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Telepresence Robots Let Employees 'Beam' into Work

Engineer Dallas Goecker attends meetings, jokes with colleagues and roams the office building just like other employees at his company in Silicon Valley.

But Goecker isn't in California. He's more than 2,300 miles away, working at home in Seymour, Indiana.

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U.S. Petition to Deport Piers Morgan Hits 31,400

More than 31,400 people have signed a petition calling for British CNN host Piers Morgan to be deported from the U.S. over his gun-control views.

Morgan has taken an aggressive stand for tighter U.S. gun laws in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., school shooting. Last week, he called a gun advocate appearing on his "Piers Morgan Tonight" show an "unbelievably stupid man."

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Bethenny Frankel and Husband of 2 Years Separating

Bethenny Frankel and husband Jason Hoppy are separating.

The 42-year-old TV personality, chef, author and entrepreneur told The Associated Press Sunday that the split brings her "great sadness."

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Chelsea Routs Aston Villa 8-0 in Premier League

Chelsea produced its most ruthless attacking display in more than two years on Sunday to crush Aston Villa with a record-equaling 8-0 Premier League victory for the club.

The European champions ripped Villa apart with ease after Fernando Torres headed in the opener after just three minutes, with seven different goal scorers against the relegation-threatened visitors.

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Heat Beats Jazz to Tune up for Christmas Clash

The Miami Heat warmed up for a Christmas Day blockbuster by beating the Utah Jazz 105-89 on Saturday, with LeBron James scoring 30 points.

The Heat's next game is on Christmas Day against the Oklahoma City Thunder in a reprise of last year's NBA finals series.

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Australian Boy's Egg Collection Turns into Snakes

A 3-year-old Australian boy was lucky to escape uninjured after a collection of eggs he found in his yard hatched into a slithering tangle of deadly snakes.

Reptile specialist Trish Prendergast said Friday that young wildlife enthusiast Kyle Cummings could have been killed if he had handled the eastern brown snakes — the world's most venomous species on land after Australia's inland taipan.

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Federal Government Lists 2 Ice Seals as Threatened

Two types of ice seals joined polar bears on Friday on the list of species threatened by the loss of sea ice, which scientists say reached record low levels this year due to climate warming.

Ringed seals, the main prey of polar bears, and bearded seals in the Arctic Ocean will be listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced.

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U.S. Firm in Meningitis Case Eyes Bankruptcy Help

A pharmacy connected to a deadly nationwide meningitis outbreak filed for bankruptcy protection and said it was seeking to set up a fund to pay victims.

Contaminated steroid injections from the New England Compounding Center have been blamed for 39 deaths and 620 illnesses since the outbreak began over the summer. The Chapter 11 filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court on Friday shields the company from the threat of creditor lawsuits while it establishes the fund.

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U.S. Says Fast-Growing Fish Would not Harm Nature

U.S. government health regulators say a genetically modified salmon that grows twice as fast as normal is unlikely to harm the environment, clearing the way for the first approval of a scientifically engineered animal for human consumption.

The Food and Drug Administration on Friday released its environmental assessment of the AquaAdvantage salmon, a faster-growing fish which has been subject to a contentious, yearslong debate at the agency. The document concludes that the fish "will not have any significant impacts on the quality of the human environment of the United States." Regulators also said that the fish is unlikely to harm populations of natural salmon, a key concern for environmental activists.

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Chinese Toad in Candlestick Comes to South Africa

It's a real life Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.

Animal rescue officials in South Africa say they found a toad from China hidden inside a porcelain candlestick.

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