Venezuela lawmakers elect Chavez ally as Assembly chief

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan lawmakers re-elected a staunch ally of Hugo Chavez to head the National Assembly on Saturday, putting him in line to be caretaker president if the socialist leader does not recover from cancer surgery. By choosing the incumbent, Diosdado Cabello, the "Chavista"-dominated legislature cemented the combative ex-soldier's position as the third most powerful...

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S&P 500 finishes at 5-year high on economic data

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 index ended at a five-year high on Friday, lifted by reports showing employers kept up a steady pace of hiring workers and the vast services sector expanded at a brisk rate. The gains on the S&P 500 pushed the index to its highest close since December 2007 and its biggest weekly gain since December 2011. Most...

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AP Source: Browns close to deal with Kelly

CLEVELAND (AP) — Chip Kelly is close to taking his fast-paced offense to the NFL.A person familiar with the negotiations says the Cleveland Browns are nearing a deal with Oregon's offensive mastermind to be their next coach.The Browns interviewed Kelly on Friday and the Ducks coach was supposed to meet with Philadelphia in Arizona. However, a person familiar with the interviews says the Eagles are...

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Exxon Mobil proceeds with $14 billion Canada oil field

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) – Exxon Mobil Corp said on Friday it is moving ahead with the next major oil project in the North Atlantic, the $ 14 billion Hebron development off the Newfoundland coast, boosting its already-large investments in Canada’s most oil-rich regions.Exxon Mobil, the biggest U.S. oil major, said it will produce 150,000 barrels of oil a day at Hebron using a massive concrete gravity-base...

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Myanmar: Evolution, not revolution

Tourists walk around the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon in April. The tourism industry is set for expansion.STORY HIGHLIGHTSMyanmar is undergoing incremental change, welcomed by all, says Parag KhannaBut he says people still tread lightly, careful not to overstep or demand too muchMyanmar has survived succession of natural and man-made ravages, Khanna addsWith sanctions lifted, foreign investment is now...

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Bulls Game Day: Noah back vs. Heat

Tribune video ...

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Abbas sees Palestinian unity as Fatah rallies in Gaza

GAZA (Reuters) - President Mahmoud Abbas predicted the end of a five-year split between the two big Palestinian factions as his Fatah movement staged its first mass rally in Gaza with the blessing of Hamas Islamists who rule the enclave. "Soon we will regain our unity," Abbas, whose authority has been limited to the Israeli-occupied West Bank since the 2007 civil war between the two factions,...

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Asian shares drop on Fed minutes, dollar extends gain

TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares fell on Friday, tracking overnight weakness in global equities, but the dollar gained as U.S. debt yields rose after several Federal Reserve officials expressed concerns about continuing to expand stimulative bond buying. Minutes from the Fed's December policy meeting released on Thursday showed some voting members of the Federal Open Market Committee were...

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Saban, Kelly lead Bama and ND out of darkness

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — There were some dark days at Notre Dame and Alabama, dark years really, during which two of college football's proudest programs flailed and foundered.Notre Dame won the national championship in 1988, then spent much of the next two decades running through coaches — four if you count the guy who never coached a game — and drifting between mediocre and pretty good.Alabama...

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Martian rock from Sahara desert unlike others

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Scientists are abuzz about a coal-colored rock from Mars that landed in the Sahara desert: A yearlong analysis revealed it’s quite different from other Martian meteorites.Not only is it older than most, it also contains more water, tests showed. The baseball-size meteorite, estimated to be 2 billion years old, is strikingly similar to the volcanic rocks examined on the Martian surface...

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