| Militants behead British hostage Posted: 03 Oct 2014 04:09 PM PDT  The execution of Alan Henning mirrors other beheading videos shot by the Islamic State.
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| U.S. officials acknowledge ‘missteps’ in Dallas but defend Ebola response Posted: 03 Oct 2014 03:18 PM PDT  Top U.S. officials admit to "missteps" in handling the case of a man with Ebola in Dallas, Texas, but insist that screenings have kept infected people off U.S. soil and predict there will be no outbreak in the United States.
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| How the Secret Service's problems became a secret in Washington Posted: 03 Oct 2014 01:04 PM PDT  Though they are not formal oversight committees, appropriations committees have provided critical monitoring and oversight of government agencies during the annual budgeting process, as agency directors and Cabinet secretaries are called on to explain what they are doing and justify any requests for more money. That switch of jurisdiction, from Treasury to the bureaucratic behemoth of Homeland Security, would throw a cloak of secrecy over the Secret Service's financial needs, performance and areas in need of improvement. Henceforth, public information about what was happening at the Secret Service would be much harder to find, bursting into view only when there was a failure or an embarrassing scandal.
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| U.S. defends Ebola response, about 50 under observation Posted: 03 Oct 2014 04:20 PM PDT  By Jon Herskovitz DALLAS/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. officials on Friday broadly defended the response to the country's first case of Ebola, although one acknowledged that while the government was confident of containing the virus, it had been "rocky" in Dallas where the patient is in serious condition. Health officials in Dallas charged with checking the spread of Ebola have narrowed their focus to about 50 people who had direct or indirect contact with an infected Liberian visitor, including 10 at high risk who are being checked twice daily for symptoms. ...
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| Secret Service in disarray, fueling questions over Obama's safety Posted: 03 Oct 2014 02:31 PM PDT  By Matt Spetalnick, David Lawder and Mark Hosenball WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When Secret Service officer Timothy McCarthy took a bullet to protect Ronald Reagan in a 1981 assassination attempt and agent Jerry Parr shoved the president into a limousine, their quick reflexes projected a Hollywood-style image of invincibility around the agency. ...
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| Missouri police make arrests as protests persist over black teen killing Posted: 03 Oct 2014 01:48 AM PDT  (Reuters) - Police in Ferguson, Missouri arrested several people, an official said on Friday, following another night of protests over the police shooting of a black teenager in August. Protests have been staged almost every night in the predominantly black St. Louis suburb, since white policeman, Darren Wilson, shot 18-year-old Michael Brown dead on Aug. 9. A Ferguson Police Department official said that several people were arrested outside the police station overnight. She declined to say exactly how many arrests were made or give any other information. ...
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| Pentagon: 4,000 U.S. troops to fight Ebola Posted: 03 Oct 2014 11:01 AM PDT  Total number deployed to West Africa as part of America's response to virus crisis exceeds previous estimates.
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| Drone captures midnight Hong Kong protest standoff on video Posted: 03 Oct 2014 09:40 AM PDT  Pro-democracy demonstrators gathered outside the office of the region's chief executive, CY Leung, before midnight on October 2. The demonstrators had set a midnight deadline for Leung to step down. In a press conference shortly before midnight, Leung said he would not step down but said Hong Kong's top civil servant would open a dialogue with protest leaders. This video shows riot police in place following threats by some demonstrators to storm the government buildings if Leung refused to quit. Credit: YouTube/Tobias Reeuwijk / @hapafilm
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| At least 32 trampled to death in India at religious festival Posted: 03 Oct 2014 10:32 AM PDT  A stampede at a popular Hindu festival in eastern India to celebrate the victory of good over evil left 32 people dead on Friday, an official said.
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| "Please know that he is a good man" Posted: 03 Oct 2014 09:00 AM PDT  The father of John Cantlie, a kidnapped journalist, speaks out to the Islamic State.
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| Boko Haram could pose threat to aircraft Posted: 03 Oct 2014 08:58 AM PDT  LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Boko Haram, the extremist Islamic group In Nigeria, has published a video that shows charred plane wreckage and the beheading of a man identified as a pilot of a missing Nigerian Air Force jet, bolstering the group's claims that it shot down a fighter plane.
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| American with Ebola returning to US Posted: 03 Oct 2014 08:52 AM PDT  Doctors reportedly optimistic about 33-year-old cameraman's prognosis for recovery.
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| Ain't it a b----, Joe? Veep quip gets Harvard laughing Posted: 03 Oct 2014 07:06 AM PDT  Joe Biden is known to be something of a live wire when it comes to unscripted speaking engagements. That was the case on Thursday at Harvard University's Institute of Politics, when Biden took a question from a student who introduced himself as the vice president of the student body.
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| World-renowned Jamaican beach washing away Posted: 02 Oct 2014 09:42 PM PDT  Crescent of sand on Jamaica's western coast known as 'Seven Mile Beach' could soon be measured in inches.
