Gunshots and plea for help heard in 911 calls from Colorado movie shooting

CENTENNIAL, Colo. (Reuters) - A 13-year-old girl caught in last summer's shooting rampage at a Colorado movie theater was heard frantically pleading for help for two gravely wounded relatives in a tape of her emergency 911 call played in court on Tuesday.In it, the distraught girl could be heard telling an emergency dispatcher that her 6-year-old cousin, Veronica Moser-Sullivan, and Veronica's pregnant...

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Illinois asks court to keep banning most handguns in the state

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Illinois asked an appeals court on Tuesday to reverse itself and allow a ban that prevents most people there from carrying concealed handguns in public.Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, a Democrat, asked the full Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit to review the decision, saying it was not consistent with recent decisions by other courts.Last month, three days before...

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Italy's real election battle is Monti vs Berlusconi

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's election campaign is shaping up as a bitter contest not between right and left but between Silvio Berlusconi and outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti to win the balance of power after the February poll.The final lines were drawn on Monday when Berlusconi sacrificed his own candidacy for prime minister as the price for winning a crucial new alliance with his estranged allies...

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Just Explain It: What is the Strategic Petroleum Reserve?

Eliminating America's dependency on foreign oil has been a policy goal for at least the last two U.S. Presidents.  According to the International Energy Agency, by 2020,  the U.S. will overtake Saudi Arabia as the world's number one oil producer.However, there's still some work to do.  The United States Energy Information Administration reported that 45% of the petroleum consumed by...

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Apple to produce line of Macs in the US next year

NEW YORK (AP) -- Apple CEO Tim Cook says the company will move production of one of its existing lines of Mac computers from China to the United States next year.Industry watchers said the announcement is both a cunning public-relations move and a harbinger of more manufacturing jobs moving back to the U.S. as wages rise in China.Cook made the comments in part of an interview taped for NBC's "Rock...

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US economy adds 146K jobs, rate falls to 7.7 pct.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The pace of U.S. hiring remained steady in November despite disruptions from Superstorm Sandy and employers' concerns about impending tax increases from the year-end "fiscal cliff."Companies added 146,000 jobs, and the unemployment rate fell to 7.7 percent — the lowest in nearly four years — from 7.9 percent in October. The rate declined mainly because more people stopped looking...

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Poll: Spike in Palestinian support for military operations against Israel

Palestinian support for military operations against Israel has registered its most significant jump in 10 years, spurred by the recent Gaza conflict, ongoing Israeli settlement expansion, and frustration over a peace process that has been essentially deadlocked for more than four years.The percentage of Palestinians supporting such operations has reached 50.9 percent, up from 29.3 percent in January...

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Pakistani officials say US drones kill 9 militants

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) — Suspected American drones fired several missiles into three militant hideouts near the Afghan border on Sunday, killing nine Pakistani Taliban fighters, intelligence officials said.The strikes targeted the group's hideouts in the South Waziristan tribal region, the three officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to...

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Pakistan says 1 dead in border clash with India

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan and India traded accusations Sunday of violating the cease-fire in the disputed northern region of Kashmir, with Islamabad accusing Indian troops of a cross-border raid that killed one of its soldiers and India charging that Pakistani shelling destroyed a home on its side.The accusation of a border crossing resulting in military deaths is unusual in Kashmir, where a cease-fire...

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US economic growth improves to 2 pct. rate in Q3

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. economy expanded at a slightly faster 2 percent annual rate from July through September, buoyed by an uptick in consumer spending and a burst of government spending.Growth improved from the 1.3 percent rate in the April-June quarter, the Commerce Department said Friday.The pickup in growth may help President Barack Obama's message that the economy is improving. Still,...

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