Stocks end higher for sixth straight week, tech leads

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Nasdaq composite stock index closed at a 12-year high and the S&P 500 index at a five-year high, boosted by gains in technology shares and stronger overseas trade figures. The S&P 500 also posted a sixth straight week of gains for the first time since August. The technology sector led the day's gains, with the S&P 500 technology index...

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New Focus in Mali Is Finding Militants Who Have Fled Into Mountains

Tyler Hicks/The New York TimesA fish market, above, in Konna, Mali, that had been occupied by Islamist rebels. It was the seizure of Konna, in the Mopti region, that provoked France’s military intervention last month. DAKAR, Senegal — Just as Al Qaeda once sought refuge in the mountains of Tora Bora, the Islamist militants now on the run in Mali are hiding out in their own forbidding landscape, a...

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7 million iPhones and iPads have been jailbroken in just four days

The Evad3rs Jailbreak Team on Monday released their evasi0n jailbreak tool for Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices running iOS 6.0 or iOS 6.1. Jay Freeman, the man behind the jailbroken app store known as Cydia, announced that nearly seven million iOS devices have been freed from Apple’s walled garden in only four days, Forbes reported. The astonishing number makes evasi0n the fastest-adopted...

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Tiger Woods & Lindsey Vonn Are 'Spending More Time' Together: Source

Buzz By Steve Helling 02/09/2013 at 06:00 PM EST Tiger Woods and Lindsey Vonn Mick Tsikas/Reuters/Landov; Luis Guerra/Ramey It was quite the gesture. After Lindsey Vonn suffered a devastating injury during the Alpine World Championships in Austria, she got a bit...

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After early start, worst of flu season may be over

NEW YORK (AP) — The worst of the flu season appears to be over.The number of states reporting intense or widespread illnesses dropped again last week, and in a few states there was very little flu going around, U.S. health officials said Friday.The season started earlier than normal, first in the Southeast and then spreading. But now, by some measures, flu activity has been ebbing for at least four...

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Stocks end higher for sixth straight week, tech leads

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Nasdaq composite stock index closed at a 12-year high and the S&P 500 index at a five-year high, boosted by gains in technology shares and stronger overseas trade figures. The S&P 500 also posted a sixth straight week of gains for the first time since August. The technology sector led the day's gains, with the S&P 500 technology index...

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A Faceless Teenage Refugee Who Helped Ignite Syria’s War

Bryan Denton for The New York TimesA boy from Dara’a, Syria, now living in Jordan, who was part of a group whose arrest and torture helped start Syria’s uprising. AMMAN, Jordan — In a listless border town, the teenager goes unnoticed, one of the hundreds of thousands of refugees who have fled the Syrian civil war, dashing across villages and farms to land in Jordan, just five miles from home. ...

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Minka Kelly: 'I'm Not Worthy' of Acting with Oprah

By Jennifer Cress 02/08/2013 at 07:40 PM EST Minka Kelly as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Pacific Coast News It's intimidating enough to play Jackie O, but Minka Kelly felt even more pressure to perform when she found out who was joining the cast of her latest film,...

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After early start, worst of flu season may be over

NEW YORK (AP) — The worst of the flu season appears to be over.The number of states reporting intense or widespread illnesses dropped again last week, and in a few states there was very little flu going around, U.S. health officials said Friday.The season started earlier than normal, first in the Southeast and then spreading. But now, by some measures, flu activity has been ebbing for at least four...

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Asian shares inch higher on solid China trade data

TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares edged up on Friday after China's trade data for January handily beat forecasts to underscore a recovery trend, but prices were capped by investors seeking to book profits before next week's Chinese new year holidays. The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> edged up 0.2 percent, wiping earlier losses when bearish...

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At Brooklyn College, Pro-Palestine Speakers Attract Protests Outside

Uli Seit for The New York TimesDemonstrators gathered outside Brooklyn College on Thursday night to protest a lecture held by two pro-Palestinian speakers. Tensions were evident everywhere as two pro-Palestinian speakers arrived Thursday night at Brooklyn College. Protesters began gathering across the street from the student center, where the college-sponsored talk was scheduled, more than an hour...

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Is It OK to Use Kickstarter to Make Money?

Three weeks early and $ 359,630 short, Björk’s Kickstarter project to make an Android version of the Icelandic superstar’s iOS-only educational Biophilia app has been canceled because few people wanted to give charity to a rich person. Kickstarter doesn’t bill itself as crowd-sourced philanthropy, rather describing itself as a “funding platform for creative projects.” But since the beginning,...

