Meet Obama's Defense Secretary Nominee

President Obama nominated former Senator Chuck Hagel as the next U.S. secretary of defense. To those who haven't followed the Senate closely in the past decade, he's probably not a household name.Hagel is a former GOP senator from Nebraska and Purple-Heart-decorated Vietnam veteran, but he wouldn't necessarily be a popular pick with Republicans in Congress.At age 21, Hagel and...

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Chad's 'mountains of hunger' as rendered by Turner

Joanna Carver, reporter(Image: ESA/Envisat)IT LOOKS like brushstrokes - it could almost be a Turner - but this is actually nature at its most dramatic. This snapshot from the European Space Agency's MERIS satellite shows the Tibesti mountains that straddle northern Chad and southern Libya - though a picture like this makes it easy to forget that borders exist. The mountains, in blue and black...

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Taiwan's exports down 2.3 per cent in 2012

TAIPEI: Taiwan's exports fell 2.3 per cent last year due to sluggish overseas demand for mobile devices in the slowest growth rate since 2009, the government said on Monday.Shipments in 2012 totalled US$301.1 billion, down from US$308.3 billion the previous year, as the island's overseas sales of mobile phones plunged US$4.54 billion, or 42.8 per cent, the ministry of finance said in a...

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NHL, players reach tentative agreement

From Maria P. White and Josh Levs, CNNupdated 1:11 PM EST, Sun January 6, 2013Mike Brown of the Toronto Maple Leafs strips the puck from Nicklas Lidstrom of the Detroit Red Wings during a game last January.STORY HIGHLIGHTSNEW: Games could resume "hopefully, within a few days," Fehr saysFans react with a mix of frustration and excitement The two sides reach an agreement after a marathon negotiating...

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Google head Eric Schmidt in North Korea

Updated 4:15 a.m. EST BEIJING The Google chairman wants a first-hand look at North Korea's economy and social media in his private visit Monday to the communist nation, his delegation said, despite misgivings in Washington over the timing of the trip. Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of one of the world's biggest Internet companies, is the highest-profile U.S. executive to visit North Korea --...

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Pastor Accused of Killing Wives Faces Trial

Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday for Pastor Arthur Schirmer, who is accused of killing his second wife and then staging a car accident to hide it.Schirmer, 64, also faces a second trial at a later date for the death of his first wife. He has said he is innocent of all charges.In 2008, the pastor and his wife, Betty, were involved in what appeared at the time to be...

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Silent Skype calls can hide secret messages

Got a secret message to send? Say it with silence. A new technique can embed secret data during a phone call on Skype. "There are concerns that Skype calls can be intercepted and analysed," says Wojciech Mazurczyk at the Institute of Telecommunications in Warsaw, Poland. So his team's SkypeHide system lets users...

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Wong Kar Wai returns with new film "The Grandmaster"

BEIJING: Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai's long-awaited martial arts film "The Grandmaster" was shown in public for the first time in Beijing on Sunday, after more than six years in production.The film spans several decades of Chinese history to tell the story of legendary martial artist Yip Man, who went on to train Bruce Lee, and features lengthy battles between rival kung fu masters.Wong,...

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Armstrong's lawyer: No mea culpa talks

By Jillian Martin and Chelsea J. Carterupdated 1:06 PM EST, Sat January 5, 2013STORY HIGHLIGHTSThe New York Times report cites unnamed associates and doping officials in its reportCyclist's lawyer says his client was not in discussion with U.S. or world anti-doping agenciesArmstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned for life Cyclist has repeatedly denied using banned performance-enhancing...

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Syrian president to give speech

BEIRUT Syrian President Bashar Assad will deliver a speech on Sunday in a rare address to the nation, state media said, as rebels fighting to topple his embattled regime pressed ahead with an offensive on the capital. The official SANA news agency said in a brief statement Saturday that Assad will speak about the latest developments in Syria. The speech would be the first by the leader since June,...

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