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| Facebook discusses 'experiments' on users Posted: Facebook talks 'experiments' on users |
| Protesters call off talks with Hong Kong government Posted: 03 Oct 2014 07:53 AM PDT Student leaders say angry scuffles erupted, accused police of using criminal gangs for disruption. |
| Nine U.N. peacekeepers killed in Mali attack Posted: 03 Oct 2014 11:39 AM PDT  Bamako (AFP) - Suspected Islamists on motorbikes killed nine United Nations peacekeepers from Niger on Friday in northeastern Mali, in the deadliest ever attack on the mission, military sources said.
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| Real reason for massive loss of wild cheetahs: Humans Posted: 03 Oct 2014 07:25 AM PDT  The researchers studied 19 wild cheetahs living in two reserves in South Africa, one in the Kalahari Desert and the other in a wetter area in the Karongwe Private Game Reserve, said lead researcher Michael Scantlebury, a lecturer of biology at Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland. After capturing the cheetahs, the researchers put radio collars on the cats and injected them with isotope-laden water (an isotope is a variation of an element). They followed each cheetah for two weeks, and recorded the cats' behaviors, such as lying, sitting, walking and chasing prey.
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| At haj pilgrimage: To jihad, or not? Posted: 03 Oct 2014 06:07 AM PDT  Pilgrims to Saudi Arabia's Mecca, on Muslim holiday, confront divisions wrought by extremism.
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| United notifies passengers on flights with Ebola patient Posted: 03 Oct 2014 06:26 AM PDT  DALLAS (AP) — United Airlines said Thursday it is notifying passengers who were on flights with a man later diagnosed with Ebola and telling them how to contact federal health officials.
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| Turkish border town under Islamic State siege Posted: 03 Oct 2014 05:22 AM PDT  By Nick Tattersall and Selin Bucak ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey will do what it can to prevent the predominantly Kurdish town of Kobani, near its border with Syria, falling to Islamic State insurgents, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said late on Thursday, but stopped short of committing to military action. Hours before Davutoglu's comments, parliament gave the government powers to order cross-border military incursions against Islamic State, and to allow foreign coalition forces to launch similar operations from Turkish territory. "We wouldn't want Kobani to fall. ...
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| How to force Congress to vote on Obama's war against IS Posted: 03 Oct 2014 01:58 AM PDT  Congress appears to be in no hurry to vote on President Obama's open-ended military campaign against the Islamic State. But retired Republican Rep. Tom Campbell says it's possible to make them do it.
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| Mary Landrieu's last stand? Posted: 03 Oct 2014 01:52 AM PDT  After 18 years in the U.S. Senate and a lifetime in Louisiana politics, not even 100,000 mostly drunken revelers at a recent Louisiana State University football tailgate could shake her from her routine. Mary Landrieu knows she is locked in the toughest election battle of her career, and on this day, like most others, she stuck to her talking points and paid attention to detail — even as chaos erupted around her — right down to the brand of the single beer she nursed over the course of the day's protracted, chaotic photo op: Abita, a local brew. One of the first tailgates she visited on a September Saturday here was hosted by her brother, Mitch, the mayor of New Orleans. It was there, a friendly oasis in a vast sea of purple and yellow tents and trailers, that the embattled Democratic senator gathered nearly two dozen volunteers donning "I'm With Mary" shirts and stickers, in a circle around her. Landrieu, acting like she was her own field director, split the larger group in half, dispatching one team to follow a staffer and another to follow her.
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| U.S. companies step up hiring, unemployment falls to 6-year low Posted: 03 Oct 2014 02:24 PM PDT  By Jason Lange WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. employers ramped up hiring in September and the jobless rate fell to a six-year low, bolstering bets the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates in mid-2015. Friday's report on employment is the most significant gauge of the economy's health ahead of Nov. 4 congressional elections. While President Barack Obama's message of an improving economy has been hampered by weakness in wages that persisted through last month, the data nevertheless underscored the strides the labor market has made this year. U.S. ...
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| Australia says it will launch airstrikes in Iraq Posted: 02 Oct 2014 08:21 PM PDT CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Six Australian F/A-18F Super Hornet jet fighters will launch airstrikes against Islamic State targets in northern Iraq within days as part of the U.S.-led coalition, officials said on Friday. |
| Doctors 'optimistic' about prognosis for U.S. journalist with Ebola Posted:  The 33-year-old cameraman is set to return to the U.S. from Liberia, his family says.
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| Girl's family seeks reversal of brain-death ruling Posted: 02 Oct 2014 04:58 PM PDT  SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The family of a California teenager who was declared brain-dead after suffering complications from sleep apnea surgery is seeking an unprecedented court order declaring her alive, the family's lawyer said Thursday.
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