IHT Rendezvous: Romany Were European 500 Years Earlier Than Previously Thought

LONDON — The Romany people constitute Europe’s largest and, arguably, now its most persecuted minority.A new genetic study published this week suggests their ancestors arrived in Europe from northwestern India in a single wave around 1,500 years ago, half a millennium earlier than previously thought.The international authors of the peer-reviewed paper in Current Biology journal said their study is...

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Susan Powell's Father-in-Law Secretly Took 4,500 Pictures of Her

12/07/2012 at 07:30 PM EST Wrapping up a year that has brought unimaginable frustration and heartbreak, Susan Powell's family marked the three-year anniversary of her disappearance at a ceremony this week near where her two sons are buried."It's a hard time of year," Susan's father, Chuck Cox, tells PEOPLE....

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Smokers celebrate as Wash. legalizes marijuana

SEATTLE (AP) — The crowds of happy people lighting joints under Seattle's Space Needle early Thursday morning with nary a police officer in sight bespoke the new reality: Marijuana is legal under Washington state law.Hundreds gathered at Seattle Center for a New Year's Eve-style countdown to 12 a.m., when the legalization measure passed by voters last month took effect. When the clock struck, they...

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Operators at 311 are accustomed to oddball calls

Just before Thanksgiving a few years back, Raquel Lopez fielded her umpteenth call of the day to find an irate man on the line.Someone...

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Khaled Meshal, the Leader of Hamas, Makes First Visit to Gaza

Wissam Nassar for The New York TimesKhaled Meshal, left, the head of the political bureau of Hamas, arrived for a visit to the Gaza Strip on Friday. With him is Ismail Haniya, Hamas's prime minister in Gaza. RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Khaled Meshal, whom the Israelis tried to assassinate in Jordan in 1997, arrived for his first visit to the Gaza Strip on Friday as head of the political bureau of Hamas, which...

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Taylor Swift & Harry Styles Pack on the PDA at N.Y.C. Party

By Andrea Billups 12/07/2012 at 09:35 AM EST Taylor Swift and Harry Styles leaving the Crosby Hotel Miles Diggs/Splash News Online Their romance is heating up!New couple Taylor Swift and One Direction's Harry Styles stepped out at New York's Crosby Hotel on Thursday...

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Celebrations planned as Wash. legalizes marijuana

SEATTLE (AP) — Legal marijuana possession becomes a reality under Washington state law on Thursday, and some people planned to celebrate the new law by breaking it.Voters in Washington and Colorado last month made those the first states to decriminalize and regulate the recreational use of marijuana. Washington's law takes effect Thursday and allows adults to have up to an ounce of pot — but it bans...

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L.A. literary stalwart selected as city's first poet laureate

Before sitting down for tea in Echo Park, the poet reaches for her iPhone."I have to turn this thing off," she explains, silencing...

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U. S. and Russia to Meet on Syrian Conflict

DUBLIN — A new round of diplomacy on the conflict in Syria will begin on Thursday afternoon when Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations special envoy, hosts an unusual three-way meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov. The session, which is being held on the margins of a meeting on European security, comes amid reports of heightened...

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Grammy Nomination Snubs, Surprises & Surefire Contenders

By PEOPLE Music Critic Chuck Arnold 12/06/2012 at 09:45 AM EST (from left) Frank Ocean, Ed Sheeran and Miguel PictureGroup; WireImage (2) Where was the love for the heartthrobs?That's the biggest question after both Justin Bieber and One Direction – two of this...

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Celebrations planned as Wash. legalizes marijuana

SEATTLE (AP) — Legal marijuana possession becomes a reality under Washington state law on Thursday, and some people planned to celebrate the new law by breaking it.Voters in Washington and Colorado last month made those the first states to decriminalize and regulate the recreational use of marijuana. Washington's law takes effect Thursday and allows adults to have up to an ounce of pot — but it bans...

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Republican Kevin James makes an outsider run for L.A. mayor

A fundraiser put on by heavyweights in Los Angeles' liberal-leaning environmental community should have been a tough crowd for...

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Cheering U.N. Palestine Vote, New York Synagogue Tests Its Members

Congregation B’nai Jeshurun, a large synagogue on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, is known for its charismatic rabbis, its energetic and highly musical worship, and its liberal stances on social causes. But on Friday, when its rabbis and lay leaders sent out an e-mail enthusiastically supporting the vote by the United Nations to upgrade Palestine to a nonmember observer state, the statement...

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Baby Boy on the Way for Love and Theft's Eric Gunderson

Mom & Babies Celebrity Baby Blog 12/05/2012 at 10:00 AM ET Jason Kempin/Getty Wishes really do come true — just ask Eric Gunderson.After announcing he and his wife Emily were expecting a baby, the Love and Theft musician couldn’t hide his high hopes that their firstborn would be a boy.Luckily...

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Longer tamoxifen use cuts breast cancer deaths

Breast cancer patients taking the drug tamoxifen can cut their chances of having the disease come back or kill them if they stay on the pills for 10 years instead of five years as doctors recommend now, a major study finds.The results could change treatment, especially for younger women. The findings are a surprise because earlier research suggested that taking the hormone-blocking drug for longer...

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Secure Communities is optional, Harris says

SAN FRANCISCO — California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris told local law enforcement agencies Tuesday that they were not obligated...

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India Ink: International Olympic Committee Suspends India

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) suspended India’s national Olympic Association on Tuesday because of government interference in its election process, two officials with knowledge of the decision told The Associated Press.After months of warnings, the IOC executive board imposed the sanction when the Indian Olympic Association failed to comply with the world body’s demands for holding independent...

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Prince William Returns to Kate's Side But Queen Elizabeth II Won't Visit

By Phil Boucher and Simon Perry 12/04/2012 at 10:00 AM EST Prince William arrives at King Edward Hospital on Dec. 4 XPosure Prince William returned to the hospital to visit pregnant wife Kate as she spends her second day being treated for severe morning sickness. William – in a purple sweater,...

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Fossil fuel subsidies in focus at climate talks

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Hassan al-Kubaisi considers it a gift from above that drivers in oil- and gas-rich Qatar only have to pay $1 per gallon at the pump."Thank God that our country is an oil producer and the price of gasoline is one of the lowest," al-Kubaisi said, filling up his Toyota Land Cruiser at a gas station in Doha. "God has given us a blessing."To those looking for a global response to climate...

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Chino Hills seeks to close home used by pregnant Chinese women

A Chino Hills residence allegedly housing women from China who want to give birth to U.S.-citizen children is on the verge of...

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Amid Euphoria Over U.N. Vote, Palestinians Still Face Familiar Challenges

Majdi Mohammed/Associated PressPalestinians held pictures of President Mahmoud Abbas  in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Sunday, as they celebrated the recent United Nations vote. RAMALLAH, West Bank — “Now we have become a state!” Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, announced Sunday to a crowd of thousands in the courtyard of his headquarters in this Palestinian city....

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Survivor's Jonathan Penner: I Worked Every Trick I Had

TV Watch Survivor By Steve Helling 12/03/2012 at 09:30 AM EST Competing on Survivor for the third time, Jonathan Penner skated through with few alliances, yet he survived until day 30 by using every trick up his sleeve. He tells PEOPLE how he worked every angle, held no grudges, and had the time of his life.How...

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