Little common ground in debate on guns

STORY HIGHLIGHTSThe NRA wants to staff every school in America with "qualified armed security"Obama, Democrats and others see tougher gun control as the way to limit future massacresWhile both sides want to keep children safe, it seems they are living in two different worldsWashington (CNN) -- For National Rifle Association Vice President Wayne LaPierre and many other pro-gun Americans, the task is...

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Newtown swamped by charity for victims, families

NEWTOWN, Conn. Peter Leone was busy making deli sandwiches and working the register at his Newtown General Store when he got a phone call from Alaska. It was a woman who wanted to give him her credit card number. "She said, 'I'm paying for the next $500 of food that goes out your door,'" Leone said. "About a half hour later another gentleman called, I think from the West Coast, and he did the same...

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Obama, Congress Waving Bye-Bye Lower Taxes?

The first family arrived in the president's idyllic home state of Hawaii early today to celebrate the holidays, but President Obama, who along with Michelle will pay tribute Sunday to the late Sen. Daniel Inouye at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, could be returning home to Washington sooner than he expected.That's because the President didn't get his Christmas...

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Japan's incoming PM to send envoy to China: report

TOKYO: Japan's incoming prime minister will send a special envoy to China on a fence-mending trip, a report said Saturday, after he announced plans to dispatch an emissary on a similar mission to South Korea.Ties between Japan and China have become increasingly strained over a disputed island chain - the Tokyo-controlled Senkakus, which Beijing calls the Diaoyus -- with neither side willing...

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3 charged in deadly home explosion

By Logan Burruss, CNNupdated 6:11 PM EST, Fri December 21, 2012Bob Leonard Jr., left, Mark Leonard and Monserrate Shirley are accused in a deadly explosion.STORY HIGHLIGHTSTwo brothers among accused in explosion at that killed couple next door Explosion injured 12 other people and caused $4 million in damageInvestigators found abnormalities in gas line at suspect's home, affidavit says(CNN) -- Three...

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NRA: Guns in schools would protect students

Updated: 6:44 p.m. ETIn a press conference reflecting on last week's massacre in Newtown, Conn., the National Rifle Association's Wayne LaPierre today called on Congress to put armed law enforcement agents in every American school, insisting that guns in schools -- not tougher gun laws -- would most effectively protect children from school shootings. Play VideoA "good guy with a gun" in every school?...

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Obama Still an 'Optimist' on Cliff Deal

Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty ImagesWASHINGTON D.C. – Ten days remain before the mandatory spending cuts and tax increases known as the “fiscal cliff” take effect, but President Obama said he is still a “hopeless optimist” that a federal budget deal can be reached before the year-end deadline that economists agree might plunge the country back into recession.“Even though Democrats and Republicans are...

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Today on New Scientist: 21 December 2012

Cadaver stem cells offer new hope of life after death Stem cells can be extracted from bone marrow five days after death to be used in life-saving treatmentsApple's patents under fire at US patent office The tech firm is skating on thin ice with some of the patents that won it a $1 billion settlement against SamsungHimalayan dam-building threatens endemic species The world's highest mountains...

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Boehner scraps his fiscal cliff plan after failing to get votes

STORY HIGHLIGHTSNEW: "The president will work with Congress to get this done," the White House saysThe House Speaker says his Plan B wasn't voted on because it didn't have "sufficient support" A bill to alter cuts did narrowly pass the House; the White House says it would vetoThe fiscal cliff's tax hikes and spending cuts are set to take effect in JanuaryWashington (CNN) -- House Speaker John Boehner's...

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It's already Dec. 21 in Europe, so where's doomsday?

MERIDA, Mexico Doomsday hour is here, at least in much of the world, and so still are we. According to legend, the ancient Mayans' long-count calendar ends at midnight Thursday, ushering in the end of the world. Didn't happen. "This is not the end of the world. This is the beginning of the new world," Star Johnsen-Moser, an American seer, said at a gathering of hundreds of spiritualists at a...

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Boehner Pulls Plan B Option

In a surprise development late Thursday night, House Speaker John Boehner pulled his so-called "Plan B option" -- an extension of current tax rates for Americans making up to $1 million a year -- from the House floor, admitting that it did not have the support necessary to pass and leaving a resolution to the fiscal cliff in question."The House did not take up the tax measure...

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Van-sized space rock is a cosmic oddball

The shattered remains of a high-profile space rock are oddly low in organic materials, the raw ingredients for life. The discovery adds a slight wrinkle to the theory that early Earth was seeded with organics by meteorite impacts. In April a...

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More employers offering work-life arrangements

SINGAPORE: More employers in Singapore are offering work-life arrangements, according to a survey conducted by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM). In 2012, 41 per cent of establishments offered at least one form of work-life arrangement to their employees, up from 38 percent in 2011. Working part-time was the most common work-life arrangement offered by 33 per cent of establishments. At a...

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Blizzard warning issued for large swath of Midwest

Drivers in Colorado contend with heavy snow Wednesday.STORY HIGHLIGHTSNEW: 156-mile stretch of freeway closed in Colorado23-car pileup in Texas dust storm kills one, injures 17Heavy snow, high winds stretch from Colorado to Wisconsin in season's first blizzardStorm to crawl from Midwest to New England by Friday(CNN) -- People traveling early for Christmas in the center of the country will be dashing...

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Like many other tragedies, scammers stalk Newtown

NEWTOWN, Conn. The family of Noah Pozner was mourning the 6-year-old, killed in the Newtown school massacre, when outrage compounded their sorrow. Someone they didn't know was soliciting donations in Noah's memory, claiming that they'd send any cards, packages and money collected to his parents and siblings. An official-looking website had been set up, with Noah's name as the address, even including...

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Obama Invokes Newtown on 'Cliff' Deal

Invoking the somber aftermath of the school massacre in Newtown, Conn., President Obama today appealed to congressional Republicans to embrace a standing "fair deal" on taxes and spending that would avert the fiscal cliff in 13 days."If there's one thing we should have after this week, it should be a sense of perspective about what's important," Obama said at a midday news conference."I...

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Human hands evolved so we could punch each other

Forget toolmaking, think fisticuffs. Did evolution shape our hands not for dexterity but to form fists so we could punch other people? That idea emerges from a new study, although it runs counter to conventional wisdom. About the same time as...

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Benghazi inquiry slams "grossly inadequate" security

WASHINGTON: A long-awaited inquiry into a deadly militant attack on the US mission in the Libyan city of Benghazi late Tuesday slammed State Department security arrangements there as "grossly inadequate".But the months-long probe also found there had been "no immediate, specific" intelligence about a threat against the mission, which was overrun by dozens of heavily armed militants on...

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