Yahoo! News: Top Stories

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• Senate Dems moving ahead on crucial health vote (AP)

  AP - With no margin for rebellion, Senate Democrats pushed toward a crucial weekend test vote on their sweeping health care bill Friday, and wavering moderates appeared to be falling in line on President Barack Obama's signature issue.

  
  
• Police: NC girl raped, killed on day she was taken (AP)

  AP - A 5-year-old North Carolina girl was raped and killed the same day she was taken from her home, according to an arrest warrant released Friday. Shaniya Davis was sexually assaulted and asphyxiated Nov. 10, the day her mother reported her missing from the trailer park where she was staying, according to the warrant. Authorities embarked on a nearly weeklong search that ended when the girl's body was found dumped off a rural road.

  
  
• Afghan police are weak link in security force (AP)

  AP - Underpaid, under-equipped and under-trained, Afghanistan's 93,000-member police force is the weak link in an ambitious security strategy to hand over defense of the country to Afghans so American and other foreign troops can go home.

  
  
• Floods devastate UK Lake District, much of Ireland (AP)

  AP - Raging floods engulfed northern England's picturesque Lake District on Friday following the heaviest rainfall ever recorded in Britain, killing a police officer and trapping dozens in their swamped homes.

  
  
• Tamiflu-resistant swine flu cluster reported in NC (AP)

  AP - Four North Carolina patients at a single hospital tested positive for a type of swine flu that is resistant to Tamiflu, health officials said Friday. The cases reported at Duke University Medical Center over six weeks make up the biggest cluster seen so far in the U.S.

  
  
• Museum: Galileo's fingers, tooth are found (AP)

  AP - Two fingers and a tooth removed from Galileo Galilei's corpse in a Florentine basilica in the 18th century and given up for lost have been found again, a Florence museum said Friday.

  
  
• Researcher says text proves Shroud of Turin real (AP)

  AP - A Vatican researcher claims a nearly invisible text on the Shroud of Turin proves the authenticity of the artifact revered as Jesus' burial cloth. The claim made in a new book by historian Barbara Frale drew immediate skepticism from some scientists, who maintain the shroud is a medieval forgery.

  
  
• Winfrey: Prayer, careful thought influenced exit (AP)

  AP - Holding back tears, Oprah Winfrey told her studio audience Friday that she would end her show in 2011 after a quarter-century on the air, saying prayer and careful thought led her to her decision.

  
  
• Mich. police nab wrong-way driver twice in 3 days (AP) AP - Authorities in western Michigan arrested a person twice in three days for driving the wrong way down the highway Kalamazoo County deputies said they were alerted about 1:30 a.m. Friday after several people called 911 when they passed the unidentified driver traveling south on northbound U.S. 131.
• Jayson Williams plea hearing delayed indefinitely (AP)

  AP - Retired NBA star Jayson Williams will not be in a New Jersey courtroom Friday to enter a plea in the 2002 shooting death of a hired driver.

  
  
• Moderate Democrat boosts Senate healthcare bill (Reuters)

  Reuters - One of three wavering U.S. Senate Democrats said on Friday he would vote to start the chamber's healthcare debate, bolstering the chances for a broad overhaul one day before its first crucial test.

  
  
• Cautious optimism as job losses slow (Reuters)

  Reuters - The pace of job losses slowed in many U.S. states in October, and the unemployment rate slipped in hard-hit Michigan, the Labor Department said on Friday, hinting the recession may be easing in some areas.

  
  
• New guidelines push back age for Pap smears (Reuters)

  Reuters - Women in the United States should start cervical cancer screening at age 21 and most do not need an annual Pap smear, according to new guidelines issued on Friday that aim to reduce the risk of unnecessary treatment.

  
  
• No Obama decision on Afghan until after Thanksgiving (Reuters) Reuters - President Barack Obama's announcement of a new strategy on Afghanistan will not take place until after the Thanksgiving holiday next week, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Friday.
• More than 20 killed in separate Afghan blasts (Reuters)

  Reuters - A suicide bomber in southwestern Afghanistan killed 17 people Friday, and an Afghan lawmaker escaped a separate blast on the outskirts of Kabul but five of his bodyguards were killed, officials said.

  
  
• Philip Morris ordered to pay $300 million to smoker (Reuters)

  Reuters - A Florida jury on Thursday ordered cigarette maker Philip Morris USA to pay $300 million in damages to a 61-year-old ex-smoker named Cindy Naugle who is wheelchair-bound by emphysema.

  
  
• Somalia to join child rights pact, only U.S. outside (Reuters) Reuters - Somalia has announced it plans to ratify a global treaty aimed at protecting children, leaving the United States as the only country outside the pact, UNICEF said Friday.
• Powers urge Iran to reconsider nuclear offer (Reuters)

  Reuters - Senior officials from six world powers said on Friday they were disappointed Iran had not accepted proposals intended to delay its potential to make nuclear bombs, and urged Tehran to reconsider.

  
  
• EU leaders face flak as new president keeps low profile (AFP)

  AFP - Incoming EU president Herman Van Rompuy kept a low profile Friday as the 27-nation bloc's leaders faced flak for picking him and a little-known British peer to lead a revamped Europe on the world stage.

  
  
• Iran has 'not responded positively' to nuclear offer (AFP)

  AFP - Major world powers expressed disappointment Friday that Iran has "not responded positively" to a plan for resolving the standoff over its nuclear programme or agreed to new talks.