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Several people were reportedly injured after an explosion near an Istanbul subway station.

The cause of the blast is still unknown and police investigations are underway, a police official told Reuters.

Turkey’s Haberturk TV reported the explosion was apparently triggered by a power transformer, but Turkish broadcaster NTV said the explosion may have been caused by a bomb on an overpass.

A municipal official told Reuters that train operations had been suspended at the Bayrampasa metro station after a loud noise was heard.

The Mayor of the Bayrampasa district of Istanbul said the explosion was triggered by a pipe bomb, Bloomberg reported.

Haberturk TV earlier reported that one person had been killed in the explosion near the Bayrampasa station on the European side of Istanbul.

Reports said the explosion was audible from several different parts of the city.

Reuters reporters: Asli Kandemir, David Dolan, Can Sezer, Birsen Altayli

SEE ALSO: The US will push NATO members to do more to protect Turkey

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JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The newly elected mayor of Alaska’s capital city was found dead at his Juneau home, and police are investigating a range of possible causes.

The Juneau Police Department released few details on Stephen “Greg” Fisk’s death but called rumors of an assault “speculation.” Fisk’s adult son found his body Monday and alerted authorities, police said in a statement.

An attack is “one of the possibilities out there, but there’s others that could have happened,” Police Chief Bryce Johnson told the Juneau Empire newspaper. “There could’ve been a fall. There’s lots of things that would cause it.”

He noted there was no evidence of forced entry into Fisk’s home. No other details on the circumstances surrounding Fisk’s death were released.

Fisk, 70, handily defeated incumbent Merrill Sanford in the October election to become mayor. An autopsy will be performed to determine his cause of death.

“Detectives are actively investigating facts of the incident, and all evidence is being preserved and documented,” the police statement said.

Mayor Mary Becker was named acting mayor, the Juneau Empire reported.

“I think this was a terrible day for all of Juneau,” said Jill Ramiel, Downtown Business Association president. “He was never afraid to say what he thought.”

Fisk’s campaign chairman, Bob King, said his potential as a mayor was starting to show. “For that potential to be snuffed out is just a crushing loss.” Fisk also was a fisheries consultant.

As police prepared to remove his body, a small crowd started placing candles in the center of a public sculpture, the newspaper reported.

“That makes me feel better,” D.J. Thomson said after lighting the candles in Fisk’s memory.

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Berlin (AFP) – The mysterious death of a penguin at Germany’s Dortmund Zoo has prompted a probe, police said Tuesday, in the latest case of an unexplainable animal death or disappearance at the zoo. 

The zoo had informed police on Monday that three Humboldt penguins had gone missing, before later finding one of them “dead with injuries” in the flamingo enclosure.

The death comes just weeks after a sea lion was mysteriously found dead in its enclosure.

The other two penguins remain missing, said police, adding that they were investigating if there had been a “theft of the penguins or whether there had been a violation of the animal welfare act”.

At the same time, officers have not ruled out the possibility that the birds simply escaped.

The zoo said it would carry out an autopsy on the penguin on Wednesday, but the latest disappearances came just weeks after a sea lion was found dead in its enclosure.

“This is one in a series of similar incidents this year,” the zoo said in a statement.

Three pygmy marmosets — the world’s smallest monkeys — and two dwarf agoutis — a type of rodent — were stolen in August, the zoo said, adding that it had since installed security around the clock.

In early November however, the 21-year-old sea lion was found dead, with a zoo autopsy finding that it had been severely beaten in the head.

The zoo believe that an intruder beat the animal to death, but police have ruled this out.

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JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military on Tuesday said it shot and killed two Palestinians who tried to carry out separate stabbing attacks in the West Bank.

The attacks were the latest in a wave of violence that erupted in mid-September and has shown no signs of ending.

Early Tuesday, the military said a Palestinian attempted to stab a pedestrian at a busy junction outside of Jerusalem when Israeli troops shot and killed him. An Israeli who was nearby was lightly wounded in the shooting.

Several hours later, the army reported another incident, saying a female assailant tried to stab a soldier in the northern West Bank. It said the soldier opened fire, killing her.

The army did not say how close the attackers got to their targets, and no video footage was immediately released.

The latest, two-month round of Israeli-Palestinian violence began in mid-September with clashes at a sensitive Jerusalem holy site and quickly spread across Israel and into the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Since then, 19 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks, mostly stabbings and shootings. At least 100 Palestinians have been killed, including 65 said by Israel to be attackers. The others died in clashes with Israeli forces.

