Football: Downing ends drought as Liverpool thrash Fulham

LIVERPOOL: Liverpool winger Stewart Downing finally ended his Premier League goal drought as the Reds swept to a 4-0 victory over Fulham at Anfield on Saturday.Downing had gone 44 league matches without a goal since joining from Aston Villa in a £20 million deal in 2011 that has been widely ridiculed as a major mistake by then Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish.Brendan Rodgers, who replaced...

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Here comes Microsoft Surface Pro, 64 bits and all

Surface with Windows 8 Pro starts at an ultrabook-like $899.(Credit:Microsoft)Microsoft'sWindows 8 Pro version of the Surface will arrive soon, giving consumers probably one the highest performingtablets to date. Microsoft is already dropping not-so-subtle hints that the device is coming "early in 2013." And now it appears to have made its debut at the FCC.Let's look at what else Microsoft is saying...

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Newtown swamped by charity for victims, families

NEWTOWN, Conn. Peter Leone was busy making deli sandwiches and working the register at his Newtown General Store when he got a phone call from Alaska. It was a woman who wanted to give him her credit card number. "She said, 'I'm paying for the next $500 of food that goes out your door,'" Leone said. "About a half hour later another gentleman called, I think from the West Coast, and he did the same...

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Urban Advocates Say New Gun Control Talk Overdue

For years, voices have cried in the urban wilderness: We need to talk about gun control.Yet the guns blazed on.It took a small-town slaughter for gun control to become a political priority. Now, decades' worth of big-city arguments against easy access to guns are finally being heard, because an unstable young man invaded an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., with a military-style...

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Egyptians vote on Islamist-inspired constitution

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptians voted on Saturday in the second round of a referendum expected to approve an Islamist-drafted constitution that lays foundations for a transition to democracy but is criticized as divisive by the opposition. Queues formed at some polling stations around the country and voting was extended by four hours to 11 p.m. (2100 GMT). Last week's first round of voting,...

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Cricket: New Zealand trounced in first match

DURBAN: South Africa sent New Zealand crashing to an eight-wicket defeat with 47 balls to spare in the first Twenty20 international at Kingsmead on Friday.Fast bowler Rory Kleinveldt took two early wickets to start a slide from which New Zealand never recovered. They were bowled out for 86 after winning the toss.Kleinveldt took the key wickets of Rob Nicol and captain Brendon McCullum...

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Build a bamboo battery pack with stackable JuiceCan

Rainbow bright: JuiceCans could also become body massagers and speakers.(Credit:Indiegogo)If you've been hit by a natural disaster recently, you know you can't put too high a price on mobile power supplies. If your phone is dead and the grid is unreliable, JuiceCans are one way to keep communicating with loved ones. This Indiegogo fundraising project centers on a stackable USB power pack called a...

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Boehner's Take on Fiscal Cliff Deal: 'God Only Knows'

Dec 21, 2012 11:00am Speaker of the House John Boehner bluntly acknowledged Friday morning he did not have the votes to pass his “Plan B” and said the only real solution is a broad agreement to cut spending and reform the tax code. Then he added these words:“How we get there, God only knows.”That about sums up the whole “fiscal cliff” situation after a chaotic Thursday...

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Italy PM Monti resigns, elections likely in February

ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti tendered his resignation to the president on Friday after 13 months in office, opening the way to a highly uncertain national election in February. The former European commissioner, appointed to lead an unelected government to save Italy from financial crisis a year ago, has kept his own political plans a closely guarded secret but he...

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Ex-IMF head Rato in Spain fraud hearing

MADRID: A Spanish judge questioned former IMF chief Rodrigo Rato Thursday over fraud charges linked to ruined Spanish lender Bankia, a symbol of Spain's financial calamity.Furious yells of "Thief! Rato, go to jail!" met the high-flying financier outside court as demonstrators vented rage at the nationalisation of the bank in which many say they lost savings.He was questioned by a judge...

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CES 2013: 139 startups, and one that stinks

Sensory Acumen's scent-spewing device(Credit:Sensory Acumen)Among the throng of startups heading to the 2013 International CES next month will be one that's trying to crack through all the noise by stinking up the joint. Literally. This is the goal of Charlene Coleman, the founder and CEO of Sensory Acumen, a bootstrapped venture from Orinda, Calif., that's spent the last three years working on a...

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House GOP: We have the votes for "Plan B"

Play VideoCantor: "We're going to have the votes" to pass "Plan B"Updated 1:45 p.m. ETAs the House readies for an expected vote on an alternate plan, dubbed "Plan B," to avoid massive tax hikes on all income earners, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said he is confident he will have enough support to pass their plan. "We're going to have the votes," Cantor told reporters this morning. "Plan...

