Political news

• Brazil president has 'total confidence' in finance minister - paper

  04-12-2016 23:58
  Brazil's President Michel Temer, under heavy criticism for his economic policies, on Sunday told a Brazilian newspaper that he has "total confidence" in Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles. In a brief interview posted online by the newspaper Estado de S. Paulo, Temer said that Meirelles, currently charged with pulling Latin America's largest economy out of recession, "has my total support." The comments, confirmed Sunday by the presidential palace, follow a week in which data showed that Brazil'
  
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• Italy PM Renzi facing big referendum defeat - exit polls

  04-12-2016 23:56
  By Crispian Balmer and Gavin Jones ROME (Reuters) - Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has lost a referendum on constitutional reform by a wide margin, exit polls and early projections showed on Sunday, throwing his future into doubt and opening the door to renewed political instability in Italy. Renzi, who had promised to resign if his flagship project was defeated, is due to address the nation at around midnight (2300 GMT), government sources said. The euro fell sharply against the dollar on the exit
  
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• Italy referendum projection based on vote count signals big Renzi defeat

  04-12-2016 23:46
  Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has suffered a heavy defeat on Sunday in a referendum over his plan to reform the constitution, according to the first projection based on the actual vote count. The projection by the Piepoli Institute/IPR for state broadcaster RAI, estimated those voting 'Yes' to back the reform at 39-43 percent, compared with 57-61 percent for 'No'. The projection pointed to an even wider defeat for Renzi than was suggested by three exit polls published immediately after pol
  
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• Euro skids as Italy votes 'No' on reform, dollar in demand

  04-12-2016 23:43
  By Wayne Cole SYDNEY (Reuters) - The euro slid in Asia on Monday after exit polls showed Italian Prime Minster Matteo Renzi clearly losing a constitutional referendum that could end his career and destabilise the country's shaky banking system. Investors and Europe's politicians fear victory for the opposition 'No' camp could cause political instability and renewed turmoil for Italy's banks, pushing the euro zone towards a fresh crisis. Renzi will address the nation around midnight (2300 GMT).
  
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• Britain has ‘failed to integrate minorities’

  04-12-2016 23:32
  Casey review says government efforts have been ‘grossly insufficient’
  
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• Italian opposition politicians say Renzi should resign immediately

  04-12-2016 23:31
  ROME (Reuters) - Italian opposition parties said Prime Minister Matteo Renzi should resign immediately after exit polls suggested he had suffered a heavy defeat in a referendum on his plans for constitutional reform. "Renzi is going to go and with him the powerful lobbies who were also defeated," said Renato Brunetta, the parliamentary leader of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right Forza Italia (Go Italy!) party. Matteo Salvini, the head of the rightist Northern League party, s
  
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• Accused Charleston gunman asks judge to reinstate defence team

  04-12-2016 23:30
  By Harriet McLeod CHARLESTON, S.C. (Reuters) - The avowed white supremacist accused of killing nine black people at an historic South Carolina church told a federal judge on Sunday that he no longer wished to represent himself during the "guilt" phase of his murder trial in Charleston. Dylann Roof, 22, sent a handwritten note to U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel saying that he now wished to bring back his defence team, at least temporarily, for a trial that began last week with jury selection.
  
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• Pakistan, Russia to sell warplanes to Nigeria, air force chief says

  04-12-2016 23:29
  Nigeria is expecting the arrival of warplanes and helicopters it ordered from Pakistan and Russia, its latest effort to counter terrorist and militant activities, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar said on Sunday. Nigeria is battling jihadist group Boko Haram, which has waged a seven-year insurgency in the northern part of the country aimed at creating an Islamic state. The subsequent loss of crude oil output has hurt government revenues.
  
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• EU urges U.S. tech giants to act faster against hate speech

  04-12-2016 23:26
  By Foo Yun Chee BRUSSELS (Reuters) - U.S. tech giants including Facebook , Twitter , Google's YouTube and Microsoft will have to act faster to tackle online hate speech or face laws forcing them to do so, the European Commission said on Sunday. The European Union (EU) executive's warning comes six months after the companies signed up to a voluntary code of conduct to take action in Europe within 24 hours, following rising concerns triggered by the refugee crisis and terror attacks. The code of c
  
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• Brexit: Supreme Court to hear Article 50 appeal

  04-12-2016 23:18 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The government wants to overturn a High Court ruling that it does not have the right to begin the formal countdown to departing the EU.
  
