Asian markets mostly higher on US fiscal hopes

HONG KONG: Asian markets mostly rose Tuesday, taking a lead from Wall Street as dealers grow confident US lawmakers will reach an agreement to avert the fiscal cliff.Continued weakness of the yen helped send Japanese shares surging for a second straight session as Shinzo Abe prepares to take over as prime minister, vowing to press a more aggressive policy of monetary easing.Tokyo rose...

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Watch Dallas Mavericks try to sing

on your computer or on the CNN Apps for iPhone® and iPad®. iPhone, iPad and Mac are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc. If you get CNN and HLN at home, you can watch them online and on the go for no additional chargeStart watching ...

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Obama moves on taxes in latest "cliff" counter-proposal

President Obama gave up Monday on his demand for higher taxes on households earning $250,000 and upped it to $400,000 while embracing smaller cost-of-living Social Security raises in a counter-proposal to House Speaker John Boehner meant to narrow differences and forge a pre-Christmas "fiscal cliff" deal. Mr. Obama and Boehner met for nearly an hour in the Oval Office on Monday and sources familiar...

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Newtown Boy Remembered as 'Old Soul'

Dec 17, 2012 6:02pm Family of Daniel Barden, who died in the Connecticut school shootings. From left, his brother James, 12, and his parents, Mark and Jackie. (Image Credit: ABC)Though he was only in first grade, Daniel Barden was very much an “old soul,” his family said today.  He was one of the 20 children who died Friday at Sandy Hook Elementary School in...

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Fungal frog killer hops into crayfish

Crayfish are vulnerable to the same fungus that is killing frogs all over the world. The discovery helps explain how the disease spreads even after all the amphibians in an area have been wiped out. Worryingly, chemicals released by the fungus may alone be enough to kill. ...

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Mind-controlled hand offers hope for the paralysed

PARIS: Pentagon-backed scientists on Monday announced they had created a robot hand that was the most advanced brain-controlled prosthetic limb ever made.The mind-powered prosthesis is a breakthrough, the team of neurologists and bio-engineers reported in The Lancet.With further development "individuals with long-term paralysis could recover the natural and intuitive command signals for...

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NFL Week 15: The best photos

The Jacksonville Jaguars take a moment of silence in honor of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting before their game against the Miami Dolphins at Sun Life Stadium on Sunday, December 16, in Miami Gardens, Florida. Check out the action from Week 15 of the NFL and then look back at the best photos from Week ...

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Newtown church evacuated after phone threat

NEWTOWN, Conn. Police say there's no danger at a Connecticut church following a phoned-in threat days after 20 children and six adults were massacred at a school.Deborah Metz, a Trumbull police officer on the scene, gave the all-clear after an hour in which armed police in SWAT gear searched the St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church and adjacent buildings.The evacuation unnerved worshipers in the...

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Obama Offers Newtown 'Love and Prayers of a Nation'

President Obama told the grieving community of Newtown, Conn., that the nation has wept with them for the loss of 20 children and six teachers and school staff members killed in a senseless massacre.Grim-faced, Obama took the stage at Newtown High School auditorium to speak at a memorial service for the first graders, teachers, principal and other school staff members killed...

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Zebrafish made to grow pre-hands instead of fins

PERHAPS the little fish embryo shown here is dancing a jig because it has just discovered that it has legs instead of fins. Fossils show that limbs evolved from fins, but a new study shows how it may have happened, live in the lab. ...

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