| ‘Judge sitting on an island’: Jeff Sessions dismisses Hawaii court’s travel ban ruling Posted: 20 Apr 2017 12:40 PM PDT  The attorney general's seeming disdain for the 50th state in a Tuesday interview earned him a reproof from Hawaii's senators.
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| SCOTUS Takes On Critical Separation of Church and State Case Posted: 19 Apr 2017 08:42 AM PDT  A majority of the US Supreme Court seemed to side with a Missouri church that argued that it should have been included in a state-funded project to improve playgrounds.
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| GOP candidate Handel welcomes Trump support as Georgia special election heads toward runoff Posted: 19 Apr 2017 08:03 AM PDT  Trump called former Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel on Wednesday morning, congratulating her on making it to the runoff with Democrat Jon Ossoff.
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| Ex-Patriots Player Aaron Hernandez Found Dead in Prison Cell Posted: 19 Apr 2017 09:00 PM PDT  Correction officers at Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley, Massachusetts, discovered Hernandez hanged in his prison cell "utilizing a bedsheet."
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| Nigeria's Buhari orders corruption probe over humanitarian funds Posted: 19 Apr 2017 12:21 PM PDT  Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday ordered an investigation into corruption allegations against a senior civil servant related to the use of funds intended for handling a humanitarian crisis in the northeast of the country. The director general of the National Intelligence Agency was also ordered to be suspended after the discovery of more than $43 million in an apartment complex in Lagos in what the presidency described as a "related development". Buhari suspended David Babachir Lawal, secretary to the Nigerian government, and ordered a probe into contracts awarded under the Presidential Initiative on the North East (PINE), his spokesman said in a statement.
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| Close call: When asteroids whisk past Earth Posted: 19 Apr 2017 12:54 PM PDT  A peanut-shaped asteroid 1.3 kilometres (3,280 feet) across streaked past Earth on Wednesday, giving astronomers a rare chance to check out a big space rock up close. Dubbed 2014-JO25, the asteroid came nearest at 12:20 GMT and is now hurtling away from the centre of our solar system, said Ian Carnelli, an astronomer from the European Space Agency (ESA). "It does not represent a danger to our planet," Carnelli told AFP, noting that the asteroid passed within 1.8 million kilometres (1.1 million miles) of Earth -- about four times the distance to the moon.
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| UC Berkeley headed for showdown with right-wing commentator Posted: 19 Apr 2017 07:30 PM PDT  The University of California at Berkeley appears headed for a showdown with right-wing commentator Ann Coulter after her planned appearance at the school was canceled over security concerns. The decision to shelve her April 27 talk at the famously progressive campus came days after opponents and supporters of President Donald Trump clashed in the city. It also echoed a similar cancellation in February of a planned speech at the university by a right-wing provocateur and former Brietbart editor, Milo Yiannopoulos, following violent protests.
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| GM says Venezuela has illegally seized its manufacturing plant Posted: 20 Apr 2017 12:30 PM PDT  General Motors will immediately cease operations in the country of Venezuela after the U.S. automaker announced authorities there illegally seized its manufacturing plant and industrial hub. "Yesterday, GMV's (General Motors Venezolana) plant was unexpectedly taken by the public authorities, preventing normal operations.
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| Prince Harry Opens up About Needing Therapy After the Death of His Mother, Princess Diana Posted: 18 Apr 2017 09:00 PM PDT  Prince William and Harry work together to end the stigma around mental health.
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| U.S., Iran trade barbs over landmark 2015 nuclear deal Posted: 20 Apr 2017 02:55 PM PDT  BEIRUT/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iran and the United States traded barbs over the landmark 2015 nuclear deal on Thursday, with the U.S. leader accusing Tehran of not living up to the spirit of the accord and Iran's top diplomat urging Washington to fulfill its own commitments. The exchange came a day after U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sent a letter to Congress saying Iran was in compliance with the nuclear deal but raising questions about Tehran's role in sponsoring terrorism in the region.
