Astronaut on Ice: A Search for Antarctic Meteorites

NASA astronaut Stan Love is having a hard time right now. Not in space, but on the forbidding East Antarctic Ice Sheet. Together with a group of dedicated volunteers, Love is looking for meteorites — rocks from space that have fallen to Earth. And it’s not your usual vacation.“Being on the Antarctic ice is very much like being in space,” Love told SPACE.com in December over dinner at the American...

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How Obama made opportunity real

STORY HIGHLIGHTSLZ Granderson: Specifics of Obama's first term may not be rememberedHe says his ability to win presidency twice is unforgettableGranderson: Obama, the first black president, makes opportunity real for manyHe says it makes presidency a possibility for people of all backgroundsEditor's note: LZ Granderson, who writes a weekly column for CNN.com, was named journalist of the year by the...

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Obama lays out 2nd-term agenda

President Barack Obama exited his limousine for the traditional presidential walk in the inaugural parade from Capitol Hill to the White House. (Jan. 21) WASHINGTON...

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Algeria accuses Canadian, puts hostage toll at 38

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Algeria said on Monday it had confirmed the deaths of at least 38 workers, all but one foreign, at the Sahara gas plant its forces stormed two days ago and said the Islamist gunmen had been led by a man with Canadian citizenship. Named only as Chedad, a surname found among Arabs in North Africa, the Canadian was among 29 assailants from a local al Qaeda group killed...

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Euro zone surveys to offer hope as Japan eases

LONDON (Reuters) - The prospect of stronger European manufacturing surveys and decisive monetary easing in Japan this week ought to bolster confidence that the global economy can look forward to better days. It is definitely not yet time to break open the champagne. The index derived from polls of purchasing managers across the euro zone, though recovering, is likely to remain...

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Gore's TD run gives 49ers 28-24 lead over Falcons

ATLANTA (AP) — Frank Gore's 9-yard run midway through the fourth quarter gave San Francisco a 28-24 lead over the Atlanta Falcons in Sunday's NFC championship game.The 49ers, who trailed 17-0 in the first half, took their first lead of the game on a short 38-yard drive set up by Ted Ginn Jr.'s 20-yard punt return.Gore had a 5-yard touchdown run to cap an 82-yard drive to open the second half.The high-scoring...

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Giant Mars Crater Shows Evidence of Ancient Lake

New photos of a huge crater on Mars suggest water may lurk in crevices under the planet’s surface, hinting that life might have once lived there, and raising the possibility that it may live there still, researchers say.Future research looking into the chances of life on Mars could shed light on the origins of life on Earth, scientists added.The discovery came from a study of images by NASA’s powerful...

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Obama's speech: Learn from Lincoln

STORY HIGHLIGHTSJulian Zelizer: Second term inaugural addresses are always a challengeHe says the public has had four years to make a judgment about the presidentObama can learn from second term speeches of Lincoln, Wilson, FDRZelizer says they did a good job of unifying America and sketching vision of the futureEditor's note: Julian Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton...

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Harold Washington statue damaged on South Side

Police released this photo showing damage to a pedestal under the statue of the late Harold Washington. ...

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Algeria hostage crisis death toll hits 80, could rise further

ALGIERS, Algeria (Reuters) - Algerian troops found 25 bodies of hostages at a bomb-littered gas plant deep in the Sahara desert on Sunday, a day after ending a four-day siege, a security source said, raising the death toll of militants and their captives to at least 80. Around 30 foreigners - including American, British, French, Japanese, Norwegian and Romanian citizens - are among those...

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