Netanyahu appeals for votes amid high Israel turnout

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a frantic, last-minute appeal to supporters to rush to the polls after an unexpectedly high turnout in Tuesday's parliamentary election looked set to benefit center-left opponents. Netanyahu's rightist Likud party, running in a single bloc with the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu group, still seemed certain to win...

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5 foreigners still missing at Algeria hostage site

IN AMENAS: Algerian authorities searched on Tuesday for five foreigners still missing and tried to identify seven charred bodies, days after a bloody hostage crisis, a security source said."Still no news about the five missing foreigners," the source told AFP, after Algerian special forces launched a final assault on Saturday against Islamist gunmen at the remote desert gas plant where...

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Microsoft serves up development kit for Windows Phone 7.8

Microsoft has made available for download its software development kit (SDK) for Windows Phone 7.8.Officials shared download links and more information on January 22.Microsoft officials still are not saying when the actual Windows Phone 7.8 operating system will be made available to those with existing Windows Phones. The only official guidance was that it would be in early 2013. The 7.8 operating...

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Official: 3 Americans total died in Algeria attack

Updated at 2:53 p.m. ET WASHINGTON Three U.S. citizens were killed in last week's hostage standoff at a natural gas complex in Algeria, while seven Americans made it out safely, the State Department said Monday. The State Department confirmed that gas workers Victor Lynn Lovelady and Gordon Lee Rowan were killed at the Ain Amenas gas field in the Sahara. U.S. officials identified Texas resident...

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President Obama Calls for 'Collective Action'

Invoking the nation's founding values, President Obama marked the start of his second term today with a sweeping call for "collective action" to confront the economic and social challenges of America's present and future."That is our generation's task, to make these words, these rights, these values -- of life, and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness -- real for every American,"...

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Algeria says 37 foreigners died in siege led by Canadian

ALGIERS (Reuters) - A total of 37 foreigners and an Algerian died at a desert gas plant and five are still missing after a four-day hostage-taking coordinated by a Canadian gunman, Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal said on Monday. Sellal also told a news conference that 29 Islamists had been killed in the siege, which Algerian forces ended by storming the plant on Saturday, and...

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Obama issues inaugural call for unity, equality

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama issued a impassioned call for equality and national unity as he was inaugurated for a second term Monday, warning political "absolutism" must not thwart renewal and change.Obama was publicly sworn in for another four White House years before a flag waving crowd of hundreds of thousands on Washington's National Mall. Then he delivered an address steeped...

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Functional Iron Man gauntlet zaps enemy balloons

The gauntlet has lasers in the palm and in a retractable forearm shooter. No, it doesn't let you fly too.(Credit:Patrick Priebe )What are you going to do to mark the upcoming release of "Iron Man 3"? If you're superfan Patrick Priebe, you build your own Iron Man laser gauntlet. As a 6-foot-tall, Mohawk-sporting hockey player, Priebe can come across as intimidating. His penchant for making laser weapons...

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Officials: N.M. teen gunman kills 5 inside home

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. A teenage boy fatally shot two adults and three children inside an Albuquerque home, authorities said Sunday. The boy was arrested and booked on murder and other charges in connection with the shootings Saturday night, Bernalillo County sheriff's spokesman Aaron Williamson said. The victims' identities haven't been released, and the boy's motive and connection to the five victims...

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President Obama Sworn In for Second Term

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden today officially embarked on their second term, taking the Constitutionally mandated oath of office in two separate private ceremonies inside their homes.Shortly before noon in the Blue Room of the White House, Obama raised his right hand, with his left on a family Bible, reciting the oath administrated by Chief Justice John...

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