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Nation and World

Abandoned gold bars baffle German police

Attention all passengers: Could the person who left a stash of gold bars and a pile of banknotes in the luggage deposit at Cologne’s main railway station kindly contact German police?

Maryland gun-control law sparks record gun sales

Maryland residents have been buying guns in record numbers before a law takes effect Tuesday, with provisions aimed at helping keep guns away from criminals and the mentally ill, strengthening safety training and banning 45 types of assault weapons.

 
Budget battle: Showdowns could squeeze the US economy

Just as the U.S. economy is struggling to expand at a healthy pace, a pair of political standoffs threatens to slow growth and spook investors.

Chinese doctor builds new nose on man’s forehead

A surgeon in China says he has constructed an extra nose out of a man’s rib cartilage and implanted it under the skin of his forehead to prepare for a transplant in probably the first operation of its kind.

THE LATEST
Google’s ‘Hummingbird’ hatches new search formula

Google has quietly retooled the closely guarded formula running its Internet search engine to give better answers to the increasingly complex questions posed by Web surfers.

 
UN votes to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons

The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Friday night to secure and destroy Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile, a landmark decision aimed at taking poison gas off the battlefield in the escalating 2 1/2-year conflict.

Shutdown looming: Weekend showdown at the Capitol

Time running short, the Democratic-controlled Senate passed urgent legislation Friday to avert a government shutdown early next week, and President Barack Obama lectured House Republicans to stop “appeasing the tea party” and quickly follow suit.

Michigan appeals court allows hit man to testify

A convicted hit man will have the opportunity to testify and possibly clear a young man in a quadruple-killing at a Detroit drug house under a Michigan Court of Appeals decision released Friday.

 
Shutdown impact: Tourists, homebuyers hit quickly

If the government “shuts down” next Tuesday, your mail will still come. Doctors will see Medicare patients. NASA will keep talking to the astronauts circling Earth on the Space Station. In fact, the majority of government will remain on the job.

US mom, 5 kids survive Kenya mall attack

A U.S. woman and her five children survived when an armed gunmen burst into a Kenya mall just after noon last Saturday, the start of a four-day attack that killed more than 60 shoppers.

Official says Kenyan forces caused mall collapse

Kenya’s military caused the massive collapse of three floors of Nairobi’s Westgate Mall during the terrorist siege in which at least 67 people died, a top-ranking government official said Friday.