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• Supreme Court to hear Government's Brexit appeal

  04-12-2016 23:17
  The Government will take its battle to start the process of leaving the EU to the Supreme Court on Monday, in what is seen as one of the most significant constitutional battles in decades. The Government is appealing against an earlier decision by the High Court which ruled in favour of businesswoman Gina Miller and others who want to see Parliament decide.
  
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• Italy PM Renzi heading for heavy referendum defeat - exit polls

  04-12-2016 23:11
  Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has suffered a heavy defeat on Sunday in a referendum over his plan to reform the constitution, according to exit polls. Renzi has said he would resign if Italians rejected his plan to reduce the role of the upper house Senate and claw back powers from regional authorities. An exit poll by the Piepoli Institute/IPR for state television station RAI, estimated those voting 'Yes' to back the reform at 42-46 percent, compared with 54-58 percent for 'No'.
  
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• New Austrian President parties after 'very, very, very long' campaign

  04-12-2016 23:00
  By Shadia Nasralla and Kirsti Knolle VIENNA (Reuters) - Jubilant supporters clambered onto tables to welcome Austria's new president Alexander Van der Bellen to his post-election celebration on Sunday night, giddy with relief that the former Greens leader had clearly beaten his far-right opponent. "Thank god for this result," said Iraqi refugee Mahmoud, as Van der Bellen entered the room at a fashionable Vienna hotel to the strains of Queen's 'We are the Champions'. "Thanks for walking this very
  
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• Casey review raises alarm over social integration in the UK

  04-12-2016 23:00
  
  Official study attacks attempts by successive governments to boost ethnic integration as ‘saris, samosas and steel drums for the already well-intentioned’Governments have failed for more than a decade to ensure that social integration in the UK has kept up with the “unprecedented pace and scale of immigration” and have allowed some local communities to become increasingly divided, a major review has found.At the end of a year-long study of community cohesion in Britain, D
  
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• Austrians roundly reject far right in presidential election

  04-12-2016 23:00
  By Francois Murphy and Kirsti Knolle VIENNA (Reuters) - Austrian voters roundly rejected on Sunday a candidate vying to become the first freely elected far-right head of state in Europe since World War Two, halting at least temporarily the wave of populism sweeping Western democracies. The runoff vote was a litmus test, since it was a re-run of a vote held in May, before Britain voted to leave the European Union and Americans elected Donald Trump as president. Norbert Hofer of the anti-immigrati
  
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• Austrian Far-Right Defeated As Country Hasn't Suffered Enough 'Rape And Murder Yet', Says Ukip Donor

  04-12-2016 22:58
  
  Austria chose not to elect a far-right President because it has not “suffered enough rape and murder yet”, a key player in the Brexit campaign and Ukip donor has suggested. 
  The defeat of Norbert Hofer was a cause for celebration for many. Despite pre-vote polls showing them neck and neck, Green Party leader Alexander Van der Bellen, who campaigned on moderation and tolerance, beat Hofer and the Austrian Freedom Party.The results - based on preliminary votes, tho
  
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• Italy PM Renzi to speak at around midnight - government sources

  04-12-2016 22:42
  ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi will address the nation at around midnight (2300 GMT), just an hour after polls close in a referendum on constitutional reform, government sources said on Sunday. Renzi has said he will resign if he loses the vote. Exit polls are due to be released as soon as ballots close, but full results are not due until after 2.00 a.m. at the earliest. (Reporting by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Gavin Jones)
  
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• Local official, two journalists shot and killed in Finnish town

  04-12-2016 22:13
  By Jussi Rosendahl HELSINKI (Reuters) - A local politician and two journalists, all of them women, were shot dead with a rifle in front of a restaurant in the Finnish town of Imatra, police said on Sunday. The Southeastern Finland Police Department said it suspected a 23-year-old local man drove to the scene around midnight on Saturday, took a hunting rifle from the trunk of his car and fired four or five shots. "It looks like the victims were chosen at random," Detective Inspector Saku Tielinen
  
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• Martin Rowson on Brexit and elections – cartoon

  04-12-2016 21:58
  
  Continue reading...
  
