General news

• Australia's Commonwealth Bank H1 profits up two percent

  09-02-2016 23:57 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Australia's biggest company Commonwealth Bank on Wednesday posted a modest two percent rise in first-half net profit to Aus$4.62 billion (US$3.26 billion) with the lender confident it is well placed to ride out global instability. The report came a day after nervous investors dumped bank stocks in Australia ahead of the Commonwealth's interim results, with lenders also spooked by a global banking rout on fears of deteriorating credit quality. Cash profit, a measure often preferred by financial i
  
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• The Latest: FBI chief says encryption blocks investigations

  09-02-2016 23:52 via news.yahoo.com
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the worldwide threat assessment from U.S. intelligence agencies (all times local):
  
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• Kim Davis obeying orders in gay marriage case, judges rules

  09-02-2016 23:49 via news.yahoo.com
  
  LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A federal judge ruled that Kentucky clerk Kim Davis has obeyed his orders in the months since she spent five nights in jail for refusing to license same-sex marriages.
  
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• Conservative opposition threatens criminal justice overhaul

  09-02-2016 23:48 via news.yahoo.com
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — Opposition from a group of Senate Republicans is dealing a severe blow to a criminal justice overhaul in the Senate, with one lawmaker calling the legislation "a massive social experiment in criminal leniency."
  
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• With costumes, beads, music, New Orleans marks Fat Tuesday

  09-02-2016 23:32 via news.yahoo.com
  
  NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Dressed in elaborate costumes, dancing to the beat of brass bands and clamoring for beads from passing floats, thousands of people gathered in the streets of New Orleans to mark the culmination of the famous Mardi Gras celebration Tuesday.
  
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• DC's iconic 9:30 Club starts TV show

  09-02-2016 23:32 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The 9:30 Club, the beloved hub of underground music in the US capital Washington, announced Tuesday that it would start its own television show featuring bands, interviews and comedy. "Live at 9:30" will launch on US public television in April with a first season featuring both recent and veteran alternative acts including Garbage, Cold War Kids and The Arcs, as well as artists from other genres including Franco-Cuban soul duo Ibeyi. The club announced the series with an online video montage of
  
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• Pentagon seeks $583 billion budget for 2017; Republicans say not enough

  09-02-2016 23:29 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By David Alexander and Andrea Shalal WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon on Tuesday proposed a $582.7 billion defense budget that emphasizes emerging threats from Russia, China and Islamic State rebels, but the plan is already under fire from Republican lawmakers who charge it short-changes the U.S. military. President Barack Obama's last budget would boost spending on the war against Islamic State militants to $7.5 billion during the 2017 fiscal year, a 50 percent jump over the $5 billion appro
  
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• Griffin suspended four games for punch

  09-02-2016 23:26 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Los Angeles Clippers star Blake Griffin was suspended for four games and fined on Tuesday for his part in a punch-up that left him with a broken hand. Clippers owner Steve Ballmer and head coach Doc Rivers said in a statement Griffin would be suspended for four games while having his pay docked for five matches. The money from the fine would be donated to charities which help disadvantaged youths in Los Angeles.
  
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• First results in from tiny town

  09-02-2016 23:09 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Bernie Sanders wins the Democratic votes in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire. On the GOP side, John Kasich received three votes and Donald Trump gets two.
  
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• FBI director says investigators unable to unlock San Bernardino shooter's phone content

  09-02-2016 23:07 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Dustin Volz and Mark Hosenball WASHINGTON (Reuters) - FBI Director James Comey said on Tuesday that federal investigators have still been unable to access the contents of a cellphone belonging to one of the killers in the Dec. 2 shootings in San Bernardino, California, due to encryption technology. Comey told the Senate Intelligence Committee that the phenomenon of communications "going dark" due to more sophisticated technology and wider use of encryption is "overwhelmingly affecting" law en
  
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• US stocks end a bumpy day slightly lower

  09-02-2016 23:02 via news.yahoo.com
  
  U.S. stocks extended their three-day losing streak Tuesday, closing slightly lower after spending most of the day wavering between gains and losses.
  
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• Five keys for Trump, Rubio, Sanders

  09-02-2016 22:56 via rss.cnn.com
  
  New Hampshire, it's your moment. Voters in the first-in-the nation primary are getting the chance to cast judgment on the presidential field in a vote sure to shake the race to the White House.
  
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• The Latest: Trump greets NH voters as they head to the polls

  09-02-2016 22:55 via news.yahoo.com
  
  MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — The Latest developments from Campaign 2016 as New Hampshire voters cast their ballots for president in the Republican primaries (all times local):
  
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• Politiwoops Twitter site relaunches

  09-02-2016 22:55 via rss.cnn.com
  
  The watchdogs at the Sunlight Foundation announced Tuesday they would be relaunching U.S. Politwoops, the popular site dedicated to tracking the Twitter mishaps of elected officials, candidates and other political groups and personalities.
  
