Politics

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Xi Jinping, China’s newly appointed leader, is expected to focus early in his tenure on curbing the communist nation’s rampant corruption and re-energizing a slowing economy. Mr. Xi is not expected to project a softer image when it comes to human rights. (Associated Press)

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Union workers rally Dec. 6, 2012, outside the Capitol in Lansing, Mich., as Senate Republicans introduced right-to-work legislation in the waning days of the legislative session. The outnumbered Democrats pledged to resist the proposal and said rushing it through the legislative system would poison the state's political atmosphere. (Associated Press)

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Union workers hold up signs during a rally outside the Capitol in Lansing, Mich., on Thursday, Dec. 6, 2012, as Republican lawmakers introduced right-to-work legislation in the waning days of the legislative session. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

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**FILE** Pro-union demonstrators crowd the Rotunda of the Michigan Capitol in Lansing to chant against right-to-work legislation on Dec. 5, 2012. (Associated Press/Detroit News)

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Policemen stand guard near the scene where Afghan intelligence chief Asadullah Khalid was wounded in an assassination attempt in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Thursday, Dec. 6, 2012. (AP Photo/Ahmad Jamshid)

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Brazil's National Congress building in Brasilia, the nation's capital, was designed by architect Oscar Niemeyer and inaugurated in 1960. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

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Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton pauses during a news conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2012. (AP Photo/Kevin Lamarque, Pool)

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Lt. j.g. Luke Leveque, assigned to the Gold crew of the ballistic missile submarine USS Maryland (SSBN 738), pins the submarine officer warfare device on his wife, Lt. j.g. Marquette Leveque, assigned to the Gold crew of the ballistic missile submarine USS Wyoming (SSBN 742), at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay on Dec. 5, 2012. Leveque is one of three sailors to become the first female unrestricted line officers to qualify in submarines. (Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class James Kimber/U.S. Navy)