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• Rebels defiant as Syrian army nears Aleppo's Old City

  04-12-2016 21:38
  By Tom Perry BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria's army and allied militia advanced towards rebel-held areas of Aleppo's Old City on Sunday in an attack which a military source predicted would be over in a matter of weeks. Western and regional states backing the rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad appear unwilling or unable to do anything to prevent a major defeat for those fighting to topple the Syrian leader, whose campaign to regain all Aleppo has been backed by the Russian air force and foreign
  
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• Liverpool and United thwarted in dramatic finales

  04-12-2016 21:35
  By Steve Tongue LONDON (Reuters) - Premier League heavyweights Liverpool and Manchester United were caught by late sucker punches in two games that finished far more dramatically than they began on Sunday. Juergen Klopp's Liverpool wasted a chance to return to second place in the table, a point behind Chelsea, twice surrendering a two-goal lead before losing 4-3 in added time in a thriller at Bournemouth. United dropped two points at Everton after Marouane Fellaini conceded an 89th-minute penalt
  
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• Austrians reject far right in presidential election

  04-12-2016 21:19
  By Francois Murphy and Kirsti Knolle VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria's far-right presidential candidate was soundly defeated on Sunday, confounding forecasts of a tight election in which he would ride a wave of populism sweeping the West. Norbert Hofer lost to former Greens leader Alexander Van der Bellen, who had put the June Brexit referendum at the centre of his campaign, saying the far right would lead Austria down the same road and warning voters not to "play with this fire". "From the beginning
  
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• Trump expands list of candidates to head State Dep't

  04-12-2016 21:11
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump is expanding his pool of candidates for secretary of state, raising a question about whether former CIA Director David Petraeus' guilty plea for leaking classified information disqualifies him to serve as the nation's top diplomat.
  
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• Boris Johnson ends Sky News interview over 'world leaders pub quiz'

  04-12-2016 20:57
  
  Foreign secretary walks away from chat with Dermot Murnaghan after being asked to name the South Korean presidentBoris Johnson has walked away from a television interview after he was asked to name the president of South Korea.
  The foreign secretary said he was not prepared to get into “a pub quiz about the leaders around the world” with the Sky News presenter Dermot Murnaghan. Continue reading...
  
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• AP EXPLAINS: How Trump plans to punish firms that leave US

  04-12-2016 20:45
  WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump threatened in a series of early-morning tweets Sunday to punish American companies that move plants and jobs to other countries.
  
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• Kerry says would be valuable for Trump to seek advice before calls

  04-12-2016 20:41
  U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday it would be valuable for President Donald Trump's transition team to seek State Department recommendations before contacting foreign leaders, but there have been no requests for such talking points. "We have not been contacted before any of these conversations," Kerry told a think tank conference.
  
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• Italians vote on reforms; PM Renzi vows to quit if he loses

  04-12-2016 20:39
  
  Italians voted Sunday in a referendum on constitutional reforms that Premier Matteo Renzi has staked his political future on, hoping to survive the rising populist forces that have gained traction across ...
  
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• Trial of Bosnian Serb commander Mladic enters final stage

  04-12-2016 20:38
  By Stephanie van den Berg THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Prosecutors begin closing arguments on Monday in the genocide trial of former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic, marking the final stage of the last major case at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal. Mladic, 74, faces up to life imprisonment for two counts of genocide and nine counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). ...
  
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• The Latest: Trump accuses Green Party recount as a 'scam'

  04-12-2016 20:34
  
  The Latest on President-elect Donald Trump (all times local): 2:15 p.m. Donald Trump says that the Green Party is dropping its recount lawsuit in Pennsylvania, but that's not the whole story. The Green ...
  
