For Afghan Officials, Prospect of Death Comes With Territory

Bryan Denton for The New York TimesAbdul Majid Khogyani, center, the governor of Wardak Province, touring government buildings damaged by a suicide truck bombing two days earlier. KABUL, Afghanistan — There are so many ways for an Afghan official to die: car bombs, suicide attacks, a volley of bullets or, in the case of one particularly enterprising assassin, a handgun hidden in the sole of a shoe....

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Jason Aldean's Holiday Plans: Visiting Santa with His Kids

By Eileen Finan 12/08/2012 at 06:30 PM EST Jessica Ussery and Jason Aldean Bauer-Griffin After a year of professional highs – and personal lows – Jason Aldean is looking forward to a quiet holiday with family."I'm on the road so much during the year, so what I...

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Graphic details of Notorious B.I.G. murder revealed

The night rapper Notorious B.I.G. was gunned down in one of L.A.'s most famous unsolved homicides he had no drugs or alcohol in his system, according to a Los Angeles County coroner's report unsealed Friday.A coroner's medical examiner ran toxicology screens for alcohol, cocaine, codeine, morphine and methamphetamine with negative results for all.The autopsy report has been on a security...

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Afghan Spy Chief’s Attacker Hid Bomb by His Groin

KABUL, Afghanistan — The man who tried to kill Afghanistan’s intelligence chief this week by smuggling a bomb into a guesthouse in Kabul concealed the device “around his groin,” according to a statement released Friday by the government. The statement suggested one reason the bomb might not have been detected during a search. It called the bombing, which seriously wounded the intelligence...

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Alicia Keys (Almost) Gets Auctioned Off in N.Y.C.

Caught in the Act 12/07/2012 at 06:35 PM EST Jennifer Hudson and Alicia Keys at the Black Ball "REDUX" Stephen Lovekin/Child12/Wireimage Alicia Keys was definitely on fire Thursday night. The Grammy-winning singer hosted, performed – and was nearly auctioned off...

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Smokers celebrate as Wash. legalizes marijuana

SEATTLE (AP) — The crowds of happy people lighting joints under Seattle's Space Needle early Thursday morning with nary a police officer in sight bespoke the new reality: Marijuana is legal under Washington state law.Hundreds gathered at Seattle Center for a New Year's Eve-style countdown to 12 a.m., when the legalization measure passed by voters last month took effect. When the clock struck, they...

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Soccer coach who molested boys 'a vulture,' judge says

This post has been corrected. See note at bottom for details.An Anaheim man who worked as a soccer coach and martial arts instructor was sentenced to 298 years in prison Thursday for sexually assaulting 11 of his young students, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office. Luis Alberto Pineda, 31, was convicted last month of committing forcible sodomy and other lewd...

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IHT Rendezvous: Trust Women Conference: A Delegate's Reflections

LONDON — The first Trust Women conference, hosted by Thomson Reuters Foundation and the International Herald Tribune in London this week, boasted an impressive line up of speakers — from Melanne Verveer, the U.S. ambassador-at-large for global women’s issues to Christy Turlington Burns of Every Mother Counts to Queen Noor of Jordan, to name a few.The conference confronted difficult subjects like modern-day...

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Zynga moves to enter US gambling market

NEW YORK (AP) — Online games company Zynga said it has asked Nevada gambling regulators for a decision that could pave the way for it to enter the U.S. gambling market.This follows Zynga’s October disclosure that it has signed a deal to offer online poker and casino games, played with real money, in the U.K. It plans to launch those games in the first half of 2013.Zynga Inc. said in an email late...

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Michelle Obama's Grammy Nod: The Beekeeper Gets Credit, Too!, She Says

By Sandra Sobieraj Westfall 12/06/2012 at 05:45 PM EST Her husband already has two Grammys on the shelf, but for First Lady Michelle Obama, her first nomination is still an honor – one for which she shares the credit.Mrs. Obama, who is nominated in the spoken-word category for her book American Grown, says in...

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Celebrations planned as Wash. legalizes marijuana

SEATTLE (AP) — Legal marijuana possession becomes a reality under Washington state law on Thursday, and some people planned to celebrate the new law by breaking it.Voters in Washington and Colorado last month made those the first states to decriminalize and regulate the recreational use of marijuana. Washington's law takes effect Thursday and allows adults to have up to an ounce of pot — but it bans...

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Church volunteer had sex with kids he met at church school, police allege

A well-known Orange County church has been roiled by allegations that a volunteer sexually assaulted children.A Sunday school volunteer at Rock Harbor Church in Costa Mesa allegedly formed relationships with children in his church and went on to sexually abuse at least one of them multiple times between November 2009 and November 2011, according to church leaders and court documents.Two...

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The Lede Blog: Clashes in Cairo After Morsi Supporters Attack Palace Sit-In

Video, said to show a Morsi supporter firing a shotgun in the direction of protesters in Cairo on Wednesday night, was posted on YouTube by the Mosireen film collective.Last Updated, 6:55 p.m. Street battles erupted in Cairo on Wednesday night, after Islamist supporters of President Mohamed Morsi attacked protesters camped outside the gates of the presidential palace, according to journalists and...

