Man Arrested in Fla. Girl's 1993 Disappearance

Police have arrested a 42-year-old man and charged him with murder in the case of a Florida girl who vanished almost 20 years ago.Andrea Gail Parsons, 10, of Port Salerno, Fla., was last seen on July 11, 1993, shortly after 6 p.m. She had just purchased candy and soda at a grocery store when she waved to a local couple as they drove by on an area street and honked, police said.Today,...

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High-powered ‘Fix the Debt’ group draws attention, scrutiny in Washington

In the discussions about the “fiscal cliff” consuming Washington, a powerful new group stands out, touting the virtue of bipartisanship and shared sacrifice. The business leaders who set up the Campaign to Fix the Debt appear nearly every day on network talk shows and have won coveted time with President Obama in pushing for increased tax revenue, reduced government spending, and changes...

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New feature on cigarettes to show legality

SINGAPORE: From March next year, all cigarettes sold in Singapore must have a new marking to show that they are not contraband or smuggled goods.Besides the letters "SDPC", which stand for Singapore Duty-Paid Cigarette, there will be a series of vertical bars around the cigarette stick.Cigarettes with the extra feature can be sold from December 1. From March 1, cigarettes without the new...

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Rajya Sabha disrupted again

NEW DELHI: The Rajya Sabha was on Thursday adjourned till 12 noon as opposition MPs, who have been demanding a debate on the government's move to allow foreign investment in multi-brand retail, again disrupted the house. Opposition MPs were on their feet and shouting slogans as soon as question hour was taken up at 11am. Despite requests from the chair Hamid Ansari to let proceedings continue,...

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Caterpillar Fungus Has Anti-Inflammatory Properties

In the Tibetan mountains, a fungus attaches itself to a moth larva burrowed in the soil. It infects and slowly consumes its host from within, taking over its brain and making the young caterpillar move to a position from which the fungus can grow and spore again. Sounds like something out of science fiction, right? But for ailing Chinese consumers and nomadic Tibetan harvesters, the parasite...

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Powerball Numbers Drawn for Nearly $580M Jackpot

5-23-16-22-29-Powerball 6: Those are the winning numbers for an estimated $579 million Powerball jackpot -- the biggest in history.After a feverish day that saw hopeful players buying tickets at the rate of 131,000 every minute, lottery officials in Orlando, Fla., drew the winning sequence shortly after 11 p.m.The results likely will be announced sometime after 2 a.m. Thursday...

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Keeping the financial regulators on their toes

When members of Congress need factual information and insights into the effectiveness of the financial laws put in place after the 2008 economic crisis, they regularly turn to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and Orice Williams Brown. Initially as director and now as managing director of the GAO’s financial markets and community investment section, Brown and her staff have issued...

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Kim Jong-Un 2012's "Sexiest Man Alive"?

BEIJING: The Chinese Communist Party's official mouthpiece on Wednesday deleted a story that North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un had been named 2012's "Sexiest Man Alive", after it fell for a spoof by US website The Onion.The People's Daily had run the US satirical site's gushing quotes about the "Pyongyang-bred heartthrob" in both Chinese and English as world news, along with a 55-image gallery...

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Rush at gurdwaras as Punjab celebrates Gurpurab

CHANDIGARH: Hundreds of devotees lined up at gurdwaras across Punjab and elsewhere in the country Wednesday to celebrate Gurpurab - the birth anniversary of Sikhism founder Guru Nanak Dev. Tight security arrangements were in place outside famous gurdwaras in Amritsar, Anandpur Sahib, Talwandi Sabo and other places in Punjab. There was heavy rush of devotees at the Harmandar Sahib, popularly known...

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Pictures: Falcon Massacre Uncovered in India

Photograph courtesy Conservation IndiaA young boy can sell bundles of fresh Amur falcons (pictured) for less than five dollars. Still, when multiplied by the thousands of falcons hunters can catch in a day, the practice can be a considerable financial boon to these groups.Since discovering the extent of Amur hunting in Nagaland this fall, Conservation India has taken the issue to the local Indian...

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