made of up centrists, business leaders and pro-Vatican forces who back his "ethical" vision of politics, aiming for a second mandate in office if his fledging reform movement wins big in parliamentary elections. After a four-hour huddle with his supporters, Monti ended weeks of speculation at home...

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NORAD Santa trackers draw record number of phone calls, social media followers

PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. – NORAD says it drew a record number of phone calls and social media followers during its NORAD Tracks Santa operation on Christmas Eve.The North American Aerospace Defence Command said Friday volunteers answered more than 114,000 calls, up 12,000 from 2011.NORAD’s Santa Facebook page had more than 1.2 million followers, up from about 1 million last year. More than 129,000...

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Emily Maynard's Cat Gets a Haircut - Like a Lion!

People Pets By Amy Jamieson 12/28/2012 at 04:00 PM EST Emily Maynard and her cat Safari Courtesy Emily Maynard; Inset:Craig Sjodin/ABC Emily Maynard's cat Safari was named for a wilderness expedition – and now the feline looks like he could roam wild in one.In...

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Kenya hospital imprisons new mothers with no money

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The director of the Pumwani Maternity Hospital, located in a hardscrabble neighborhood of downtown Nairobi, freely acknowledges what he's accused of: detaining mothers who can't pay their bills. Lazarus Omondi says it's the only way he can keep his medical center running.Two mothers who live in a mud-wall and tin-roof slum a short walk from the maternity hospital, which is affiliated...

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'Terminator' actor arrested for lewd conduct at adult movie store

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Afghan Police, Betrayed in Sleep, Suffer Losses

KABUL, Afghanistan — A wave of betrayal has left at least 17 Afghan policemen dead in the past 10 days — all killed in their sleep, at the hands of those close to them. Early Thursday morning, an Afghan policeman unlocked the door of the check post where he was stationed in Oruzgan Province and let in his friends from the Taliban, who helped him attack his sleeping colleagues with knives...

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iOS apps see Christmas sales spike shrink in 2012

Distimo just released its statistics on Christmas Day app downloads and revenue growth… and the download spike is far smaller than it was last year. Back in 2011, Christmas Day iOS app download volume spiked 230% above the December average. This year, the increase was just 87% — far below industry expectations. The revenue spike came in at 70%.[More from BGR: Google names 12 best Android apps...

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Jessica Simpson Posts Revealing Twitpic

By Marla Lehner 12/27/2012 at 04:55 PM EST Jessica Simpson is pregnant and proud to show it. The expectant star – who is vacationing in Hawaii with her fiancé Eric Johnson, their 7-month-old daughter Maxwell Drew and other family members – posted a revealing photo of herself smiling and clearly enjoying the...

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Kenya hospital imprisons new mothers with no money

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The director of the Pumwani Maternity Hospital, located in a hardscrabble neighborhood of downtown Nairobi, freely acknowledges what he's accused of: detaining mothers who can't pay their bills. Lazarus Omondi says it's the only way he can keep his medical center running.Two mothers who live in a mud-wall and tin-roof slum a short walk from the maternity hospital, which is affiliated...

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Numerous women sexually assaulted by taxi driver, police say

Manhattan Beach Police released the photo of a taxi driver suspected of sexually assaulting multiple women in the South Bay region. Torrance resident Sameh Shenouda, 38, was arrested in November on charges of sexually assaulting a woman in August, according to Manhattan Beach Det. Michael Rosenberger. “The victim did not initially report the crime until she saw a news report of a similar...

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Syrian General Defects in a Public Broadcast

Aref Heretani/Reuters.Mannequins were set up to confuse snipers loyal to President Bashar al-Assad in the old city of Aleppo on Sunday. Syria’s embattled leadership suffered a new setback on Wednesday with the publicly broadcast defection of its military police chief, the highest-ranking officer to abandon President Bashar al-Assad since the uprising against him began nearly two years ago. ...

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iPad is a Christmas graveyard for ‘Grand Theft Auto’ and ‘Modern Combat’

At the beginning of December, the traditional video game industry attempted another iPad invasion. New versions of “Grand Theft Auto,” “Modern Combat” and “Baldur’s Gate” hit the iOS app market priced between $ 5 and $ 10. Over the past years, we have seen repeated attempts by major console and PC industry franchises to tailor their blockbuster games for iPhone and iPad platforms. None have succeeded....

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Miranda Cosgrove's Surprise Christmas Gift: A New Puppy!

People Pets By Amy Jamieson 12/26/2012 at 04:00 PM EST Miranda Cosgrove and her new dog Penelope Courtesy of Miranda Cosgrove Miranda Cosgrove's Christmas was extra merry this year.Just a few months after losing her beloved 14-year-old poodle Pearl, she was surprised...

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Predicting who's at risk for violence isn't easy

CHICAGO (AP) — It happened after Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora, Colo., and now Sandy Hook: People figure there surely were signs of impending violence. But experts say predicting who will be the next mass shooter is virtually impossible — partly because as commonplace as these calamities seem, they are relatively rare crimes.Still, a combination of risk factors in troubled kids or adults including...

