Social Issues

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A mounted police officer pushes protesters back during a protest against an increase in tuition fees on the edge of Parliament Square in London, Thursday, Dec. 9, 2010. Police clashed with protesters marching to London's Parliament Square as lawmakers debated a controversial plan to triple university tuition fees in England. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

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A police officer pushes a protester during a protest against an increase in tuition fees on the edge of Parliament Square in London, Thursday, Dec. 9, 2010. Police clashed with protesters marching to London's Parliament Square as lawmakers debated a controversial plan to triple university tuition fees in England. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

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British police medics carry an injured protester away, as thousands of students demonstrate outside the Houses of Parliament in London Thursday Dec. 9, 2010, during a protest against an increase in university tuition fees(AP Photo/Sang Tan)

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Claes Borgstrom, the lawyer for the two women who claim to have been sexually assaulted by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in Sweden in August, talks to media at his office in Stockholm on Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2010. Mr. Borgstrom, whose office is under police protection, denied that the case had anything to do with WikiLeaks or the current U.S. interest in Mr. Assange. (AP Photo/Anders Wiklund)

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POINTED REMARKS: At a news conference Tuesday, President Obama likened the GOP to hostage-takers, hearkening back to his accusations that Republicans were holding middle-class tax cuts "hostage." (Associated Press)

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Sen. George V. Voinovich, Ohio Republican, a budget hawk, said he will vote against the compromise. (Associated Press)

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Entertainer Bill Cosby, left, and broadcaster Tom Brokaw talk during a news conference for the 2010 National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame Awards, in New York, Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2010. Cosby, who played football at Temple University is the 2010 NFF Gold Medal recipient. Brokaw is the 2010 NFF Distinguished American Award recipient. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

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WikiLeaks founder Julian P. Assange (head turned) is driven into Westminster Magistrates Court in London on Tuesday after being arrested on a European Union warrant. He appeared for an extradition hearing in connection with sexual assault allegations in Sweden involving two women. He vowed to fight extradition and was ordered held. (Associated Press)

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Palestinian refugees in Lebanon displaced by war more than three years ago live in temporary apartments that residents say are cramped, musty and bug- and rodent-infested. The U.N. relief agency is far short of the funding needed to rebuild. (Heather Murdock/Special to The Washington Times)

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Few residents of the haphazard refugee camp have any hope of moving home someday, but many still hold on to keys to the houses their families fled in the wars of 1948 and 1967. (Heather Murdock/Special to The Washington Times)

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** FILE ** Jeffrey Zarrillo (left) and Paul Katami, plaintiffs in the Proposition 8 gay-marriage case, are seen outside the federal courthouse before a hearing in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday, Dec. 6, 2010, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

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Protesters clash with riot police during a rally in Athens on Monday, Dec. 6, 2010. Youths hurled rocks and oranges at a government building in central Athens during a student protest to mark two years since the fatal police shooting of a teenage boy that sparked Greece's worst riots in decades. Police closed roads and deployed several thousand officers around the city but maintained a minimal presence at the site where some 1,500 students gathered outside Athens University's main buildings. (AP Photo/Alkis Konstantinidis)

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Youths throw stones at riot police during a rally in Athens on Monday, Dec. 6, 2010. The protest mared two years since the fatal police shooting of a teenage boy that sparked Greece's worst riots in decades. Police closed roads and deployed several thousand officers around the city but maintained a minimal presence at the site where some 1,500 students gathered outside Athens University's main buildings. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

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A youth with a bag attacks a riot policeman during a rally in Athens on Monday, Dec. 6, 2010. Youths hurled rocks and oranges at a government building in central Athens during a student protest to mark two years since the fatal police shooting of a teenage boy that sparked Greece's worst riots in decades. Police closed roads and deployed several thousand officers around the city but maintained a minimal presence at the site where some 1,500 students gathered outside Athens University's main buildings. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

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A youth attacks a riot policeman during a rally in Athens on Monday, Dec. 6, 2010. Youths hurled rocks and oranges at a government building in central Athens during a student protest to mark two years since the fatal police shooting of a teenage boy that sparked Greece's worst riots in decades. Police closed roads and deployed several thousand officers around the city but maintained a minimal presence at the site where some 1,500 students gathered outside Athens University's main buildings. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

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A riot policeman reacts during clashes with protesters in Athens, Monday, Dec. 6, 2010. Youths hurled rocks and oranges at a government building in central Athens during a student protest to mark two years since the fatal police shooting of a teenage boy that sparked Greece's worst riots in decades. Police closed roads and deployed several thousand officers around the city but maintained a minimal presence at the site where some 1,500 students gathered outside Athens University's main buildings. (AP Photo/Alkis Konstantinidis)

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Pakistani security officials survey the site of suicide bombing in the compound of a government office in Ghalanai, the main town in Pakistani tribal area Mohmand, Monday, Dec. 6, 2010. A pair of suicide bombers disguised as policemen killed many people in an attack targeting a tribal meeting called to discuss the formation of an anti-Taliban militia, in Pakistani tribal area of Mohmand. (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad)

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ALMOST EYE TO EYE: Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin (left), Illinois Democrat, and Minority Whip Jon Kyl, Arizona Republican, discuss lame-duck legislation issues Sunday on "Face the Nation." (Associated Press)

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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, is optimistic about reaching agreement with the Democrats about extending the Bush-era tax cuts. "I'm optimistic it'll come together," he said Sunday. "It's pretty clear taxes are not going up on anybody in the middle of this recession." (Associated Press)

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** FILE ** A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent inspects a tunnel that authorities discovered Nov. 25, 2010, and say was used to smuggle drugs from Mexico to an Otay Mesa warehouse in San Diego. (Associated Press)