In Hezbollah stronghold, Lebanese Christians find respect, stability

In a home in a Shiite neighborhood in southern Beirut, images of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah share mantel and wall space with the Virgin Mary.The face of the revered Shiite militant leader appears on posters, a calendar, and in several photographs nestled amid those of Christian homeowner Randa Gholam's family members. Mr. Nasrallah is, Ms. Gholam asserts amid a string of superlatives, “a gift...

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Delhi gang-rape case could be turning point for India's rape laws

The gang-rape and beating of a 23-year-old woman on a private bus as it cruised around Delhi Sunday could be the turning point for improvements in the country’s rape laws.After nearly a week of massive protests across the capital demanding tougher punishments for rapists and better protection of women, the parliamentary standing committee will meet next week to discuss creating fast-track courts for...

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Good Reads: gun laws, lottery winners, online education, and tech gets sensory

The Sandy Hook school shooting in Connecticut brought a deluge of media attention to gun control. One useful perspective came from the Lexington’s Notebook column in The Economist magazine. Britain’s gun-related homicide rate is drastically lower than that of the United States not only because guns are harder to purchase, but because ammunition is scarce, the writer points out. In one recent incident...

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Syrian civil war at stalemate, Assad won't go: Russia

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria's civil war has reached stalemate and international efforts to persuade President Bashar al-Assad to quit will fail, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday.Mainly Sunni Muslim rebels seeking to overthrow Assad are fighting on the edge of the capital Damascus and expanding southwards from their northern strongholds in Aleppo and Idlib into the central province...

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Pope pardons ex-butler who stole, leaked documents

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI granted his former butler a Christmas pardon Saturday, forgiving him in person during a jailhouse meeting for stealing and leaking his private papers in one of the gravest Vatican security breaches in recent times.After the 15-minute meeting, Paolo Gabriele was freed and returned to his Vatican City apartment where he lives with his wife and three children. The...

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Koomkin.com the new b2b marketplace that connects companies throughout all the Americas

Looking to the global trends, American companies will have to look more and more south of the border for qualified suppliers. Koomkin is already helping companies do that: Enrique Suarez Romo co-founder of the Mexican portal.Mexico City (PRWEB) December 20, 2012Ancient Mayans are not just responsible of writing prophecies about the end of the world while drinking hot chocolate; actually they were...

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Fox Web Creations Presents the New World Trade Center Kansas City Website

Web Design in Kansas City is a little more global today with the release of the World Trade Center Kansas City Website, chock-full of great information for international businesses.(PRWEB) December 20, 2012Fox Web Creations and The World Trade Center Kansas City have launched a new website - http://www.wtc-kc.com/. Designed for companies already doing business globally, as well as those considering...

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Top Realtor in Gainesville VA, Linton Hall Realtors, Launches Interactive Web Experience

A top performing realtor in Gainesville, VA - Linton Hall Realtors - is pleased to announce the launch of an interactive live chat system to aid their website visitors, who are looking to buy or sell homes in the Gainesville, VA area. The addition of the interactive service will allow for expanded real estate client service in an increasingly competitive marketplace.Gainesville, VA (PRWEB) December...

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Mission Impossible?: Can Tom Cruise Launch a Box-Office Franchise with 'Jack Reacher'?

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Paramount hopes it's launching a franchise with "Jack Reacher," the Tom Cruise action thriller that hits theaters Friday.It will be tricky in a crowded holiday marketplace, and Cruise isn't the box-office bonanza he once was. But one need only look back to last year's "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" to see how it might work. That film opened to $12 million on December...

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ReferralBuzz Announces Partnership with TruliaTwin Cities’ Referral Service for Home Remodeling Experts and Their Customers Partners with Leading Online Real Estate Market

ReferralBuzz Announces Partnership with TruliaTwin Cities’ Referral Service for Home Remodeling Experts and Their Customers Partners with Leading Online Real Estate MarketTwin Cities’ referral service for home remodeling experts and their customers partners with leading online real estate marketplace.Minneapolis, MN (PRWEB) December 21, 2012Starting in January 2013, ReferralBuzz Inc., in Minneapolis,...

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Silence, ringing of bells to honor victims of school massacre

NEWTOWN, Conn./WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Many Americans will remember the victims of the Newtown, Connecticut, school massacre with a moment of silence on Friday, just before a powerful U.S. gun rights lobbying group plunges into the national debate over gun control.Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy called for residents of his state to observe the moment at 9:30 a.m. EST (1430 GMT) to mark a week since...

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Putin in Brussels for Russia-EU summit focused on energy, Syria

BRUSSELS - Russian President Vladimir Putin is in Brussels for a summit with European Union leaders that is expected to focus on energy disputes and the Syrian crisis and could be marred by EU concerns about the Kremlin's clampdown on dissent.For Putin, the main issue in Friday's talks is EU energy market regulations intended to boost competition, which Moscow has described as discriminatory against...

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Asian shares slide as U.S. budget impasse creates anxiety

TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares slid on Friday after a Republican proposal to deal with a U.S. fiscal crunch failed to get enough support, deepening uncertainty over the U.S. can avert the "fiscal cliff" of automatic spending cuts and tax increases set to start January 1."Markets disliked signs of further delay in talks, with the risk that a deal may not be reached by the end of the year deadline,"...

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Cyprus says suggestions of a haircut on its debt are unfounded

NICOSIA (Reuters) - Cyprus dismissed as unfounded on Thursday any suggestion the IMF is seeking a writedown of the island's debt before it agrees to participate in a multi-billion euro bailout.Finance Minister Vassos Shiarly was responding to a German media report that the International Monetary Fund had advocated a haircut on Cypriot bonds as a condition for IMF participation in an aid programme...

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Juncker rules out haircut on Cypriot debt

BERLIN (Reuters) - Outgoing Eurogroup chief Jean-Claude Juncker on Friday dismissed the possibility of writing down Cypriot sovereign debt, saying that would risk the credibility of the euro zone."We didn't say all Greek speaking countries, we said Greece. It is part of the credibility to stick to the signals you have sent," Juncker told German radio Deutschlandfunk."I expect that a haircut will not...

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