US President Barack Obama defends Ann Romney, the wife of his Republican rival, and says there is “no tougher job” than being a mother.

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Obama weighs in on mothering spat

US President Barack Obama defends Ann Romney, the wife of his Republican rival, and says there is “no tougher job” than being a mother.

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Obama weighs in on mothering spat

After six decades of marriage and his wife’s decline, the author of a poignant essay killed himself and her, too.

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Love That Endured Alzheimer’s Ends in 2 Deaths

Osama Bin Laden fathered four children while on the run, two of them delivered in government hospitals, the wife who bore them says.

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Bin Laden ‘fathered four on run’

The extradition of Shrien Dewani, a Bristol businessman accused of arranging the murder of his wife while on honeymoon, is temporarily halted on mental health grounds.

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Dewani SA extradition is halted

Panorama obtains previous unseen footage of a honeymoon couple in South Africa just hours before the wife, Anni Dewani, was murdered.

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Doubts raised over Dewani murder

Members of a Brooklyn food co-op voted down a controversial motion Tuesday night that would have paved the way for a referendum on the boycott of Israeli-made goods, effectively ending three years of heated internal debate at a community institution usually more concerned with sharing organic recipes than divisive geopolitical issues. The vote at the 16,000-plus member-owned Park Slope Food Co-Op would have brought the co-op one step closer to participating in the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, or BDS. BDS supporters aim to help Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank by boycotting Israeli products and companies that do business with Israel. Those opposing the boycott defeated its supporters in a 1,005 to 653 vote. According to Joe Holtz, one of the organization’s founders, only a few Israeli products are sold at the co-op, including vegan marshmallows, pesto tapenade and Israeli couscous. Yet, the mere possibility of a boycott sparked extensive local media coverage and stoked tension amongst co-op members and New Yorkers on both sides of the issue. “We are saddened to announce that the Park Slope Food Co-op will not be holding a membership-wide referendum on whether to join the international BDS movement,” said a statement on the Web site of a group calling themselves the Park Slope Food Co-Op Members for Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions. “However, despite our loss in tonight’s vote, we have succeeded in one of our goals. BDS has entered into the consciousness of thousands of co-op members and has even made it into mainstream conversations thanks to the huge amount of media coverage.” Peter Raskin, a retired teacher and member of the co-op for 35 years, described a sense of unease that pervaded the co-op in the lead-up to the vote due to the presence of BDS supporters demonstrating outside. He said that while the co-op has long been a place of camaraderie to work and talk food, “this has touched on people’s nerves. I was feeling afraid to tell people I was a co-op member.” Founded in 1973 by a small group of neighborhood residents, the co-op’s rules stipulate that members must work 2 hours and 45 minutes once every four weeks. But Raskin believes the forces behind the BDS movement at the co-op were largely external and, according to him, anti-Semitic. He said that when his wife went shopping recently someone came in from outside the co-op and put a sign over the matzo indicating that it was made in Israel. “It’s Passover season,” Raskin said. “Anyone buying matzo is Jewish, they know it’s made in Israel,” he said. Still, some at the co-op simply wanted to keep food and politics separate. “I think we should just not have an opinion, it’s just too contentious an issue for most people,” Dakkan Abby, a co-op member told CNN affiliate WABC. “It’s too emotional and divides what’s otherwise a pretty united community,” he said. The co-op’s vote even got some attention from Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show” Tuesday night, with correspondent Samantha Bee quipping that in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Park Slope Food Co-Op is perhaps the “one victim of this war that may be the most tragic of all.”

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Brooklyn food co-op votes down boycott of Israeli-made goods

The opening line of Anne Tyler’s 19th novel is self-consciously clever: “The strangest thing about my wife’s return from the dead was how other people reacted.” For a few pages, “ The Beginner’s Goodbye ” sounds like the sort of droll story Jose Saramago might write if he lived in Baltimore. But Tyler drops the spectral comedy almost immediately and returns to Earth with another wry tale of mournful folks with quirky occupations. In other words, it’s like the ghost of an Anne Tyler novel — a little immaterial but with enough residual matter to remind us of what we love about her books in the flesh. Read full article > >

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Anne Tyler’s ‘The Beginner’s Goodbye’: Widower keeps running into his late wife

The opening line of Anne Tyler’s 19th novel is self-consciously clever: “The strangest thing about my wife’s return from the dead was how other people reacted.” For a few pages, “ The Beginner’s Goodbye ” sounds like the sort of droll story Jose Saramago might write if he lived in Baltimore. But Tyler drops the spectral comedy almost immediately and returns to Earth with another wry tale of mournful folks with quirky occupations. In other words, it’s like the ghost of an Anne Tyler novel — a little immaterial but with enough residual matter to remind us of what we love about her books in the flesh. Read full article > >

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Anne Tyler’s ‘The Beginner’s Goodbye’: Widower keeps running into his late wife

The U.S. Army soldier charged with killing 17 Afghan civilians “would not do that,” his wife said.

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Bales’ wife: ‘He would not do that’

A legal defense fund for Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, charged with 17 murders in a shooting rampage in an Afghan village, has been established, his wife said Saturday.

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Soldier’s wife sets up legal defense

Bob Green, a onetime radio DJ who married pop singer and Miss Oklahoma Anita Bryant, was found dead Jan. 26 at his home in Miami Beach. He was 80. Mr. Green managed his wife’s rise to stardom as an entertainer and Florida citrus spokeswoman, then followed her into anti-gay activism, which ultimately destroyed their careers — and marriage in 1980. For more than 30 years, Mr. Green lived quietly, alone and resentful. Read full article > >

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Bob Green, former DJ and ex-husband of Anita Bryant, dies at 80

ROCKLEDGE, Fla. — The nation’s jobless rate has declined to its lowest level in three years, a fact that has left Jamie Bean, an unemployed air-conditioner repairman, feeling more left out than ever. Bean, 36, lost his job in December. Now he is scrambling to keep up with child-support payments to his wife, who is also unemployed. “As it stands now, I can’t afford to get divorced,” he said, managing a wry smile. Read full article > >

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Unemployment drop still leaves low skill workers behind

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

Mitt Romney on Tuesday released documents that show he and his wife had an effective federal tax rate in 2010 of 13.9 percent.

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Romney’s Tax Returns Show How Laws Favor the Wealthy