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| Scientists just unearthed an absolutely terrifying new sea creature Posted: 19 Apr 2017 04:12 PM PDT 
It's hard to imagine that, after thousands of years of cataloguing every living thing we come across, humans are still discovering new animals, but when it comes to the ocean there's just so much space to cover that it's easy to miss things. Researchers led by Northeastern University professor Dan Distel just made history by unearthing the first living example of a creature that scientists have had a hard time finding for hundreds of years. It's called a Giant Shipworm, and it's absolutely bizarre.
The "worms," which are actually part of the mollusk family, live inside thick, calcified tubes buried under the sea floor, allowing just two small tips of its body to be seen. The creature feeds almost exclusively on hydrogen sulfide, which is processed by bacteria inside its gills and converted to carbon that the worm then utilizes. 
The most striking aspect of the discovery is just how odd the shipworms actually look. Measuring an average of three feet long, the mollusks look like long slippery black rubber tubes with little to no defining features or recognizable body parts. The rigid shells in which they live are said to be as heavy as a tree branch. Researchers have known that these worms exist for some time thanks to their durable tubes that remain long after the worms die, but have never actually found a living specimen until now. Scientists now set about learning how the species reproduces, their life cycles, and other crucial information needed to paint an accurate picture of the creatures.
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| Police officers shot on Champs-Élysées in Paris Posted: 20 Apr 2017 01:52 PM PDT ![Police officers shot on Champs-Élysées in Paris]( "Police officers shot on Champs-Élysées in Paris") After a fatal shooting on the Champs Élysées in Paris Thursday, the avenue was swarmed by police. We have photos.
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| Merrell offers to assist Grand Canyon search for woman, teen Posted: 19 Apr 2017 05:28 PM PDT  PHOENIX (AP) — The National Park Service says the search for two missing hikers related to the co-founder of the Merrell Boot Co. is difficult and complex and that it is not requesting any additional resources despite an announcement from the family that it planned on sending its own support.
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| Israelis hold mass pot protest by parliament Posted: 20 Apr 2017 11:00 AM PDT  Hundreds of Israelis gathered on a grassy hill overlooking parliament on Thursday to smoke marijuana in an act of communal defiance of current laws. "This is my healthy Ritalin," he said, referring to a drug for treating attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
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| Venezuelan opposition protests again against Maduro Posted: 20 Apr 2017 10:13 AM PDT  By Brian Ellsworth and Diego Oré CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's opposition renewed nationwide protests on Thursday to pressure the government of President Nicolas Maduro to hold elections and improve a collapsing economy, a day after three people were killed in similar demonstrations. Government officials dismiss the protests, characterized by street barricades and clashes with security forces, as violent and lawless efforts to overthrow Maduro's leftist government with the backing of ideological adversaries in Washington. The opposition counters that Maduro, deeply unpopular as Venezuelans grapple with triple-digit inflation and shortages of food and basic consumer goods, is seeking to stay in power indefinitely by barring opposition leaders from office and quashing independent state institutions.
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| Jinger Duggar Is Under Fire For Wearing Pants Posted: 19 Apr 2017 11:50 AM PDT  Jinger Duggar, of the "19 Kids and Counting" family- is receiving some backlash for her decision to wear pants. The Duggar family is known for its conservative values, so this seemingly minor style choice is quite controversial.
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| U.S. sees increased activity by Chinese bomber aircraft: officials Posted: 20 Apr 2017 02:31 PM PDT ![U.S. sees increased activity by Chinese bomber aircraft: officials]( "U.S. sees increased activity by Chinese bomber aircraft: officials") The United States is aware of a higher-than-usual level of activity by Chinese bomber planes, signaling a possible heightened state of readiness, U.S. officials told Reuters on Thursday, but downplayed concerns and left open a range of possible reasons. None of the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, suggested alarm or signaled that they knew the precise reason for such Chinese activity.
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| Australia to raise English language standard for citizenship Posted: 19 Apr 2017 09:34 PM PDT  CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia plans to tighten its citizenship rules to require higher English language skills, longer residency and evidence of integration such as a job, officials said Thursday.