Most of the attackers have been young Palestinians in their late teens or 20s.

Israel says the violence stems from Palestinian incitement and incendiary videos on social media. The Palestinians say the violence is rooted in frustration over nearly a half-century of Israeli occupation and a lack of hope for obtaining independence.

In a separate development Tuesday, an Israeli court sentenced an Israeli man to three years in prison for setting fire to a bilingual Hebrew-Arabic school in Jerusalem last year.

Two Israeli brothers received sentences earlier this year in a plea bargain.

The school is a rare symbol of coexistence in Jerusalem. The three men set fire to a classroom. Graffiti also was found on the walls reading “death to Arabs.”

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LONDON (AP) — Five of FIFA’s sponsors have written to the executive committee of soccer’s scandal-battered governing body demanding “independent oversight” of the reform process.

Sponsors were originally promised places on the FIFA reform committee. But instead of being invited into meetings discussing the overhaul of the organization, they have only been offered seats on an advisory board which is yet to be appointed.

The sponsors’ letter was sent from Adidas, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Visa and Budweiser brewer Anheuser-Busch to FIFA’s ruling body ahead of meetings this week.

The letter, which was obtained by The Associated Press, says it is “clear to us that such independent oversight needs to run long-term through the implementation and evolution of the reform process.”

The reform committee was established following the indictment of soccer officials by American authorities.

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Politically-charged rapper M.I.A. is taking on the current refugee crisis in her new music video. She herself was a refugee, fleeing to England from war-torn Sri Lanka at age nine.

“I was a refugee because of war, and now I have a voice in a time when war is the most invested thing on the planet,” she told the Guardian in 2005.

“Borders” shows the arduous journey refugees take when fleeing their homes for safety. The artist directed the music video herself, which is part of the not-yet-released album, “Metadata.”

The video is a graphic reminder of the everyday dangers refugees face while fleeing home.

Story and editing by Adam Banicki

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WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s December, when Congress typically passes a last-minute package of temporary tax breaks, sparing millions of businesses and individuals from unwanted tax increases just weeks before the start of filing season.

This year, lawmakers will have to do it again if they want to avoid the wrath of angry taxpayers at holiday time.

Congress extends these tax breaks every year or two, usually in the final days, drawing complaints from business leaders tired of the uncertainty.

The Senate Finance Committee passed a package of 56 temporary tax breaks in July. The package would extend the tax breaks through the end of 2016, saving taxpayers $95 billion, which would be added to the budget deficit.

Expect the full Senate and House to take up the package — or a version of it — before leaving town for the year.

Things to know about the year-end tax package:

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WHO BENEFITS?

Businesses big and small, commuters who use public transportation, teachers who spend their own money on classroom supplies and people who live in states without state income taxes.

The package of 56 tax breaks is a collection of narrow provisions targeting specific groups and industries, held together by a few broad tax breaks that benefit millions.

In all, they affect about one in six taxpayers, according to the Tax Institute, the independent research arm at tax giant H&R Block.

Among the biggest breaks for businesses are a tax credit for research and development and an exemption that allows financial companies such as banks and investment firms to shield foreign profits from being taxed by the U.S. Several provisions allow retailers and other businesses to write off capital investments more quickly.

A popular tax break for individuals allows people who live in states without an income tax to deduct local sales taxes on their federal returns. Seven states don’t tax income: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington and Wyoming. Two states — New Hampshire and Tennessee — tax investment income but not wages.

Other, narrower provisions include tax breaks for film and theater producers, NASCAR racetrack owners, racehorse owners, and rum producers in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

One protects struggling homeowners who get their mortgages reduced from paying income taxes on the amount of debt that was forgiven.

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DIDN’T THE TAX BREAKS ALREADY EXPIRE?

Yes, they expired at the beginning of the year. The Senate bill would retroactively extend them, enabling taxpayers to claim them on their 2015 and 2016 income tax returns.

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WHY NOT MAKE THEM PERMANENT?

Some of the tax breaks were originally intended to be temporary, but powerful interest groups keep them alive year after year. Others are popular but expensive, leaving some deficit-weary lawmakers reluctant to make them permanent.

For example, some conservatives say a generous tax credit for using wind farms and other renewable energy sources to produce electricity has outlived its purpose. The tax break was first enacted in the 1990s to help kick-start a fledgling industry. It has been renewed many times since.