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American Idol: Early Favorites Eliminated in Hollywood

TV Watch American Idol By Steve Helling 02/07/2013 at 10:30 PM EST From left: Randy Jackson, Mariah Carey, Ryan Seacrest, Nicki Minaj and Keith Urban Michael Becker/FOX. At the beginning of Thursday's American Idol, there were 43 men left in the competition. The...

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Southern diet, fried foods, may raise stroke risk

Deep-fried foods may be causing trouble in the Deep South. People whose diets are heavy on them and sugary drinks like sweet tea and soda were more likely to suffer a stroke, a new study finds.It's the first big look at diet and strokes, and researchers say it might help explain why blacks in the Southeast — the nation's "stroke belt" — suffer more of them.Blacks were five times more likely than whites...

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Wall Street ends flat as investors pull back

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks ended mostly flat on Wednesday, taking another pause in the recent rally that has driven the S&P 500 to five-year highs, as transportation and technology shares lost ground. Transportation stocks were among the worst performers. Shares of CH Robinson Worldwide fell 9.7 percent to $60.50 and the stock was the biggest percentage loser on the Nasdaq 100 after...

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Japan Spends Heavily to Keep Whaling Industry Afloat, Report Says

TOKYO — A wildlife conservation group said in a report on Wednesday that Japan has been propping up its whaling industry with nearly $400 million in tax money in recent years, stepping up subsidies even as consumption of whale meat here has slumped. The report, compiled by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, in Yarmouth Port, Mass., challenges assertions by the Japanese government...

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Leeza Gibbons: I Count My Blessings - Not My Stretch Marks

By Mike Fleeman 02/06/2013 at 07:30 PM EST When TV personality Leeza Gibbons married Steven Fenton in 2011, she joked that she was finally embracing "my inner cougar" – on their first date he was 38 and she was 51.Now approaching their two-year anniversary in April, Gibbons has given a little more thought to...

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New whooping cough strain in US raises questions

NEW YORK (AP) — Researchers have discovered the first U.S. cases of whooping cough caused by a germ that may be resistant to the vaccine.Health officials are looking into whether cases like the dozen found in Philadelphia might be one reason the nation just had its worst year for whooping cough in six decades. The new bug was previously reported in Japan, France and Finland."It's quite intriguing....

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Wall Street bounces back after sell-off; results a boost

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks climbed on Tuesday, recovering a day after the market's biggest sell-off since November, as stronger-than-expected earnings brightened the profit picture. Dell Inc's stock rose after the world's No. 3 computer maker agreed to be taken private in a $24.4 billion deal, the largest leveraged buyout since the 2008-2009 financial crisis. The stock gained 1.1 percent...

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Tsunami Fear After Quake Off Solomons

Residents of islands from the South Pacific to Australia were preparing Wednesday for the possible effects of a tsunami set off by an 8.0-magnitude earthquake off the Solomon Islands, according to scientists and news reports from the area. “Sea level readings indicate a tsunami was generated,” the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said on its Web site. The earthquake struck around 11...

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Kim Kardashian's Pregnancy Is No Reason to Speed Divorce, says Kris Humphries

By Mike Fleeman 02/05/2013 at 09:20 PM EST Kris Humphries and Kim Kardashian Seth Browarnik/StarTraks Kim Kardashian's baby is not even born yet and already is being drawn into mama's divorce.Kardashian, carrying boyfriend Kanye West's child, has bristled at what...

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Critics seek to delay NYC sugary drinks size limit

NEW YORK (AP) — Opponents are pressing to delay enforcement of the city's novel plan to crack down on supersized, sugary drinks, saying businesses shouldn't have to spend millions of dollars to comply until a court rules on whether the measure is legal.With the rule set to take effect March 12, beverage industry, restaurant and other business groups have asked a judge to put it on hold at least until...

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Asian shares drop on euro zone worry, soft U.S. data

TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares slid on Tuesday as investors saw opportunities to cash in from recent strong rallies in the face of weak U.S. data and worries that a potential political shake-up could disrupt the eurozone's efforts to resolve its debt crisis. The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> tumbled 0.8 percent, dragged lower by a steep...

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Kerry Pledges to Protect Diplomats on 1st Day at State Dept.

Michael Reynolds/European Pressphoto AgencySecretary of State John Kerry, center, greeted hundreds of State Department employees in Washington on Monday. WASHINGTON — In his first day at the office as secretary of state on Monday, John Kerry sought to send the message that he had an affinity for the nation’s diplomats and would look after their security. “Exhilarating to walk into @StateDept...

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