Willie Wilkins, Veteran, Gets Back Dog Tag He Lost In World War II

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Carol Wilkins leaned over the side of her father’s wheelchair and handed him the small red box, a heart-shaped cutout revealing its contents: a weathered, bent silver dog tag.

“Oh, Daddy, look,” Wilkins exclaimed as her 90-year-old father opened it, his eyes beaming and smile wide. “They’re back.”

Sixty-nine years after losing his dog tag on the battlefields of southern France, Willie Wilkins reclaimed it Wednesday after a trans-Atlantic effort to return it to him. It started more than a decade ago in a French backyard and ended with a surprise ceremony in Newark City Hall.

“I am so happy,” Carol Wilkins said. “You don’t know what joy is on my heart for what you have done for my father.”

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In blow to gun control backers, background check compromise falls 6 votes short

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Despite an impassioned push by President Barack Obama and an emotional lobbying effort by the families of mass shooting victims, proponents of a compromise measure to expand gun background checks on Wednesday fell six votes short of passage in the Senate. 

The vote on the amendment was 54 to 46. Sixty votes were needed for the amendment to be adopted. 

The deal was the result of a deal struck between Republican Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia. It would have extended existing background check rules to gun sales made online and at gun shows.

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CIA’s secret ops get first female boss – but top spy faces opposition because she ordered destruction of ‘torture’ evidence

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• Acting director of National Clandestine Service is a woman in her 50s

• Authorised decision to destroy video of brutal interrogations in Thailand

A woman has become head of the CIA’s National Clandestine Service for the first time, it emerged today.

The unnamed operative was made acting director of the service last month – evoking parallels to fictional female spies from the likes of Homeland and Zero Dark Thirty.

For the woman to be given the job permanently, however, officials may have to overlook her controversial background, which included ordering videos of alleged torture to be destroyed.

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Obama Bracket 2013: President Picks Indiana To Win NCAA Tournament (VIDEO)

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The bracketologist in chief has revealed his 2013 NCAA Tournament predictions and he has picked the Indiana Hoosiers to win the national championship.

Even without a campaign on the horizon, swing states were well represented when President Barack Obama revealed his Final Four selections to Andy Katz of ESPN. Obama selected a pair of No. 1 seeds, Louisville and Indiana, to advance to Final Four in the men’s bracket along with No. 2 Ohio State and No. 3 Florida. In a projected final between Rick Pitino’s Cardinals and Tom Crean’s Hoosiers, Obama picked Indiana to cut down the nets

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Pakistan Government Steps Down At End Of Term In Unprecedented, Peaceful Transition Of Power

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Pakistan’s government passed a major milestone Saturday, with the parliament becoming the first democratically chosen body to finish its five-year term in a country that has faced three military coups and persistent political turmoil.

But after years of militant attacks, worsening electricity blackouts and faltering economic growth, the political party that took office five years ago on a wave of sympathy following the assassination of iconic leader Benazir Bhutto will likely find it more difficult this time to win voters to its side.

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FILE – In this Sunday, April 8, 2012 file photo, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, right, waves while arriving at the Palam Airfield with his son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, left, in New Delhi, India. (AP Photo/Saurabh Das, File)

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RNC Growth And Opportunity Project Report: Voters See GOP As ‘Scary,’ ‘Narrow Minded’

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The Republican National Committee (RNC) released its wide-ranging “autopsy” report on Monday, admitting some of its shortcomings after losing the 2012 presidential election.

Coined the Growth and Opportunity Project, the document includes market research from voter focus groups around the country.

“Asked to describe Republicans, they said that the Party is “scary,” “narrow minded,” and “out of touch” and that we were a Party of “stuffy old men.” This is consistent with the findings of other post-election surveys,” the report states.

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Eric Holder: Drone Strike To Kill U.S. Citizen On American Soil Legal, Hypothetically

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The Obama administration believes it could technically use military force to kill an American on U.S. soil in an “extraordinary circumstance” but has “no intention of doing so,” U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said in a letter disclosed Tuesday.

Holder’s March 4 letter was disclosed by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who had asked whether the Justice Department believed President Barack Obama had the legal authority to order a targeted strike against an American citizen located within the United States.

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U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder answers questions following a speech at the University of Massachusetts School of Law in Dartmouth, Mass., Friday, March 1, 2013. (AP Photo/Stew Milne)

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Elizabeth Warren Embarrasses Hapless Bank Regulators At First Hearing (VIDEO)

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Bank regulators got a sense Thursday of how their lives will be slightly different now that Elizabeth Warren sits on a Senate committee overseeing their agencies.

At her first Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing, Warren questioned top regulators from the alphabet soup that is the nation’s financial regulatory structure: the FDIC, SEC, OCC, CFPB, CFTC, Fed and Treasury.

The Democratic senator from Massachusetts had a straightforward question for them: When was the last time you took a Wall Street bank to trial? It was a harder question than it seemed.

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Hillary Clinton Returns To Work Next Week After Blood Clot

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Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, sidelined for almost a month by a string of medical problems, is upbeat and planning to return to work next week, the State Department said Thursday.

One day after being released from the New York hospital that was treating a blood clot in her head, Clinton was at home resting, but was far from idle. She spent the day engaging with senior staff, reviewing paperwork and calling in to a meeting of her foreign policy advisory board, said her spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland.

“She’s looking forward to getting back to the office,” Nuland said. “She is very much planning to do so next week.”

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FILE – In this Nov. 14, 2012 file photo, U. S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton

speaks during anews conference at the annual Australia-United States Ministerial

Consultations in Perth, Australia.Clinton was released from a New York hospital on

Wednesday,Jan. 2, 2013 three days after doctors discovered a

blood clot in her head. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, Pool, File)

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NRA Responds To Sandy Hook Massacre

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 WASHINGTON — The National Rifle Association on Tuesday said it was prepared to offer “meaningful contributions” to ensure that events such as the massacre of 20 children and 6 adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., “never happen again.”

The NRA said it planned to hold a major news conference on Friday, but did not say what it would announce.

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