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| Cassini To Make Its Final Close Flyby Of Titan Posted: 20 Apr 2017 12:02 AM PDT  During the upcoming flyby, the spacecraft will, among other things, look for changes in Titan's methane lakes and seas.
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| California's 'weed nuns' on a mission to heal with cannabis Posted: 20 Apr 2017 03:58 PM PDT  By Omar Younis MERCED, Calif. (Reuters) - The Sisters of the Valley, California's self-ordained "weed nuns," are on a mission to heal and empower women with their cannabis products. Based near the town of Merced in the Central Valley, which produces over half of the fruit, vegetables and nuts grown in the United States, the Sisters of the Valley grow and harvest their own cannabis plants. The group says its Holy Trinity is the marijuana plant, specifically hemp, a strain of marijuana that has very low levels of Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive compound in the plant.
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| Apple has a mystery prototype that injures employees’ eyes Posted: 20 Apr 2017 12:58 PM PDT 
According to a workplace Health and Safety report obtained by Gizmodo, Apple is working on some kind of eye-mounted system that involves using lasers. We only know this because in two instances, Apple employees were left injured after testing the prototype.
The document leaked to Gizmodo is an incident report on workplace injures, compiled for Apple by an independent contractor. The report details a number of accidents that could be linked to new products Apple is testing, including a face-mounted AR or VR system, and possibly a minivan linked to an Apple project. The report details two injuries related to a prototype that sounds like it has a lot to do with augmented reality: "After BT4 user study, user advised study lead, that she experienced discomfort in her eye and said she was able to see the laser flash at several points during the study. Study lead referred her to optometrist and secured prototype unit for analysis." In another report, an employee working at Apple's Vallco Parkway office in Cupertino reported eye pain on March 2. "Employee reported eye pain after working with new prototype, thought it may be associated with use. He noticed that the security seal on the magenta (outer) case had been broken and had thought the unit may have been tampered with." A source inside Apple speculated that this injury may have something to do with an augmented reality product Apple may be testing, something like glasses with an overhead display.
Laser flashes and "eye pain associated with use" all sound like some kind of head-mounted display, like the ill-fated Google Glass. The fact that the prototype had a magenta housing also points it towards being a piece of wearable technology. The only thing that Apple has gone out of its way to make colorful is its other wearable, the Apple Watch. Apple has been linked to some kind of augmented reality project for a long time. CEO Tim Cook has repeatedly said that he thinks AR will be more interesting than VR, and numerous reports have suggested that Apple has been working on a prototype for some time now. The leaked report also detailed an incident where a company-owned minivan turned into a crosswalk and hit an Apple employee. It's possible that the minivan is something to do with Apple's long-rumored self-driving car program, or it could also be collecting mapping data for Apple Maps.
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| Exclusive: Putin-linked think tank drew up plan to sway 2016 U.S. election - documents Posted: 19 Apr 2017 01:18 PM PDT  By Ned Parker, Jonathan Landay and John Walcott WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Russian government think tank controlled by Vladimir Putin developed a plan to swing the 2016 U.S. presidential election to Donald Trump and undermine voters' faith in the American electoral system, three current and four former U.S. officials told Reuters. U.S. intelligence officials acquired the documents, which were prepared by the Moscow-based Russian Institute for Strategic Studies [https://en.riss.ru/], after the election.
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| 2017 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD 4x4 Diesel Double Cab Posted: 19 Apr 2017 08:38 AM PDT  Enter the heavy-duty hot rod.
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| Fresno shooter wanted to kill many white people, police say Posted: 18 Apr 2017 09:23 PM PDT  FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — A man wanted in the slaying of a security guard set out to kill as many white people as he could on Tuesday, gunning down three men on the streets of downtown Fresno before he was captured and admitted to the shootings, authorities said.
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| Facing death for being gay, men flee Russia's Chechnya Posted: 19 Apr 2017 05:33 PM PDT  After being beaten and tortured by men in military uniform in Russia's Chechnya region, he fled to Moscow but still fears for his life -- because he is gay. "In Chechnya, I had no choice but to lie or die," the 20-year-old says.