One of the most popular tax credits rewards businesses for investing in research and development. Both Democrats and Republicans want to make it permanent, but congressional estimates say it would cost more than $150 billion in lost revenue over the next decade, so lawmakers simply renew it every year or two, masking the true long-term cost.

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GOOD POLICY?

Tax experts say it’s terrible policy to let these tax breaks expire repeatedly, only to renew them retroactively at a later date.

Consider this: The tax credit for research and development is supposed to provide an incentive for businesses to invest in R&D. The credit expired in January, and more than 11 months later, it hasn’t been renewed. How much incentive do you think the credit has been providing since it expired?

Also, business groups complain that companies can’t accurately project expenses from year to year because they don’t know for sure whether Congress will renew their tax breaks.

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WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

Lawmakers have been negotiating a package that would make some of the tax breaks permanent while extending others temporarily. However, Democrats and Republicans are once again struggling to agree on which ones to make permanent.

Last December, Congress was faced with the exact same scenario and lawmakers only extended the tax breaks through the end of 2014, allowing them to expire again just a few weeks later.

Lobbyists and business groups are working hard to avoid a repeat.

“I believe we’ll get this done before the end of the year. I would love to see permanency in some of these,” House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told reporters. “In these situations, it’s always coming down to the last week or so to see what mix we’re able to get.”

Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland complained Tuesday about the package not being paid for. But he praised several of the individual tax breaks, and most Democrats are likely to go along.

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AP Congressional Correspondent Erica Werner contributed to this report.

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Spotify has knocked Pandora off the throne to become the most popular music streaming in the world, according to a new report from app analytics firm App Annie.

Spotify has come out on top in terms of revenue, active users, and downloads. And App Annie predicts Spotify will only widen the margin even further in the months to come.

This is not good news for Pandora, though the Oakland-based company maintained the top spot for most active users in the US (on iOS and Android).

Pandora’s CEO Brian McAndrews recently implied that Spotify had an unsustainable business model, and was burning money in an attempt to build its user base. That strategy seems to be working for Spotify, at least in the short term. McAndrews elaborated on his position in an op-ed published today.

Pandora has seen recent stock troubles after a $85.9 million loss last quarter seem to shake investor confidence. 

Here is a chart of the top music streaming apps, compiled by App Annie:

SEE ALSO: Pandora CEO: This is why giving people access to on-demand music that’s ‘free all the time’ is a problem

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NOW WATCH: If You’re Going To Pay For Music — Pay For This

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Lin-Manuel Miranda probably has enough on his plate, as his current musical “Hamilton” is a massive hit on Broadway, but director J.J. Abrams revealed on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” on Monday that Miranda also helped him with music for a specific scene in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”

Abrams told Fallon that while he was seeing “Hamilton” with his son, Miranda came up to him during intermission (he was not performing that night) and jokingly said to Abrams, “If you need music for the cantina, I’ll write it.”

What Miranda didn’t know was that Abrams really did need music for the cantina scene he has in the movie, as the legendary composer on the film, John Williams, focused more on the film’s score.

“So I end up e-mailing Lin Miranda and I say, ‘I know you were kidding, but if you actually want to write this music, I’m actually working on something.’ And he said, ‘I’ll drop everything!’”

Abrams and Miranda sent back and forth music files, which included Miranda singing and playing instruments. A version of that collaboration between the two, Abrams said, is now in the movie.

Watch Abrams on “Fallon”:

 And here’s the cantina song from the original “Star Wars” trilogy:

SEE ALSO: George Lucas hasn’t looked at the internet in 15 years — this is why

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Inside Out,” Pixar’s journey into the mind of an adolescent girl, has received 14 Annie Awards nominations, topping the studio’s “The Good Dinosaur,” which picked up 10.

The International Animated Film Society on Tuesday announced the nominations for the 43rd annual Annie Awards, which recognize the best in animated entertainment.

“Inside Out” and “The Good Dinosaur” will be competing for best animated feature against “The Peanuts Movie,” Charlie Kaufman’s dark comedy “Anomalisa,” and the British TV series-inspired “Shaun the Sheep the Movie,” which all picked up five nominations.

ASIFA-Hollywood also added a new category to recognize the best in independent feature animation. Nominees include “Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet” and Studio Ghibli’s “When Marnie Was There.”

Winners will be announced during a ceremony in Los Angeles on Feb. 6.

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