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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Lavish new church, meeting center to serve USC Catholics

The schedule of Sunday Masses for Catholic students at USC accommodates their studying, partying and sleeping habits. Services...

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Khaled Meshal, Hamas Leader, Makes First Visit to Gaza

RAFAH, Gaza Strip — The long exiled leader of the militant group Hamas, Khaled Meshal, entered Gaza for the first time on Friday, a symbolically powerful visit that sought to reinforce Hamas’s contention that it was victorious in its eight-day violent clash with Israel. For Mr. Meshal, 56, whom the Israelis tried to assassinate in Jordan in 1997, it was a triumphant day as Hamas fighters,...

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The Era of Twitter Without Instagram Has Now Begun

We know everyone is a little bummed about all those filtered photos disappearing from your Twitter streams this weekend, but let’s not get all worked up about it: They are disappearing, and there is no scandal.RELATED: Why You Can’t See Instagram Photos on Twitter AnymoreTechCrunch’s  Drew Olanoff got a little too excited on Friday and thought a single in-stream photo meant that Instagram...

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Susan Powell's Father-in-Law Secretly Took 4,500 Pictures of Her

12/07/2012 at 07:30 PM EST Wrapping up a year that has brought unimaginable frustration and heartbreak, Susan Powell's family marked the three-year anniversary of her disappearance at a ceremony this week near where her two sons are buried."It's a hard time of year," Susan's father, Chuck Cox, tells PEOPLE....

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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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Priest abuse files may be released without church officials' names

In its landmark $660-million settlement with victims of sexual abuse five years ago, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles agreed to...

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Wider Chaos Feared as Syrian Rebels and Kurds Clash

Lynsey Addario for The New York TimesSyrian Kurds in Ras al-Ain are seeking refuge across the border in Ceylanpinar, Turkey. CEYLANPINAR, Turkey — In plain view of the patrons at an outdoor cafe here in this border town, the convoy of gun trucks waving the flag of the Syrian rebels whizzed through the Syrian village of Ras al-Ain. They had not come to fight their primary enemy, the soldiers of Bashar...

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Snake on a Plane - For Real - Forces Emergency Landing

People Pets By Alison Schwartz 12/06/2012 at 07:55 PM EST An Egyptian cobra, similar to the reptile pictured, made its way on-board a Kuwait-bound flight Annie Katz/Getty In a scene that played out like the plotline of a Samuel L. Jackson movie, some not-so-precious...

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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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