FBI cuts down Mass. mom's door in wrong-home raid

FITCHBURG, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts mother says the FBI used a chain saw blade to cut through her door and held her at gunpoint for at least 30 minutes before agents realized they were conducting a raid at the wrong home.Judy Sanchez, of Fitchburg, says she awoke to heavy footsteps in the stairwell on Jan. 26 and walked into her kitchen in time to see a blade chop through her door.She says she was held facedown on the floor...

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Michele Bachmann refutes Mitt Romney endorsement report

He runs the PAC RT @StuartRoy: Min invest yields win head 2 head w/ romney MT @chucktodd Santorum SuperPAC up with new ad in...

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Japan snowstorm kills 52, crushes steel bridge

Heavy snowfall has crippled much of Japan's western coast, killing more than 50 people and injuring nearly 600. The worst snowstorm in six years has dumped more than 10 feet of snow in the hardest-hit regions, causing at least one bridge to collapse and forcing school closures across the region.An avalanche today buried three people for more than an hour near a hot springs in Akita Prefecture in northwest Japan. The women were...

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Romney: 'I'm not concerned about the very poor'

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Wednesday that he's "not concerned about the very poor" because they have an "ample safety net" and he's focused instead on relieving the suffering of middle-class people hit hard by the bad economy.In comments likely to become fodder for his critics, Romney emphasized, "You can focus on the very poor, that's not my focus."He brought up the subject of the poor...

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'Soul Train' Founder Commits Suicide: Report

'Soul Train' Founder Commits Suicide: Report (Credit: Damian Dovarganes/AP Photo) Don Cornelius, the man who created Soul Train, was reportedly found dead Wednesday morning at his Los Angeles home.  Police sources tell TMZ.com that Cornelius appears to have taken his own life; sources say he died from what appears to be a self-inflicted...

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Romney hits morning shows, armed with talking points about Obama’s billions

He runs the PAC RT @StuartRoy: Min invest yields win head 2 head w/ romney MT @chucktodd Santorum SuperPAC up with new ad in...

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Separated at birth, Indonesian twins meet in Sweden

Twins born in Indonesia and put up separately for adoption, have been reunited after finding each other living just 40 kilometres (25 miles) apart, in southern Sweden, three decades later.Non-identical twins Emilie Falk and Lin Backman -- strangers until last year -- were separated nearly 29 years ago.According to a DNA test the pair had done two months after reuniting in January last year, and which they shared with AFP, there...

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First lady pushes Jay Leno to eat healthy foods

BURBANK, Calif. (AP) — Jay ate the veggies. First lady Michelle Obama cajoled Jay Leno into nibbling on apples, sweet potato fries and a pizza made with eggplant, green peppers and zucchini on the "Tonight Show," breaking his long-held aversion for all-things-healthy in his diet.Leno once told a magazine he hadn't eaten a vegetable since 1969, and he insisted he tasted his last apple in 1984. That didn't dissuade the first lady,...

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Man shot dead near Tube station

1 February 2012 Last updated at 13:25 ETA man has been shot dead near a north London Tube station.Scotland Yard said it was called to reports of a shooting in Langham Parade, near Turnpike Lane Tube station at about 15:30 GMT.An air ambulance arrived shortly afterwards and a man thought to be in his mid-30s was pronounced dead at the scene, Scotland Yard said.Police said one person had been arrested and efforts were being made...

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No change in Lawrence sentencing

1 February 2012 Last updated at 11:25 ETGary Dobson and David Norris were convicted over the 1993 murder of teenager Stephen LawrenceThe sentences handed to Gary Dobson and David Norris for the racist murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence will not be reviewed, it has emerged.Attorney General Dominic Grieve said the sentences will not...

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Winehouse coroner 'not qualified'

1 February 2012 Last updated at 13:01 ETWinehouse had hits with Rehab and Back to BlackThe family of singer Amy Winehouse have said they are "taking advice" following news that the coroner who oversaw her inquest has resigned.Camden Council has confirmed that Suzanne Greenaway had stood down because she had not been a lawyer in the UK for...

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Gun fight erupts in Libya capital

1 February 2012 Last updated at 11:42 ETArmed groups leftover from last year's conflict regularly clash for control of parts of the cityRival Libyan militia groups have fought a gun battle in the capital, Tripoli, officials say.Exchanges of fire were heard and plumes of smoke seen coming from a district known as Tariq Al Shat in central...

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Big freeze extends across Europe

1 February 2012 Last updated at 13:04 ETPlease turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Scenes of snow and cold weather around EuropeHeavy snow has caused disruption across Europe, carpeting much of Italy to the south and Turkey to the east.The freeze that has swept south through the continent has caused at least 80 deaths,...

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Redknapp: My mind was on Beckham

1 February 2012 Last updated at 11:24 ETMr Redknapp said he always pays his taxesHarry Redknapp has told jurors he was more worried about David Beckham than dealing with his Monaco bank account.Talking about a $100,000 cash transfer made in 2003 from Monaco to ex-Portsmouth chairman Milan Mandaric's US account, he said: "All I was thinking...

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Teacher Charged with Taking Bondage Pics of Students

A former elementary school teacher in Los Angeles has been arrested for allegedly molesting nearly two dozen children after photos of students posed in bondage positions were passed to the Sheriff's Department.Mark Berndt, 61, a teacher with over 30 years experience at Miramonte Elementary School in south Los Angeles, is charged with molesting 23 children, according to a statement from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.Police...

