White House: Leaked Immigration Bill Draft Is Plan B

Feb 17, 2013 11:48am Leaked draft legislation reportedly authored by the White House would be used as a backup proposal should negotiations fail in Congress over comprehensive immigration reform, administration officials said today.White House Chief of Staff Dennis McDonough was asked about the USA Todaystory on political talk shows this morning. On ABC’s “This Week,” McDonough...

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Pope, near abdication, says pray "for me and next pope"

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict asked the faithful to pray for him and for the next pope, in his penultimate Sunday address to a crowded St. Peter's Square before becoming the first pontiff in centuries to resign. The crowd chanted "Long live the pope!," waved banners and broke into sustained applause as he spoke from his window. The 85-year-old Benedict, who will abdicate on February...

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Football: Coutinho shines on debut as Liverpool rout Swansea

LIVERPOOL: Liverpool ended a winless run of five games in impressive fashion on Sunday as they whipped an under-strength Swansea 5-0 in their Premier League clash.Victory saw Liverpool leapfrog Swansea into seventh spot and give former Swans manager Brendan Rodgers something to smile about at the end of a week that saw defeats by West Brom and then Zenit St Petersburg in the Europa League.A...

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Irish hospital's doctors failed to treat Savita Halappanavar, leaked death probe report says

LONDON: Indian dentist Savita Halappanavar died as a result of a litany of failures by hospital staff, a leaked draft of a probe report said, proving her family's claim that her death was avoidable. The report by Ireland's health ministry revealed that doctors caring for the 31-year-old dentist seriously failed to investigate, recognize and treat the infection which led to her death. Savita died...

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UN warns risk of hepatitis E in S. Sudan grows

GENEVA (AP) — The United Nations says an outbreak of hepatitis E has killed 111 refugees in camps in South Sudan since July, and has become endemic in the region.U.N. refugee agency spokesman Adrian Edwards says the influx of people to the camps from neighboring Sudan is believed to be one of the factors in the rapid spread of the contagious, life-threatening inflammatory viral disease of the liver.Edwards...

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Uncle: Pistorius Is 'Numb With Shock as Well as Grief'

Oscar Pistorius is "numb with shock as well as grief" his uncle told reporters Saturday as the Olympian amputee spent his second night behind bars in a South African jail for the allegedly killing his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp."All of us saw at firsthand how close [Steenkamp] had become to Oscar during that time and how happy they were," he said. "They had plans together...

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NATO air strikes for Afghan security forces must end: Karzai

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan security forces will be banned from calling for NATO air strikes in residential areas to help in their operations, President Hamid Karzai said on Saturday, three days after 10 civilians died in such a strike in the country's east. NATO air strikes and civilian casualties have become a significant stress point in the relationship between Karzai and his international...

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G20 'determined' to halt cooperate tax avoidance

MOSCOW: The G20 group of the world's top economies expressed determination Saturday to crack down on companies who duck their full taxation responsibilities with elaborate schemes.The call came after the finance ministers of Britain, France and Germany said it was time for coordinated action to halt the practice of shifting profits from a firm's home country to pay less tax under another...

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India returns Pakistan soldier's body

JAMMU/NEW DELHI: The Army on Friday returned the body of a Pakistani soldier, who was killed after he had intruded into Indian territory near Laam post along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu & Kashmir's Rajouri district a day earlier.This comes a month after the beheading of an Indian soldier following a cross-LoC raid plunged relations between the two countries into their worst crisis since...

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Study: Fish in drug-tainted water suffer reaction

BOSTON (AP) — What happens to fish that swim in waters tainted by traces of drugs that people take? When it's an anti-anxiety drug, they become hyper, anti-social and aggressive, a study found. They even get the munchies.It may sound funny, but it could threaten the fish population and upset the delicate dynamics of the marine environment, scientists say.The findings, published online Thursday in...

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