Simon Cowell Calls Sandy Hook Tribute the Hardest Thing He's Done on TV

By Tim Nudd 12/20/2012 at 10:05 AM EST Simon Cowell introducing the Sandy Hook Tribute It takes a lot to bring out Simon Cowell's softer side.But the normally acerbic X Factor judge choked up Wednesday night as he introduced the show's emotional tribute to the Sandy Hook shooting victims...

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AP IMPACT: Steroids loom in major-college football

WASHINGTON (AP) — With steroids easy to buy, testing weak and punishments inconsistent, college football players are packing on significant weight — 30 pounds or more in a single year, sometimes — without drawing much attention from their schools or the NCAA in a sport that earns tens of billions of dollars for teams.Rules vary so widely that, on any given game day, a team with a strict no-steroid...

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Wall Street ticks lower on "fiscal cliff" stalemate

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks edged slightly lower on Thursday as investors fretted that a deal on the U.S. budget wouldn't come as soon as they had hoped after President Barack Obama threatened to veto a controversial Republican plan. The market barely reacted to a round of strong data, including on gross domestic product growth and housing, suggesting talks to avert the "fiscal cliff,"...

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Aleppo Residents, Battered by War, Struggle to Survive

The Fight for Aleppo: In Syria’s largest city, a sustained and pitched battle between rebels and the Syrian army has left the city in ruins.ALEPPO, Syria — Inside the classrooms where they once studied, the boys darted like a pack. Their banging and clanking could be heard for a city block. The playground outside had been hit by a Syrian Air Force airstrike, which fractured the school’s walls....

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Little Big Town, LeAnn Rimes to Duet with X Factor Finalists

TV Watch The X Factor By Andrea Billups 12/19/2012 at 10:40 AM EST from left: Fifth Harmony, Tate Stevens and Carly Rose Sonenclar Ray Mickshaw/FOX It's down to the wire for this season's The X Factor as teen sensation Carly Rose Sonenclar, country crooner Tate...

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Experts: Kids are resilient in coping with trauma

WASHINGTON (AP) — They might not want to talk about the gunshots or the screams. But their toys might start getting into imaginary shootouts.Last week's school shooting in Connecticut raises the question: What will be the psychological fallout for the children who survived?For people of any age, regaining a sense of security after surviving violence can take a long time. They're at risk for lingering...

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Wall Street steadies after two-day rally; Oracle gains

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks were little changed on Wednesday as investors found scant reason to continue buying following the best two-day rally for the S&P in a month. The Nasdaq notched slight gains, helped by technology shares following strong results at Oracle Corp . The S&P added 2.3 percent over the past two sessions, the first time it has notched two straight...

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Ancient Bones That Tell a Story of Compassion

Lorna TilleyDISABLED Almost all the other skeletons at the Man Bac site, south of Hanoi, are straight. But the man now called Burial 9 was laid to rest curled in a fetal position that suggests lifelong paralysis. While it is a painful truism that brutality and violence are at least as old as humanity, so, it seems, is caring for the sick and disabled. And some archaeologists are suggesting...

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Miley Cyrus Keeps Warm with Liam Hemsworth on Film Set

12/18/2012 at 10:10 AM EST Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth Gilbert Carrasquillo/Splash News Online The warmth of love kept Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth happy on a cold night Monday in Philadelphia, as she flew in from Los Angeles to visit her fiancé on the set...

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Experts: No link between Asperger's, violence

NEW YORK (AP) — While an official has said that the 20-year-old gunman in the Connecticut school shooting had Asperger's syndrome, experts say there is no connection between the disorder and violence.Asperger's is a mild form of autism often characterized by social awkwardness."There really is no clear association between Asperger's and violent behavior," said psychologist Elizabeth Laugeson, an assistant...

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