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Wednesday, Dec 26, 2012 11:30 AM UTC

10 Things to Know for Today

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Topics: From the Wires,

10 Things to Know for Today William Spengler. (Credit: AP Photo/Monroe County Sheriff's Department)

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and stories that will be talked about today:

1. WHAT THE NEW YORK SHOOTER’S NOTE SAID

William Spengler wanted to burn down the neighborhood and “do what I like doing best, killing people” before shooting at firefighters.

2. SAME WEAPON USED IN NEW YORK AND NEWTOWN

Police in Webster, N.Y., recovered a .223-caliber semiautomatic Bushmaster rifle — the same caliber and make used to kill 26 people at a Connecticut elementary school.

3. TORNADOES FOR CHRISTMAS

The twisters spun across Texas and Alabama, blew the roofs off homes and killed three people.

4. SCARED TO SHOP

Retail spending grew at the slowest pace since the 2008 recession in a holiday season dampened by economic uncertainty.

5. REPUBLICANS LOOKING FOR COMPROMISE

After President Obama’s re-election, many are willing to bend on immigration, taxes and gun issues.

6. BACK TO THE OLD IN JAPAN

Shinzo Abe was voted back into office, restoring power to the conservatives that ran Japan for most of the post-World War II era.

7. CRASH LANDING FOR CHRISTMAS TOURISTS

A flight headed for a popular spot in Myanmar slammed into a road, killing at least two people and injuring 11.

8. A DIRECTOR AND ACTOR, BUT NOT A POLITICIAN

Ben Affleck took himself out of the running for U.S. Sen. John Kerry’s Massachusetts seat.

9. EASY TO GET A ROOM FOR INAUGURATION

Obama’s Jan. 21 second-term festivities are expected to draw up to 800,000 visitors, down from 1.8 million in 2008.

10. HERO DOG FROM PHILIPPINES BEATS CANCER

Kabang, who lost her snout when she jumped in front of a motorcycle to save two young girls, is in remission after six weeks of chemotherapy.

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  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

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