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Updated: 8 min 57 sec ago
Greenpeace Activists Arrested After Leaving Oil Rig
Four members of the environmental group had clung to the rig for two days to protest drilling in the Arctic. They were forced to abandon their protest because of a storm. The rig is owned by Edinburgh-based Cairn Energy.
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Bosses Put Higher Insurance Tab On Workers' Shoulders
Employers keep shifting a larger share of health costs to their employees. Higher premiums, deductibles and copayments are making health insurance less affordable for people who get coverage at work.
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Production Platform On Fire South Of Louisiana, U.S. Coast Guard Reports
An oil rig, 90 miles off the Gulf of Mexico, is on fire, the U.S. Coast Guard reports. Thirteen people on board the rig are accounted for. An explosion was reported shortly after 10:30 a.m. ET.
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Oil Rig Explodes In Gulf Of Mexico
The rig, about 80 miles south of Vermillion Bay along the central Louisana coast, exploded about 9:30 am. CDT Thursday. Emergency crews are en route to the scene. All 13 people on the rig have been accounted for, with one injured.
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Fed's Bernanke: Banks Aren't Too Big To Fail
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke told a panel investigating the financial crisis that regulators must be ready to shutter the largest institutions if they threaten to bring down the financial system."If the crisis has a single lesson, it is that the too-big-to-fail problem must be solved," he said.
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Factory Orders Edge Up; New Jobless Claims Fall
Orders to U.S. factories managed a slight gain in July, boosted by as a surge in demand for commercial aircraft. Meanwhile, the number of people requesting unemployment benefits declined for the second straight week, but the overall level remains high.
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Home Contracts Up; Rates Dip To 4.32 Percent
The number of buyers who signed contracts to purchase previously occupied homes rose 5.2 percent in July but remained well below last year's levels. And the average rate for a 30-year fixed loan fell to 4.32 percent this week, the lowest level in decades.
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Discounts Spur Sales, But What About The Holidays?
Many retailers report surprisingly solid gains for August, helped by aggressive discounting, even as unusually hot weather and job worries kept a lid on back-to-school buying. The results are providing a sliver of hope for the economic recovery, but worries remain about the critical holiday season.
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Can Iraq Lessons Learned Work In Afghanistan?
As the combat mission ends in Iraq, 30,000 additional troops are heading to Afghanistan. Comparisons between the two wars are inevitable. Gen. David Petraeus, who commanded U.S. forces in Iraq, brings to Afghanistan many familiar military faces and the strategy of creating local forces to take control of security at the grass-roots level.
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Rapper T.I. And Wife Arrested On Drug Charges
The rapper and his wife, singer Tameka Cottle, were arrested in Los Angeles Wednesday night after police smelled what appeared to be marijuana coming from their car on Sunset Boulevard.
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Discovery Hostage-Taker Hated Programming
A gunman police shot to death after he took hostages at Discovery Channel's headquarters said he hated the company's shows such as "Kate Plus 8" because they promote population growth and its environmental programming because it did little to save the planet.
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Boxer, Fiorina Spar in California Senate Debate
The recession and how to turn around the state's 12.3 percent jobless rate dominated the debate
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Some Dig In, Others Flee Coast As Earl Nears
Tourists were largely gone from North Carolina's Outer Banks, but those resolute residents who stayed behind say they were prepared Thursday to potentially face down the most powerful hurricane to threaten the coast in years.
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Community Near Ground Zero Almost Like Any Other
The neighborhood around the site where the World Trade Center once stood -- which now includes the site of a proposed Islamic community center -- is like many others in New York City. It has Starbucks, ethnic restaurants, churches and strip clubs. There's also a small mosque. But the gaping hole where the buildings crumbled is ever present.
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Settlement-Building May Tear Down Peace Talks
Jewish settlers broke ground on new construction projects Wednesday in the West Bank, defying a ban imposed by Israel that expires at the end of the month. Settlers and their government supporters have been pushing to end the freeze. But Palestinians say they'll walk out of peace talks if that happens.
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Why The Tea Party Is Like A Starfish, Not A Spider
What do Wikipedia and Craigslist have in common with the Tea Party movement? They succeed by being decentralized, says Rod Beckstrom, co-author of the management book The Starfish and the Spider.
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Tony Blair On War, Globalization And 'My Political Life'
The former prime minister of the United Kingdom's memoir, My Life: A Political Journey, is on sale in the U.S. Blair spoke to Steve Inskeep about Iraq, globalization and his political career.
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Lively Living Aboard Congo's River-Bound 'Villages'
Travel by water is the cheapest mode of transport in the Congo, and hundreds go by barge. From open-air ablutions and barter and trade on the water to the threat of rebel unrest, barge travel along the nearly 3,000-mile-long Congo River is full of activity punctuated just as often by delays.
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Mormon Church, Jewish Leaders Tackle Proxy Baptism
In a joint statement issued Wednesday, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a coalition of Jewish leaders said a new computer system and policy changes related to the practice should resolve a years-long disagreement over posthumous baptism by proxy.
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BP Prepares To Resume Efforts To Kill Gulf Well
Rough seas near the site of the well forced crews to suspend work removing the temporary sealing cap and failed blowout preventer. Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said Wednesday that BP expects to begin work plugging the well for good later this week.
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