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Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Found in 37 U.S. States

Half a world away, doctors in India are fighting outbreaks of bacterial infections that are resistant to more than 15 types of antibiotics. But closer to home, a similarly scary bug is making the rounds in intensive care and other long-term units of American hospitals. In at least 37 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, doctors have identified bacteria, including E. coli, that produce Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase,...

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Pot legalization efforts forge ahead in key states

(Reuters) - Efforts to legalize marijuana for recreational use are gaining momentum in Washington state and Colorado, despite fierce opposition from the federal government and a decades-long cultural battle over America's most commonly used illicit drug. Officials in Washington state on Friday said an initiative to legalize pot has enough signatures to qualify for the ballot in November. In Colorado, officials are likely this...

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11th victim found days after deadly crash on I-75

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — The body of an eleventh person has been found in a pickup truck days after a deadly pileup on Interstate 75, the Florida Highway Patrol said.The victim was inside a Dodge pickup truck that crashed into a tractor trailer as it traveled south early Sunday, authorities determined Tuesday. The driver and another passenger in the pickup had not been identified early Wednesday.The Highway Patrol on Tuesday...

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Mitt Romney easily clinches Florida primary with more votes than Gingrich and Santorum combined

Seven states will vote in February. Here's the calendar...http://t.co/kcAv4...

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Pastors split on when to go home; 1 lives, 1 dies

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Senior pastor Arao Amazonas said he wanted to wait until the next morning to leave Florida after a religious conference. But pastor Jose Carmo Jr. wanted to be back in time for the suburban Atlanta church's Sunday morning service and led two vans up Interstate 75 toward Georgia.A few hours later, Amazonas received a call: Both vans had crashed in the highway's fog- and smoke-shrouded darkness near Gainesville....

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Letter from freed slave to former master draws attention

ca. 1860's, USA. Freed slaves in Southern town shortly after the Civil War. © Bettmann/CORBISA newly discovered letter from a freed former slave to his onetime master is creating a buzz. Letters of Note explains that in August of 1865, a Colonel P.H. Anderson of Big Spring, Tennessee wrote to his former slave Jourdan Anderson, requesting...

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Video: America’s longest married couple

In this video, we meet Wilbur and Teresa Faiss, America's longest-married couple. The Las Vegas residents were first wed in April, 1933. Wilbur, now 100-years-old, tells KVVU TV, "I just had no idea of us ever winning the longest-married couple."A group called the Worldwide Marriage Encounter certified the marriage as the nation's longest ongoing union. On a recent trip to Nevada, President Obama was even scheduled to deliver...

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IT 'wiped Murdoch hacking email'

1 February 2012 Last updated at 06:57 ETJames Murdoch has said he only read the final part of the email, requesting a meetingA 2008 email informing James Murdoch of the potential scope of phone hacking at the News of the World was deleted in an IT upgrade last year, lawyers say.The Commons media committee has released a letter from law firm...

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Press body 'needs urgent reform'

1 February 2012 Last updated at 08:04 ETLord Black rethought his views of the PCC after the phone hacking scandal was laid bareUrgent reform of the Press Complaints Commission is needed, the chairman of the body which funds it has said.Lord Black told the Leveson Inquiry that after the phone hacking scandal, he became aware of the regulatory...

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Pakistan dismisses Taliban links

1 February 2012 Last updated at 07:14 ETPlease turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar: Allegations are "old wine in an even older bottle"Pakistan's foreign minister says her country has no hidden agenda in Afghanistan, in response to a leaked secret Nato report on Islamabad's links to the Afghan Taliban.Speaking to reporters in Kabul with her Afghan counterpart, Hina...

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Mulcaire loses evidence appeal

1 February 2012 Last updated at 07:58 ETGlenn Mulcaire was jailed in 2007 for six months for phone hackingPrivate investigator Glenn Mulcaire has lost his appeal against two court orders that could force him to name people who ordered him to hack phones.A High Court panel heard the appeal at the Royal Courts of Justice in November but had...

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BAA loses Stansted sale appeal

1 February 2012 Last updated at 06:35 ETSpanish-owned BAA argued that it was not anti-competitive for it to own Stansted and HeathrowAirport operator BAA has lost its appeal against a ruling that it must sell Stansted airport.The Competition Commission first ruled three years ago that BAA's dominance in London and Scotland meant it must...

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SA lesbian killers get 18 years

1 February 2012 Last updated at 08:17 ETThe four men were convicted of Zoliswa Nkonyana's killing in October last yearFour South African men have been sentenced to 18 years in jail for stabbing and stoning to death 19-year-old lesbian Zoliswa Nkonyana in 2006.The court found that the men killed Ms Nkonyana because she was living openly as...

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Italy ship purser tells of rescue

1 February 2012 Last updated at 08:32 ETRescuers have called off underwater the search because the ship's hull is judged too dangerousThe last person to be rescued from Italy's shipwrecked Costa Concordia has said he pounded on a wall with a frying pan to alert rescuers.Manrico Giampedroni, the ship's purser, waited 36 hours before being...

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Welfare changes are fair, says PM

1 February 2012 Last updated at 08:15 ET Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. House of Commons livePrime Minister David Cameron has said welfare changes are "right and fair" and challenged Labour to support the government's benefit cap plan.The £26,000-a-year cap is one of seven areas on which the Welfare Reform Bill has suffered defeats in the Lords.The bill has now returned to the Commons as ministers...

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