Yen on defensive on U.S. fiscal worry, helps Nikkei

TOKYO (Reuters) - Uncertainty over whether U.S. lawmakers will strike a deal by an end-of-year deadline to avert a severe fiscal retrenchment undermined the yen and bolstered Japanese shares on Tuesday in low volume, with many participants away on Christmas holiday. The dollar rose to a 20-month high of 84.965 yen early on Tuesday in Asia, as Japanese markets caught up with global investors...

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Pagano back to coach Colts after cancer treatment

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Chuck Pagano stepped to the podium Monday, hugged his team owner, thanked his family for its support and wiped a tear from his eye.He might, finally, turn out the lights in his office, too.Nearly three months to the day after being diagnosed with leukemia, the Colts' first-year coach returned to a team eager to reunite with a boss healthy enough to go back to work."I told you my...

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Storm brings white Christmas, tornado threat to central U.S

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A major winter storm brought a rare white Christmas to the southern U.S. plains on Tuesday, contributing to a 21-vehicle pile-up that shut down a major highway in Oklahoma.The storm system surging east from Kansas and the Texas Panhandle includes the threat of tornados and severe thunderstorms along its southern fringe, from southeast Texas to Alabama, the National Weather Service...

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Hollywood movies can (mis)educate us

Movies for adultsMovies for adultsMovies for adultsMovies for adultsMovies for adultsMovies for adultsMovies for adultsMovies for adultsMovies for adultsMovies for adultsMovies for adultsSTORY HIGHLIGHTSDean Obeidallah: A movie or TV show can educate or (mis)educate youObeidallah: Two new films about hot issues are firing up both the left and rightSenators slammed "Zero Dark Thirty," and energy industry...

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Christmas Eve shootings leave 7 hurt

Seven people were hurt, at least five seriously, in shootings on the South and West sides late Monday.Four of the injured were...

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Syria envoy seeks peace as clashes rage

BEIRUT (Reuters) - International envoy Lakhdar Brahimi pursued mediation efforts in Damascus on Tuesday, but there was no pause in the bloodletting as Syrian Christians marked a bleak Christmas Day with prayers for peace. "We are here in a cave that symbolizes Syria right now," said a priest standing beside a nativity scene in a grotto. "It is cold here but the door is open...

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Start of "Santa rally" dampened by "cliff" worries

This holiday season is not awesome for Idaho Senator Mike Crapo, a Republican member of the "Gang of Eight" and a Mormon bishop, after police caught him driving drunk in Virginia. This is what happens when you slug down too many egg nogs, hop in your car, run a red light in front of a police cruiser at 12:45 a.m. and then fail "several" sobriety tests. Police took the senator into custody, charged...

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Colts recovering coach returns to team facility

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Chuck Pagano was back at work Monday morning.Three months after taking an indefinite leave to battle leukemia, the Colts' coach was scheduled to meet with players, coaches and reporters as he retook the reins from interim coach Bruce Arians.When Pagano arrived at the team headquarters, he drove past an inflatable Colts player to the side of the driveway with a simple message across...

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The Hottest Climate Change Stories of 2012

Global warming was hot news this year, literally.Perhaps the most unavoidable climate story of 2012 was the warmth that gripped much of the United States, and to a lesser degree, the planet, throughout the entire year. Heat waves brought “spring in March” to parts of the country, and broke all-time high-temperature records in a number of places. This, inevitably, led to a discussion of global warming...

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Gunman killed after ambushing, shooting 4 firefighters

WEBSTER, N.Y. -- A western New York police chief says a gunman who ambushed and shot four volunteer firefighters outside a blazing...

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