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• "We want to emphasize to the public, this is not some distant problem of the future. This is a problem that is affecting Americans right now," Obama told "Today" show weathercaster Al Roker. "Whether it means increased flooding, greater vulnerability to drought, more severe wildfires -- all these things are having an impact on Americans as we speak."
• Climate change's assorted harms "are expected to become increasingly disruptive across the nation throughout this century and beyond," the National Climate Assessment concluded, emphasizing the impact of too-wild weather as well as simple warming.
• Still, it's not too late to prevent the worst of climate change, says the 840-page report, which the Obama administration is highlighting as it tries to jump-start often-stalled efforts to curb heat-trapping gases. Said White House science adviser John Holdren, "It's a good-news story about the many opportunities to take cost-effective actions to reduce the damage."
• Release of the report, the third edition of a congressionally mandated study, gives Obama an opportunity to ground his campaign against climate change in science and numbers, endeavoring to blunt the arguments of those who question the idea and human contributions to such changes. Later this summer, the administration plans to propose new regulations restricting gases that come from existing coal-fired power plants.
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• BEIRUT (AP) -- Hundreds of Syrian rebels on Wednesday began evacuating their last bastions in the central city of Homs under a ceasefire deal struck last week with government forces, opposition activists and the city's governor said.
• The exit of some 1,200 fighters from rebel strongholds in Homs will mark a de-facto end of the rebellion in the battered city, which was one of the first places to rise up against President Bashar Assad's rule, earning its nickname as "the capital of the revolution."
• Around mid-morning Wednesday, dozens of fighters boarded five buses that arrived at the police command on the edge of the rebel-held areas ahead of the evacuation, opposition activists said. Afterward, two of the buses left the city, heading north.
• An activist who goes by the name of Abu Yassin al-Homsi said all fighters and

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