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| How to Choose a Solo 401(k) Provider Posted: 20 Apr 2017 06:43 AM PDT ![How to Choose a Solo 401(k) Provider]( "How to Choose a Solo 401(k) Provider") Creation of the individual 401(k) with the Bush-era tax cuts went practically unnoticed, and the financial services industry was slow to set up these retirement plans and still has not done much marketing. In fact, the solo 401(k) can be even better, because the single participant is in charge of choosing the investment options and can even get a tax deduction for additional contributions in his or her role as the employer. This year, a plan participant can put in $18,000 as employee ($24,000 if 50 or older), plus an employer's contribution of up to 25 percent of his compensation, with total contributions limited to $54,000 ($60,000 if 50 or older).
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| How Much Money Did Aaron Hernandez Have Left? Posted: 19 Apr 2017 09:27 AM PDT  He was reportedly worth $8 million before lawyer fees.
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| AP Explains: Why are protests rocking Venezuela now? Posted: 20 Apr 2017 05:08 PM PDT  Venezuela is in the midst of a violent protest movement that has resulted in eight deaths this month as the country's deeply unpopular socialist administration struggles to stay in power and a newly energized opposition calls for an immediate presidential election.
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| Macron hangs on to lead in French election, Le Pen's camp rows with Brussels Posted: 19 Apr 2017 11:07 AM PDT  By Richard Balmforth and Sarah White PARIS (Reuters) - Centrist Emmanuel Macron clung on to his status as favorite to win France's presidential election in a four-way race that is too close to call, as the camp of far-right challenger Marine Le Pen ramped up its eurosceptic rhetoric in a row with Brussels. A closely-watched Cevipof opinion poll published on Wednesday showed frontrunners Macron and Le Pen both losing some momentum ahead of Sunday's first round, and conservative Francois Fillon and far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon still in contention for the second round run-off. With millions of French voters still undecided or planning to abstain, the vote is the most unpredictable in France in decades and investors are nervous about potential last-minute surprises that could trigger market turmoil.
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| Mama Bear Splashes Around With Cub During Debut at Zoo Posted: 19 Apr 2017 10:22 AM PDT  The Columbus Zoo welcomed three polar bear cubs in the same month last year in an effort to increase the species' population.
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| Tech firms urge court to toss Trump travel ban Posted: 19 Apr 2017 07:00 PM PDT  Scores of technology firms including Amazon, Facebook, Google and Microsoft joined a legal filing urging a judge to toss out President Donald Trump's latest travel ban. More than 160 companies, all but a couple of which are in the technology sector, signed a "friend of the court" brief siding with opponents of Trump's executive order in a US appeals court for the District of Maryland. Federal judges have halted Trump's revised executive order issued in March to temporarily close US borders to refugees and nationals from six Muslim-majority countries, dealing the president a humiliating defeat.
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| Bangkok bans its street food leaving foodies fed up, vendors in a pickle Posted: 20 Apr 2017 04:50 AM PDT  Authorities in Thailand's capital are banishing its world-famous street-food vendors as part of a clean-up drive by the military government, outraging foodies and threatening the livelihoods of the road-side cooks. Bangkok is often voted the world's best destination for street food in travel polls. "We would like the consumers, tourists or even the Thai patrons to be entitled to sanitary food, so far I don't think we have achieved that," Wallop Suwandee, chief adviser to Bangkok's governor, told Reuters.
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| Correction: Massachusetts-Slain Runner story Posted: 19 Apr 2017 12:02 PM PDT  LEOMINSTER, Mass. (AP) — In a story April 18 about a man arrested in connection with the death of a New York City woman out running near her mother's Massachusetts home, The Associated Press reported erroneously that the suspect, Angelo Colon-Ortiz, was a driver for FedEx. FedEx says he worked for a third-party logistics company contracted to provide trucking services.
