Politics

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A poster encouraging Christmas shopping is on display at a Beijing shopping mall. Communist Party leaders Sunday concluded a two-day meeting by pledging continuity with earlier party plans aimed at making China’s economy more productive and spreading prosperity to its poor. The economy is pulling out of its deepest slump since the 2008 global crisis. (Associated Press)

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Voters look for their polling station in Caracas, Venezuela, on Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012, as Venezuelans choose governors and state lawmakers in elections that have become a key test of whether President Hugo Chavez's movement can endure if the leader leaves the political stage. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

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A Free Syrian Army fighter fires his machine gun toward Syrian army positions during an assault on a military base in Tal Sheen, Syria, on Saturday, Dec. 15, 2012. (AP Photo/Manu Brabo)

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An Egyptian woman casts her vote in Cairo on Saturday, Dec. 15, 2012, during a referendum on a disputed constitution drafted by Islamist supporters of President Mohammed Morsi. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

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** FILE ** North Korean military officers bow at an image of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il during a national meeting of top party and military officials on the eve of the first anniversary of Kim's death in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012. The large characters on the vertical banner at left translate as "Hurrah to the Workers' Party of Korea." (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

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FILE - In this Dec. 5, 2012, file photo, House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio walks to a closed-door Republican strategy session, Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2012, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Boehner has been caught up in a monumental struggle over taxes and spending aimed at keeping the country from taking a yearend dive over the "fiscal cliff." President Barack Obama is tugging Boehner one way in pursuit of a budget deal, while conservatives yank the other way, some howling that the speaker already is going wobbly on them and turning vindictive against those in his party who dare disagree. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

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President Barack Obama leaves the podium after speaking about the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., Friday, Dec. 14, 2012, in the briefing room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

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** FILE ** In this July 18, 2012, file photo, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack talks about the drought during a press briefing at the White House in Washington. The fear that federal crop insurance subsidies are becoming fertile ground for big spending cuts in negotiations over the so-called fiscal cliff has rural lawmakers and their leaders shopping for a compromise on a farm bill to protect them. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

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** FILE ** In this Nov. 16, 2012, file photo, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton poses for photographs before a dinner hosted by Singapore's Minister for Foreign Affairs and Law K. Shanmugam, unseen, at Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Singapore. The State Department says Saturday, Dec. 15, 2012, that Clinton, who skipped an overseas trip this past week because of a stomach virus, sustained a concussion after fainting. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

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An Egyptian woman casts her vote at a polling station during a referendum on a disputed constitution drafted by Islamist supporters of President Morsi in Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, Dec. 15, 2012. Egyptians were voting on Saturday on a proposed constitution that has polarized their nation, with Morsi and his Islamist supporters backing the charter, while liberals, moderate Muslims and Christians oppose it. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)