Celebrations planned as Wash. legalizes marijuana

SEATTLE (AP) — Legal marijuana possession becomes a reality under Washington state law on Thursday, and some people planned to celebrate the new law by breaking it.Voters in Washington and Colorado last month made those the first states to decriminalize and regulate the recreational use of marijuana. Washington's law takes effect Thursday and allows adults to have up to an ounce of pot — but it bans...

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Wall Street flat, volatile; fiscal talks, Apple in focus

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks were little changed in choppy morning trading on Thursday as upbeat guidance from Broadcom partially offset weakness in Apple shares, while traders kept an eye on fiscal negotiations in Washington. Extending Wednesday's 6.4 percent decline, Apple was trading down 0.7 percent at $535 early on Thursday, after falling as much as 3.7 percent at the open, which...

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Typhoon Kills Hundreds in Philippines

Bullit Marquez/Associated PressA resident hung clothing amid fallen trees and debris on Wednesday, a day after Typhoon Bopha made landfall in the village of Andap, in southern Philippines. MANILA — Rescue teams were trying to reach isolated villages in the southern Philippines on Wednesday after a powerful out-of-season typhoon tore through the region, leaving more than 270 people dead, officials...

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Austrian farmers dip into Internet “milking” craze

VIENNA (Reuters) – Dumping a bottle of milk over your head and filming it for a video post on the Internet has become a popular youth craze, but Austrian farmers say the spillage is a crying shame.“Milking”, as the trend is known, is among a variety of tongue-in-cheek stunts in which young people shoot pictures or videos of themselves posing as owls, planks of wood, or famous people and then share...

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Melissa Joan Hart, Nicole 'Snooki' Polizzi Sport Ugly Christmas Sweaters

By Maggie Coughlan 12/05/2012 at 10:45 AM EST Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi and Melissa Joan Hart Courtesy Nicole Polizzi; GABRIELLE REVERE It's sweater weather!With the holidays just around the corner, it's time to bust out your traditional ugly – and even not-so-ugly...

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Longer tamoxifen use cuts breast cancer deaths

Breast cancer patients taking the drug tamoxifen can cut their chances of having the disease come back or kill them if they stay on the pills for 10 years instead of five years as doctors recommend now, a major study finds.The results could change treatment, especially for younger women. The findings are a surprise because earlier research suggested that taking the hormone-blocking drug for longer...

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Wall Street flat, Freeport offsets China comments

Facebook (FB) announced on Tuesday that it will begin opening Facebook Messenger to consumers who do not have a Facebook account, starting in countries like India and South Africa, and later rolling out the service in the United States and Europe. This is a belated acknowledgement of a staggering strategic mistake Facebook made two years ago. That is when the messaging app competition was still...

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Assad Suffering Reversals in Fighting and Diplomacy

Thair Al-Khalidieh/Shaam News Network, via ReutersA Free Syrian Army fighter battled government forces in Homs, Syria, on Monday. BEIRUT, Lebanon — Fierce fighting on the battlefield and setbacks on the diplomatic front increased pressure on the embattled Syrian government as fresh signs emerged on Tuesday of a sustained battle for control of the capital, Damascus. News reports quoted...

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Taylor Swift & Harry Styles Hold Hands After Long Night in NYC

By Tim Nudd 12/04/2012 at 10:20 AM EST Taylor Swift and Harry Styles Alequin/Bosch/INF They're getting closer by the day. After strolling together in Central Park on Sunday, Taylor Swift and Harry Styles graduated to publicly holding hands early Tuesday after...

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Tapping citizen-scientists for a novel gut check

WASHINGTON (AP) — The bacterial zoo inside your gut could look very different if you're a vegetarian or an Atkins dieter, a couch potato or an athlete, fat or thin.Now for a fee — $69 and up — and a stool sample, the curious can find out just what's living in their intestines and take part in one of the hottest new fields in science.Wait a minute: How many average Joes really want to pay for the privilege...

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