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• Syrian army nears Aleppo's Old City, rebels tell U.S. they won't leave

  04-12-2016 20:18
  By Tom Perry BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian army and allied militia advanced towards rebel-held areas of Aleppo's Old City on Sunday, thrusting deeper into opposition parts of the city in a relentless attack which a military source said would be over in a matter of weeks. A senior rebel official told Reuters rebel groups in Aleppo had told the United States they will not leave their besieged, shrinking enclave, responding to Russian call for talks with Washington over their withdrawal. ...
  
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• Pro-EU Van der Bellen becomes the face of Austria

  04-12-2016 20:11
  By Shadia Nasralla VIENNA (Reuters) - A sigh of relief went through Europe when independent Alexander Van der Bellen narrowly beat his far-right rival Norbert Hofer for the Austrian presidency in May, diplomats said. Van der Bellen repeated the feat on Sunday -- the first vote was annulled because of sloppy counting -- again keeping Hofer from becoming the European Union's first far-right head of state and prompting what might be an even bigger sense of relief after the rise of populists across
  
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• Job-sharing MPs could revolutionise politics | Letter

  04-12-2016 20:09
  
  Job-sharing for MPs would help to ensure that boundary changes do not lead to a reduction in female MPs and would help to increase the number of disabled MPs (‘We are the vicar’, 3 December). Related: Judges, soldiers, MPs, vicars – can job-sharing work in any field?Continue reading...
  
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• Constitutional crisis brought on by Brexit | Letters

  04-12-2016 20:08
  
  Anthony Barnett (Brexit has shattered our constitution. We need a written one, and quickly, 30 November) makes clear that defining sovereignty by means of a referendum on complex issues which few understand “is the raw meat of dictatorship”. So too is the “executive dictatorship by the Tory government and the nativist right”, given that the only alternative may be a similar dictatorship from the left. Only a sovereign parliament can create the legislative structure, a wri
  
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• Inspired by Stephen Hawking’s call to work together | Letters

  04-12-2016 20:07
  
  Stephen Hawking (This is the most dangerous moment for our planet, 2 December) brought tears to my eyes; of all the articles published since the Brexit and Trump votes, this one, with his insight and suggestions as to how we should act now, is the most compelling. Whatever way people voted, whatever religion or nationality, we need to work together if our world is to survive for our grandchildren and future generations. As a retired GP, despairing about our NHS and wondering how best to act now,
  
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• Better-off leftwingers should show humility to ‘natural’ Labour voters | Letters

  04-12-2016 20:04
  
  It seems to me that Owen Jones (Labour would save the NHS – but it won’t save Labour, 1 December) holds the same attitude he deprecates in the Labour party and the left in general: that those, so to speak, natural Labour voters who are being tempted by Ukip are not very bright people asking to be manipulated by the first demagogue that comes along. We need to recognise that meeting the expectations of those disgruntled voters, as of those who don’t vote because they don’t
  
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• MPs to vote on Magnitsky human rights amendment

  04-12-2016 20:00
  Initiative could help London counter reputation as haven for kleptocrats
  
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• German foreign minister - Austrian poll result a good sign against populism

  04-12-2016 20:00
  German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Sunday hailed the defeat of afar-right candidate in Austria's presidential election, saying it was a positive outcome against a wave of populism. "If this is the result, this would be a good sign against populism in Europe," he told reporters after a meeting with Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias. "I am particularly happy to receive this news at the cradle of democracy, in Greece." Norbert Hofer, the candidate vying to become Europe's first f
  
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• Trump's inauguration set to test nation's readiness to heal

  04-12-2016 19:59
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — One thing you can count on during inauguration season in Washington: People of all stripes will find a reason to show up — whether it's to celebrate or commiserate.
  