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Girlfriend denies helping actor kill college students

A woman accused of helping her former fiance cover up two gruesome murders pleaded not guilty Wednesday to three felonies she faces in connection with the crime. Prosecutors say aspiring actress Rachel Buffett, 25, lied to police and repeated a fabricated account that Daniel Wozniak, 28, initially told detectives. Wozniak is charged in the 2010 murders of Orange Coast College students Samuel...

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Iran Says Hackers Targeted Power Plant and Culture Ministry

Iran reported a spree of new cyberattacks on Tuesday, saying foreign enemy hackers tried in recent months to disrupt computer systems at a power plant and other industries in a strategically important southern coastal province as well as a Culture Ministry information center. Accounts of the attacks in the official press did not specify who was responsible, when they were carried out or how...

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Netflix suffers Christmas Eve outage, points to Amazon

NEW YORK (Reuters) – An outage at one of Amazon‘s web service centers hit users of Netflix Inc.’s streaming video service on Christmas Eve and was not fully resolved until Christmas day, a spokesman for the movie rental company said on Tuesday.The outage impacted Netflix subscribers across Canada, Latin America and the United States, and affected various devices that enable users to stream movies...

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Predicting who's at risk for violence isn't easy

CHICAGO (AP) — It happened after Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora, Colo., and now Sandy Hook: People figure there surely were signs of impending violence. But experts say predicting who will be the next mass shooter is virtually impossible — partly because as commonplace as these calamities seem, they are relatively rare crimes.Still, a combination of risk factors in troubled kids or adults including...

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Demi Moore-Ashton Kutcher divorce could get ugly

This post has been corrected. See the note at the bottom for details.Ashton Kutcher's move to file for divorce from Demi Moore last week more than a year after they announced their split could be a matter of money or taxes, a veteran divorce attorney said.In the divorce papers filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, Kutcher cited irreconcilable differences. He did not seek any spousal...

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Gaza Cease-Fire Expands Fishing Area, but Risks Remain

Relaxed Rules Restore Old Opportunities: As a part of last month's cease-fire agreement between Hamas and Israel, Gazans can now fish 6 miles off the coast, doubling the previous limit.GAZA CITY — Khader Bakr, a 19-year-old fisherman, was thrilled to hear that he could now fish up to six nautical miles from the coast, up from the three-mile limit Israel had had in place since 2009. The change was...

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Sprint salesman refuses to sell iPhone to customer, says his ‘fingers are too fat’ to use it

We’ve known for a while now that some mobile carriers have been instructing their sales staff to start pushing their customers away from Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone and toward Android or Windows Phone devices. The reason is simple: carriers pay a lot more to subsidize Apple’s popular smartphone than they do with other devices and they’d prefer to have higher gross margins at the end of each quarter....

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Queen Elizabeth Goes 3D for Her Holiday Message

By Simon Perry 12/24/2012 at 03:05 PM EST Queen Elizabeth, in her 3D glasses John Stillwell/AFP/Getty Check out the new Queen of Cool – rockin' her shades.As if her Diamond Jubilee, her Summer Olympics' James Bond stunt and the anticipation of her great-grandchild from William and Kate weren't...

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Predicting who's at risk for violence isn't easy

CHICAGO (AP) — It happened after Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora, Colo., and now Sandy Hook: People figure there surely were signs of impending violence. But experts say predicting who will be the next mass shooter is virtually impossible — partly because as commonplace as these calamities seem, they are relatively rare crimes.Still, a combination of risk factors in troubled kids or adults including...

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Husband sets wife on fire during fight with child nearby, police say

A Fresno man was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and domestic violence after he allegedly set his common-law wife on fire Sunday afternoon, authorities said.The 21-year-old man apparently "became emotional" while discussing his relationship with the woman in a car in southeast Fresno, police Sgt. Steve Crawford told the Fresno Bee. The man allegedly threw gasoline on the woman and...

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Syrian Airstrikes Reportedly Kill Dozens at Bakery

BEIRUT, Lebanon — A Syrian warplane was reported to have conducted airstrikes that killed dozens of people lined up for bread at a bakery in the central town of Hilfaya, according to antigovernment activists in the area. The attack, and its toll, could not immediately be confirmed. Samer, a local activist in the town, said he ran to the bakery soon after he heard a warplane, followed by bomb...

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Sri Lanka arrests 100 Chinese for cyber fraud, police say

COLOMBO (Reuters) – Sri Lanka on Saturday arrested at least 100 Chinese nationals accused of an internet fraud scheme targeting people in their home country, a police spokesman said.The accused, all in Sri Lanka on tourist visas, are suspected of hacking into computers in China and then demanding their owners transfer them money, police spokesman Prishantha Jayakodi told Reuters.Chinese police requested...

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