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Gun legislation that advocacy groups call the strongest and most comprehensive to be taken up across the nation moved closer to passage early Thursday as the Connecticut House approved the tough gun measure. The vote, 105-44, followed passage by the state Senate a day earlier. The bill, which is expected to be signed by Gov. Dannel Malloy, would make Connecticut the third state to pass such a tough measure following the December rampage in Newtown at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Many portions would take effect immediately. New York and Colorado passed gun-control legislation limiting magazine capacity, among other provisions. According to a draft of the bill, the Connecticut measure would add more than 100 types of guns to the state's list of banned assault weapons; limit the capacity of ammunition magazines to 10 rounds; ban armor-piercing bullets; require background checks for all firearms sales, including at gun shows; establish safety standards for school buildings; and expand mental health research in the state.
In Other News • North Korea kept tensions simmering around its borders Thursday, reportedly moving a medium-range missile to its east coast. The day before, the United States had announced it was sending ballistic missile defenses to Guam, a Western Pacific territory that's home to U.S. naval and air bases. North Korea has cited those bases among possible targets for missile attacks. The U.S. military has also already moved two warships and a sea-based radar platform near to the Korean Peninsula to monitor possible missile activity. • The French Senate will debate a controversial bill Thursday that would extend the right to marry and adopt to same-sex couples. The lower house has already approved the legislation. • Rutgers University fired head basketball coach Mike Rice after ESPN broadcast a video showing him physically and verbally abusing players. • Brian Banks who was a prison inmate for more than five years, had been serving time for a rape he didn't commit. Ten months after a California judge tossed out his conviction, the 27-year-old former high school football standout signed a deal Wednesday to play for the Atlanta Falcons. At age 17, fearing a potentially long sentence, the college football prospect followed the advice of his attorney and pleaded no contest to assaulting a Long Beach, California, high school classmate in 2002. Later, the woman who once accused him of rape sent him a Facebook friend request. According to the California Innocence Project, the woman then admitted that Banks had not kidnapped or raped her during a consensual encounter at Long Beach Polytechnic High School, where Banks was a middle linebacker with a scholarship offer from the University of Southern California. Since his exoneration, Banks has spent months in intensive training, attending San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks minicamps last year. • "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno announced he was passing the baton to Jimmy Fallon. Fallon will replace Leno in spring 2014.
