Film focuses on remote museum in Uzbekistan

Back in 2000, USC film professor Amanda Pope and a former student, Tchavdar Georgiev, were traveling in Russia and some of its satellites, working on a series of short portraits of emerging leaders in the post-Soviet world. The two were in Uzbekistan when Pope heard about an amazing collection of Russian avant-garde art in a remote museum deep in the country's desert.

But when she excitedly mention...

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Matthew McConaughey, Michael Connelly talk 'The Lincoln Lawyer' over beers

Matthew McConaughey has just cracked open his second Corona when the man wearing Mardi Gras beads and a Village People policeman's cap approaches his car.

"Do you know Duane?" the inebriated-looking man asks with suspicion, poking his head inside the window and gestu...

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Hollywood Headlines

Charlie Sheen got the ax from "Two and a Half Men" this week, but he won't go down without a fight. Sheen's going after Warner Bros. and his nemesis, show creator Chuck Lorre, with a $100-million lawsuit. He's also got plenty to keep him busy, like his tour, "Sheen's Korner," cooking show and Twitter. Not to mention the custody battle with ex Brooke Mueller....

Read more: http://click2.info/Hollywood_Headlines

BAHRAIN: Gates urges reform to keep Iran at bay amid renewed violence

I expressed the view that we had no evidence that suggested that Iran started any of these popular revolutions or demonstrations across the region," Gates said Saturday following talks with Bahrain's king and crown prince. Bahraini officials have repeatedly tried to discredit the anti-government protest movement by alleging links to Iran and the Shiite militant group Hezbollah, a claim the protesters deny.

"But there is clear evidence th....

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Energy released in an earthquake

The energy released on the Earth's surface only (ME, which is the seismic potential for damage) by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami was estimated at 1.1×1017 joules, or 26.3 megatons of TNT. This energy is equivalent to over 1502 times that of the Hiroshima atomic bomb, but less than that of Tsar Bomba, the largest nu...

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Japan earthquake shifted Earth on its axis

Friday's magnitude 8.9 earthquake in Japan shifted Earth on its axis and shortened the length of a day by a hair. In the future, scientists said, it will provide an unusually precise view of how Earth is deformed during massive earthquakes at sites where one plate is sliding under another, including the U.S. Pacific Northwest.

The unusually rich detail comes fr...

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Japanese fearful as nuclear crisis builds

The government in Tokyo may be reassuring a nation already reeling from the worst earthquake in its recorded history that Japan is not about to experience a full-blown nuclear disaster.

But the closer you got to the Fukushima nuclear complex, where officials are struggling with the specter of meltdowns at two of its six reactors, the less people were buying it.

On National Road 4 on the city's outskirts, Mari Kano was crawling through congested traffic Sunday morning with her two young children in tow, baskets of cl...

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Japan faces soaring number of feared dead

Reporting from Tokyo, Koriyama and Fukushima, The number of missing and feared dead in Japan's epic earthquake soared Sunday as a reeling nation struggled to contain an unprecedented nuclear crisis, pluck people in tsunami-inundated areas to safety, quell raging blazes and provide aid to hundreds of thousands of frightened people left homeless and dazed.

A police chief in the battered Miyagi prefecture told disaster relief officials that he expected the death t....

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NFL owners express disappointment

A day after the NFL Players Assn. decertified as a union, and the NFL officially locked out its players, several team owners Saturday issued statements expressing their disappointment that the labor fight has gone this far.

"I am very disappointed that we were not successful in reaching an agreement," Pittsburgh Steelers President Art Rooney II said, adding, "The NFL owners pu....

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Redevelopment reality:increased tax revenue generated by their projects

For decades, community redevelopment agencies have targeted blighted areas and encouraged investment in them by allowing developers to keep the increased tax revenue generated by their projects. The successes have been notable: One need look no farther than the south end of Los Angeles' downtown, where Staples Center and the surrounding commercial area sit atop what once were parking lots and crack houses.

But abuse of the system has been a proble...

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Let police pursue criminals, not immigrant

California reached a milestone late last month when federal immigration officials quietly announced that all 58 counties in the state are now participating in Secure Communities, a controversial program created to track and deport dangerous criminals.

Unveiled in late 2008, Secure Commun...

