Israeli Police Evict Palestinian Protesters from E1

JERUSALEM — Israeli security forces evicted scores of Palestinian activists before dawn on Sunday from a tent encampment they had set up set up two days earlier in a strategic piece of Israeli-occupied West Bank territory known as E1, east of Jerusalem, where Israel says it plans to build settler homes. The police said the eviction had been carried out swiftly, with no injuries on either...

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Rovio has more monthly active users than Twitter

Rovio announced today it hit 263 million monthly active users in December 2012. This happened precisely three years after the first Angry Birds game debuted at the end of 2009. Incidentally, the somewhat better-known Twitter hit the 200 million monthly active user mark in December 2012. And since Twitter was launched in the summer of 2006, Rovio’s user growth has been notably brisker.[More from...

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Miss New York Mallory Hytes Hagan Wins Miss America

01/12/2013 at 11:45 PM EST Miss American 2013 Mallory Hytes Hagan CraigSjodin/ABC The crown is headed to the Big Apple!Brooklyn, N.Y., native Mallory Hytes Hagan was crowned Miss America in Las Vegas on Saturday. Miss New York, 23, beat out Miss South Carolina...

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Q&A: Scramble for vaccine as flu season heats up

WASHINGTON (AP) — Missed flu-shot day at the office last fall? And all those "get vaccinated" ads? A scramble for shots is under way as late-comers seek protection from a miserable flu strain already spreading through much of the country.Federal health officials said Friday that there is still some flu vaccine available and it's not too late to benefit from it. But people may have to call around to...

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Wall Street Week Ahead: Attention turns to financial earnings

NEW YORK (Reuters) - After over a month of watching Capitol Hill and Pennsylvania Avenue, Wall Street can get back to what it knows best: Wall Street. The first full week of earnings season is dominated by the financial sector - big investment banks and commercial banks - just as retail investors, free from the "fiscal cliff" worries, have started to get back into the markets. ...

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Immigration Arrests Lead to Online Outcry, and Release

PHOENIX — Immigration agents arrested the mother and brother of a prominent activist during a raid at her home here late Thursday, unleashing a vigorous response on social media and focusing new attention on one of the most controversial aspects of the Obama administration’s policies on deportation. The agents knocked on Erika Andiola’s door shortly after 9 p.m., asking for her mother, Maria...

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Why We Hate the Word ‘Phablet’ So Much

It appears we have reached Peak Phablet — and not just because sales are up and the big-screen cellphones were all over the Consumer Electronics Show this week. No, we have also reached Peak “Phablet” — the term for the popular (and quite awkward) devices has also this week been called ”horrible,” “stupid,” and ”worst word of the year” (to which we’re about two weeks in). The name itself...

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Britney & Jason's Love Story in 6 Sweet Shots

From a snuggle in the surf to a surprise engagement, see the former couple's most romantic moments Credit: Kevin Mazur/Wireimage Updated: Friday Jan 11, 2013 | 07:00 AM EST By: Cara Lynn Shultz Subscribe Now ...

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Flu season puts businesses and employees in a bind

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly half the 70 employees at a Ford dealership in Clarksville, Ind., have been out sick at some point in the past month. It didn't have to be that way, the boss says."If people had stayed home in the first place, a lot of times that spread wouldn't have happened," says Marty Book, a vice president at Carriage Ford. "But people really want to get out and do their jobs, and sometimes...

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Wall Street Week Ahead: Attention turns to financial earnings

NEW YORK (Reuters) - After over a month of watching Capitol Hill and Pennsylvania Avenue, Wall Street can get back to what it knows best: Wall Street. The first full week of earnings season is dominated by the financial sector - big investment banks and commercial banks - just as retail investors, free from the "fiscal cliff" worries, have started to get back into the markets. ...

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India Ink: Pakistan: A New Clash in Kashmir

The Pakistani Army said Thursday that Indian troops had killed another Pakistani soldier in the latest round of clashes in Kashmir, the disputed Himalayan region. In a sudden escalation of longstanding tensions this week, each side has bitterly accused the other of violating the de facto border in Kashmir, which both sides claim in its entirety. In recent days, India said two of its soldiers had...

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Three witnesses won’t be charged in Ohio football rape case: documents

(Reuters) – At least three members of a high school football team in Steubenville, Ohio, received word they would not be prosecuted just days before testifying against teammates accused of raping a 16-year-old girl, according to documents obtained by Reuters.In letters from Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s office addressed to each student’s lawyer, the state committed to not prosecuting Evan Westlake,...

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Audrey Hepburn: Remembering the Private Legend

By Elizabeth McNeil 01/10/2013 at 07:35 PM EST Audrey Hepburn with her son, Luca Dotti, in 1985 Audrey Hepburn Childrens Fund She captivated the world with her doe-eyed beauty, but behind the Givenchy glamour, there was an Audrey Hepburn few people knew. She thought...

