The combined company will have about 80, 000 miles of pipelines stretching nationwide, Kinder Morgan said Sunday in announcing the deal, with connections to many of the biggest natural gas shale plays in the U.S., including the Eagle Ford, Marcellus, Utica, Haynesville, Fayetteville and Barnett formations.

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"I've been waiting my whole life for this, so to be actually reaching for it is the best feeling ever, " said Kinder, a 6-3, 187-pound senior who played in two games last season.

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The three largest private equity backed IPOs of all time occurred in the first quarter of 2011: HCA, Nielsen and Kinder Morgan, he said.

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Dr Harpal Kumar, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, said more needed to be done to make treatments kinder and more effective.

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