U.S. launches review of Shell Arctic drilling program

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Interior Department will review Royal Dutch Shell's 2012 Arctic oil drilling program to assess the challenges the oil company faced and to help guide future permitting in the region.The announcement on Tuesday follows the grounding of one of Shell's rigs off the coast of Alaska last week, the latest mishap the company has encountered as it undertakes an ambitious Arctic...

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Defense rests in trial of boy who killed neo-Nazi father

RIVERSIDE, California (Reuters) - Attorneys representing a 12-year-old California boy charged with murdering his neo-Nazi father rested their case Tuesday without calling him to testify in a case that drew attention due to the rarity of a parent being slain by a child so young.Lawyers for Joseph Hall concede that the boy, then just 10 years old, shot his father in May 2011 at point blank range, but...

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U.S. does not rule out removing all troops from Afghanistan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration does not rule out a complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan after 2014, the White House said on Tuesday, just days before President Barack Obama is due to meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai.The comments by U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes were the clearest signal yet that, despite initial recommendations by the top military...

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Saudi website editor could face death for apostasy-rights group

RIYADH (Reuters) - The editor of a Saudi Arabian website could be sentenced to death after a judge cited him for apostasy and moved his case to a higher court, the monitoring group Human Rights Watch said on Saturday.Raif Badawi, who started the Free Saudi Liberals website to discuss the role of religion in Saudi Arabia, was arrested in June, Human Rights Watch said.Badawi had initially been charged...

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Iran a central issue for my next term: Netanyahu

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Iran's perceived nuclear threat against Israel will be the central issue concerning Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government if he is re-elected in a month's time, the Israeli leader said on Saturday.Netanyahu has set out a mid-2013 "red line" for tackling Iran's uranium enrichment project. The West says this programme is aimed at developing the means to build atomic bombs....

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Obama seeks scaled-down 'fiscal cliff' agreement

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has scaled back his ambitions for a sweeping budget bargain with Republicans. Instead, he's calling for a limited measure sufficient to prevent the government from careening off the "fiscal cliff" in January by extending tax cuts for most taxpayers and forestalling a painful set of agency budget cuts.In a White House appearance Friday, Obama also called on...

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Yet another Senate race on the horizon in Mass.

BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts voters weary from one of the nation's costliest and most divisive U.S. Senate races are all but certain to find themselves thrown back into another tumultuous election now that President Barack Obama has nominated Sen. John Kerry for secretary of state.If confirmed by the Senate, as expected, Democrat Kerry would have to resign the seat he's held for nearly three decades,...

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'Fiscal cliff' leaves Boehner a wounded speaker

WASHINGTON (AP) — John Boehner is a bloodied House speaker following the startling setback that his own fractious Republican troops dealt him in their "fiscal cliff" struggle against President Barack Obama.There's plenty of internal grumbling about the Ohio Republican, especially among conservatives, and lots of buzzing about whether his leadership post is in jeopardy. But it's uncertain whether any...

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