'Skyfall' brings record Bond debut of $88.4M

LOS ANGELES (AP) — James Bond is cashing in at the box office."Skyfall," the 23rd film featuring the British super-spy, pulled in a franchise-record $88.4 million in its U.S. debut, bringing its worldwide total to more than $500 million since it began rolling out overseas in late October.The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross,...

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Cautious enforcer to be China's next premier

BEIJING (AP) — The man in line to oversee China's massive but rapidly slowing economy for the coming decade speaks English and comes from a generation of politicians schooled during a time of greater openness to liberal Western ideas than their predecessors.But Li Keqiang also has been a cautious bureaucrat who rose through, and is bound by, a consensus-oriented Communist Party that has been slow...

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Food labels multiply, some confuse consumers

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — Want to avoid pesticides and antibiotics in your produce, meat, and dairy foods? Prefer to pay more to make sure farm animals were treated humanely, farmworkers got their lunch breaks, bees or birds were protected by the farmer and that ranchers didn't kill predators?Food labels claim to certify a wide array of sustainable practices. Hundreds of so-called eco-labels have cropped...

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Obama hails veterans, pledges continued support

ARLINGTON, Virginia (Reuters) - President Barack Obama laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to mark the Veterans Day holiday on Sunday, declaring that soldiers' needs would be met even as the country winds down wars in the Middle East and Asia. In the ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, Obama pledged continuing support for veterans as they make the transition to civilian life. "This...

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Bond soars with record $87.8M 'Skyfall' debut

LOS ANGELES (AP) — James Bond's "Skyfall" has extended its worldwide box-office rule to North America, hauling in a franchise-record $87.8 million in its first weekend at U.S. theaters.Adding in $2.2 million from Thursday night previews at IMAX and other large-format theaters, "Skyfall" has taken in $90 million domestically, according to studio estimates Sunday.That lifts the worldwide total for "Skyfall"...

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Magnitude-6.6 earthquake strikes northern Myanmar

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — A strong earthquake has struck northern Myanmar, but no injuries were immediately reported.The magnitude-6.6 temblor hit the area at 7:42 a.m. Sunday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake had a depth of just 10 kilometers (6 miles) and hit 117 kilometers (72 miles) north of Mandalay, Myanmar's second-largest city.The quake was felt in Bangkok, the capital of neighboring...

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Malaria vaccine a letdown for infants

LONDON (AP) — An experimental malaria vaccine once thought promising is turning out to be a disappointment, with a new study showing it is only about 30 percent effective at protecting infants from the killer disease.That is a significant drop from a study last year done in slightly older children, which suggested the vaccine cut the malaria risk by about half — though that is still far below the...

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FBI probe of Petraeus began with 'suspicious emails'

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The FBI investigation that led to the discovery of CIA Director David Petraeus' affair with author Paula Broadwell was sparked by "suspicious emails" that initially did not contain any connection to Petraeus, U.S. law enforcement and security officials told Reuters on Saturday. But the CIA director's name unexpectedly turned up in the course of the investigation,...

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War photography exhibit debuts in Houston museum

HOUSTON (AP) — It was a moment Nina Berman did not expect to capture when she entered an Illinois wedding studio in 2006. She knew Tyler Ziegel had been horribly injured, his face mutilated beyond recognition by a suicide bombing in the Iraq War. She knew he was marrying his pretty high school sweetheart, perfect in a white, voluminous dress.It was their expressions that were surprising."People don't...

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Transgender Pakistanis face society's scorn

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (AP) — Dressed up in elaborate, feminine outfits and artfully applied makeup, they are showered with money while dancing at all-male wedding parties. But the lives of transgender people in Pakistan are also marked by harassment, rejection and poverty.Transgender people live in a tenuous position in conservative Pakistan, where the roles of the sexes are traditionally starkly drawn....

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