Rev. Robert W. Oliver to Lead Vatican’s Review of Sex Abuse Claims

VATICAN CITY — The pope has put a priest from the archdiocese of Boston, the center of a clerical sex abuse scandal in the United States, in charge of the Vatican’s review of sex abuse by priests. The Vatican said Saturday that the Rev. Robert W. Oliver, a canonical specialist in the archdiocese, would succeed Bishop Charles Scicluna, who was recently named auxiliary bishop in his native...

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Predicting who's at risk for violence isn't easy

CHICAGO (AP) — It happened after Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora, Colo., and now Sandy Hook: People figure there surely were signs of impending violence. But experts say predicting who will be the next mass shooter is virtually impossible — partly because as commonplace as these calamities seem, they are relatively rare crimes.Still, a combination of risk factors in troubled kids or adults including...

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Letting strangers live rent-free in his house: cool or crazy?

When Tony Tolbert turned 50 last year, he marked the occasion by moving in with his mother.The decision wasn't about money. He's a Harvard-educated attorney, on the staff of UCLA's law school. And it wasn't because his mother wanted or needed him home.It was Tolbert's response to the sort of midlife milestone that prompts us to take stock. Instead...

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Suicide bombers attack mobile phone firms in Nigeria

KANO, Nigeria (Reuters) – Two suicide car bombers attacked the offices of mobile phone operators India’s Airtel and South Africa’s MTN on Saturday in Nigeria’s northern city of Kano, killing themselves but no civilians, police said.Islamist sect Boko Haram has previously targeted phone firms, blowing up telephone masts and offices, saying the companies help the security forces catch its members.“The...

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See If You Can Spot the One Color That Popped on the Carpet This Week

Stylewatch Style News Now 12/21/2012 at 12:00 PM ET Getty; Splash News Online; WireImageEven though we didn’t see as many stars on the red carpet this week as last — it’s quiet in Hollywood this holiday season! — we still saw some...

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North Korea Says It Has Detained an American Citizen

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said on Friday that it had detained an American citizen on charges of committing “hostile acts against the republic,” a crime punishable by years in prison in the isolated country. The North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency said the American, Bae Jun-ho, had entered the country on Nov. 3 through a port city near the Russian border. Human rights activists...

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AP IMPACT: Big Pharma cashes in on HGH abuse

A federal crackdown on illicit foreign supplies of human growth hormone has failed to stop rampant misuse, and instead has driven record sales of the drug by some of the world's biggest pharmaceutical companies, an Associated Press investigation shows.The crackdown, which began in 2006, reduced the illegal flow of unregulated supplies from China, India and Mexico.But since then, Big Pharma has been...

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Apocalypses: There's one around every corner

Today is the last day on Earth. Then again, if you're reading this, maybe not.Doomsday, predicted by Mayan cycle adherents for...

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Facebook tests $1 fee for messages to non-friends

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Facebook says it is testing a service that will charge users $ 1 to guarantee that messages they send to people they are not connected to arrive in users’ inboxes, rather than in an often-ignored folder called “other.”Launched in 2011, the “other” folder is where Facebook routes messages it deems less relevant. Not quite spam, these include messages from people you most likely...

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Michelle Obama Tells Newtown the Nation Is 'Holding You in Our Hearts'

By Stephen M. Silverman 12/21/2012 at 07:35 AM EST Angels on Churchill Road in Newtown, Conn., representing the 27 victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting Howard Simmons/NY Daily News/Getty As another day of painful funerals is scheduled to take place on Friday, seven days after...

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IHT Rendezvous: In London for the Holidays? Theatrical Gifts for Everyone on Your List

So who needs more possessions? The holidays afford the chance to give the gift of theatergoing, the kind of present that will be remembered (one hopes) throughout the year. With that in mind, what follows is a handful of London theater suggestions for the festive season.Enjoy, and curtain up!For parents (or grandparents)“Singin’ in the Rain” at the Palace Theater should fit the bill, whether or not...

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AP IMPACT: Steroids loom in major-college football

WASHINGTON (AP) — With steroids easy to buy, testing weak and punishments inconsistent, college football players are packing on significant weight — 30 pounds or more in a single year, sometimes — without drawing much attention from their schools or the NCAA in a sport that earns tens of billions of dollars for teams.Rules vary so widely that, on any given game day, a team with a strict no-steroid...

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Rogue pharmacists fuel addiction

Joey Rovero's quest for pills ended at Pacifica Pharmacy.It was the same for Naythan Kenney,Matt Stavron and Joseph Gomez. ...

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Blake Lively: How I Make the Holidays Meaningful

She may not offer specifics – but it's a safe bet that Ryan Reynolds is going to get a meaningful holiday gift from his wife Blake Lively this season. "The holidays, for me, is just the time that I'm excited to do nothing but spend time with my family," the Gossip Girl star says in a new video interview to promote the fragrance Gucci Première, for which she's a spokesperson. Speaking generally...

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Letter from India: What Saves India — and Holds It Back

NEW DELHI — The Election Commission of India is a very serious body that does not believe the world will end this Friday, a workday. The commission is instead preparing for a more certain event in 2014: the general elections that will place a new government in Delhi, an event that has the potential to be cataclysmic to some. Recently I heard a financial adviser who was recording a group of children...

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