Ellington

Tornado damage could top $2B

Early reports show more than 17 miles of destruction

MOORE, Okla. — The cost of a massive tornado that battered an Oklahoma City suburb could be more than $2 billion, according to a preliminary estimate announced Wednesday by the Oklahoma Insurance Department.

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• By Chris Sherman, Associated Press
• May 22, 2013

Iranian candidate disqualified

President’s top aide barred from election

TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday that a decision by election overseers to disqualify his top aide from next month’s presidential race is an act of “oppression” and that he will take the case to the country’s supreme leader.

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• By Ali Akbar Dareini, Associated Press
• May 22, 2013

Poll: Teens are migrating to Twitter

WASHINGTON — Twitter is booming as a social media destination for teenagers who complain about too many adults and too much drama on Facebook, according to a new study published Tuesday about online behavior. It said teens are sharing more personal information about themselves even as they try to protect their online reputations. Teens told researchers there were too many adults on Facebook and too much sharing of teenage angst and inane details like what a friend ate for dinner.

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• By By Jennifer Kerr, Associated Press
• May 21, 2013

World Briefs for May 21

BEIJING (AP) — Authorities are investigating rice mills in southern China following tests that found almost half of the staple grain in one of the country’s largest cities was contaminated with a toxic metal.

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• By Associated Press
• May 21, 2013

Children pulled from tornado wreckage

Twister flattens Moore, Okla.

At least seven children died as a tornado ripped through Plaza Towers Elementary School, but many more were pulled from the wreckage to be reunited with their families.

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• By David A. Lieb
• May 21, 2013

World and national news in brief

GREENWICH, Conn. (AP) — An anteater has given birth at a Connecticut conservation center, prompting officials there to wonder how the mother conceived.

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• May 17, 2013

Torture evidence found in Syria

Devices used for torture are found in old govt. prisons BEIRUT (AP) — Rights activists visiting abandoned government prisons in the first Syrian city to come under rebel control have found torture devices and other evidence that detainees were abused there, Human Rights Watch said in a report Friday.

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• By BARBARA SURK, Associated Press
• May 17, 2013

Venezuela is running out of toilet paper

With AP Video link CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — First milk, butter, coffee and cornmeal ran short. Now Venezuela is running out of the most basic of necessities — toilet paper.

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• By FABIOLA SANCHEZ and KARL RITTER, Associated Press
• May 16, 2013

World and national news in brief

WASHINGTON (AP) — Average U.S. rates on fixed mortgages rose this week but stayed near their historic lows. Cheaper mortgages have helped the economy by spurring more home-buying and refinancing.

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• May 16, 2013

World and national news in brief

PARACHINAR, Pakistan (AP) — A new offensive by the Pakistani military against militants in a northwestern tribal area has displaced thousands of people in the past week, an official said Wednesday.

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• May 15, 2013

Ghana strives to improve space program

Center attracts students to space program KOFORIDUA, Ghana (AP) — Their goal might not sound like much: The college students plan Wednesday to launch a tiny model of a satellite the size of a Coke can a mere 200 yards (meters) into the air.

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• By Robbie Corey Boulet, Associated Press
• May 15, 2013

Russian-Vietnamese firm takes on Google attempt to

New company believes Internet giant can be unseated in Asia HANOI, Vietnam — Vietnam’s booming Internet scene is littered with failed startups that tried to take on Google and other entrenched U.S web companies. That’s not deterring a newly launched Russian-Vietnamese outfit which believes it can unseat the American search engine in this fast-growing Asian market and also contend with a jittery, authoritarian government seeking to clamp down on freedom of expression online.

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• May 15, 2013

World and national news in brief

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — An abortion doctor was convicted Monday of first-degree murder and could face execution in the deaths of three babies who were delivered alive and then killed with scissors at his grimy, “house of horrors” clinic.

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• By Associated Press
• May 14, 2013

EU court finds Swiss assisted-suicide laws vague

GENEVA — An elderly Swiss woman who would rather end her life now than decline further in health found sympathy Tuesday from the European Court of Human Rights, which called on the Swiss to clarify their laws on so-called passive assisted suicide.

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• By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press
• May 14, 2013

World and national news in brief

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is praising the nation’s police officers for courage and for signing up, in his words, “to do some tough stuff.”

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• May 11, 2013