Google+ app for Android updated with new photo-sharing features, emoticons, GIFs and more

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First Responders Face Haunting Memories

Police and paramedics who descended on the scene of the massacre at a Connecticut grade school face haunting memories and nightmares in the days and weeks to come, particularly if they have children of their own, experts say.Twenty children and seven adults were killed Friday after a gunman opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. The shooter, identified as 20-year-old Adam Lanza,...

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Police hope motive emerges from evidence in shooter's home

Conn. State police spokesman Lt. Paul Vance at Saturday morning's news conference. (Jason Sickles/Yahoo News)NEWTOWN, CT - The Sandy Hook school principal and another staffer were killed after lunging at a gunman who forced his way inside to begin a deadly shooting spree, the regional school superintendent said Saturday.The principal, Dawn Hochsprung, 47, and school psychologist Mary Sherlach, 56,...

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NKorea rocket launch shows young leader as gambler

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — A triumphant North Korea staged a mass rally of soldiers and civilians Friday to glorify the country’s young ruler, who took a big gamble this week in sending a satellite into orbit in defiance of international warnings.Wednesday’s rocket launch came just eight months after a similar attempt ended in an embarrassing public failure, and just under a year after Kim Jong...

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Matt Damon fracking film in Berlin festival lineup

BERLIN (Reuters) – The Berlin film festival on Thursday announced the first movies of its 2013 lineup, and among the main competition entries will be U.S. director Gus Van Sant‘s drama starring Matt Damon and centering around the controversial shale gas industry.“Promised Land” will have its international premiere at the annual cinema showcase, although it is scheduled to be launched first in the...

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Confused by medication guides? You’re not alone

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – The information sheets that come stapled to certain prescriptions picked up at the pharmacy are too complex and difficult for people to understand, according to a new study.“Anyone who’s seen these are not going to be surprised by the fact that they’re difficult to read,” said Michael Wolf, the study’s lead author and an associate professor at Northwestern University’s...

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20 children, 6 adults killed at Conn. school shooting

Twenty children died today when a heavily armed man invaded a Newtown, Conn., elementary school and sprayed staff and students with bullets.The gunman, identified as Adam Lanza, 20, was found dead in the school.Lt. Paul Vance said 18 children died in the school and two more died later in a hospital. Six adults were also slain, bringing the total to 26.In addition to the casualties at the school, a...

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Cuban lawmakers meet to consider economy, budget

HAVANA (AP) — Cuban lawmakers are holding the second of their twice-annual sessions with a year-end report expected on the state of the country’s economy.Legislators are also to approve next year’s budget.Cuban leaders have sometimes used the parliamentary gatherings to make important announcements or policy statements.Observers will be watching for word on the progress of President Raul Castro‘s...

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Documents: Prisoner plotted to kill Justin Bieber

LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) — An imprisoned man whose infatuation with Justin Bieber included a tattoo of the pop star on his leg has told investigators in New Mexico he hatched a plot to kill him.Court documents in a New Mexico district court say Dana Martin told investigators he persuaded a man he met in prison and the man’s nephew to kill Bieber, Bieber’s bodyguard and two others not connected to the...

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More pressure to justify cost of cancer drugs versus benefits

(Reuters) – Medical providers have begun to think more about cost, as well as safety and effectiveness, when they decide on cancer treatments.In the past, pharmaceutical companies could launch a high-priced drug with little push back. But now, there is more pressure from insurers as well as doctors to justify using drugs that provide only incremental benefits. Products that offer clear-cut advances...

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Rice drops out of race for top State post

Susan Rice (Stephen Lam/Reuters)Susan Rice, the embattled U.S. ambassador for the U.N., withdrew her name on Thursday from consideration to be secretary of state."If nominated, I am now convinced that the confirmation process would be lengthy, disruptive and costly—to you and to our most pressing national and international priorities," Rice wrote in a letter to President Barack Obama, NBC News first...

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The Hobbit: Richard Armitage Talks Preparations For Playing Thorin Oakenshield

British actor Richard Armitage admitted it wasn’t a walk in the park to play a J.R.R. Tolkien character in Peter Jackson’s reimagining of “The Hobbit,” the first installment of which is on its way into theaters.Upon touching down in New Zealand, where the trilogy was shot, the cast had a lot of character preparation to do.PLAY IT NOW: Martin Freeman Discusses The Hobbit’s ‘Good Chemistry’ & Playing...