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Flu season strikes early and, in some places, hard

NEW YORK (AP) — From the Rocky Mountains to New England, hospitals are swamped with people with flu symptoms. Some medical centers are turning away visitors or making them wear face masks, and one Pennsylvania hospital set up a tent outside its ER to deal with the feverish patients.Flu season in the U.S. has struck early and, in many places, hard.While flu normally doesn't blanket the country until...

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Asian shares retreat after China CPI, yen slides

TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares fell on Friday as a pick-up in Chinese inflation prompted profit taking but underlying sentiment was supported by an improving outlook for global economies, while the yen slid on renewed expectations for bold monetary easing in Japan. China's annual consumer inflation rate accelerated to a seven-month high of 2.5 percent in December on rising food prices,...

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IHT Rendezvous: Rescuing China's Bears from Bile Farms, One by One

BEIJING — Some had wounded faces and bloodied paws. Some were angry after years of mistreatment.But six Asiatic black bears now have a chance at a life of dignity after being rescued on Wednesday from a Chinese bile farm by Animals Asia, an animal rights group, and the Chinese government’s State Forestry agency.The bear rescue will continue for a few days as the animals are settled into their new...

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Three top U.S. wireless carriers to embrace BlackBerry 10

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – Three of the top U.S. cellphone carriers signaled this week that they would support Research In Motion’s BlackBerry 10 products, the first of which are due to be unveiled Jan 30, offering a hopeful sign for RIM’s comeback effort.Executives at Verizon Communications , AT&T Inc and T-Mobile USA all said they are looking forward to the devices, which will be crucial for RIM’s...

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Sandra Bullock Honored at People's Choice Awards for New Orleans Support

By Alison Schwartz 01/09/2013 at 10:45 PM EST Sandra Bullock at the People's Choice Awards Jason Merritt/Getty Sandra Bullock took home big honors for her work in the Big Easy Wednesday night.The People's Choice Awards crowned the Oscar-winning actress the favorite humanitarian for her career-spanning...

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Retooling Pap test to spot more kinds of cancer

WASHINGTON (AP) — For years, doctors have lamented that there's no Pap test for deadly ovarian cancer. Wednesday, scientists reported encouraging signs that one day, there might be.Researchers are trying to retool the Pap, a test for cervical cancer that millions of women get, so that it could spot early signs of other gynecologic cancers, too.How? It turns out that cells can flake off of tumors in...

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Wall Street rises after Alcoa reports earnings

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks rose on Wednesday, rebounding from two days of losses, as investors turned their focus to the first prominent results of the earnings season. Stocks had retreated at the start of the week from the S&P 500's highest point in five years, hit last Friday, on worries about possible earnings weakness. Shares of Alcoa Inc were down 0.5 percent to...

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Contractor Settles Case in Iraq Prison Abuse

WASHINGTON — An American contractor hired by the military to provide translation services for interrogators at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq has reached a $5 million settlement with scores of detainees who accused its employees of complicity in abusing them, according to financial disclosure documents. The widespread abuse of prisoners held at Abu Ghraib by the United States military early...

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The next CIA’s director’s challenges

qWhat John Brennan faces after confirmationI see no reason why the Senate won’t confirm John Brennan, President Obama‘s chief counter-terrorism adviser, to be the next director of the CIA. There will be pro forma inquiries into his past entanglements with the NSA’s domestic surveillance program and his knowledge and approval of the CIA’s “Greystone” torture protocols, but he will have ready answers...

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Kangaroo Gets Loose at Melbourne Airport

People Pets 01/08/2013 at 08:00 PM EST Travelers passing through Australia's Melbourne Airport on Monday may have been greeted by an unexpected baggage handler.At around 7 a.m., a 3-year-old eastern gray kangaroo was spotted in the airport's parking garage, where it hopped around for almost two hours, giving...

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Report: Death rates from cancer still inching down

WASHINGTON (AP) — Death rates from cancer are continuing to inch down, researchers reported Monday.Now the question is how to hold onto those gains, and do even better, even as the population gets older and fatter, both risks for developing cancer."There has been clear progress," said Dr. Otis Brawley of the American Cancer Society, which compiled the annual cancer report with government and cancer...

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Asian shares rise as earnings eyed

TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares rose on Wednesday after rounds of profit taking from a sharp rally at the start of the new year subsided, while investors waited warily for corporate earnings season to kick off in full force. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> rose 0.4 percent, with Australian shares <.axjo> among the outperformers with...

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Japan’s Cleanup After a Nuclear Accident Is Denounced

Ko Sasaki for The New York TimesBags of contaminated soil outside the Naraha-Minami school near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. NARAHA, Japan — The decontamination crews at a deserted elementary school here are at the forefront of what Japan says is the most ambitious radiological cleanup the world has seen, one that promised to draw on cutting-edge technology from across the globe. ...

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