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Movie Projector: 'Battle: Los Angeles' will rule, 'Mars Needs Moms' will bomb

"Battle: Los Angeles" is expected to wipe out the competition at the box office this weekend, leaving "Mars Needs Moms" searching for any signs of life.

Sony Pictures' "Battle," an alien invasion story starring Aaron Eckhart, should open to domestic ticket sales of $30 million to $35 million, according to people who have seen pre-release audience surveys.

But the biggest news at the box office this weekend will likely be the disastrous debut of "Mars Needs Moms," a big-budget animated movie from Walt Disney Studios that is on track ...

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Darren Aronofsky returns to the drug world

Darren Aronofsky cemented his auteur status a decade ago with "Requiem for a Dream," a dark story of a murky drug underworld. Now he could be returning to that milieu in a different capacity.

The director of "Black Swan," along with that movie's producer, Scott Franklin, are putting their weight behind "Intricate," a story of a promising young athlete who finds himself caught up in the drug trade in 1990s New York, according to the new film's dire....

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'American Idol' results: One goes home, and one goes missing

Even before one finalist was eliminated on Thursday night's "American Idol," as the top 13 was about to shrink to an even dozen, one contestant was missing: Casey Abrams, who had been hospitalized for stomach pains just two weeks ago, was apparently back in the hospital. (Fox is not saying why, or whether Casey is expec...

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Public consequences of pop stars' private gigs:Mariah Carey

When pop stars Mariah Carey, Beyoncé, Nelly Furtado and 50 Cent recently said they'd renounced millions of dollars they'd received for performing for members of Libyan strongman Moammar Kadafi's family, they drew attention to a growing and controversial cultural phenomenon: celebrity artists being hired by rich, powerful and sometimes disreputable clients to play at private or sem...

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Wisconsin Assembly passes union proposal

The Wisconsin Assembly on Thursday gave final approval to a GOP measure that sharply limits collective-bargaining rights for most public employees.

By 53-42, the Assembly passed the measure, an expected step after the state Senate OKd the propo...

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$6-billion solar industry logs another record year

The solar industry seems to have turned in yet another record-breaking year in 2010, as the total market value of the sector spiked 67% to $6 billion from $3.6 billion in 2009, according to an annual report.

Companies installed 878 mega...

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Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' condition improves by 'leaps and bounds'

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, shot in the head in a Tucson parking lot in January, "is making leaps and bounds in terms of neurological progress," doctors say, and there is "a good possibility" she will be able to attend the final launch of the space shuttle Endeavor, which her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, will comma...

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Obama to address Japan quake at news conference

Obama to address Japan quake at news conference

During a news conference today, President Obama is expected to detail the U.S. response to the major earthquake in Japan. Other likely topics are gas prices and the violence in Libya...

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LIBYA: Dutch marines captured in Libya appear headed to Athens

Thanks to a deal brokered by Greek officials, the Libyan government has agreed to allow three Dutch marines captured after a failed evacuation mission in Libya last month to leave Tripoli for Athens Thursday, according to the Associated Press, quoting a Greek defense ministry official.

The official, who was not identified, said a Greek milit...

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LIBYA: Ras Lanuf still controlled by anti-government forces, rebel leaders say

The oil port of Ras Lanuf in eastern Libya was under heavy bombardment Thursday but remained in the hands of anti-government forces, according to leaders of the rebels, who were quoted by the Reuters news agency.

The information contradicts reports that Reuters sai...

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LIBYA: International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor willing to hear Kadafi's side of story

The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, who is investigating Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi and members of his inner circle for possible war crimes, told the Reuters news agency Thursday that he would welcome hearing Kadafi’s version of events as part of his probe.

In an exclusive interview with Reuters, Luis Moreno-Ocampo said the United Nations Security Council needed to start thinking about how it would pr...

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LIBYA: Aid agencies hindered in attempts to get medical supplies to areas most in need

Ongoing insecurity continues to hinder aid agencies from reaching areas of western Libya that are in urgent need of medical supplies and assistance, officials from Doctors Without Borders said Thursday.

Teams of the agency’s medical staff have managed to reach health facilities in Ajdabya and Brega, but were unable to proceed to Ras Lanuf, about 270 m...

Read more: http://click2.info/LIBYA_Aid_Agencies

LIBYA: Government forces preparing for full-scale attack on rebels; West should butt out or face defeat, Kadafi's son says

Seif Islam Kadafi, son of Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi , said Thursday that forces loyal to the government were preparing for a full-scale attack on anti-government forces and that Western countries would face defeat if they chose to support the uprising, according to a report from Bloomberg Ne...

