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The government is replacing its food guide pyramid with a simpler everyday symbol: a plate. And many nutritionists are applauding the change. The exact look of the new symbol, which is being unveiled Thursday by first lady Michelle Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, is under close wraps.

A court ordered the dissolving of Egypt's former ruling party on Saturday, meeting a major demand of the protesters who wanted to ensure that the party that monopolized the country's politics and government for decades is definitively broken after the fall of President Hosni Mubarak.

From cradle to grave, minority populations tend to suffer poorer health and get poorer health care than white Americans.

The U.S. government's new system to replace the five color-coded terror alerts will have two levels of warnings - elevated and imminent - that will be relayed to the public only under certain circumstances for limited periods of time, sometimes using Facebook and Twitter, according to a draft Homeland Security Department plan obtained by The Associated Press....

A federal shutdown looming Friday would stop processing of paper income tax filings to the IRS – at the height of tax season – and throw into question how cargo will be processed at the nation’s ports of entry and whether new claims for Social Security benefits will be authorized.

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) on Tuesday said that he was “very concerned” about the status of negotiations on keeping the federal government funded past an April 8 deadline, saying that prospects for a government shutdown have increased since two weeks ago.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad accepted the resignation of the government on Tuesday, Syrian state television said.

The House passed the second stopgap spending measure this month, funding the government for three more weeks while cutting $6 billion.

Egypt's transition to democracy after 30 years of authoritarian rule faces a major test on Saturday when Egyptians vote in a referendum on amendments to the constitution. Opponents are pushing heavily for a "no" vote, saying the changes don't go far enough and that the ruling military is rushing the process.

The government posted a record monthly budget deficit of $222.5 billion in February as spending growth outstripped revenue gains that were crimped by tax cuts enacted late last year, the Treasury Department reported on Thursday.