Newtown Christmas: 'We Know They'll Feel Loved'

As residents prepared to observe Christmas less than two weeks after a gunman killed 20 children and six educators at an elementary school, people sharing in the town's mourning brought offerings of cards, handmade snowflakes and sympathy.Tiny empty Christmas stockings with the victims' names on them hung from trees in the neighborhood where the children were shot. On Christmas...

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Seeking the truth about Jesus

A nativity scene from St. Catherine's Church in Bethlehem in the West Bank. STORY HIGHLIGHTSJay Parini: There are as many visions of Jesus, and versions, as there are Christians Parini: As a child, I wondered why only two of the gospels mention Christmas He says he believes firmly that Jesus was a real person, complex and inspiring Parini: Jesus's life has mythical resonance with the power to change...

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New and creative light-ups add festive cheer in Tokyo

TOKYO: It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in central Tokyo, even if December 25 is not a national holiday in Japan.Some new and creative light-ups have added festive cheer in the capital.Tokyo Station's Marunouchi side had a makeover recently to revive its pre-war splendour, before parts of it were destroyed by US bombs in World War Two.The renovations took more than five years...

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NATO worker killed by woman in Afghan police uniform

By Masoud Popalzai, CNNupdated 6:22 AM EST, Mon December 24, 2012Afghan policemen stand guard at the site where a female police officer shot dead a foreign civilian adviser. STORY HIGHLIGHTSNEW: Monday's incident is the first to involve a female shooterNEW: On Sunday, a police commander killed five officersOfficials do not know if the woman is indeed part of the Afghan policeA Pentagon report says...

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Newtown Inspires Country to Spread Kindness

While the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School have no doubt left the nation shaken, they have also inspired an outpouring of acts of kindness from across the nation and around the world.The central hub of many of these is on display in the U.S. Post Office in Newtown, Conn., a community shaken by the killing of 20 children and six school staff members by 20-year-old Adam...

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Senators slam movie's torture scenes

In the new film "Zero Dark Thirty," Jessica Chastain plays a CIA analyst who is part of the team hunting Osama bin Laden. STORY HIGHLIGHTSSens. Feinstein, McCain, Levin send letter calling new film "grossly inaccurate"Letter adds to controversy over depiction of torture as a key to finding bin Laden, Bergen saysSenate committee has approved 6,000-page classified report on CIA interrogations programBergen...

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Monti unveils agenda to "change Italy, reform Europe"

ROME: Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti unveiled an agenda to "change Italy, reform Europe" at a year-end presser on Sunday and said the country had managed to pull itself out of the eurozone debt crisis, without having to call for aid."The agenda focuses on avoiding very dangerous steps backwards", and will take the reforms already begun forward, said Monti, who stepped down on Friday...

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Police ban protests after clash in India

India rape protestIndia rape protestIndia rape protestIndia rape protestIndia rape protestIndia rape protestIndia rape protestIndia rape protestIndia rape protestIndia rape protestSTORY HIGHLIGHTSNEW: A journalist is killed in Manipur covering a protest against sexual assault For a second day, protesters are blasted with water cannons in New Delhi Demonstrators slip under police vans to deflate tires...

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Newtown parents reject NRA plan

NEWTOWN, Conn. When Adam Lanza started his lethal attack on Sandy Hook Elementary School, Andrei Nikitchyuk's eight year-old son and another third grader were on their way to the principal's office. It was their turn to bring the daily attendance sheet to the front office, near where principal Dawn Hochsprung and psychologist Mary Sherlach would become the first casualties inside the school. Play...

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Obama, Congress Waving Bye-Bye Lower Taxes?

The first family arrived in the president's idyllic home state of Hawaii early today to celebrate the holidays, but President Obama, who along with Michelle will pay tribute Sunday to the late Sen. Daniel Inouye at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, could be returning home to Washington sooner than he expected.That's because the President didn't get his Christmas...

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