Hand Stephen L OD

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AP - President Barack Obama, capping a far-flung Asian trip of mixed results, assured Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Sunday that getting the Senate to ratify the START nuclear weapons treaty is a "top priority" of his administration.

AFP - France's President Nicolas Sarkozy was expected to name a new cabinet Sunday after clearing the decks for his long-awaited cabinet reshuffle by accepting the pro forma resignation of Prime Minister Francois Fillon and his entire government.

AP - When a humanitarian worker asked Ajak Dau Akech in 1988 why he fled civil war in Sudan and walked 1,000 perilous miles to a refugee camp in Ethiopia, the boy answered with words few 8-year-olds would know.

Cuba to free two more political prisoners (Reuters)
Reuters - Cuba will soon release two of 13 political prisoners who had rejected a government deal to leave the country in exchange for freedom, the Catholic Church said on Saturday.

AP - Near the midpoint of his presidency, Barack Obama's diverse voter coalition reveals giant cracks and he faces major work repairing his standing among independents in states crucial to his re-election chances. Catholics. Older people. Women. Young adults. They shifted toward Republicans in this month's elections and failed to support Obama's Democratic Party as they did in 2008.

AP - Pro-democracy hero Aung San Suu Kyi walked free after more than seven years under house arrest, welcomed by thousands of cheering supporters outside the decaying lakefront villa that has been her prison.

AP - Former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel officially announced his candidacy for mayor of Chicago Saturday, promising to fight any tax increase for city residents.

AP - Anyone wanting to walk in the shoes of fallen financier Bernard Madoff was in luck Saturday: Thousands of belongings from his New York City penthouse, including his used shoes, went on the auction block.

AP - A springer spaniel stuck overnight on a cliff ledge in Lake Pueblo State Park is OK after a sheriff's deputy rappelled down a canyon to retrieve him. The dog named "Doc" went over an 80-foot cliff Thursday morning while training to become a hunting dog.

AFP - US President Barack Obama has used a Pacific Rim summit to press China on its flood of exports aided by a cheap yuan, but President Hu Jintao said Beijing would make reforms at its own pace.

Snowstorm causes 400 Minn. crashes; 2 die in Wis. (AP)
AP - Parts of the Upper Midwest dug out from a heavy snowfall Saturday that caused more than 400 traffic accidents in Minnesota, and wintry conditions also were being blamed for a collision in northern Wisconsin that killed two people.

Pa. police: Dad killed woman, 2 girls, then self (AP)
AP - A man shot and killed a woman and their two daughters in his home late Saturday morning before turning the gun on himself, authorities said.

Reuters - Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi began her first day of freedom in seven years on Sunday with plans to meet her defunct political party after military rulers released her from house arrest.

DESPITE BOEHNER, HEALTH CARE REFORM WILL REMAIN INTACT (Cynthia Tucker)
Cynthia Tucker - WASHINGTON -- President Obama has famously said he'd rather be a good one-term president with accomplishments to his credit than a mediocre two-termer committed to extending his popularity. And, as several conservatives have grudgingly admitted, he's already achieved historic health care legislation that has changed the country's social and political calculus.

AP - The U.S. has offered Israel an incentive package to reinstate a moratorium on West Bank settlement building in an effort to revive stalled peace talks with the Palestinians, diplomatic sources said late Saturday.

AP - GOP nominee Joe Miller said he won't spend a lot of time, energy and effort fighting over ballots in Alaska's still-undecided Senate race if the math doesn't add up in his favor.

AP - An unusual amount of blood found in a missing woman's home is evidence of an injury apparently related to her disappearance with her two children and a female friend, a sheriff in Ohio said Saturday.

New congress in troubled Mexican state sworn in (AP)
AP - Citizens who formerly led street protests and manned barricades in the troubled southern state of Oaxaca were sworn in as members of the local congress Saturday, in what the governor-elect called a historic change.

AP - Californians may have rejected legalizing recreational marijuana, but voters across the state are more than ready to reap revenue from the state's largest cash crop.

AP - Fresh off big victories on Election Day, Republicans in Congress feel empowered in their fight to extend tax cuts that expire in January, including those for the wealthy.

