IHT Rendezvous: Hostages Caught Up in France's African Intervention

LONDON — The widespread satisfaction expressed in France at the government’s decision to intervene militarily against Islamic militants in Mali was tempered on Saturday by news of a failed overnight French hostage rescue mission on the other side of Africa.After reports emerged from Somalia of a helicopter-borne commando raid in the south of the country, Jean-Yves Le Drian, the French defense minister...

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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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For the record

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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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IHT Rendezvous: Top Pirate Quits as Tide Turns Against Somali Raiders

LONDON — A notorious Somali sea raider known as Big Mouth is a pirate with a retirement plan.He announced this week that he was quitting after an eight-year career in which he and his pirate crews plagued shipping in the Indian Ocean and raised millions of dollars in ransom.Big Mouth — Mohamed Abdi Hassan — was named in a United Nations report last year as one of the most notorious and influential...

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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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Restored funding for prescription drug-monitoring program urged

California Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris on Thursday called on Gov. Jerry Brown to restore funding to a prescription drug-monitoring...

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HP Cloud Ushers in 2013 and GA Compute Service with Reduced Pricing

HP Cloud Services is continuously working to increase efficiency in our datacenters, so we can pass these efforts along to our customers via enhanced enterprise-class service and/or lower prices.  As a result, HP Cloud Services is starting the New Year by permanently lowering the prices on Linux instances of HP Cloud Compute by 12.5% and Object Storage by as much as 25%. Furthermore, to...

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What's Got Tom Colicchio & Gail Simmons Spinning Out of Control?

Caught in the Act 01/11/2013 at 06:00 AM EST Tom Colicchi & Gail Simmons Larry Busacca/Getty From Top Chef to top cyclist!Top Chef judges chef Tom Colicchio and Gail Simmons kicked off 2013 on a healthy note by they visiting SoulCycle's Tribeca location on...

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IHT Rendezvous: The Last Man Asian Literary Prize

HONG KONG — The five shortlisted novels of what will be the last Man Asian Literary Prize were announced last evening at the Man Group’s offices here. The British investment firm will end its support of Asia’s most prominent literary prize after the final award is given at a black-tie dinner in March.As usually happens, the shortlist announcement drew about two dozen people from the city’s relatively...

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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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Irvine City Council overhauls oversight, spending on Great Park

Capping a raucous eight-hour-plus meeting, the Irvine City Council early Wednesday voted to overhaul the oversight and spending...

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Could Alex Jones’s “revolution” actually happen?

Piers Morgan had it easy. Radio show host and author Alex Jones threatened the rest of us with a ”revolution” if the government decides to confiscate guns from the homes and glove compartments of law-abiding Americans. It’s almost too easy to dismiss Jones as a fringe figure, especially since fringe ideas make their way into the mainstream with (exciting? alarming?) frequency these...

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Whoa! Check Out Taylor Swift’s Sexy Breakover!

Stylewatch Style News Now 01/09/2013 at 09:30 PM ET Steve Granitz/WireImageDon’t worry about changing your relationship status on Facebook, Taylor, since this dress sends the message loud and clear.For her first official appearance...

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Iranian Captives Freed in Major Prisoner Exchange in Syria

ISTANBUL — More than 2,000 prisoners incarcerated by the Syrian authorities were being released on Wednesday in return for 48 Iranians freed by rebels after five months in captivity, Turkish and Iranian news reports said, in what appeared to be the biggest prisoner swap since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began almost two years ago. The exchange, brokered by Turkey and Qatar,...

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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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Charlie Sheen downplays Baja encounter with L.A. mayor

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa found himself sucked deeper into the Charlie Sheen-TMZ-Hollywood gossip vortex Tuesday,...

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NRA, video game makers to meet with Biden gun task force this week

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The powerful gun lobby, the National Rifle Association, is slated to meet with Vice President Joe Biden as he considers recommendations on how to respond to a mass shooting last month in Newtown, Connecticut, the White House said on Tuesday.After the Newtown school shooting, which President Barack Obama called the worst day of his presidency, he asked Biden to come up with a...

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Brooke Burke-Charvet Reveals Thyroid Cancer Surgery Scar

01/09/2013 at 07:25 AM EST Brooke Burke-Charvet put on a brave face Tuesday morning, recounting the emotional distress she endured leading up to her thyroidectomy.Managing to stay smiling, the typically upbeat Dancing with the Stars co-host, 41, told Good Morning America her initial diagnosis was "shocking,"...

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Afghan Soldier Kills British Soldier, Wounds 6

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An Afghan soldier turned his weapon against foreign and Afghan troops in a southern province, killing one British soldier, another attack by a member of Afghanistan's military against its foreign allies, officials said Tuesday. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the shooting, the first insider attack of 2013. Several British soldiers were also reported wounded....

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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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Brown seeks to lift state inmate caps

Gov. Jerry Brown says there's no need to do more to reduce crowding in state prisons, and population caps should be lifted.In...

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Galaxy phones power Samsung to record $8.3 billion profit

SEOUL (Reuters) – Samsung Electronics, the world leader in mobiles and memory chips, said it likely earned a quarterly profit of $ 8.3 billion, as it sold close to 500 handsets a minute and as demand picked up for the flat screens it makes for mobile devices, including those for rival Apple Inc products.That run of five straight record quarters may end in January-March on weaker seasonal demand, though...

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Fifty Shades of Grey Sparks Musical Theater Spoof

By Andrea Billups 01/08/2013 at 07:45 AM EST Even with last year's runaway success, 2013 is already shaping up to be a 50 Shades of Grey kind of year.A feature film based on the sexually charged book, which has sold 65 million copies around the world, is in the works for this year. And a musical spoof of the...

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Tehran Is Choked by Annual Buildup of Air Pollution

TEHRAN — Already battered by international threats against their nation’s nuclear program, sanctions and a broken economy, Iranians living here in the capital are now trying to cope with what has become an annual pollution peril: a yellowish haze that engulfs Tehran this time of year. For nearly a week, officials here and in other large cities have been calling on residents to remain indoors...

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