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Around the Nation
3:00 am
Thu February 16, 2012

After 20 Years, China's Xi Jinpin Goes Back To Iowa

China vice President Xi Jinping first encountered America through the eyes of Iowans. In 1985, he was just a mid-level Communist Party official on an exchange trip to the Hawkeye State. At a formal dinner Wednesday night, he fondly remembered his initial visit to America.

Latin America
11:01 pm
Wed February 15, 2012

Mexican Cartels Push Meth Beyond U.S. Market

Credit Johan Ordonez / AFP/Getty Images
Mexican police show the drug and weapons seized from Jaime Herrera Herrera, an alleged drug cartel member, in Mexico City on Tuesday.

Mexican Federal Police, some of them covered head to toe in white hazardous-materials suits, paraded Jaime Herrera Herrera in front of the media in handcuffs this week. Officials say he was the methamphetamine mastermind for Mexico's most wanted man, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who runs the powerful Sinaloa cartel.

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Shots - Health Blog
11:01 pm
Wed February 15, 2012

Latest Drug Shortage Threatens Children With Leukemia

Credit iStockphoto.com
Many hospitals are perilously close to running out of a form of methotrexate that's necessary to inject in high doses to treat certain forms of cancer.

It's a new kind of brinksmanship for U.S. doctors: caring for patients with life-threatening diseases when the supply of critical drugs threatens to disappear.

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Law
11:01 pm
Wed February 15, 2012

Age Discrimination Suits Jump, But Wins Are Elusive

Credit Alex Wong / Getty Images
Jack Gross filed an age discrimination suit against his employer when he was demoted in 2003. He lost his case at the U.S. Supreme Court.

Originally published on Thu February 16, 2012 9:53 am

For older Americans looking for work, finding a job can be a tremendous challenge. Someone 55 or older will typically take three months longer to find employment than the average job seeker.

And with more people of all ages looking for work in the slow economy, age discrimination complaints are on the rise — but becoming harder to win.

Employment law experts say that has a lot to do with one particular case: Gross v. FBL Financial Services Inc.

'Persona Non Grata'

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Around the Nation
11:01 pm
Wed February 15, 2012

BP's Oil Slick Set To Spill Into Courtroom

Originally published on Thu February 16, 2012 7:31 am

A federal court in New Orleans is preparing for one of the largest and most complex environmental lawsuits ever to come to court. It stems from the worst oil disaster in U.S. history: the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig nearly two years ago and the resulting oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico.

Testimony is scheduled to begin at the end of the month. The case combines more than 500 lawsuits in one proceeding designed to determine who's responsible for what went wrong.

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