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• Record 98 shark attacks worldwide in 2015

  09-02-2016 22:52 via news.yahoo.com
  
  A record of 98 shark attacks took place worldwide last year, the highest number ever recorded, a US university said Tuesday, citing warmer waters and more beachgoers as possible explanations. The United States was the leading country for shark attacks by far with 59, followed by Australia (18) and South Africa (8). Of the US attacks, 30 occurred in the southeastern state of Florida, while Hawaii saw the only shark-related death.
  
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• Aubameyang nets 30th goal as Dortmund reach semis

  09-02-2016 22:52 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang claimed his 30th goal of the season on Tuesday to help fire Borussia Dortmund into the German Cup semi-finals with a 3-1 victory at VfB Stuttgart. Gabon striker Aubameyang and Germany winger Marco Reus, who have provided 45 of Dortmund's goals in all competitions this season, netted before Henrik Mkhitaryan claimed their late third. Aubameyang has now scored in each of Dortmund's last seven German Cup games, dating back to the start of last season, having also netted in
  
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• Judge, not armchair 'Serial' detectives, to decide retrial

  09-02-2016 22:50 via news.yahoo.com
  
  BALTIMORE (AP) — Prompted by a podcast that turned millions of listeners into armchair detectives, a judge will now decide whether to grant a new trial to a man convicted as a teenager of murdering his high school girlfriend.
  
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• Sikh man blocked by Mexican airline satisfied with apology

  09-02-2016 22:49 via news.yahoo.com
  
  MEXICO CITY (AP) — An Indian-American actor and designer who wasn't allowed to board a Mexico City-to-New York flight after refusing to remove his turban said Tuesday that he is satisfied with an apology from the airline.
  
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• Ferguson City Council expected to vote on DOJ agreement

  09-02-2016 22:40 via news.yahoo.com
  
  FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — The Ferguson City Council is expected to vote Tuesday on a police and court reform proposal with the U.S. Department of Justice, an agreement that would cost the St. Louis suburb millions of dollars.
  
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• Trump aims for victory in NH after Iowa disappointment

  09-02-2016 22:35 via news.yahoo.com
  
  NASHUA, N.H. (AP) — Donald Trump, under pressure to score his first electoral win, set his hopes on New Hampshire Tuesday as voters began flooding polling stations across the state in the nation's first primary. His rivals placed high hopes in a strong second-place finish, looking to break out from the pack and ensure the survival of their campaigns.
  
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• Jury begins deliberating in cop's stairwell shooting trial

  09-02-2016 22:34 via news.yahoo.com
  
  NEW YORK (AP) — Jurors began deliberating Tuesday on whether a rookie police officer who shot an innocent man in a dark public housing stairwell accidentally discharged his weapon, as he says, or whether he acted out of recklessness and did little to help the dying victim, as the prosecution contends.
  
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• California's top 10 farm commodities

  09-02-2016 22:33 via news.yahoo.com
  
  California agriculture in 2014 produced a record $53.5 billion in sales. That was the same year California declared a drought emergency. Here are the top 10 farm commodities:
  
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• Factbox: What is in Obama's final budget proposal?

  09-02-2016 22:29 via news.yahoo.com
  
  (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Tuesday unveiled his budget proposal for fiscal year 2017, his final year in office. But since the Republican-controlled Congress controls the purse strings, much of Obama's plan likely will be shelved and so it is primarily a political document. The following are some of Obama's proposals: PENTAGON The Pentagon asked for $7.5 billion to fight Islamic State, up 50 percent from the amount received in the previous year's budget, and wants a fourfold increase f
  
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• Top seed Gasquet quits Rotterdam with groin injury

  09-02-2016 22:27 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Richard Gasquet handed the Rotterdam World Tennis tournament another box office body blow as the top seed quit on Tuesday a day before his opening match with a groin strain. The pullout came a week after Roger Federer was unable to play after undergoing knee surgery which will keep him off the ATP for at least a month. Frenchman Gasquet said that he felt his pain the day before winning the Montpellier tournament for the third time at the weekend.
  
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• Wanna buy James Bond's car?

  09-02-2016 22:26 via rss.cnn.com
  
  If you've ever wanted to live like secret agent James Bond, here's your chance.
  
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• California farmers reap record sales in record drought

  09-02-2016 22:26 via news.yahoo.com
  
  FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — A new state report shows California farmers reaping record sales despite the epic drought, thriving even as city-dwellers have been forced to conserve water, household wells have run dry and fish have died.
  
