Recovery attempt weighed for man's body in sinkhole

SEFFNER, Fla. Engineers worked gingerly Saturday to find out more about a slowly growing sinkhole that swallowed a Florida man in his bedroom, believing the entire house could eventually succumb to the unstable ground. It could be days before officials decide whether they will attempt to recover Jeff Bush's body, and they were still trying Saturday to determine the extent of the sinkhole network...

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Rescuers Search for Man as Fla. Sinkhole Grows

Rescuers early Saturday morning returned to the site where a sinkhole swallowed a Florida man in his bedroom after the home's foundation collapsed.Jeff Bush was in his bedroom when a sinkhole opened up and trapped him underneath his home at 11 p.m. Thursday night.While the sinkhole was initially estimated to be 15 feet deep on Thursday night, the chasm has continued to grow. Officials...

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Efforts under way to confirm Qaeda boss death in Mali

BAMAKO: Algeria was seeking Saturday to confirm the reported killing of Al-Qaeda's top commander in northern Mali, where French and African troops attempted to flush out Islamist fighters from desert and mountain hideouts.Chad's president announced on Friday that his troops had killed Abou Zeid days earlier, in what would be one of the worst blows to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in...

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DHS built domestic surveillance tech into Predator drones

Homeland Security required that this Predator drone, built by General Atomics, be capable of detecting whether a standing human at night is "armed or not."(Credit:U.S. Department of Homeland Security)The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has customized its Predator drones, originally built for overseas military operations, to carry out at-home surveillance tasks that have civil libertarians worried:...

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Obama, Congress Fail to Avert Sequester Cuts

President Obama and congressional leaders today failed to reach a breakthrough to avert a sweeping package of automatic spending cuts, setting into motion $85 billion of across-the-board belt-tightening that neither had wanted to see.Obama met for just over an hour at the White House today with Republican leaders House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell...

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Tennis: Federer beaten by Berdych again

DUBAI: Roger Federer's defence of the Dubai Open title came to a dramatic end in the semi-finals after he failed to convert three match points against Tomas Berdych, the man who also upset him in the US Open.The world number six from the Czech Republic thrillingly turned the match around after a neck-and-neck second set tie-break, going on to win 3-6, 7-6 (10-8), 6-4 against the five-time...

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Law firm seeks victims of 'bad robot surgery'

Is a robot about to excise your prostate? Well stop right there, mister. Here's some litigation that might interest you. In a surreal twist to the ads you often see for legal help with accidents, arrests, or debt, a Louisiana law firm is fishing for victims of what it calls "bad robot surgery." Becnel Law Firm LLC's ad below looks like something that would play in the background of a sci-fi film,...

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Vatican hints at start date for papal conclave

VATICAN CITY Much speculation surrounds the date when leaders of the Roman Catholic Church will begin the process of selecting their new pope. Play VideoPope Benedict XVI: "I am no longer Pope"The date for the conclave of cardinals to begin their deliberations has not yet been set, although one of Pope Benedict XVI's final acts before resigning his office was to amend the rules governing the election...

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Benedict XVI's Tenure as Pope Ends

VATICAN CITY -- Benedict XVI's eight-year tenure as pope ended today, after he bade farewell to the faithful and departed the Vatican as the first pope to resign in six centuries."Thank you for your love and support," the pope tweeted from his Pontifex account. "May you always experience the joy that comes from putting Christ at the centre of your lives."With church bells ringing...

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Amid US budget battle, another likely missed deadline

WASHINGTON: Leaders of a divided Congress acknowledged their failure to avert across-the-board spending cuts set to begin Friday, with lawmakers and the White House trading blame for the doomsday scenario that may lie ahead.The only related actions of substance Thursday appeared to be votes on competing Senate bills, one sponsored by Democrats and the other by Republicans, to replace the...

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EU close to fining Microsoft, says report

The clock is ticking on Microsoft. Reuters is reporting today that regulators in Europe intend to levy a potentially hefty fine on the software company in connection with a long-running antitrust case. Quoting a couple of people described as being "familiar with the matter," Reuters says the fine might be "significant." Microsoft has been in hot water with the European Commission for some time....

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Navy investigates training pond deaths

The Navy is investigating the deaths of two divers during an operation at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, the second deadly incident at a deep pond there in the past month. CBS Baltimore reports that the two divers that perished on Tuesday were 28-year-old James Reyher of Caldwell, Ohio and 23-year-old Ryan Harris of Gladstone, Mo. Both were members of a mobile diving unit based at Joint Expeditionary...

