Poll: Republicans make gains, but still trail Democrats

Despite the drop in President Obama’s approval ratings, Republican policies are still not as popular as Democratic policies, according to a new national poll. A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Friday morning indicates the GOP has gained some ground in polls in recent months, but Democrats still hold the advantage on key issues such as the economy and health care.

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Feds seizure of baseball players’ drug tests ruled illegal

A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that federal investigators’ seizure of drug-test results of more than 90 major league baseball players five years ago was illegal. The decision recommended new guidelines for computer searches to prevent investigators from using information about people who are not named in a search warrant but whose private data is stored on a computer being searched. Investigators looking into steroid use by professional baseball players obtained search warrants and subpoenas for the drug tests results on 10 major league players, but they took the results on 104 players.

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Afghan candidates allege widespread vote fraud

Last week’s elections in Afghanistan have been marred "by widespread fraud and intimidation" which could cast doubt on the legitimacy of the vote, six presidential candidates declared Tuesday. The candidates issued a joint statement as Afghanistan’s elections commission prepares to release preliminary voting results from the nation’s contested presidential race later in the day. A cabinet minister in the government of incumbent Afghan president Hamid Karzai claimed Tuesday that preliminary results showed Karzai won the election with 68 percent of the vote.

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Drug analysis a multistep process

Unlike television crime shows in which machines can instantly spit out results, toxicology testing to determine what drugs are in a person’s body can be a long and painstaking process. The Los Angeles County coroner’s office estimates that toxicology tests on the body of Michael Jackson could take six to eight weeks. The results are needed to determine the singer’s cause of death, a spokesman for the coroner said

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Iran deadline nears without complaint filed

No Iranian presidential candidates had filed complaints as a Monday deadline approached in the country’s disputed presidential election, state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting reported. The powerful conservative Guardian Council last week extended the deadline for filing complaints after two candidates — Mir Hossein Moussavi and Mehdi Karroubi — questioned the legitimacy of the June 12 vote count

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Clerics join Iran’s anti-government protests

A photo showing Iranian clerics prominently participating in an anti-government protest speaks volumes about the new face of Iran’s opposition movement. In a blatant act of defiance, a group of Mullahs took to the streets of Tehran, to protest election results that returned incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power

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Guardian Council rules out nullifying election

Iran’s Guardian Council has ruled out the possibility of nullifying the results of the country’s disputed presidential election, saying irregularities were reported before the balloting — not during or after. The announcement, reported by Iran’s government-funded Press TV on Tuesday, was another in a series of inconsistent stances by the council on how to handle the unrest stemming from the disputed June 12 race. “If a major breach occurs in an election, the Guardian Council may annul the votes that come out of a particular affected ballot box, polling station, district or city, like how it was done in the parliamentary elections,” council spokesman Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei was quoted as saying late Monday

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Germany summons Iran ambassador over elections

Germany is summoning the Iranian ambassador Monday to explain the disputed presidential election in the Middle Eastern nation, particularly the "brutal handling" of protesters, the German foreign minister said. The move is noteworthy because global reaction to the Iranian election has been guarded.

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