Pentagon ends ban on women in combat

WASHINGTON – Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta is ending the ban on women serving in combat in the U.S. military, potentially...

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Racy Victorian divorces online at genealogy website

LONDON (Reuters) – The original Mrs Robinson’s diary and scandalous suggestions about a former heir to the British throne are all part of the latest ancestral revelations to go online.British genealogical website Ancestry.co.uk said on Tuesday it has put the transcripts of thousands of Victorian divorce proceedings online, which reveal the racy details of an era that most modern Britons consider to...

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Sundance stars sound off on gun violence in film

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — The Sundance Film Festival isn't home to many shoot-em-up movies, but action-oriented actors at the festival are facing questions about Hollywood's role in American gun violence.Guy Pearce and Alexander Skarsgard are among those who say Hollywood shares in the blame.Pearce is in Park City, Utah, to support the family drama "Breathe In," but he's pulled plenty of imaginary triggers...

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Research on Deadly Bird Flu to Resume After Safety Debate

Experiments with a deadly flu virus, suspended last year after a fierce global debate over safety, will start up again in some laboratories, probably within the next few weeks, scientists say. The research touched off a firestorm in 2011 when it became known that two groups, one in the Netherlands and another in the United States, had genetically altered a dangerous bird flu virus to...

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Home building outlook is cautiously optimistic

Although recent months have seen improvement in the number of housing starts and permits pulled, it will be multi-family builders...

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Election of new DNC leaders points up tensions with White House

WASHINGTON -- After a messy fight that highlighted strains with the White House, the Democratic National Committee completed...

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BlackBerry Z10 Looks Like iPhone 5, Takes on Siri

RIM is set to announce the first devices running its new BlackBerry 10 operating system at an event on January 30. A lucky few, however, have already gotten their hands on what looks to be the new hardware, including German site TelekomPresse.[More from Mashable: Watch These iPhone Knockoffs Get Bulldozed]The site has the BlackBerry Z10, a touchscreen device with a similar look to some of the other...

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Band: Beyonce lip synced US anthem at inaugural

WASHINGTON (AP) — Beyonce lip-synced the national anthem during her rousing performance at President Barack Obama's inauguration, according to the U.S. Marine Band.A band spokeswoman told news outlets Tuesday that the band was notified at the last minute before the performance that Beyonce would use a pre-recorded voice track. Band members played their instruments live with no intonation problems...

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The Well Column: Facing Cancer, a Stark Choice

In the 1970s, women’s health advocates were highly suspicious of mastectomies. They argued that surgeons — in those days, pretty much an all-male club — were far too quick to remove a breast after a diagnosis of cancer, with disfiguring results.But today, the pendulum has swung the other way. A new generation of women want doctors to take a more aggressive approach, and more and more are asking that...

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Super Bowl chicken wings getting pricier, less plentiful

Americans are going to chow down on 1.23 billion chicken wings during Super Bowl weekend this year. But there will be fewer...

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