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Israeli anger over anti-racism conference

Israel pulled its ambassador from Switzerland on Monday to protest a planned address by Iran’s president at a controversial anti-racism conference. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman “have decided to call the Israeli ambassador to Switzerland back for consultations, in protest of the conference in Geneva, in which a racist and a Holocaust denier, who openly declares his intention of erasing Israel, is a guest,” Netanyahu’s office announced Monday. Withdrawing an ambassador is a sign of serious displeasure between countries.

U.N. condemns North Korean rocket launch

The U.N. Security Council on Monday adopted a declaration condemning North Korea for launching a rocket earlier this month.

Secretary played dead to avoid New York shooter

Secretary Shirley DeLucia was just doing her job when she saw Jiverly Wong walk through the door of the American Civic Association in Binghamton, New York, on Friday. “Hello,” she said. “Can I help you” Wong, a 41-year-old who had taken English classes at the New York immigration services center, pointed a gun at DeLucia and pulled the trigger

Binghamton victims died seeking better lives, relatives say

Layla Khalil escaped the bombs that rocked Iraq during three years of insurgent and sectarian warfare, only to be gunned down while trying to learn English in her adopted hometown, family and friends said Sunday. Khalil, 57, was buried Sunday afternoon, two days after she and 12 others were shot to death Friday at the American Civic Association, an immigrant service center in Binghamton.

Iowa high court strikes down same-sex marriage ban

The Iowa Supreme Court struck down a state law Friday that banned same-sex marriage. Iowa becomes the third state in the nation to allow same-sex marriage, after Massachusetts and Connecticut. Friday’s decision upheld a 2007 ruling by a lower court that Iowa’s 1998 law limiting marriage to heterosexual couples went against the state’s constitution.

Turkish PM shows common touch on campaign trail

The yellow bus with a giant photo of the prime minister on its side raced through Elazig, a provincial town in eastern Anatolia, blaring patriotic music. Crowds of cheering locals, some of them women dressed in robes and veils, lined the dusty streets, straining to get a glimpse of Recep Tayyip Erdogan as he waved through the windshield. Suddenly, Emine Erdogan, the prime minister’s wife, gasped in shock

Connecticut attorney general says AIG understated bonuses

AIG understated the amount of money it paid out to top executives after receiving federal bailout money, the attorney general of Connecticut says — but AIG denies the accusations.

NBC’s ‘Kings’: The New Old Testament

Is it better for a TV show to be consistent or surprising?

U.S. loosens restrictions regarding Cuba

The $410 billion budget President Obama signed Wednesday will make it easier for U.S. residents to travel to Cuba and to send money to family members on the island. It also could facilitate the sale of agricultural and pharmaceutical products to Cuba

Gay Marriage: Is California’s Supreme Court Shifting?

The prospects of same-sex marriage in California grew dimmer Thursday, when two Supreme Court justices who helped create the right for gays to marry in last year’s historic decision expressed deep reservations about attempts to strike down a statewide referendum passed last fall to ban the practice. “You would have us choose between these two rights: the inalienable right to marry and the right of the people to change their constitution,” said Justice Joyce L. Kennard, one of those two key judges.