Obama looks to past to set course for future

News Analysis President Obama is a student of history - it was no coincidence that he formally announced his run to become the first African-American president back in 2007 at the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois, where Abraham Lincoln delivered his "house divided" speech in 1858 - and his inaugural address today drew an unmistakable line between the nation's past and its prospects for...

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Inauguration: 7.5 Things You Should Have Seen

A presidential inauguration is a big, long event that lasts all day and into the night–and who has time to really watch it? People have jobs, ones that don’t let you off for a federal holiday.Everyone (or, at least, some) will be talking about it, which means potential embarrassment for anyone who doesn’t know what happened. Thankfully, ABC employs  news professionals stationed in Washington,...

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Wind power delivers too much to ignore

Although aesthetic concerns need to be heard, qualms about wind's reliability are wide of the mark, argues energy policy researcher Reg Platt THE location of the British Isles at Europe's wild and windy western fringe does not always seem like a blessing. But in one important respect it is: the UK has the greatest...

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Japan, US team probes Dreamliner battery maker

TOKYO: Japanese and American safety inspectors were on Monday probing the company that makes batteries for Boeing's Dreamliner after the aircraft's worldwide fleet was grounded over safety fears.Aviation regulators were focusing on the lithium-ion batteries as the cause of a glitch that forced an All Nippon Airways (ANA) flight into an emergency landing last week.Despite the investigation...

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By the numbers: MLK Day

The third Monday in January is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a federal holiday of service honoring the civil rights leader.STORY HIGHLIGHTSThe third Monday in January is Martin Luther King Jr. DayThe federal holiday is also the only federal holiday of service"Everybody can be great because everybody can serve," Dr. King said(CNN) -- Martin Luther King Jr. Day is celebrated on the third Monday in January,...

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MLK's "content of character" quote inspires debate

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." This sentence spoken by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. has been quoted countless times as expressing one of America's bedrock values, its language almost sounding like a constitutional amendment on equality. 20 PhotosMartin...

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Obamas Share the Love, Even for Michelle's Bangs

Jan 20, 2013 10:49pm (Charles Dharapak/AP Photo)President Obama used the first public remarks of his second term to address what he called the “most significant” event of this weekend: his wife’s much-talked-about new haircut.“I love her bangs,” Obama told supporters at an inaugural reception at the National Building Museum. “She looks good. She always looks good.”First...

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Earth may be crashing through dark matter walls

Earth is constantly crashing through huge walls of dark matter, and we already have the tools to detect them. That's the conclusion of physicists who say the universe may be filled with a patchwork quilt of force fields created shortly after the big bang. ...

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China 'strongly dissatisfied' with US island remarks

BEIJING: China said it was "strongly dissatisfied" Sunday after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issued a veiled warning to Beijing not to challenge Tokyo's control of disputed islands at the centre of a bitter territorial row.China is "strongly dissatisfied with and resolutely opposes" the remarks, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement on the ministry's website.The...

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At least 55 dead in gas plant siege

STORY HIGHLIGHTSAlgeria: About 685 Algerian workers and 107 foreigners are freedAlgeria has not specified the nationalities of hostages killed Among the 32 militants killed, only three were Algerians, officials say (CNN) -- The hostage crisis in eastern Algeria is over, but the questions remain.Among them, exactly how many people are unaccounted for at a remote natural gas facility after three days...

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