DES MOINES — Four years ago, Iowa was awash in presidential candidates crisscrossing the state. Campaign headquarters were packed with staffers and volunteers. The airwaves were clogged with political commercials. Excitement was palpable. Today, everything seems different. Iowa still holds its coveted position as the state whose caucuses will mark the opening of the Republican presidential nomination process. What happens here Jan. 3 will still have a major impact on the Republican race . But at least for this presidential cycle, Iowa has lost much of the unique character that has marked previous campaigns. Read full article > >

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Iowa caucuses are still first, but are they no longer foremost?

For the opening of a store on Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade, Apple has gone to extremes to ensure secrecy. The behavior has perplexed and infuriated officials in the California city.

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Secrecy surrounds new Apple store

Dance act Underworld are appointed music directors for the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics, working alongside director Danny Boyle.

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Olympic role for Underworld duo

More than 10,000 people have auditioned to take part in the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, organisers say.

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10,000 vie for 2012 ceremony role

England face France, Sweden and co-hosts Ukraine in their opening games of Euro 2012, while Republic of Ireland are drawn against Spain, Italy and Croatia.

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England to face France at Euros

The Georgetown men’s basketball team played its first game since coming back from a holiday tournament in Hawaii, and for a good chunk of the opening half against Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis on Monday, the Hoyas appeared lodged in vacation mode. Then shortly before intermission, Georgetown cranked it up defensively, got scoring contributions from five players during a decisive run bridging the halves and coasted to an 81-58 victory before 6,854 at Verizon Center. Read full article > >

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Georgetown vs. IUPUI: Hoyas pull away from Jaguars, 81-58

North Carolina had the hot hand in the opening half. The top-ranked Tar Heels couldn’t get anything going in the second.

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Top-Ranked Tar Heels Stunned by UNLV, 90-80

KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan President Hamid Karzai called Wednesday on elders assembled for a national conference to help create a fair framework for relations with the U.S. and find a path to peace for the turbulent country. Karzai spoke at the opening of a “loya jirga,” or grand council, which will discuss a proposed strategic partnership with the United States that would oversee the American military presence here as troops draw down, as well as possible peace talks with the Taliban. Read full article > >

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Karzai urges Afghan elders as loya jirga starts to help create framework for relations with US

Until the third period, it looked like the Washington Capitals might find a way to squeak out a positive result in a game in which they had been consistently sloppy in their own end and relied on goaltender Michal Neuvirth to prevent the Dallas Stars from taking a commanding lead. After visiting Dallas rattled off three goals in the opening 8 minutes 5 seconds of the final frame, though, there was no doubt that the Capitals’ defensive miscues had caught up to them. The Stars captured a 5-2 victory in the lone meeting between the two teams in the 2011-12 regular season, handing Washington its second consecutive loss. Read full article > >

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Capitals vs. Stars: Dallas scores three times in the third period to hand Washington fourth defeat in six games

Fifteen years after his death, Saul Bass remains a revered figure in the world of film, where he was known for the opening sequences to movies like “Vertigo,’’ “Psycho,’’ and “West Side Story.”

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Design: Saul Bass Made the Title Sequence Into a Film Star

In the opening pages of this powerful, assured first novel, a desperate mother throws her baby into a river. An act of madness? Quite the contrary. It is the only possible way to save the child’s life. Packed with violence and death, yet wonderfully serene in its tone, Andrew Krivak’s “The Sojourn” — shortlisted for this year’s National Book Award — reminds us that one never knows from where the blow will fall and that, always, in the midst of life we are in death: Read full article > >

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Andrew Krivak’s ‘The Sojourn,’ reviewed by Michael Dirda

Town councillors in Porthmadog are to boycott the opening of a £35m bypass after invitations were sent out only in English.

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Boycott after language omission

Town councillors in Porthmadog are to boycott the opening of a £35m bypass after invitations were sent out only in English.

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Boycott after language omission

Shortly after 9:30 Tuesday morning, a small hatch opened on the south face of the Washington Monument just beneath its peak, about 550 feet above the ground. A damp wind blew from the west, and low clouds outlined the dirty white obelisk as passersby began to turn their eyes and cameras skyward. Then, David Megerle, in a yellow hard hat, blue polo shirt and tan cargo pants, slithered out of the opening. From the ground, he looked like a large bug crawling over the marble “pyramidium” at the top of the monument. Read full article > >

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Team starts external inspection of Washington Monument

For local music fans, the geography of concertgoing has been fairly straightforward over the past decade: Go to the U Street area for the hottest names on the rock circuit and visit Northern Virginia for your twangier, folkier, countrier sounds. But the opening of the Fillmore Silver Spring shifts things considerably in the realm of local rock clubs. Read full article > >

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How the new Fillmore stacks up against the top 10 music clubs in D.C.