Some Chinese Are Souring on Being North Korea’s Best Friend

Eugene Hoshiko/Associated PressA billboard showing Mao Zedong, right, and North Korea’s founding father, Kim Il-sung, near the China-North Korea border. YANJI CITY, China — Beds shook and teacups clattered in this town bordering North Korea, less than 100 miles from the site where the North said it detonated a nuclear test that exploded midmorning in the midst of Chinese New Year festivities. ...

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Stories You Loved: Mariska Hargitay Loves Her Curves from Motherhood

02/16/2013 at 02:30 PM EST Mariska Hargitay Courtesy Ladies Home Journal In another week of tragedy, it was a breath of fresh air to read something lighthearted, like Mariska Hargitay's outlook on her body after baby.Readers loved the reason why the Law &...

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UN warns risk of hepatitis E in S. Sudan grows

GENEVA (AP) — The United Nations says an outbreak of hepatitis E has killed 111 refugees in camps in South Sudan since July, and has become endemic in the region.U.N. refugee agency spokesman Adrian Edwards says the influx of people to the camps from neighboring Sudan is believed to be one of the factors in the rapid spread of the contagious, life-threatening inflammatory viral disease of the liver.Edwards...

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Attorney killed wife during Italian cruise, police say

A former Orange County attorney allegedly killed his ex-wife for financial gain in 2006 by strangling her and throwing her overboard while on a cruise along the Italian coast, authorities said.Lonnie Kocontes, 55, a former Mission Viejo resident, was arrested Friday at his home in Safety Harbor, Fla., in connection with the death of his former wife, Micki Kanesaki, 52, of Ladera Ranch, authorities...

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Indian Troops Kill Pakistani Soldier in Kashmir Border Clash

NEW DELHI — Indian troops have shot and killed another Pakistani soldier at the de facto border between the two countries in Kashmir, adding to an unusually tense period in the disputed region. A statement released Friday by the Indian Army said that Indian soldiers saw an intruder at 3 p.m. on Thursday in the Nowshera sector of the so-called Line of Control separating the Indian- and Pakistani-held...

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Vin Diesel Covers Rihanna's 'Stay' - and Wins the Internet for the Day

By Cara Lynn Shultz 02/15/2013 at 02:30 PM EST This video could break the Internet, and there aren't even any cats in it. On Feb. 14, Vin Diesel posted a video of his heartfelt cover of Rihanna's song "Stay" to his Facebook page – and in a matter of hours, the video was shared more than 26,000 times, because...

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Study: Fish in drug-tainted water suffer reaction

BOSTON (AP) — What happens to fish that swim in waters tainted by traces of drugs that people take? When it's an anti-anxiety drug, they become hyper, anti-social and aggressive, a study found. They even get the munchies.It may sound funny, but it could threaten the fish population and upset the delicate dynamics of the marine environment, scientists say.The findings, published online Thursday in...

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Mayor who gambled away $1 billion had brain tumor

The lawyer for former San Diego Mayor Maureen O'Connor suggested that a brain tumor may have caused her to lose massive sums gambling on video poker games.Over a nine-year period O'Connor wagered an estimated $1 billion, including millions from a charity set up by her late husband, who founded the Jack in the Box fast-food chain.That was the portrait that emerged in court Thursday as the...

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Russia Seeks Arrest of Georgian Politician

MOSCOW — Russian authorities issued an arrest warrant for a Georgian politician, Givi Targamadze, on Thursday, charging that he had incited riots in Russia, in particular by helping to organize an anti-government march last May that culminated in a confrontation between protesters and the riot police. Russian authorities asserted that the large anti-government protests were being orchestrated...

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This Ring Rocks: See Engagement Bling Cobra Starship's Gabe Saporta Gave Erin Fetherston

Stylewatch Style News Now 02/14/2013 at 01:52 PM ET WireImage; Inset: Courtesy Erin Fetherston and Gabe SaportaIt’s official: Cobra Starship rocker Gabe Saporta and fashion designer Erin Fetherston are engaged!Saporta popped the question to his bride-to-be on New Year’s Eve while on vacation in Barbados....

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Study: Fish in drug-tainted water suffer reaction

BOSTON (AP) — What happens to fish that swim in waters tainted by traces of drugs that people take? When it's an anti-anxiety drug, they become hyper, anti-social and aggressive, a study found. They even get the munchies.It may sound funny, but it could threaten the fish population and upset the delicate dynamics of the marine environment, scientists say.The findings, published online Thursday in...