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• 840,000 Mercedes and Daimlers in Takata airbag recall

  09-02-2016 22:26 via news.yahoo.com
  
  German automaker Daimler AG announced Tuesday the recall of some 840,000 Mercedes Benz and Daimler vehicles in the United States equipped with potentially defective Takata airbags. Daimler said the recall included about 705,000 Mercedes-Benz cars and 136,000 Daimler vans. It was the latest recall involving Takata airbags, which can rupture and send shrapnel into occupants of a car.
  
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• Candles blown on 'Happy Birthday' copyright after long feud

  09-02-2016 22:11 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Los Angeles (AFP) - "Happy Birthday to You," often considered the most popular song in the world, looks finally set to be free for everyone to sing. In a settlement submitted to a federal court in Los Angeles on Monday, the publishing house, which is part of the Warner Music conglomerate, agreed to pay $14 million and end its efforts to collect royalties for the song. "By declaring the song to be in the public domain, the settlement will end more than 80 years of uncertainty regarding the disput
  
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• Martin Shkreli sued by artist over Wu-Tang Clan album

  09-02-2016 22:09 via news.yahoo.com
  
  NEW YORK (AP) — A Long Island artist has sued ex-pharmaceutical CEO Martin Shkreli and others over use of his art in a Wu-Tang Clan album.
  
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• Attorney: DMX has recovered after being resuscitated

  09-02-2016 22:04 via news.yahoo.com
  
  NEW YORK (AP) — An attorney for DMX said the rapper has recovered after he was resuscitated by police outside Yonkers, New York hotel on Monday.
  
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• Bombs and shopping in warzone city

  09-02-2016 21:56 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Residents of Aleppo try to live a normal life even as their city is at the center of the Syrian conflict. CNN's Fred Pleitgen reports.
  
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• Judge urges president to commute harsh sentence he imposed

  09-02-2016 21:47 via news.yahoo.com
  
  SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A former federal judge who gave a Utah music producer 55 years in prison for bringing guns to marijuana deals asked the president to commute the sentence Tuesday, the latest appeal in a case held up as an example of problems with mandatory minimum sentencing laws.
  
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• Pentagon seeks funding for Libya, Africa military operations

  09-02-2016 21:44 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The Pentagon is seeking $200 million in the 2017 budget for counterterrorism operations in Libya and other portions of North and West Africa, but Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Wednesday that Libyans ...
  
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• Pizarro fires Bremen into German Cup semis

  09-02-2016 21:40 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Veteran Claudio Pizarro helped seal Werder Bremen's 3-1 German Cup quarter-final win at ten-man Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday by playing a key role in the shock victory. There was a strong Latin American flavour at Leverkusen's BayArena as Bremen booked their place in April's semi-finals. Mexico's Javier Hernandez put Leverkusen ahead, then Bremen's Argentinian centre-back Santiago Garcia levelled before Brazilian defender Wendell was sent off for Bayer just before the half-time break.
  
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• The Latest: Prosecutors say Adnan Syed killed ex-girlfriend

  09-02-2016 21:36 via news.yahoo.com
  
  BALTIMORE (AP) — The Latest on Adnan Syed's retrial request in a murder case explored by the popular "Serial" podcast (all times local):
  
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• Daimler recalls 840,000 vehicles in U.S. for airbag concerns

  09-02-2016 21:33 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By David Shepardson and Edward Taylor WASHINGTON/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German automaker Daimler said on Tuesday it would recall 840,000 U.S. vehicles with Takata airbag inflators that could be defective, a step that would result in a charge of 340 million euros ($383.96 million). Daimler said it had decided to recall approximately 705,000 Mercedes-Benz cars and about 136,000 Daimler vans. Last month, Takata Corp, said it was declaring 5.1 million additional inflators defective after new testing
  
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• Freed hostage loving his new life

  09-02-2016 21:31 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Freed in 1991 from seven years as a hostage, Terry Anderson has packed a lot into his time since -- charity work, teaching, business and reconnecting with loved ones.
  
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• One-off chance to buy Bond's Aston Martin

  09-02-2016 21:30 via rss.cnn.com
  
  If you've ever wanted to live like secret agent James Bond, here's your chance.
  
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• North Korean shipping firm skirts U.N. sanctions, gets port access

  09-02-2016 21:30 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Louis Charbonneau and Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A U.N.-blacklisted North Korean shipping company continues to evade sanctions through its use of foreign-flagged ships, name changes and other means of obfuscation, according to a new report by United Nations monitors. The U.N. Security Council's Panel of Experts on North Korea, which monitors implementation of sanctions on Pyongyang, also said the reclusive communist nation has continued to export ballistic-missile technology
  
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• North Korea satellite achieves stable orbit: U.S. official

  09-02-2016 21:30 via news.yahoo.com
  
  A satellite launched by North Korea at the weekend has now stabilized in its orbit around the Earth in a step forward from a previous launch in 2012, a U.S. official and a second source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. The satellite was initially tumbling in orbit but has now stabilized, making it more successful than one launched in 2012, which failed to achieve a stable orbit, said the first source, a U.S. official who did not want to be identified by name. The U.S. government-backed
  
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• North Korea may get plutonium from restarted reactor in weeks: U.S.

