Politics

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** FILE ** Palestinians and foreign activists chant slogans as they march with their hands chained together during a protest held in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails in Gaza City, Thursday, Feb. 14, 2013. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

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** FILE ** In this Monday, Jan. 14, 2013, file photo, Afghan President Hamid Karzai speaks during a press conference at the presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Ahmad Jamshid, File)

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** FILE ** Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, arrives at the Capitol after a meeting at the White House between President Barack Obama and the top four congressional leaders hours before billions of dollars in mandatory budget cuts were to start, in Washington, Friday, March 1, 2013. The meeting — lasting less than an hour — yielded no immediate results. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

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Kurdish female members of the Popular Protection Units stand guard at a check point near the northeastern city of Qamishli, Syria, Sunday, March 3, 2013. (AP Photo/Manu Brabo)

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Gov. Martin O’Malley is expected as early as Monday to introduce a bill aimed at funding roads and transit. The proposal, which is expected to include some type of tax increase, would add another item to the governor’s progressive agenda. (Associated Press)

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A widely used hunting shotgun would be banned under a package of gun-control bills sailing through the Colorado legislature. One bill limits ammunition clips and bans firearms that can be converted to hold more. “Everybody who hunts has one; I have three of them,” state Sen. Greg Brophy says. “I can’t imagine a hunter in Colorado that this doesn’t apply to.”

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Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, is calling for the GOP to adopt a more restrained and less interventionist approach to global affairs, and is embracing the sequester cuts to the defense budget that have military hawks in a tizzy. (Associated Press)

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Sen. Marco Rubio, Florida Republican, is advocating a more muscular brand of global leadership and observers said it is significant that he tapped Jamie Fly, an adviser to former President George W. Bush, as a counselor on foreign affairs and national security. (Associated Press)