New tests could hamper food outbreak detection

WASHINGTON (AP) — It's about to get faster and easier to diagnose food poisoning, but that progress for individual patients comes with a downside: It could hurt the nation's ability to spot and solve dangerous outbreaks.Next-generation tests that promise to shave a few days off the time needed to tell whether E. coli, salmonella or other foodborne bacteria caused a patient's illness could reach medical...

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Actor's girlfriend says he killed, dismembered college students

Hours before he played the romantic lead in a community theater play opposite his real-life fiancee, authorities allege Daniel Patrick Wozniak shot and killed his neighbor.Not long after that evening’s performance, he slipped out of the Costa Mesa apartment he shared with his then-fiancee, Rachel Buffett, 25, and killed a second person , according to police, prosecutors and Buffett's account...

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U.S. Forecast as No. 2 Economy, but Energy Independent

WASHINGTON — A new intelligence assessment of global trends projects that China will outstrip the United States as the leading economic power before 2030, but that America will remain an indispensable world leader, bolstered in part by an era of energy independence. Russia’s clout will wane, as will the economic strength of other countries reliant on oil for revenues, the assessment says....

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Shannen Doherty Helps Police Thwart a Fan's Threatened Suicide

By Andrea Billups 12/10/2012 at 11:35 AM EST Shannen Doherty recently called 911 to help save a Twitter follower who was sending messages about wanting to commit suicide. The former Beverly Hills 90210 star, 41, who was in California, was so concerned by the message from a distraught fan who'd aggressively...

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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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Man lived with murdered girlfriend's rotting corpse for months, DA says

Prosecutors say a Stockton man lived with his girlfriend's rotting corpse for months after killing her.In court last week, prosecutors alleged that the man hit is girlfriend on the head with a  a metal table pedestal, raped her and stabbed her 32 times.Devon Epps was evicted from his apartment in December 2011. The next day, when the apartment manager stopped by, they found a dead...

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Changes to Agriculture Highlight Cuba’s Problems

HAVANA — Cuba’s liveliest experiment with capitalism unfolds every night in a dirt lot on the edge of the capital, where Truman-era trucks lugging fresh produce meet up with hundreds of buyers on creaking bicycle carts clutching wads of cash. “This place, it feeds all of Havana,” said Misael Toledo, 37, who owns three small food stores in the city. “Before, you could only buy or sell in the...

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Zero Dark Thirty Review: Jessica Chastain Has Shot at Oscar

By Alynda Wheat 12/09/2012 at 11:35 AM EST Jessica Chastain in Zero Dark Thirty Sony     Success, as they say, has many fathers. In the killing of Osama bin Laden, proud papas from President Obama to SEAL Team 6 earned kudos aplenty – and justifiably...

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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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Times Investigation: Reckless prescribing, lost lives

Dying for relief | A Times Investigation By Lisa Girion and Scott Glover. Video and photos by Liz O. Baylen December 9, 2012 Byron McKinney, 33 speaking, brother Clint McKinney ...

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