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Bring on the Cuts: Some Want the Sequester

Mark Lucas wouldn't mind seeing America's defense budget cut by billions."There's quite a bit of waste within the military," Lucas, who serves as Iowa state director for the conservative group Americans for Prosperity (AFP), told ABC News. "Being in there for 10 years, I've seen quite a bit of it."With the budget sequester set to kick in on Friday, the former Army ranger is among...

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US army forced to release WikiLeaks case documents

FORT MEADE, Maryland: The US Army published dozens of documents online Wednesday in the case of WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning, after media outlets and other groups had criticized a lack of transparency.The move came in response to multiple Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests related to the case against Manning, who stands accused of passing a trove of secret files to Julian...

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Get a T-Mobile Jet 2.0 prepaid 4G modem for $19.99

Twenty bucks?! I'll take two.(Credit:T-Mobile)I'm a big believer in the old Boy Scout motto: be prepared.That's why I always pack a prepaid modem in my travel bag, just in case there's no Wi-Fi available wherever I end up. This happens more often than you might think.Through tomorrow, and while supplies last, you can get the T-Mobile Jet 2.0 prepaid 4G laptop stick for $19.99 shipped. Props to reader...

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Dozens of prominent Republicans sign brief backing gay marriage

More than 80 "conservative voices" have signed onto a legal brief supporting the notion that same-sex couples should have a fundamental right to marriage. The brief is in support of the plaintiffs in the Hollingsworth v. Perry case now before the Supreme Court, which challenges California's Proposition 8 barring same-sex marriage. The case, which will be argued starting in late March, could result...

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Boehner Pressures Dems to Get 'Off Their...'

Feb 26, 2013 12:48pm House Speaker John Boehner used some choice words to pressure Senate Democrats to avert the looming sequester — $85 billion of arbitrary across-the-board cuts — insisting that “the House has done its job” and the burden to offer an alternative before the cuts strike Friday is on the president’s party.“We have moved the bill in the House twice,” Boehner, R-Ohio,...

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Italy parties seek way out of election stalemate

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's stunned political parties looked for a way forward on Tuesday after an election that gave none of them a parliamentary majority, posing the threat of prolonged instability and European financial crisis. The results, notably by the dramatic surge of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement of comic Beppe Grillo, left the center-left bloc with a majority in the lower...

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Oscars host says "no way" doing it again

LOS ANGELES: Oscars host Seth MacFarlane said Tuesday there is "no way" he will do the show again, after his performance was widely criticized as offensive and dull.The "Family Guy" creator insisted it was fun to have hosted the 85th Academy Awards on Sunday, despite media and online critics panning the show, notably for jokes about actresses' breasts and Jews in Hollywood.The choice of...

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New Stuxnet whodunit: Malware existed two years earlier than anyone knew

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (C) visits the Natanz uranium enrichment facilities.(Credit:Getty Images) Cyber security professionals -- especially in Iran -- woke up today to the latest twist in the history of cyberwarfare when researchers at Symantec said they discovered a version of the Stuxnet computer virus which predates by two years the cyber weapon that was used to sabotage Iran's main...

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2nd blizzard in less than a week slams Plains

Last Updated 12:35 p.m. ET Blizzard conditions slammed parts of the Midwest on Monday, forcing the closure of highways in the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles and sending public works crews scrambling for salt and sand anew just days after a massive storm blanketed the region with snow. National Weather Service officials issued blizzard warnings and watches in Kansas and Oklahoma through late Monday...

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Secret Vatican Dossier for 'Pope's Eyes Only'

Feb 25, 2013 9:05am ROME – Pope Benedict XVI decided to keep secret the contents of an investigative report on the “Vatileaks” scandal, ruling that the only person who will get to see it will be the next pope.The top secret dossier details the findings of an internal investigation the pope launch last April into the so-called Vatileaks affair, in which Benedict’s...

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Italy election forecasts point to political gridlock

ROME (Reuters) - Conflicting early forecasts of the result of Italy's election on Monday raised the specter of deadlock in parliament that could paralyze a new government and re-ignite the euro zone crisis. Officials from both center and left warned that such gridlock could make Italy ungovernable and force new elections. Opinion polls have long pointed to the center-left...

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US special forces told to leave key Afghan province

KABUL: Afghanistan's president has ordered US special forces to leave a strategic province as he seeks tighter control over Afghan militia, exacerbating tensions before the 2014 withdrawal of NATO troops.Hamid Karzai on Sunday gave American special forces two weeks to pull out of Wardak, a hotbed of Taliban activity on the doorstep of Kabul, accusing Afghans they work with of torture and...

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