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Coach posed as girl to get nude images of boys, police allege

An Irvine baseball coach and high school history teacher posed as a young blonde woman on Facebook to persuade boys to send him pornographic images of themselves, prosecutors alleged this week. Zachary Reeder, 30, of Orange has been charged with 110 felonies, including 34 counts each of distributing pornography to a minor, contacting a child with the intent to commit a lewd act and using...

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Obama to Open Trade Talks With E.U.

BRUSSELS — Embarking on what could be the biggest trade agreement ever in its economic sweep, officials from the United States and the European Union indicated Wednesday that they had already resolved some of the stickiest issues behind closed doors. But the sheer ambition of the trade negotiations, which aim not only to eliminate import duties but also synchronize regulations governing...

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Harley Pasternak Blogs: 8 Reasons Why Sex Is Great for Your Health

Celebrity Blog By Harley Pasternak 02/13/2013 at 02:30 PM EST As Valentine's Day draws near, many of you will be wining, dining and romancing your way into someone's heart. If you're lucky, things will go well, and you may GET lucky! Not only will you have a fun evening of intimacy, but you may live longer...

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Dorner manhunt leads to deadly standoff

Human remains have been discovered in the debris of a burned cabin in Big Bear. While authorities can't confirm the remains are those of Christopher Dorner, it appears likely they are. ...

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The Lede: Australian Report on Israel's 'Prisoner X' Suggests Melbourne Man Was Mossad Agent

Part of an Australian television report on the mystery of Israel’s “Prisoner X” broadcast on Tuesday.Last Updated, 2:53 p.m. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported on Tuesday that a man referred to in Israel as “Prisoner X,” who was jailed and died under mysterious circumstances in 2010, might have been an Australian-born Israeli who worked for Israel’s secret service, the Mossad.According...

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Honey Boo Boo & Mama June Celebrate Mardi Gras

TV Watch By Michelle Tauber 02/12/2013 at 02:30 PM EST Alana "Honey Boo Boo" Thompson and Mama June Courtesy Universal Orlando Resort Laissez les bons temps rouler, y'all!7-year-old Alana Thompson – better known as the star of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo – brought...

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Pope shows lifetime jobs aren't always for life

The world seems surprised that an 85-year-old globe-trotting pope who just started tweeting wants to resign, but should it be? Maybe what should be surprising is that more leaders his age do not, considering the toll aging takes on bodies and minds amid a culture of constant communication and change.There may be more behind the story of why Pope Benedict XVI decided to leave a job normally held for...

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Ex-Bell officials defend themselves as honorable public servants

Less than three years ago, they were handcuffed and taken away in a case alleged to be so extensive that the district attorney...

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Last Pope to Resign Did So in Midst of Vatican Leadership Crisis

Pope Benedict XVI’s announcement on Monday that he was stepping down because he was too elderly and infirm for the job was the first papal resignation in 598 years. It put Benedict among the small handful, out of the 265 recognized popes in history, who have stepped down as the leader of the Roman Catholic Church. The circumstances behind the other departures generally had nothing to do with age or...

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Hines Ward Gets Zombified for The Walking Dead

TV Watch TV News 02/11/2013 at 03:00 PM EST Hines Ward Cindy Ord/Getty; Gene Page/AMC Hines Ward may be full of life, but he didn't appear that way on Sunday.With his eyebrows completely gone, and bloody gashes and scars covering his face, the football star and...

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What heals traumatized kids? Answers are lacking

CHICAGO (AP) — Shootings and other traumatic events involving children are not rare events, but there's a startling lack of scientific evidence on the best ways to help young survivors and witnesses heal, a government-funded analysis found.School-based counseling treatments showed the most promise, but there's no hard proof that anxiety drugs or other medication work and far more research is needed...

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Dorner's LAPD firing case hinged on credibility

 For a Los Angeles Police Department disciplinary panel, the evidence was persuasive: Rookie officer Christopher Jordan...

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Militants Battle Malian and French Troops in Liberated Town

DAKAR, Senegal — Gunfire rang out in the streets of the strategic city of Gao in northern Mali on Sunday, two weeks after French troops appeared to have chased radical Islamists out of the city, which is at the edge of the desert and is the largest population center in the north. The gun battle between Islamist militants and a force of Malian and French troops, which continued for much of...

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