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Manhunt Heats Up for Two Escaped Bank Robbers

The manhunt for two bank robbers who escaped from a downtown Chicago prison this week intensified overnight, with police chasing multiple leads as new footage shows the men getting into a taxi minutes after their brazen escape.Investigators say surveillance cameras captured Joseph "Jose" Banks, 37, and Kenneth Conley, 38, getting into a taxi minutes after their early Tuesday...

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Syrian rebels fight for strategic town in Hama province

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Rebels began to push into a strategic town in Syria's central Hama province on Thursday and laid siege to at least one town dominated by President Bashar al-Assad's minority sect, activists said. The operation risks inflaming already raw sectarian tensions as the 21-month-old revolt against four decades of Assad family rule - during which the president's Alawite sect...

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Tennis: Levine drops US to represent Canada

MONTREAL: Jesse Levine, ranked 104th on the ATP Tour, will represent his native Canada and no longer compete for the United States, Tennis Canada announced on Wednesday.The 25-year-old left-hander was born in Ottawa and spent the first 13 years of his life growing up in Canada's capital city before moving with his family to Florida.Levine reached a career-high of 69th in the rankings last...

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Facebook expands Collections, adds new retailers

Facebook started testing another version of its Pinterest-like Collections feature today, adding more retailers and testing out few more buttons.In addition to buttons for "collect," "want" or "like," Facebook is testing the words "save," "add," and "Wishlist." Users will see different words depending on which test group they are in. A Facebook spokesperson said the company is using the latest test,...

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State Dept. officials resign following Benghazi report

Eric Boswell, the head of diplomatic security at the State Department, has resigned, CBS News confirmed, following the release of a harsh report detailing State Department missteps that led to the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. Two other officials are resigning as well, CBS News has confirmed: Charlene Lamb, the deputy assistant secretary responsible for embassy security, and an unnamed...

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Inside One School's Extraordinary Security Measures

While schools across America reassess their security measures in the wake of the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., one school outside of Chicago takes safety to a whole new level.The security measures at Middleton Elementary School start the moment you set foot on campus, with a camera-equipped doorbell. When you ring the doorbell, school employees inside are...

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Clinton not responsible for Benghazi shortcomings: inquiry

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The leaders of an official inquiry into the fatal attack on a U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, did not find Secretary of State Hillary Clinton responsible for security lapses even as they outlined widespread failings within her department. The unclassified version of the report, released late Tuesday by the State Department, concluded that the mission was completely...

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Twitter tops 200 million active users

SAN FRANCISCO: Twitter said Tuesday the number of active users of the service has topped 200 million, in a sign of the sizzling growth of the messaging platform.News of the milestone came in a tweet, of course, from the official Twitter account: "There are now more than 200M monthly active twitter users. You are the pulse of the planet. We're grateful for your ongoing support!"The number...

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iPhone 5 case roundup from A-Z

Update, December 18, 2012: Added 15 new products, including cases from Element, Tavik, Loop, Pure.gear, uNu, Knomo, Spigen SGP, Mapi, Trident, and Ballistic.With the launch of every new iPhone comes an onslaught of cases to protect it.The Gumdrop Drop Tech Series returns for the iPhone 5.(Credit:Gumdrop Cases)What's the best one? Very hard to say. The problem is that everybody has different tastes...

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Cops: 2 inmates escape from Ill. federal prison

CHICAGO, IL - DECEMBER 18: Crime scene tape surrounds the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center in the Loop after two convicted bank robbers escaped on December 18, 2012. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)/Scott Olson (AP) CHICAGO - Authorities say two men being held on bank robbery charges have escaped from a downtown Chicago federal prison. Chicago Police Sgt. Michael Lazarro says their disappearance...

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Threat Closes Newtown Elementary School

Local officials closed a Newtown, Conn., elementary school following a threat on what would have been the first day of classes since a shooting rampage at nearby Sandy Hook Elementary School.Classes at Head O'Meadow Elementary School were scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. ET, but as parents and students arrived at the school they encountered police who turned them away.Principal...

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Egypt opposition protests against constitution

CAIRO (Reuters) - Opponents of Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi staged protests in Cairo on Tuesday against an Islamist-backed draft constitution that has divided Egypt but looks set to be approved in the second half of a referendum this weekend. Several hundred protesters outside the presidential palace chanted "Revolution, revolution, for the sake of the constitution" and called on...

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Newtown buries school massacre dead

NEWTOWN, Connecticut: Funerals began Monday in the little Connecticut town of Newtown after the school massacre that took the lives of 20 small children and six staff, triggering new momentum for a change in America's gun culture.The first burials, held under raw, wet skies, were of two six-year-old boys among those shot in Sandy Hook Elementary School. On Tuesday, the first of the girls,...

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