| Plane crash kills 150 people in French Alps; Europe in shock Posted: 24 Mar 2015 03:51 PM PDT  The victims included two babies, two opera singers, and 16 German high school students.
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| Could John Kasich be the GOP's secret weapon in 2016? Posted:  Spend a few days with the governor and you start to see how he could shake up the race.
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| No Netanyahu veto on Iran deal, top senator says Posted: 24 Mar 2015 02:48 PM PDT  Bob Corker also plays down a report that Israel spied on the talks with Tehran.
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| Al Qaeda influence seen in accused Boston bomber's note: witness Posted: 24 Mar 2015 02:35 PM PDT  By Elizabeth Barber BOSTON (Reuters) - Lawyers for accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and a terrorism expert serving as a prosecution witness argued on Tuesday over whether the defendant was paraphrasing Al Qaeda propaganda in a note he left four days after the deadly attack. While hiding in a boat hours before his arrest, Tsarnaev scrawled a note reading, in part, "we Muslims are one body you hurt one you hurt us all," a message counter-terrorism expert Matthew Levitt said was similar to extremist writings found on Tsarnaev's computer. ...
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| Ex-NFL star Sharper pleads guilty to attempted sex assault in Nevada Posted: 24 Mar 2015 03:10 PM PDT  Former NFL star Darren Sharper admitted on Tuesday to attempted sexual assault of two women in Las Vegas as part of a three-part plea bargain that prosecutors in Nevada, Arizona and California said would keep him in prison for at least nine years. Sharper, 39, entered no contest or guilty pleas to separate sex-crimes cases in Los Angeles and suburban Phoenix on Monday, and has a fourth deal pending with prosecutors in New Orleans, the city whose NFL team he helped lead to a Super Bowl victory in 2010. In all four states, the five-time Pro Bowl National Football League safety was charged with raping his victims, women he met at various nightclubs, after taking them back to his hotel or apartment and spiking their drinks with a narcotic.
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| School bus carrying students crashes into Philadelphia area home Posted: 24 Mar 2015 07:38 AM PDT  (Reuters) - A school bus carrying nine elementary school students careened off the road and crashed into a occupied home in suburban Philadelphia home on Tuesday, and no injuries were reported, police said. Neither the students, the driver nor a resident who was on the home's second floor at the time of the 7:45 a.m. crash were injured, Whitpain Township Police said in a press release. A photograph of the scene showed a yellow school bus piercing the first-floor window of a white plaster home in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, 20 miles northwest of Philadelphia. "All nine students and the driver were able to exit the bus through the rear emergency door and all were uninjured," police said in the release.
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| White House: U.S. to slow troop withdrawal from Afghanistan Posted: 24 Mar 2015 12:12 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama announced Tuesday that the U.S. will slow its military withdrawal from Afghanistan, maintaining 9,800 troops in the country through the end of 2015 instead of cutting the number by about half as originally planned.
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| Israel denies report it spied on U.S.-Iran nuke talks Posted: 24 Mar 2015 01:44 AM PDT  Israel has spied on Iran's nuclear talks with the United States and other major powers, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. Israel quickly dismissed the report as "not true", and denied spying on the United States. The Journal report, quoting current and former US officials, said the operation was designed to infiltrate the talks and help build a case against the emerging terms of a deal. Besides eavesdropping, Israel obtained information from confidential US briefings, informants and diplomatic contacts in Europe, the officials told the Journal.
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| Cancer experts laud Angelina Jolie's decision to remove ovaries Posted: 24 Mar 2015 01:04 PM PDT  Two years after a double mastectomy, actress Angelina Jolie has had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed to avoid the risk of ovarian cancer, a move cancer experts described as courageous and influential. The movie director and philanthropist, who is the wife of actor Brad Pitt and the mother of six children, said in an op-ed column in the New York Times on Tuesday that she had the surgery last week after blood tests showed what could have been early signs of the disease. Jolie, 39, carries a mutation in the BRCA1 gene that increases her risk for breast and ovarian cancer. Her mother died of ovarian cancer at the age of 56.
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| Utah becomes only state to restore firing squad Posted: 24 Mar 2015 03:20 AM PDT  Utah became the only US state to restore the firing squad as a method of execution on Monday, as its governor Gary Herbert signed a bill on the emotive issue into law. The legislation, approved by the western US state's senate earlier this month, allows for a firing squad if drugs used for executions are unavailable, as has recently been the case in a number of US states. "We regret anyone ever commits the heinous crime of aggravated murder to merit the death penalty and we prefer to use our primary method of lethal injection when such a sentence is issued," added the spokesman, Marty Carpenter. "However, when a jury makes the decision and a judge signs a death warrant, enforcing that lawful decision is the obligation of the executive branch," he said.
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