Retailers' sales rose 0.6 percent last month and gasoline stations turned in their biggest jump in sales since May.
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Reuters - Gov. Sarah Palin on Wednesday signed a bill giving the state authority to award TransCanada Corp a license to build and operate a multibillion-dollar pipeline to ship natural gas from the North Slope.
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People should not be offered "excuses" for being overweight, shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley says.
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Two humanitarian workers from France were kidnapped in Afghanistan, taken from their home at gunpoint. The aid group, Action Against Hunger, believes they are still alive.
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Sure, former "Eurythmics" singer/songwriter Dave Stewart has "traveled the world and the seven seas," but there is always new territory to be covered.
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How to contact the BBC News website education team
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A deer with a single horn in the center of its head - much like the fabled, mythical unicorn - has been spotted in a nature preserve in Italy, park officials said.
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Embattled Dutch scientist claims to have found new species of peccary measuring over four feet, nearly twice the size of others of its genus.
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AREQUIPA, Peru (Reuters) - A magnitude 6.2 earthquake shook southern Peru early on Tuesday, killing at least one person in the Andean country's second-largest city, Arequipa, and damaging scores of homes.

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Chicago, Madrid, Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro are shortlisted by the International Olympic Committee to host the 2016 Olympic Games.
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Red Sox DH David Ortiz has live cage session for first time since May 31st.
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former supermodel Christie Brinkley wanted the world to hear the sordid details of her New York divorce trial, and a Manhattan-based actress took to YouTube to tell the world about her failed marriage.

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Animal welfare groups claim drug addicts are breeding Staffordshire Bull Terriers to fund their habits.
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Newly released files show that Winston Churchill was urged to keep Britain's Special Operations Executive going in peacetime.
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UBS has won another round in its fight with Vestra, the start-up wealth manager that the Swiss bank claimed was trying to hijack its staff and clients. David Guild, one of the four bankers it took to court for conspiracy, has decided to stay with UBS after all. But the real winner in the affair may be Cheviot Asset Management, another wealth manager founded in 2006 by Michael Kerr-Dineen, formerly UBS's top UK private banker. Cheviot has been asking for reprints of press coverage of the Vestra case, presumably to send to clients.
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LOCH LOMOND (Reuters) - Phil Mickelson, effectively world number one with Tiger Woods likely to be sidelined by injury for the rest of the season, goes into this week's Scottish Open with two targets in mind. The American left-hander wants to make up for losing last year's playoff to Frenchman Gregory Havret on the banks of Loch Lomond and is also keen to make sure his game is in top shape for the British Open which follows at Royal Birkdale. "Next week is in everybody's mind but part of getting ready is performing well this week, playing well and hitting shots sharply and crisply," the 38-year-old Mickelson told reporters on Wednesday. "I have also really enjoyed playing this tournament the last few years. I came so close to winning last year and I am hoping to improve on that this time." Mickelson said he had already laid the foundations for his British Open title challenge. "I arrived on Sunday morning at Birkdale and I spent three days over there,"...
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The Saints and wide receiver Marques Colston have agreed to a three-year contract extension.

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With the number of tourists in Rome down by 5 per cent this summer — thanks to the credit crunch and the strong euro — the city fathers have come up with a scheme to bring back the crowds: a Disneyland-style theme park depicting life in Ancient Rome, complete with gladiators and Julius Caesar.
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