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nbcnews:

India lights up ahead of Diwali festival

(Photo: Piyal Adhikary / EPA)

Buildings decorated with electric lights on the eve of Diwali, the Festival of Light in Calcutta, India, on Nov. 12. During Diwali the entire house is cleaned and new clothes are purchased for the whole family. This is followed by lighting oil lamps around the house and setting off firecrackers.

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(via nbcnews)

theonion:

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breakingnews:

Top US commander in Afghanistan linked to Petraeus scandal

Reuters: 

The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen, is under investigation for allegedly inappropriate communication with a woman at the center of the scandal involving former CIA Director David Petraeus, a senior U.S. defense official said on Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The shocking revelation threatens to fell another one of the U.S. military’s biggest names and suggests that the scandal involving Petraeus - a former four-star general who had Allen’s job in Afghanistan before moving to the CIA last year - could expand much further than previously imagined.

The U.S. official said the FBI uncovered between 20,000 and 30,000 pages of communications - mostly emails and spanning from 2010 to 2012 - between Allen and Jill Kelley, who has been identified as a long-time friend of the Petraeus family and a Tampa, Florida, volunteer social liaison with military families at MacDill Air Force Base.

Photo: US General John Allen, commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces in Afghanistan, speaks during US Independence Day celebrations in Kabul July 4, 2012. (Reuters/Mohammad Ismail)

nationalpost:

Petraeus scandal traps Afghan mission chief as inappropriate emails with ‘second woman’ are revealed
The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen, is under investigation for alleged inappropriate communication with a woman at the center of the scandal involving former CIA Director David Petraeus, a senior U.S. defense official said on Tuesday.

The revelation threatens to fell another of the U.S. military’s biggest names and suggests that the scandal involving Petraeus – a retired four-star general who had Allen’s job in Afghanistan before moving to the CIA last year – could expand.

latimes:

Today’s headlines

Bullet-train planners face huge engineering challenge

The 141-mile section from Bakersfield to L.A. will travel over two mountain ranges and more than half a dozen earthquake faults. Experts see it as the project of the century.

Noguez’s council account offers leads in corruption probe

L.A. business owners — who later received tax cuts — were the main donors to an account Noguez held as Huntington Park councilman, records show.

Anti-terrorism expert advises against BioWatch upgrade

A Homeland Security Department undersecretary has told Janet Napolitano she has doubts about a new version of the nation’s troubled system for detecting a biological attack.

Phil Jackson gets call from Lakers and it’s not what he expected

Jackson was physically ready to coach the Lakers again, but before he could give them an answer, he received a late night call saying the team had hired Mike D’Antoni. ‘It seemed slimy to be awoken with this kind of news,’ he said.

Column One: Bleakness only a child’s smile can lift

Raza Gul works backbreaking hours in a tiny Afghan bakery to provide for her children, her one source of joy. Without them, there’s only her husband’s opium addiction and worries about the Taliban.

msnbc:

From The Ed Show:

Let the name calling begin. Grover Norquist, founder of Americans for Tax Reform, blamed Mitt Romney’s election loss on the Obama campaign’s painting the Republican candidate as a “poopy-head.”

(Photo: Yuri Gripas/Reuters)

theonion:

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breakingnews:

Total solar eclipse of 2012 begins

Space.com: The last total solar eclipse until 2015 has begun, with the moon’s shadow commencing its three-hour trek across Earth’s surface in far northern Australia.

The total solar eclipse began at 3:35 pm EST today — shortly after dawn Wednesday local time in Australia. Despite some clouds, the eclipse was clearly visible to observers in Cairns, on Queensland’s northeast coast. 

Photo: A view of the partially eclipsed sun from the Slooh Space Camera’s feed based in Port Douglas, just north of Cairns, in Northern Australia on Nov. 13, 2012. (Slooh Space Camera via Space.com)

nbcnews:

Infidelity, intrigue and politics: a timeline of the David Petraeus case

(Photo: Mandel Ngan / AFP - Getty Images)

What began with David Petraeus’ surprise resignation as CIA director on Friday resulting from an extramarital affair has now spiraled into a complicated story of infidelity, intrigue and politics.

To help you keep the facts straight, NBC News has compiled this timeline, based on reporting by NBC News and other published accounts.

Read the complete story.

(via nbcnews)

theonion:

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