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Clinton discharged from NYC hospital

NEW YORK, Jan. 2 (UPI) -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was discharged Wednesday from a New York hospital after treatment for a blood clot on her brain, the State Department said.

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"She's eager to get back to the office," Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Philippe Reines said in a statement, NPR reported. "Her medical team advised her that she is making good progress on all fronts, and they are confident she will make a full recovery."

Clinton, 65, who checked in to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Sunday with a blood clot -- apparently caused when she fell and suffered a concussion -- had been seen earlier Wednesday walking to a waiting van outside the hospital, driven by her security detail, the New York Post reported.

Clinton was treated with blood thinners during her hospital stay and was expected to make a full recovery, doctors have said.

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State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Clinton had been working from her hospital bed, even though she hasn't been seen in public since Dec. 7.

"She's been quite active on the phone with staff and taking paper, etc.," Nuland said.

Clinton fell at her Washington home last month after suffering dehydration because of a stomach virus. The illness forced her to cancel some foreign travel and testimony before Congress.


Aurora victims boycott theater reopening

AURORA, Colo., Jan. 2 (UPI) -- Families of victims slain in the Aurora, Colo., theater shootings in July said theater reopening plans are insensitive and they will boycott them.

A dozen family members said in a December letter to Cinemark, the Plano, Texas, company that owns the Aurora theater, they were shocked by invitations they received via email through the Colorado Organization for Victim Assistance for "you and a guest to a special evening of remembrance on Thursday, Jan. 17," The Denver Post reported Wednesday.

The invitation said counselors would be available at the theater during the event, and victims and their families may visit the theater Jan. 15 and 16, prior to the theater's reopening.

James Holmes, 25, of Aurora is accused of shooting and killing 12 people and injured at least 58 when he opened fire in the movie complex's Theater 9.

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Theater 9 is being converted into an XD theater with a screen that will take up the whole wall, the Post reported.

Sandy Phillips, the mother of Jessica Ghawi, slain when a gunman opened fire during the July 20 sold-out midnight showing of a Batman movie, said, "None of us received a letter of condolence or any other communication from Cinemark, but now they want us to step foot in that theater."

The movie theater has been closed since the shooting, the Post reported.


Archbishop of Westminster halts gay masses

LONDON, Jan. 2 (UPI) -- Great Britain's archbishop of Westminster, who opposes a government bill on same-sex marriage, said a London church's masses for gay Catholics would be ended.

Archbishop Vincent Nichols said the masses at Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Soho were out of line with the church's main teaching on sexuality, the BBC reported Wednesday.

"The moral teaching of the church is that the proper use of our sexual faculty is within a marriage, between a man and a woman, open to the procreation and nurturing of new human life," Nichols said.

Nichols added, "As I stated in March 2012, this means that many types of sexual activity, including same-sex sexual activity, are not consistent with the teaching of the church."

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Ruth Hunt, a Catholic and the director of public affairs of London's Stonewall gay rights charity, said: "Given what's happened over Christmas, where there were vitriolic and mean messages from the pulpit about same-sex marriage, there has never been a more important time to provide a safe space for gay Catholics to pray."

Nichols previously said the government's gay marriage bill is "undemocratic" and a "shambles."


Putin raises retirement age to 70

MOSCOW, Jan. 2 (UPI) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin raised the nation's retirement age to 70, the Kremlin said on its website Wednesday.

Putin, 60, introduced the measure in September, after his predecessor Dmitry Medvedev, 47, lowered the retirement age to 60 in most cases in an attempt to rejuvenate the nation's bureaucracy, RIA Novosti said.

"The introduction of this rule will allow us keeping highly qualified and experienced civil servants as upper level personnel in the federal civil service," the statement said.

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