Nation's Headlines

Marshals seek deadly
Conn. gas plant blast's cause
Fire marshals on Monday were preparing to start their investigation into a massive explosion that rocked an under-construction power plant where gas lines were being tested, killing at least five people.

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Super Bowl TV spot brings
Leno, Letterman together
Super Bowl viewers were rubbing their eyes at the sight of a TV spot pairing CBS late-night host David Letterman with longtime NBC archrival Jay Leno, plus media magnate Oprah Winfrey.

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Tim Tebow's anti-choice
ad was a yawner
It wasn't really that substantial and people have already forgotten about it, because Betty White's Snickers commercial absolutely killed it.

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Federal agencies to
close Monday after blizzard
The federal government announced it would remain closed on Monday and most schools planned to shut down as residents of the mid-Atlantic struggled to dig out from a blizzard that dumped two feet of snow on the region.

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Obama invites GOP
leaders to health care talk
President Barack Obama says it's time for Republicans who have attacked his health care proposals from the sidelines to step before the cameras and present their own ideas.

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Taliban, NATO prepare
for big Helmand offensive
Taliban militants are digging in ahead of a major NATO operation in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, in one of the biggest offensives in the eight-year-old war.

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Haiti protesters denounce
aid corruption, hoarding
Hundreds of Haitian earthquake survivors protested in a suburb of the wrecked capital on Sunday, accusing a district mayor of corruption and hoarding food aid provided by relief groups, witnesses said.

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Iran to inform IAEA of higher
uranium enrichment plan
Iran was expected Monday to formally announce to the UN nuclear watchdog its plans to enrich uranium to a higher level, but insisted it will stop the process if a UN-backed nuclear deal is clinched.

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Space shuttle blasts
off on last night flight
Endeavour and six astronauts rocketed into orbit Monday on what's expected to be the last nighttime launch for the shuttle program, hauling a new room and observation deck for the International Space Station.

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Cincinnati, Dayton
metros to merge
Cincinnati and Dayton metropolitan areas in Ohio are merging, as will their combined population of 3.1 million people.

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Iran launches production
lines for unmanned planes
Iran has launched two production lines to build unmanned aircraft with surveillance and attack capabilities, the defense minister announced Monday.

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Europe doesn't want an
invasion of body scanners
To borrow a phrase from counter-terrorist parlance, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's alleged plot to bring down a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day was a "game changer."

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Envoys go to North Korea
for nuclear talks push
A senior Chinese official was in North Korea on Monday and a top U.N. political envoy was slated to arrive a day later in a new push to have the reclusive state return to stalled nuclear disarmament talks.

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New legal issue: Payment
for child porn victims
It's been more than a decade since "Amy," as she's known in court papers, was first sexually abused by her uncle. The abuse ended long ago and he's in prison, but the pictures he made when she was 8 or 9 are among the most widely circulated child pornography images online.

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Illinois lieutenant governor nominee Cohen withdraws
Illinois Democratic Lieutenant Governor nominee Scott Lee Cohen announced Sunday evening that he is withdrawing from the race amid revelations about his personal history.

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Two-faced Palin says it's OK for Limbaugh to use 'retarded'
Illinois Democratic Lieutenant Governor nominee Scott Lee Cohen announced Sunday evening that he is withdrawing from the race amid revelations about his personal history.

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LA-area cleans up from
storms, new round coming
Homeowners shoveled mud from living rooms and workers scooped debris from catch basins in a foothill neighborhood slammed by weekend rains as yet another storm takes aim at the region.

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NY Gov. Paterson meets
with lawmakers over future
Gov. David Paterson met privately with key Democratic leaders about his re-election plans as questions swirl around the state capitol about a variety of unproven accusations involving the Democratic governor's personal conduct.

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Fifth of adults choose pet
over partner on V'Day
Rather than spending Valentine's Day with their partner, one-fifth of adults would prefer to be with their pet, although the French still came top for romance, according to a joint global poll by Reuters/Ipsos.

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Reports say Keith Olbermann
show about to be cancelled
Keith Olbermann defended his show Thursday against reports that it is in danger of being canceled over declining ratings.

Obama admits health care
overhaul may die on Hill
No, maybe he can't. President Barack Obama, who insisted he would succeed where other presidents had failed to fix the nation's health care system, now concedes the effort may die in Congress.

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Shackleton whisky recovered
after 100 years in polar ice
Five crates of whisky and brandy belonging to polar explorer Ernest Shackleton have been recovered after being buried for more than 100 years under the Antarctic ice, explorers said Friday.

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Emails prove Todd Palin had big
influence in wife's government
Nearly 3,000 pages of e-mails "draw a picture of a Palin administration where the governor's husband got involved in a judicial appointment, monitored contract negotiations with public employee unions, received background checks on a corporate CEO, added his approval or disapproval.

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Statue honoring Obama in
Indonesia to be moved
A statue of President Obama that has drawn the ire of tens of thousands on Facebook will be moved from a park in Jakarta, Indonesia, to a less prominent spot near his old school.

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Unemployment rate
drops to 9.7 percent
The unemployment rate dropped unexpectedly in January to 9.7 percent from 10 percent while employers shed 20,000 jobs, the government said Friday.

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