Does the kind of charcoal you use really make a difference when it comes time to grilling up a tasty steak or other meat on the grill? Yes — but it depends on what you're after. Both briquettes and lump charcoal — a.ka. "natural" hardwood charcoal — have their advantages and disadvantages.

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The Federal Trade Commission is in the early stages of opening an antitrust probe into how Google runs its online display advertising business, according to a report by Bloomberg News citing sources who want to remain anonymous because the FTC has not announced the probe.

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The plan, first announced last year, would break up the company's publishing and entertainment arms, and satisfy investors who are put off by the slow growth of its newspapers.

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Hurricane Sandy devastated the state's coast last fall. But along 80 percent of New Jersey's shore this summer, "you won't notice any difference," says Gov. Chris Christie. He wants tourists to know that.

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Populations of frogs, salamanders and other amphibians are declining at an average rate of 3.7 percent each year, according to a U.S. Geological Survey study released this week.

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"Those who commit sexual assaults are not only committing a crime, they threaten the trust and discipline that make our military strong," he said in his Naval Academy commencement address. Obama challenged graduates to follow "that inner compass that guides you not when the path is easy and obvious, but when it's hard and uncertain."

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President Obama is once again calling for the prison at Guantanamo Bay to be shut down, even though new polls suggest most Americans want it to stay open. But the chorus of critics has gained one surprising member: former Guantanamo Chief Prosecutor Morris Davis. Host Michel Martin talks with Davis about why he now feels the facility should be closed.

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It's the first disclosure of prices in the nation's most populous state for individual health insurance that complies with the Affordable Care Act. The menu of affordable options surprised some consumer advocates and analysts who had been expecting premiums to be much higher.

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Something happened aboard the flight from Lahore, Pakistan, to Manchester, England. Royal Air Force fighters were scrambled and the plane was ordered to land at an airport in Essex.

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Irish banking officials should have known there were problems with the controversial 10-euro coin commemorating James Joyce, according to Ireland's RTE News. The coin misquotes the author's Ulysses, and bears an image of Joyce that his estate did not approve.

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As Lee Rigby's family struggles with grief, they're speaking about the young man's love of life. He was killed Wednesday. Witnesses heard — and recorded — the attackers saying that they were angry about the deaths of Muslims during the wars in Iran and Afghanistan.

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Witnesses say the blast happened in the late afternoon. The sound of shots followed. As night fell, at least two attackers were dead. A small number of civilians had been wounded. Offices of the International Organization for Migration appear to have been targeted.

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Russia and the U.S. have been trying to set up talks aimed at ending more than two years of brutal fighting in Syria. What's still unclear, however, is who would speak for the opponents of President Bashar Assad's regime.

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Residents can now get into their devastated neighborhoods without passing through police checkpoints. Meanwhile, there's word that insurance policies may cover less of the cost of damages than in past disasters.

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Also: Mary Karr on addiction and David Foster Wallace; Maria Semple calls Jonathan Franzen her "big daddy."

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After a truck carrying a heavy load struck the side of a bridge that carries Interstate 5 over the Skagit River north of Seattle, the roadway collapsed. No one was killed. Dan Sligh and his wife were in a pickup. "You just hold on as tight as you can," he says of the fall they took.

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There is some political willingness, but because China is highly decentralized politically, the Communist Party has only limited influence over provincial governments and how they regulate their dirty factories. The powerful state-owned oil companies have also resisted pressure to produce cleaner-burning fuel.

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There is some political willingness, but because China is highly decentralized politically the Communist Party has only limited influence over provincial governments and how they regulate their dirty factories. The powerful state-owned oil companies have also resisted pressure to produce cleaner-burning fuel.

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The National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., just a few miles from where the tornado hit Monday, had warned that bad weather was coming. But experts there say they're surprised the monster storm didn't cause more deaths, and they want to know why.

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A Stanford MBA who used to work for Google returned to Myanmar to be an Internet entrepreneur. But it's tough to start an Internet company in a country where the power goes out every day.

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