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8.9 quake kills hundreds in Japan

The quake triggers a tsunami that threatens much of the Pacific. Up to 300 bodies are found in the city of Sendai in northeastern Japan, an area believed to have been hit hardest by the massive waves....

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Japan nuclear site declares state of emergency after quake

Japan nuclear site declares state of emergency after quake

The cooling system fails at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant. No radiation leaks, but the plant has shut down...

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Tsunami waves hitting Hawaii not unusually high

Tsunami waves hitting Hawaii not unusually high

Authorities say more waves are expected and it's too early to tell whether the islands would escape harm....

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Japan earthquake, tsunami kill hundreds, cause crippling damage

Reporting from Beijing and Tokyo — After years of preparation for the killer earthquake that would clearly one day strike, Japan found itself crippled Friday by floods, power failures, fires, shuttered airports and paralyzed transit systems from an 8.9 earthquake that struck off the Pacific coast, killing hundreds of people and sett....

Read more: http://click2.info/JapanTsunami_kill_hundreds

Earthquake and tsunami hit Japan

A magnitude-8.9 earthquake struck off Japan’s northeastern coast Friday, triggering a 13-foot tsunami that washed away cars and tore away buildings along the coast north of Tokyo.

In various locations along Japan’s coast, TV footage showed severe flooding, with dozens of cars, boats and even buildings being carried along by waters. A large ship swept awa...

Read more:http://lat.ms/hDbpGr 

100-year-old twins inseparable and best friends

Times photographer Mel Melcon had been wanting to photograph a pair of 100-year-old identical twin sisters, Venice Shaw and Inez Harries, but because of a mix-up, the assignment was given to another photographer.

Discouraged at first, Melcon later found out that the siste...

Read more: http://lat.ms/egR7C3

Libya keeps foreign journalists on tight leash

Reporting from Tripoli, Libya A burst of gunfire and squealing tires kicked off what was scheduled to be a day of anti-government protests in Tripoli, Libya's capital. The foreign journalists in town, all watched by minders, struggled to find out what was happening.

"Al Qaeda is on the loose," claimed an offi...

Read more: http://lat.ms/eUUycy

Fourth Wall Studios raises $15 million for cross-media productions

Fourth Wall Studios has landed an initial investment of $15 million from one of Los Angeles' wealthiest individuals to develop and create digital entertainment "experiences" that cross various media platforms.

Patrick Soon-Shiong, a biotech billionaire who has never before invested in the entertainment busine...

Read more: http://click2.info/Fourth_Wall_Studios

Facebook streams 'The Dark Knight' in a first step to challenge Netflix, Apple, Hulu

On Tuesday, Warner Bros. offered up its hugely popular film "The Dark Knight" for rent on Facebook.

So far, that's the only movie that can be streamed over the Internet and watched within Facebook, but Warner Bros. has said that more of its films will soon be available too, as reported by Ben Fritz on the Times' Company Town blo...

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Ayatollah Rafsanjani, Iranian opposition backer, loses clerical post

Reporting from Tehran and Beirut The Iranian opposition's most powerful sympathizer lost his post Tuesday as chief of an important clerical council that oversees the country's supreme leader.

Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a for....

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'The Expendables' aims to come back -- but with Stalllone in a different guise

The follow-up movie is a priority at producer Millennium Films, where it's being developed by Stallone, the creative force behind the original. But Stallone, who both starred in and directed the 2010 summer hit, isn't, at the moment, plan...

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Dance competitions face off in live venues

After the opening night show of Battle of the Dance, Andres Gelabert sat in the lobby of his new 40,000-square-foot venue, sipped a glass of Champagne and professed a lifelong love of dance that predates the current craze for all things terpsichorean fueled by certain television sho...

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Red Riding Hood' movie premiere: Amanda Seyfried, Catherine Hardwicke, Gary Oldman and the 'Idol' Top 13

The werewolf-hunting Gary Oldman turned up with wife Alexandra Edenborough, facing the cameras along with fellow cast members Shiloh Fernandez (Red's crush), Max Irons (Red's parents' crush), Virginia Madsen, Adrian Holmes and Kacey Rohl.

Also spotted: Josh Brolin and Diane Lane, "The Twilight Saga" vetera...

