W.Va. gas line blast melts road, burns homes

SISSONVILLE, W.Va. (AP) — At least five homes went up in flames Tuesday afternoon and a badly burned section of Interstate 77 in West Virginia was closed after a natural gas line exploded in an hour-long inferno.No injuries were immediately reported, but firefighters had just begun to reach damaged structures late in the afternoon after the intense flames kept them at bay for several hours.Several...

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Michigan passes right-to-work bill

LANSING, Michigan (Reuters) - Michigan legislators on Tuesday approved laws that ban mandatory membership in public and private sector unions, dealing a stunning blow to organized labor in the home of the U.S. auto industry. Republican Governor Rick Snyder was poised to sign the bills into law within days. That would make Michigan the 24th U.S. state with so-called right-to-work laws...

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Australian prank call radio to donate profits to nurse’s family

CANBERRA (Reuters) – The Australian radio station behind a prank call to a British hospital will donate its advertising revenue until the end of the year to a fund for the family of the nurse who apparently took her own life after the stunt, the company said on Tuesday.Southern Cross Austereo, parent company of Sydney radio station 2Day FM, said it would donate all advertising revenue, with a minimum...

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‘Lincoln’ leads Critics’ Choice Awards nominees

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Film critics love “Lincoln.” The historical drama earned a record-breaking 13 nominations for the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards.The Broadcast Film Critics Association announced the nominees for its 18th annual awards ceremony Tuesday in Los Angeles.“Lincoln” beat the 12 nods earned by 2010′s “Black Swan” with bids for director Steven Spielberg, star Daniel Day-Lewis and supporting...

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Head of $3B Texas cancer effort asks to resign

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The executive director of a troubled $ 3 billion cancer-fighting effort in Texas has submitted his resignation letter amid escalating scrutiny over the management of the nation’s second-biggest pot of cancer research dollars.The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas made Bill Gimson‘s resignation letter public on Tuesday. Gimson has led the state agency since it launched...

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Notorious patent troll hits RIM with new lawsuit, seeks BlackBerry sales ban

Well-known patent troll Wi-LAN has filed a new lawsuit against BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIMM) in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Wi-LAN, which describes itself as “a leading intellectual property licensing company,” claims RIM’s BlackBerry smartphones infringe U.S. Patent No. 6,260,168, owned by Wi-LAN, which relates to Bluetooth implementation....

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Egypt army given temporary power to arrest civilians

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s Islamist president has given the army temporary power to arrest civilians during a constitutional referendum he is determined to push through despite the risk of bloodshed between his supporters and opponents accusing him of a power grab.Seven people were killed and hundreds wounded last week in clashes between the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood and their critics besieging Mohamed...

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China party chief stresses reform, censors relax grasp on internet

BEIJING (Reuters) – China must deepen reforms to perfect its market economy and strengthen rule of law, Communist Party chief Xi Jinping said in southern Guangdong, echoing groundbreaking comments by reformist senior leader Deng Xiaoping in the same province 20 years ago.Xi’s call for reform was reported on Monday, coinciding with an apparent easing of Internet search restrictions that the party has...

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Australian DJs break silence over UK royal prank tragedy

CANBERRA (Reuters) – Two Australian radio announcers who made a prank call to a British hospital treating Prince William‘s pregnant wife Kate broke a three-day silence on Monday to speak of their distress at the apparent suicide of the nurse who took their call.The 2DayFM Sydney-based announcers, Mel Greig and Michael Christian, said the tragedy had left them “shattered, gutted, heartbroken”.Greig...

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Study: Talk Therapy May Help Depression when Medications Inadequate

A first-of-its-kind large scale research study concluded that the addition of talk therapy to a medication regimen helps to relieve the symptoms of depression, the leading cause of disability in the United States in those ages 15 years to 44 years, according to the National Institute of Mental Health .Cognitive Behavioral Therapy as an Adjunct to Medication TreatmentOnly one-third of people with depression...

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