  09-02-2016 21:30 via news.yahoo.com
  
  North Korea, which conducted its fourth nuclear test last month and launched a long-range rocket on Saturday, could begin to recover plutonium from a restarted nuclear reactor within weeks, the director of U.S. National Intelligence said on Tuesday. James Clapper said that in 2013, following its third nuclear test, North Korea announced its intention to “refurbish and restart” facilities at its Yongbyon nuclear complex, to include the uranium enrichment facility and its graphite-mode
  
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• More Americans quitting jobs as labor market strengthens

  09-02-2016 21:28 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The signs of a robust jobs market could ease concerns about the health of the economy, which were underscored by other reports on Tuesday showing a drop in small business confidence in January to a two-year low and further declines in wholesale inventories. "If the labor market is tightening, can the economy really be faltering?" said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors in Holland, Pennsylvania. The so-called JOLTS report is among the data watched by Federal Reserve official
  
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• Insurgents Trump and Sanders seek lift at New Hampshire primary

  09-02-2016 21:27 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By James Oliphant and Amanda Becker MANCHESTER, N.H. (Reuters) - Donald Trump battled to stay ahead of a charging field of Republican rivals in New Hampshire on Tuesday and Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders sought a big win over Hillary Clinton as long lines of voters suggested a heavy turnout for the state's first-in-the-nation presidential primary. Trump, a New York billionaire, and Sanders, a Vermont senator and democratic socialist, were favored to win their races, riding a wave of voter a
  
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• McCain: Obama budget request 'inadequate' to face security threats

  09-02-2016 21:26 via news.yahoo.com
  
  U.S. Senator John McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, took immediate issue on Tuesday with President Barack Obama's budget request, saying it would leave the Defense Department with at least $17 billion less than it said it needed and planned for this year. "While the Committee will closely review the President’s defense budget request, it is already clear that this request is inadequate to address the national security threats we face and the growing demands they
  
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• Prosecutor: 'Serial' questions don't make Syed innocent

  09-02-2016 21:25 via news.yahoo.com
  
  BALTIMORE (AP) — An alibi witness who was never called, cell phone data that was misrepresented and other legal failures justify a new trial for Adnan Syed, his defense lawyer argued Tuesday, closing an unusual hearing prompted by a popular podcast that turned millions of listeners into armchair detectives.
  
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• European Clubs against 40-team World Cup

  09-02-2016 21:24 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The European Club Association (ECA) insisted Tuesday that extending the World Cup from 32 to 40 teams would put too much burden on clubs and inflict physical overload on players. "We are satisfied with the balance of interest and any change would need very careful review," insisted ECA vice-president Umberto Gandini. The AC Milan director was speaking at the end of a two-day working session in Paris with a range of subjects on the club lobby group's agenda, chiefly aimed at combating FIFA reform
  
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• 'Happy Birthday' set for public domain after long feud

  09-02-2016 21:23 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Los Angeles (AFP) - "Happy Birthday to You," one of the world's most recognizable songs, looks finally set to be free for everyone to sing. In a settlement submitted to a federal court in Los Angeles on Monday, the publishing house agreed to pay $14 million and end its efforts to collect royalties for the song. "By declaring the song to be in the public domain, the settlement will end more than 80 years of uncertainty regarding the disputed copyright," the settlement submitted by plaintiffs to t
  
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• Intelligence officials: IS determined to strike US this year

  09-02-2016 21:21 via news.yahoo.com
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — Leaders of the Islamic State are determined to strike targets in the United States this year, senior U.S. intelligence officials said Tuesday, telling lawmakers that a small group of violent extremists will attempt to overcome the logistical challenges of mounting such an attack.
  
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• Clinton trying to prevent a big Sanders victory in NH

  09-02-2016 21:16 via news.yahoo.com
  
  MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Hillary Clinton braced for a potential loss in New Hampshire, the site of her 2008 comeback, seeking to deny rival Bernie Sanders a big victory in the nation's first presidential primary and a springboard into a competitive primary campaign.
  
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• Md. legislature overrides veto on felon voting

  09-02-2016 21:13 via news.yahoo.com
  
  ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — The Maryland General Assembly on Tuesday overrode Republican Gov. Larry Hogan's veto of a bill with the help of a lawmaker who was allowed to vote twice: once as a member of the House and again as a senator.
  
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