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the terrorists who launched a vicious and cowardly attack," Cameron said.
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Merkel risks setback, challenger seeks boost as state vote kicks off Germany's election year
• BERLIN (AP) -- A major state election on Sunday could shake up the campaign for Germany's national election later this year, with the center-left opposition hoping for a morale-boosting victory over Chancellor Angela Merkel's governing coalition.
• Some 6.1 million people are eligible to vote for a new state legislature in Lower Saxony, which occupies a swathe of northwestern Germany. It's been run for the past decade by a coalition of Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats and the pro-market Free Democrats, the same parties that form the national government.
• The vote is a significant electoral test before national parliamentary elections in September, in which Merkel will seek a third four-year term. She and her party are riding high in polls, but the opposition hopes Lower Saxony will show she is vulnerable.
• Pre-election polls in the state showed a neck-and-neck race between her coalition and the opposition Social Democrats and Greens, who have been struggling to gain traction nationally.
• Much could depend on the performance of Merkel's allies, the Free Democrats, whose support has eroded badly since they joined her national government in 2009. They've failed to win major tax cuts that they once pledged and have taken much of the blame for frequent public bickering in the chancellor's coalition.
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In intimate White House ceremony, Obama to be sworn in Sunday for second term
• WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama takes the oath of office Sunday surrounded by family in an intimate inauguration ceremony at the White House.
• The subdued swearing-in is a function of the calendar and the Constitution, which says presidents automatically begin their new terms at noon on Jan. 20. Because that date fell this year on a Sunday -- a day on which inaugural ceremonies historically are not held -- organizers scheduled a second, public swearing-in for Monday.
• A crowd of up to 800,000 people is expected to gather on the National Mall to witness the second inauguration.
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