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Charlie Sheen fired from 'Two and a Half Men'

The move comes after several weeks of very public battling between the actor and CBS, Warner Bros. and "Two and a Half Men" co-creator Chuck Lorre.

In a statement, the studio said, “After careful consideration, Warner Bros. Television has terminated Charlie Sheen’s services on 'Two and a Half Men' effective immediately.”

Production on the show was stopped in late Janua....

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'Real World' keeps turning, and keeps viewers tuning in

The premise was simple: Put a bunch of twentysomethings in a cool pad and watch their lives unfold on camera. And yet the seemingly basic (and cheap) idea behind "The Real World" helped birth a genre that has eaten television whole.

A show that started as a nove...

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Consolidation seen as inevitable for Southern California's newspapers

Not so many years ago, it wasn't very hard to understand ownership of Southern California's newspapers. The Chandlers had the Los Angeles Times, the Hoiles family controlled the Orange County Register, the Copleys reigned at the San Diego Union-Tribune and MediaNews Group, a chain run by William Dean Singleton, owned a passel of suburban dailies.

Now those durable names have sol...

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'Kill the Irishman' revisits Cleveland's explosive mob past

A quick rundown of well-known Mafia cities brings to mind places like New York, Chicago and Las Vegas. But Cleveland? Fuhgeddaboutit …

But there was a time — back in the 1970s — when the Ohio city was a raging mobster battleground. And when it came time to take out a rival, locals did more tha

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Cole bombing suspect to face military tribunal at Guantanamo

The first captive at the U.S. naval base on Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to be charged in a military tribunal during the Obama presidency is expected to be one of the prison's most notorious inmates — Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, the alleged mastermind of the 2000 bombing of the U.S. destroyer Cole that killed 17 sailors.

And his case, beset with Nashiri's allegations of torture and mistreatment, is fraught with complic....

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Ex-American Apparel worker accuses CEO of forced sex

A former employee of the troubled Los Angeles clothing firm American Apparel Inc. accused the company's chairman and chief executive, Dov Charney, in a lawsuit of holding her captive and forcing her to perform sexual acts.

The suit, filed in a New York trial court in Brooklyn, seeks $250 million in dama...

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Disproving the notion of a Social Security trust fund 'lockbox'

The "lockbox," you may recall, was the concept presidential candidate Al Gore used during the 2000 election to signify his devotion to the security of Social Security. The principle supposedly was to sequester the program's annual surplus, which was then running about $150 billion a year, so that it couldn't be frittered away on irresponsible government spending.

After the election, the lockbox disapp...

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EGYPT: Evaluating proposed constitutional amendments

The amendment to Egypt's constitution recently announced by Chancellor Tareq Bishri's commission -- if adopted by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and approved by a majority of citizens in a general referendum -- will lay the foundation for constraining the near-absolute powers granted to the president by the 1971 constitution.

They are also a positive step toward administeri....

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EGYPT: State security revelations bring Wikileaks to mind

Documents recently turned over to Egyptian and Arab media by protesters who stormed offices of the State Security Investigations Service across Egypt are at the center of a saga of revelations that bring Wikileaks to mind.

The files, which contain detai...

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Air attacks put Libya town on edge

Reporting from Ras Lanuf, Libya The day dawned with the shrill whine of a warplane. Then there was a rough growl as a jet fighter, heard but not seen, swooped low on another bombing run.

Everyone in this rebel-held oil city — fighters poised on antiaircraft batteries, terrified resid...

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Dust washers in India sweep streets for flecks of gold

Reporting from Ahmadabad, India Like her mother and grandmother before her, Ganga Gohel, 80, crouches in a narrow alley, carefully working an 8-inch brush over the cracked concrete with gnarled hands, her back permanently bent after a lifetime on the job.

In a nation where thoroughfare...

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Obama administration taking cautious approach on Libya

Reporting from Washington The Obama administration is drawing careful limits on its potential military involvement in the increasingly bloody struggle between the Libyan government and rebel forces, despite growing calls for Western interven...

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Redondo Beach, dead fish, perhaps millions of them, collect in King Harbor

Redondo Beach awoke Tuesday to find a carpet of death laid atop the water, as if Davy Jones himself had burped up a couple hundred years worth of lunches. Thousands of silvery sardines floated atop the King Harbor marina fin-to-fin, with hundreds of thousands more, perhaps millions, pil...