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Microsoft #DroidRage Tweet Shows How Malware Has Moved Past Windows

“Do you have an Android malware horror story?” Microsoft asks through its @windowsphone Twitter account, in what may be one of the most ironic tweets of the year.After all, it wasn’t that long ago that “virus” and “worm” stories made headlines on a regular basis, all of them about “computer viruses” which were really Windows viruses. Just a few years ago, Apple advertised the fact that a Mac “Doesn’t...

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Kate Receives Hospital Visit from Pippa and James

12/05/2012 at 07:30 PM EST James and Pippa Middleton Alpha /Landov; Inset:Allpix/ plash News Online The Duchess of Cambridge had more hospital visitors on Wednesday.Just two days after husband Prince William, 30, was photographed leaving the King Edward VII Hospital in Central London where...

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Man lived with dead girlfriend for months, faced murder charges

A jury is being selected in Stockton to hear the murder case against a man accused of living for months with his girlfriend's dead body.Devon Epps was evicted from his apartment in December 2011. The next day, when the apartment manager stopped by, they found a dead body in the bathroom.The body had been there for some time, authorities said.Epps was arrested and then arraigned a few days...

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32% of Young People Use Social Media in the Bathroom

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Snooki Gives Kate Middleton Motherhood Advice

By Julia Haskins 12/04/2012 at 05:30 PM EST Nicole Polizzi and Kate Middleton Daniel Boczarski/WireImage; REX USA Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi is lending her expertise to Kate Middleton – as a mommy mentor! The Jersey Shore star, who gave birth to son Lorenzo in August,...

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Study: Drug coverage to vary under health law

WASHINGTON (AP) — A new study says basic prescription drug coverage could vary dramatically from state to state under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.That's because states get to set benefits for private health plans that will be offered starting in 2014 through new insurance exchanges.The study out Tuesday from the market analysis firm Avalere Health found that some states will require...

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Decapitated body of man found at hospital

About L.A. NowL.A. Now is the Los Angeles Times’ breaking news section for Southern California. It is produced by more than 80 reporters and editors in The Times’ Metro section, reporting from the paper’s downtown Los Angeles headquarters as well as bureaus in Costa Mesa, Long Beach, San Diego, San Francisco, Sacramento, Riverside, Ventura and West Los Angeles.Have a story tip for L.A. Now?Can I call...

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Terms of Greek Bond Buyback Top Expectations

LONDON — In a bold bid to reduce its debt burden, Greece offered on Monday to spend as much as 10 billion euros to buy back 30 billion euros of its bonds from investors and banks. While the buyback had been expected, the prices offered by the government were above what the market had forecast, with a minimum price of 30 euro cents and a maximum of 40 cents, for a discount of 60 percent to...

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Rose McGowan Debuts Platinum Hair

Stylewatch Style News Now 12/03/2012 at 06:00 PM ET AKM-GSI; Inset: GettyLooks like Rose McGowan is going to be having a little more fun these days.The actress debuted a new blonde ‘do while out in West Hollywood over the weekend,...

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Girl, 12, held as sex slave, forced into prostitution by couple, police allege

An Oceanside couple are scheduled to be in court Monday to face accusations that they kept an underage Mexican immigrant as a sex slave, forcing her into prostitution and beating her severely.Marcial Garcia Hernandez, 45, and Inez Martinez Garcia, 43, were arrested Thursday on suspicion of 13 felony counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child under age 14.The girl had been smuggled...

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A Spate of Rebranding for Spanish-Language Television

It’s a race to be the best of the second best. On Monday, Univision, the dominant Spanish-language network in the United States, will announce a new name and look for its second-largest network, TeleFutura. The move is a direct shot at Telemundo, a rival for second place among domestic Spanish-speaking viewers. RTI ColombiaA scene from the new show “Quien Eres Tu” on Univision’s newly...

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Here’s How to Turn Nicki Minaj into Jay-Z

We realize there’s only so much time one can spend in a day watching new trailers, viral video clips, and shaky cell phone footage of people arguing on live television. This is why every day The Atlantic Wire highlights the videos that truly earn your five minutes (or less) of attention. Today:RELATED: It’s Sort of Fun Watching Pippa Middleton SquirmThis is silly, but it’s Friday and a unicorn lair...

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Governors Awards Brings Out the Oscar Hopefuls in Hollywood

By Alison Schwartz 12/02/2012 at 05:20 PM EST Sure, the presidential election season may be long over, but the spirit of democracy is still in full-swing in Hollywood, where some familiar faces are campaigning for the industry version of a spot in the White House: a gold Oscar statuette.You'll have to wait until...

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Asperger's dropped from revised diagnosis manual

CHICAGO (AP) — The now familiar term "Asperger's disorder" is being dropped. And abnormally bad and frequent temper tantrums will be given a scientific-sounding diagnosis called DMDD. But "dyslexia" and other learning disorders remain.The revisions come in the first major rewrite in nearly 20 years of the diagnostic guide used by the nation's psychiatrists. Changes were approved Saturday.Full details...

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