Reuters - Guinea's former Prime Minister Cellou Dalein Diallo held a small lead on Saturday in the West African state's presidential election, but results so far showed his rival making gains in key constituencies.

AP - Former President George W. Bush says he doesn't miss much about the White House, just the pampering. Bush told more than 3,000 people at a sprawling central Florida retirement community on Saturday that he misses the convenience of Air Force One and never waiting in traffic jams. The 43rd president said, most of all, he misses being commander in chief of the U.S. military.

Taxes and inflation data to dominate week (Reuters)
Reuters - Without a boost from Washington policymakers or data showing budding strength in the economy, Wall Street's rally may be running out of fuel as the S&P 500 eases off its 2010 high.

AFP - Moroccan authorities said Saturday they had arrested 96 people accused of inciting violence during a controversial police raid on a squatter camp near the Western Sahara town of Laayoune.

AP - House Democrats averted a messy leadership struggle, clearing the way for Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer to become second in command of their new minority without a challenge from South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn.

AFP - Greece's prime minister said Saturday he was confident in his policy for hauling the country out of its financial crisis despite the expected revision of a higher public deficit.

Report: Prominent hedge fund investigated (AP)
AP - A prominent hedge fund that made huge gains betting against subprime mortgages is reportedly being investigated by federal authorities for extending a $113 million loan to its founder so he could pay off a personal tax bill.

Accident at Oklahoma fairgrounds kills child (AP)
AP - An accident involving a barrel ride at an Oklahoma fairgrounds has killed an 8-year-old girl and left four other children seriously injured.

Police: Daughter of Mich. stabbing victims in jail (AP)
AP - The stabbing victims' 17-year-old daughter was one of three people in custody Saturday in the investigation of a small-town attack that killed a man and seriously injured his wife, police said.

Not Built to Last: Is China Overusing the Wrecking Ball? (Time.com)
Time.com - The ever-changing urban landscape has become a common scene in many Chinese cities, but at what cost?

Greece must focus on debt targets: ECB's Bini Smaghi (Reuters)
Reuters - Greece must focus on meeting targets to cut its budget deficit, ECB policymaker Lorenzo Bini Smaghi said in an interview, warning that any renegotiation of the terms of EU/IMF loans would harm its credibility.

AFP - Bulgaria and Russia Saturday set up a joint venture to build and operate a stretch of the South Stream gas pipeline at a ceremony in Sofia overseen by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

IMF says Ireland can manage amid EU rescue talks (Reuters)
Reuters - Ireland can manage on its own, the head of the International Monetary Fund said on Saturday, a day after euro zone sources told Reuters the former "Celtic Tiger" was in talks about a possible EU rescue.

Burma (Myanmar) release of Aung San Suu Kyi could galvanize activists (The Christian Science Monitor)
The Christian Science Monitor - After days of eager anticipation, Aung San Suu Kyi was released Saturday having spent seven years under house arrest for defying Burmas military rulers. She spoke briefly to a huge crowd of ecstatic supporters outside her lakeside villa in Rangoon, the former capital, who chanted her name and sang the national anthem.

AP - Researcher Matt Balazik wears his passion for saving the Atlantic sturgeon on his right arm — a tattoo of the ancient fish — and lives it by counting the bottom-feeding giants in the James River.

AP - Australia's national airline is keeping its flagship superjumbos on the ground more than a week after a frightening midair engine disintegration, disrupting its most lucrative long-haul routes even as regulators and pilots say the Rolls-Royce motors are safe.

Congo: UN scrambles to better protect civilians in wake of mass rape (The Christian Science Monitor)
The Christian Science Monitor - A woman working alone on her farm in a remote corner of eastern Congo is usually a worrisome sight. It's there, among her beans and potatoes, sorghum, cassava, or cabbage, that she is especially vulnerable to robbery, abduction, and rape crimes committed throughout Congo's nearly 15 years of crippling violence.

Big German protests pressure Merkel before CDU meet (Reuters)
Reuters - Tens of thousands of people marched in cities across Germany on Saturday to protest against government policies and social inequality, a day before a key meeting of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU).

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