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| iPhone 8 design leak hints at backside Touch ID, vertical dual cameras Posted: 19 Apr 2017 10:03 AM PDT  If the Apple rumor mill is heating up, it must mean that a new piece of iPhone information has leaked, in this case the iPhone 8. And this one is a biggie. A new schematic drawing for what appears to be the iPhone 8 has appeared online and, based on the visuals, it looks like the rumors of a back-mounted Touch ID button may have been accurate. SEE ALSO: We finally have proof Apple is working on a self-driving car The image was posted by frequent (and reasonably trustworthy) mobile device info leaker Sonny Dickson on Wednesday morning. Covered with watermarks that indicate it may have been snagged from Chinese social network QQ, the black and white illustration shows us what is presumably the inside back panel of the upcoming smartphone. iPhone 8 looks to be taking a new direction pic.twitter.com/mG19bcDYiC — Sonny Dickson (@SonnyDickson) April 19, 2017 At this point, all we have is visual guesswork, but the design of the panel shows a space for the iPhone's rumored vertical dual lens camera, the Apple logo, and what is possibly a space for a Touch ID fingerprint sensor. Or, and this is another longshot-but-totally-feasible-notion, maybe it's a wireless charging space. In recent days, other rumors have surfaced hinting that component supplier issues may force Apple to ditch rumored plans to include a fingerprint sensor on the front of the device, located under its glass screen. Of course, this new illustration, even from the good source, is confirmation of nothing regarding the iPhone 8. And with rumors of several different versions in the offing, all with significantly different design elements, we are officially fumbling around in the dark in terms of what physical features to expect. Nevertheless, this new image offers another tantalizing piece of the puzzle as anticipation mounts for Apple's 10th anniversary iPhone. WATCH: Charge your phone wirelessly from anywhere with this handy gadget
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| White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer holds the daily briefing on April 19, 2017 Posted: 19 Apr 2017 10:00 AM PDT  On Wednesday, April 19, 2017, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer holds the daily briefing with the White House press corp.
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| Palestinians slam Israel for refusing talks with hunger strikers Posted: 18 Apr 2017 05:57 PM PDT  Palestinian leaders on Wednesday denounced Israel's refusal to negotiate with Palestinians on hunger strike in Israeli jails, warning of a "new intifada" if any of them die. Some 1,500 Palestinian prisoners have joined the hunger strike that began Monday, according to Issa Qaraqe, head of detainees' affairs for the Palestinian Authority. Contacted by AFP, Israel's prison service declined to comment on the number.
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| The Latest: Israel says Assad still has chemical weapons Posted: 19 Apr 2017 11:29 AM PDT  BEIRUT (AP) — The Latest on the Syrian conflict (all times local):
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| Big Rig Seen Dragging Car Along Highway for A Half Mile After Accident Posted: 20 Apr 2017 01:35 PM PDT  The truck driver apparently didn't realize his blunder.
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| 'Friendly fire' downed Saudi helicopter in Yemen: sources Posted: 19 Apr 2017 08:07 AM PDT  A Saudi military helicopter that crashed in Yemen killing 12 Saudi soldiers was likely hit by "friendly fire", military sources said Wednesday. The soldiers, including four officers, died Tuesday when the helicopter went down in Yemen's Marib province, the Saudi-led Arab coalition fighting Iran-backed Huthi rebels said in a statement. "As the Saudi helicopter was not identified by the ground operations centre, the air defence system was triggered automatically," a senior Yemeni military official said.
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| Approval for Duterte's drug war slips in Philippines Posted: 18 Apr 2017 11:12 PM PDT  Satisfaction in the Philippines with President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs declined in the first quarter this year, a survey showed on Wednesday, with opinions split about police accounts that the drug suspects they killed had resisted arrest. Seventy-eight percent of 1,200 people surveyed by Social Weather Stations (SWS) said they were satisfied by the government's crackdown on illegal drugs, down from 85 percent in a similar poll in December last year. Almost 9,000 people, many small-time users and dealers, have been killed in the Philippines since Duterte took office on June 30.
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