The call from the Central Intelligence Agency came on a December afternoon in 2009 while Gary Anderson was skiing with his three children. It’s about your wife, the agency man said. Standing inside Eagle Rock ski lodge in Pennsylvania, Anderson pleaded for details. The CIA official said simply: Where are you? We’ll meet you. Read full article > >

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For CIA family, a deadly suicide bombing leads to painful divisions

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) was escorted away from a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint at the Nashville airport on Monday after declining to undergo an enhanced security pat-down, the agency said. He later completed the screening process and boarded a later flight. Read full article > >

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Sen. Rand Paul declines TSA pat-down, is escorted from security checkpoint

Ratings agency Moody’s is maintaining France’s top AAA credit rating for now, three days after it was downgraded by another agency.

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Moody’s keeps French AAA rating

A Pentagon pilot program that uses classified National Security Agency data to protect the computer networks of defense contractors has had some success but also has failed to meet some expectations, according to a study commissioned by the Defense Department. Read full article > >

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Cyber defense effort is mixed, study finds

A film has stirred up a dispute in Washington about the information that the filmmakers received from the Central Intelligence Agency and about the timing of the movie’s release.

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Film on Bin Laden Hunt Leads to Pentagon Investigation

The appointment of Richard Cordray as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finally gives the agency the legal standing to supervise payday lenders, money transfer agencies, credit bureaus and debt collectors.

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Appointment Clears Way for Consumer Financial Agency

A federal judge who has accused the Securities and Exchange Commission of negotiating weak settlements in Wall Street cases on Thursday accused the agency of misleading a federal appeals court. U.S. District Court Judge Jed S. Rakoff said the SEC also withheld from him important information that he needed to do his job. Read full article > >

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Federal judge accuses SEC of misleading court

The National Institutes of Health has placed a temporary moratorium on new studies using chimpanzees, it announced Thursday in response to a report that marks nearly all medical research on chimpanzees as scientifically unjustified. “Effective immediately, NIH will not issue any new awards for chimpanzee research” as the agency puts in a place a committee to review research proposals, NIH Director Francis Collins said during a press briefing. Read full article > >

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NIH temporarily bans new chimpanzee research

Partisan warfare has erupted over Richard Cordray, Obama’s nominee to lead a new consumer finance watchdog, whom Republicans filibustered in the Senate last week, raising concerns that the agency would become a “ Stalinist ” enemy of Wall Street. But waiting in the wings is another Obama nominee who’s long raised hackles of the country’s biggest financial institutions. And this time, Republicans have resoundingly embraced him. Read full article > >

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Meet the big-bank critics Republicans love.

The government proposes the closure of 39 Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency regional offices, putting more than 1,200 jobs at risk.

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Job fears over DVLA closures plan

WASHINGTON — Four Nuclear Regulatory commissioners from both parties say they have “grave concerns” about the panel’s chairman, charging that the actions of Gregory Jaczko are “causing serious damage” to the commission and creating a “chilled work environment at the NRC.” In a letter to the White House, the commissioners say Jaczko’s bullying style could adversely affect the agency’s mission to protect health and safety at the nation’s 104 commercial nuclear reactors. Read full article > >

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APNewsBreak: 4 NRC members say they have ‘grave concerns’ about NRC Chairman Jaczko

The European Space Agency says it is ceasing efforts to try to contact Russia’s wayward Mars probe, Phobos-Grunt, after a week-and-a-half of silence.

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Europe ends calls to Mars probe

The chief economist for the International Energy Agency said Monday that current global energy consumption levels put the Earth on a trajectory to warm by 6 degrees Celsius (10.8 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels by 2100, an outcome he called “a catastrophe for all of us.” Fatih Birol spoke as as delegates from nearly 200 countries convened the opening day of annual U.N. climate talks in Durban, South Africa. Read full article > >

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World on track for nearly 11-degree temperature rise, energy expert says

Nobody was hurt after a possible gas explosion led to the partial collapse of two Georgetown businesses, authorities said Thursday afternoon. The collapse happened shortly after 4 p.m. in the 1400 block of Wisconin Avenue NW, according to the District’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency and the city firefighter’s union . Read full article > >

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None hurt after Georgetown building collapse

Concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere rose to yet another high in 2010, according to the UN’s weather agency.

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No let up in greenhouse gas rise