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Wall street market turns 2, but can it make it to 3?

Hold the champagne. For the second anniversary of the bull market in stocks, a barrel of crude might be a better gift.

As Wall Street marks two straight years of share price gains, investors who expect more to come are betting that oil's latest surge is just another minor obstacle — like so many others that have failed to hal...

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Jailhouse informant plays a critical role in trial for a brutal double murder

Arthur Davodian's roommate arrived home to discover a gruesome scene at his Tujunga condominium.

Davodian's headless body was stretched out on the living room floor, punctured with stab wounds up to six inches deep.

A trail of blood led through the apartment's hallway to a bedroom where the door had been kic...

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Couple to give record $200-million gift to USC

The University of Southern California will announce Wednesday its largest donation ever, a $200-million gift from alumnus David Dornsife, the chairman of a large steel fabricating company, and his wife, Dana.

The Dornsifes' donation will go to USC's College of Letters, Arts and Scie...

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Senators walk political tightrope on budget

Reporting from Washington Senators expecting tough reelection challenges in 2012 struggled Tuesday to decide between competing proposals that would cut federal spending this year, as legislative leaders set votes as part of the effort to fend off another threatened gover...

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Bell election: Voters recall embattled council members and elect new representatives

Bell residents voted overwhelmingly to recall four embattled council members Tuesday with 100% of the votes counted in the small southeast Los Angeles County city.

More than 95% of the city's residents voted to recall council members Teresa Jacobo, Oscar Hernandez and George Mirabal, as well as Councilman Luis Artiga, who resig...

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Colombian troops free 21 kidnapped oil workers

Colombian officials said Tuesday that government troops rescued 21 of 23 oil field workers who were kidnapped the day before by suspected leftist rebels in remote Vichada state.

Defense Minister Rodrigo Rivera said the overnight military operation, code-named Minotaur, was greatly helped by a hostage who escaped shortly after the abduc...

Read more: http://lat.ms/ex5kcF

NPR 'appalled' by its executive's 'tea party' remarks in video

Reporting from Washington NPR is distancing itself from remarks made by a fund-raising executive who said the American "tea party" movement is a comprised of "white, middle-America gun-toting" and "seriously racist, racist" people.

The comments, apparently made by Ron Schiller, NPR's exiting vice president for development, were reco...

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Puerto Rico expands film tax credits in bid for larger Hollywood role

With its lush mountains, tropical rain forest and sugar-white beaches, Puerto Rico has long prided itself as a “paradise of locations” for filmmaking.

But the U.S. territory has never been ranked in the top tier of filming destinations, in part because it had only a small pool of money allocated for its tax-credit program. That could change no...

Read more: http://lat.ms/gatnRT

A cheaper way to get professional Web design

Dear Karen: You recently advised hiring professionals to build websites, but are there cheaper alternatives for start-ups?

Answer: On a tight budget, try to barter services with a Web design firm. Or hire a freelancer to design the site and take that template to a developer, said Erin Pres...

Read more: http://lat.ms/heEVPF

Hawaii volcano spews lava 65 feet high after crater collapse

A new vent has opened at one of the world's most active volcanoes, sending lava shooting up to 65 feet high, scientists at Kilauea volcano said Sunday.

The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said the fissu...

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Critic's Notebook: With everything available, what will you watch?

Video-rental giant Netflix last week announced a two-year licensing deal with CBS that will make a host of recent and ancient series — including such CBS-distributed series as "Twin Peaks," which aired on ABC, and "Cheers" and "Star Trek," from NBC — available to stream. It joins Amazon.com, now offering "unlimited instant videos" to its Pr...

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Sanctuary amid the stacks

Saving money by reducing library services is like trying to save a bleeding man by cutting out his heart...

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Sex offender tried to lure children with parrot in Huntington Beach, police say

A registered sex offender was in custody on charges of violating probation after allegedly trying to coax several children to play with his pet parrot near the Huntington Beach pier.

Michael Joseph DeSilva, 65, of Newport Beach, was arre...

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Last coal plant in Pacific Northwest to shut down starting in 2020

The last coal-fired power plant in the Pacific Northwest will shut down completely by 2025 under an agreement announced Saturday by Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire. The first boiler of TransAlta's 1,460-megawatt plant in Centralia, Wash., is set to go offline in 20...

Read more: http://click2.info/US_Green