Politics

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Italian Premier Mario Monti speaks during a press conference at the Italian Senate in Rome on Dec. 28, 2012. Monti announced he is heading a new campaign coalition made of up centrists, businessmen and pro-Vatican forces, paving the way for his possible return to office if it wins enough seats in February parliamentary elections. (Associated Press)

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Republican Sens. Bob Corker (left) and Lamar Alexander, both of Tennessee, leave a news conference Dec. 28, 2012, on Capitol Hill in Washington where they discuss the fiscal cliff. (Associated Press)

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An Indian police officer (left) sports a cricket helmet Dec. 27, 2012, as fellow policemen stand near barricades and stop protesters on their way to India Gate while protesting against a gang-rape of a young woman in a moving bus in New Delhi. (Associated Press)

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**FILE** Britain's Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher smiles with satisfaction as President Ronald Reagan makes a farewell speech June 9, 1982, outside her Downing Street office in London prior to his departure for Bonn. (Associated Press)

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**FILE** Former President George H.W. Bush and his wife, Barbara, arrive June 12, 2012, for the premiere of HBO's new documentary on his life near the family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine. (Associated Press)

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President Obama waves as he steps off the Marine One helicopter and walks on the South Lawn at the White House in Washington on Dec. 27, 2012, as he returned early from his Hawaii vacation for meetings on the fiscal cliff. (Associated Press)

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**FILE** Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a news conference in Moscow on Dec. 20, 2012. (Associated Press/RIA Novosti, Alexei Nikolsky, Presidential Press Service)

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U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton poses for photographs before a dinner hosted by K. Shanmugam, Singapore's minister for foreign affairs and minister for law, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Singapore on Friday, Nov. 16, 2012. (Associated Press)

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**FILE** Retired Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf testifies Jan. 29, 1997, on Capitol Hill in Washington before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee hearing on the Persian Gulf War illness. (Associated Press)

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**FILE** Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, commander of U.S. troops in the Gulf, gazes from the window of a small jet on his way out to visit U.S. troops in the desert in Saudi Arabia on Jan. 13, 1991. (Associated Press)