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• NHS to launch three-year anti-HIV PrEP trial

  04-12-2016 19:57
  Truvada drug to be made available to 10,000 people at risk
  
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• Everton hold United thanks to late Baines penalty

  04-12-2016 19:55
  EVERTON 1 MANCHESTER UNITED 1 A late penalty by Leighton Baines preserved Everton's unbeaten home record in the Premier League this season after Manchester United had taken the lead at Goodison Park on Sunday. Former Everton midfielder Marouane Fellaini conceded the spot kick in the 89th minute, soon after coming on as a substitute. Earlier, Zlatan Ibrahimovic put United in front just before the interval with a clever lob that went in off the bar and post after his former Ajax Amsterdam team mat
  
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• U.S. Navy, shipbuilders ready for Trump's expansion plan

  04-12-2016 19:54
  By Andrea Shalal and Mike Stone SIMI VALLEY, Calif. (Reuters) - The U.S. arms industry is ready and capable of boosting production of new ships if President-elect Donald Trump makes good his vow to expand the U.S. Navy to 350 ships, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson told Reuters. Shifting the current target of 308 ships upwards would be "remarkably easy" as long as there is funding to pay the bill, the top uniformed Navy official said in an interview at the annual Reagan Nat
  
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• Gina Miller: supreme court judges on Brexit case are being vilified

  04-12-2016 19:54
  
  Lead claimant in case also says newspaper coverage has incited violence against her and prevented her leading normal lifeThe supreme court judges who will decide whether the government has the right to trigger article 50 without a parliamentary vote have been disgracefully vilified, according to the lead claimant in the case.
  Gina Miller, whose dramatic victory in the high court led to accusations that she and the judiciary were trying to thwart the will of the people, also claimed newspaper cov
  
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• A smooth path to Brexit is necessity, not betrayal

  04-12-2016 19:53
  The UK prime minister will have to confront the right wing of her party
  
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• Turkish tenders in lira, Erdogan says in attempt to boost currency

  04-12-2016 19:46
  Turkey is taking steps towards launching state tenders in the lira currency, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday, the government's latest effort to shore up the tumbling currency. Erdogan has called on Turks to cash in their foreign exchange holdings and buy lira and said Turkey was considering measures to allow commerce with China, Russia and Iran to be conducted in local currencies. The lira has lost a fifth of its value this year, hit by a resurgent dollar and widening concern about a cra
  
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• New Mexico budget crisis rears its head in courts, colleges

  04-12-2016 19:46
  
  SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico's grinding budget crisis is taking a toll in courtrooms where overburdened attorneys have denied legal counsel to poor defendants, at museums reeling from layoffs and admission hikes, and at state universities and colleges grappling with steep spending cuts.
  
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• Netanyahu says will discuss with Trump 'bad' Iran nuclear deal

  04-12-2016 19:43
  By Jeffrey Heller JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he will discuss with Donald Trump the West's "bad" nuclear deal with Iran after the U.S. president-elect enters the White House. During the U.S. election campaign, Trump, a Republican, called last year's nuclear pact a "disaster" and "the worst deal ever negotiated". "Israel is committed to preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
  
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• Pence downplays significance of Trump's call with Taiwan president

  04-12-2016 19:37
  By Roberta Rampton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President-elect Mike Pence on Sunday downplayed the significance of a phone conversation between Donald Trump and Taiwan's president, describing it as a "courtesy call" that was not intended to show a shift in U.S. foreign policy. Trump's call with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen on Friday was the first by a U.S. president-elect or president with a Taiwanese leader since President Jimmy Carter switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China
  
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• Guantanamo detainee released to Cabo Verde

  04-12-2016 19:33
  The U.S. Defense Department on Sunday announced that a long-held inmate at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, Shawqi Awad Balzuhair, had been transferred to the government of Cabo Verde. With his release, there are 59 detainees remaining at Guantanamo Bay, according to a Defense Department statement. President Barack Obama has been working to shrink the number of detainees at the U.S. facility in Cuba, but it appears he will leave office next Jan. 20 falling short of his goal to close the de
  
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• Dangerous drivers who kill could face life in prison

  04-12-2016 19:07 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Motorists who cause death by dangerous or careless driving could get life in prison under new plans.
  
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• The Latest: Snowden says Petraeus leak for personal benefit

  04-12-2016 19:06
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on President-elect Donald Trump (all times local):
  
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