Syrian Flood Into Lebanon Stirs Fear of Looming Disaster

QAA, Lebanon — Quietly but inexorably, a human tide has crept into Lebanon, Syria’s smallest and most vulnerable neighbor. As Syrians fleeing civil war pour over the border, the village priest here, Elian Nasrallah, trudges through muddy fields to deliver blankets. His family runs a medical clinic for refugees. When Christian villagers fret about the flood of Sunni Muslims, he replies that...

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Predict the Oscar Winners!

Facebook Tweet Facebook Tweet Cast your vote for who will be the night's big winners Click here to download a printable ballot. Click here to download a printable ballot. Pollscompleted:...

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FDA approves new targeted breast cancer drug

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration has approved a first-of-a-kind breast cancer medication that targets tumor cells while sparing healthy ones.The drug Kadcyla from Roche combines the established drug Herceptin with a powerful chemotherapy drug and a third chemical linking the medicines together. The chemical keeps the cocktail intact until it binds to a cancer cell, delivering a potent...

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L.A.'s next mayor will face stark budget problems

Brad Smith used to consider himself a Los Angeles booster. But lately, the 48-year-old grows melancholy when he drives around...

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The Saturday Profile: Pavel Astakhov: The Man Behind U.S. Adoption Ban

Mikhail Metzel/Associated PressPavel A. Astakhov at a news conference in Moscow last month. MOSCOW — Long before joining the federal government as Russia’s child rights commissioner and, more recently, becoming the leading force behind a ban on the adoption of Russian children by Americans, Pavel A. Astakhov transformed himself into a celebrity lawyer with mass market appeal — no small trick in a...

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Danica Patrick Opens Up About Dating Competitor Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.

By Dahvi Shira 02/22/2013 at 07:25 PM EST Danica Patrick and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Tom Pennington/NASCAR/Getty Danica Patrick knows mixing business with pleasure isn't wise, but it's not stopping her."I don't think it was a good idea. [But] there was nothing I...

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FDA approves new targeted breast cancer drug

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration has approved a first-of-a-kind breast cancer medication that targets tumor cells while sparing healthy ones.The drug Kadcyla from Roche combines the established drug Herceptin with a powerful chemotherapy drug and a third chemical linking the medicines together. The chemical keeps the cocktail intact until it binds to a cancer cell, delivering a potent...

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Eric Garcetti's role in L.A. budget fixes is in dispute

Pressed in the race for mayor of Los Angeles to say how he would fix a persistent budget gap that has led to the gutting of...

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The Lede: Police Brutality, Catalyst for Egypt’s Revolution, Continues Under Morsi

More than two years after tens of thousands of Egyptians took to the streets on Police Day to demand the resignation of Hosni Mubarak and an end to impunity for the security forces, activists report that civilians continue to be raped, tortured and killed in police custody.As one of the protesters who marched that day, Adel Abdel Ghafar, recalled in a post for The Lede last year, anger over routine...

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Cressida 'Cress' Bonas: 5 Things About Prince Harry's New Squeeze

By Simon Perry 02/21/2013 at 07:50 PM EST Prince Harry and Cressida Bonas Bauer-Griffin; Splash News Online It's love on the slopes for Prince Harry – who has been spending some of his downtime since returning from Afghanistan rekindling his relationship with society gal Cressida Bonas.With...

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CalPERS plans 85% rate hike for long-term-care insurance

Dailey Mayo received some stunning news in the mail this week: an 85% rate increase for the long-term-care insurance he has...

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Cyprus Trial Offers a Rare Look Inside Hezbollah

LIMASSOL, Cyprus — In a little-watched trial in a small courtroom here on Wednesday, a 24-year-old man provided a rare look inside a covert global war between Israel and Iran, admitting that he is an operative of the militant group Hezbollah, for which he acted as a courier in Europe and staked out locations in this port city that Israelis were known to frequent. Breaking with the group’s...

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Oscar Preview: Les Mis, Chicago Casts to Sing & Dance

By Stephen M. Silverman 02/20/2013 at 07:00 PM EST From left: Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway, in Les Misérables, and Catherine Zeta Jones, in Chicago Universal (2); Miramax Strike up the band, for Sunday night's Oscars promise to be very musical.In the most detailed preview yet of what is...

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Agency checks water after body found in hotel tank

LOS ANGELES (AP) — British tourist Michael Baugh and his wife said water had only dribbled out of the taps at the downtown Cecil Hotel for days.On Tuesday, after showering, brushing their teeth and drinking some of the tap water, they headed down to the lobby and found out why.The body of a Canadian woman had been discovered at the bottom of one of four cisterns on the roof of the historic hotel near...

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Lack of immigration reform threatens California farmers

SACRAMENTO — Except for illegal immigrants, no group has more at stake in the national fight over immigration reform than California farmers."It doesn't pay to plant a product if you can't harvest it," notes Mark Teixeira of Santa Maria, who says he had to let 22 acres of vegetables rot last year because he couldn't find enough field hands to gather...

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Pistorius Denies Murdering Girlfriend

PRETORIA, South Africa — Early on Feb. 14, Oscar Pistorius says, he heard a strange noise coming from inside his bathroom, climbed out of bed, grabbed his 9-millimeter pistol, hobbled on his stumps to the door and fired four shots. “I fail to understand how I could be charged with murder, let alone premeditated,” Mr. Pistorius said in an affidavit read Tuesday to a packed courtroom by his...

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What's Next for Mindy McCready's Two Young Boys?

By Steve Helling 02/19/2013 at 07:00 PM EST Mindy McCready's apparent suicide on Sunday has left her two young sons in custodial limbo.The boys – Zander, 6, and Zayne, 10 months – had been in state custody since Feb. 7, when McCready called police to ask for help in making her father and stepmother leave her...

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Drug overdose deaths up for 11th consecutive year

CHICAGO (AP) — Drug overdose deaths rose for the 11th straight year, federal data show, and most of them were accidents involving addictive painkillers despite growing attention to risks from these medicines."The big picture is that this is a big problem that has gotten much worse quickly," said Dr. Thomas Frieden, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which gathered and analyzed...

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Appeals court revives women inmates' bid for Wiccan chaplain

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For His Second Act, Japanese Premier Plays It Safe, With Early Results

Toru Hanai/ReutersPrime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose policies have sent the Tokyo stock market up, will visit Washington this week. TOKYO — Since taking office less than two months ago, Japan’s outspokenly hawkish new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has been in what some political analysts are calling “safe driving mode.” He has carefully avoided saying or doing anything to provoke other Asian nations,...

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