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AP PHOTOS: Top 10 Search Trends of 2012

NEW YORK (AP) — From the tragic to the downright silly, millions of people searched the Web in 2012 to find out about a royal princess, the latest iPad, a record-breaking skydiver and the death of a pop star.Google released its 12th annual “zeitgeist” report on Wednesday. The company calls it “an in-depth look at the spirit of the times as seen through the billions of searches on Google over the past...

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“Lincoln,” “Les Miserables,” “Playbook” lead acting nominations

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Hollywood‘s actors cast their net wide on Wednesday, nominating performers from big awards contenders “Lincoln” and musical “Les Miserables” for Screen Actors Guild honors while also singling out the likes of Denzel Washington and Javier Bardem.“Lincoln,” “Les Miserables” and comedy “Silver Linings Playbook” led the nominations for the SAG awards with four apiece, including...

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Lilly plans another study for Alzheimer’s drug

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Eli Lilly‘s experimental Alzheimer’s drug has flashed potential to help with mild cases of the disease, but patients and doctors will have to wait a few more years to learn whether regulators will allow the drugmaker to sell it.Lilly said Wednesday that it will launch another late-stage study of the drug, solanezumab, no later than next year’s third quarter. The company’s stock...

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Police: Mall shooting 'could have been much, much worse'

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The gunman who killed two people and himself in a shooting rampage at an Oregon mall was 22 years old and used a stolen rifle from someone he knew, authorities said Wednesday.Jacob Tyler Roberts had armed himself with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle and had several fully loaded magazines when he arrived at a Portland mall on Tuesday, said Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts.The...

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Corruption probe shrouds Quebec in new darkness

MONTREAL (Reuters) – Half a century ago, a new crop of Quebec leaders sparked the so-called Quiet Revolution to eradicate the “Great Darkness” – decades of corruption that kept Canada‘s French-speaking province under the dominance of one party and the Catholic church.The revolution’s reforms, including cleaning up the way lawmakers were elected and secularizing the education system, seemed to work,...

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“Hobbit” actor McKellen has prostate cancer

LONDON (Reuters) – “The Hobbit” actor Ian McKellen said in an interview published on Tuesday that he had had prostate cancer for the last six or seven years, but added that the disease was not life-threatening.McKellen, 73, played Gandalf in the hit “Lord of the Rings” movie trilogy, and reprises the role in three prequels based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel “The Hobbit”.The first of those, “The Hobbit:...

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Boehner stands firm but hopeful on “fiscal cliff” talks

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner offered no concrete signs of progress on Tuesday on the “fiscal cliff” talks but said he remained hopeful that both sides would reach an agreement by the end-of-year deadline.Amid signs the White House and Boehner‘s office are making headway in the talks, Boehner repeated his now-familiar call for President Barack Obama to offer...

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W.Va. natural gas line explosion melts road, burns homes

SISSONVILLE, W.Va. (AP) — At least five homes went up in flames Tuesday afternoon and a badly burned section of Interstate 77 in West Virginia was closed after a natural gas line exploded in an hour-long inferno.No injuries were immediately reported, but firefighters had just begun to reach damaged structures late in the afternoon after the intense flames kept them at bay for several hours.Several...

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Egypt army given temporary power to arrest civilians

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s Islamist president has given the army temporary power to arrest civilians during a constitutional referendum he is determined to push through despite the risk of bloodshed between his supporters and opponents accusing him of a power grab.Seven people were killed and hundreds wounded last week in clashes between the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood and their critics besieging Mohamed...

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New leaks suggest Microsoft Office for iOS could launch soon

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Tech guru McAfee’s legal appeals win him respite in Guatemala

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) – U.S. software pioneer John McAfee, facing deportation from Guatemala to Belize to answer questions over the death of a neighbor, has bought himself some time with legal appeals, the Guatemalan government said on Sunday.McAfee’s lawyers have filed a request with a local court to grant him leave to stay in Guatemala until his legal appeals against deportation have been settled,...

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Obama takes his case to people for “fiscal cliff” deal

REDFORD, Michigan (Reuters) – Making no visible headway in direct talks with Republicans, President Barack Obama took to the road on Monday to apply pressure on his political opponents to agree to a “fiscal cliff” deal that would raise taxes on the richest Americans.Wearing shirtsleeves with no suit coat and speaking in front of an array of auto workers, Obama plunged into his new campaign a month...

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