Waiter Michael Garcia Refuses to Serve Man Who Insulted Boy with Down Syndrome

By Dahvi Shira 01/26/2013 at 09:00 AM EST Waiter Michael Garcia made his regular customer Kim Castillo feel like family last week at the Houston restaurant Laurenzo's Prime Rib.Castillo was eating there with her husband and their 5-year-old son Milo when several waiters came by their table to chat. Milo, who...

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CDC: Flu seems to level off except in the West

New government figures show that flu cases seem to be leveling off nationwide. Flu activity is declining in most regions although still rising in the West.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says hospitalizations and deaths spiked again last week, especially among the elderly. The CDC says quick treatment with antiviral medicines is important, in particular for the very...

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Wall Street Week Ahead: Bears hibernate as stocks near record highs

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks have been on a tear in January, moving major indexes within striking distance of all-time highs. The bearish case is a difficult one to make right now. Earnings have exceeded expectations, the housing and labor markets have strengthened, lawmakers in Washington no longer seem to be the roadblock that they were for most of 2012, and money has returned to stock...

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The Lede Blog: A 'Black Bloc' Emerges in Egypt

Last Updated, Saturday, 9:56 a.m. While using Twitter to narrate events in Tahrir Square on Friday, people in Egypt described tires burning in the street, protesters blocking traffic and hurling rocks, and police officers launching tear gas in an effort to break up crowds that had gathered to protest against the Muslim Brotherhood and the country’s new Islamist president.Many of the actions described...

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Facebook Profile May Expose Mental Illness

A person’s Facebook profile may reveal signs of mental illness that might not necessarily emerge in a session with a psychiatrist, a new study suggests.“The beauty of social media activity as a tool in psychological diagnosis is that it removes some of the problems associated with patients’ self-reporting,” said study researcher Elizabeth Martin, a psychology doctoral student at the University of...

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Jennifer Lopez: The Twins Want a Rainbow Birthday Party

Mom & Babies Celebrity Baby Blog 01/24/2013 at 01:00 PM ET Henry Lamb/Photowire/BEImages Jennifer Lopez may be capable of juggling many activities at once, but her primary responsibility right now is planning the birthday party for her twins, Max and Emme.“They’re 5 next month, and they want a rainbow...

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Penalty could keep smokers out of health overhaul

WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of smokers could be priced out of health insurance because of tobacco penalties in President Barack Obama's health care law, according to experts who are just now teasing out the potential impact of a little-noted provision in the massive legislation.The Affordable Care Act — "Obamacare" to its detractors — allows health insurers to charge smokers buying individual policies...

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S&P 500 eyes best winning streak in eight years

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks rose on Friday, buoyed by sturdy corporate earnings from Procter & Gamble and Honeywell, with the S&P 500 poised for its longest winning streak in more than eight years. The strong start for the equity market this year has been attributed to solid corporate results, agreement in Washington to extend the government's borrowing power, encouraging signs...

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IHT Rendezvous: France Is Sweet on 'Sugar Man'

A love story is developing between the French and Rodriguez, the Detroit-born musician who flopped in the 1970s, was a star without knowing it in apartheid South Africa and was rediscovered last summer in the United States when the documentary “Searching for Sugar Man” was released.The film tells the extraordinary story of a talented and philosophical musician who spent his life working in construction...

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Nokia CEO closes the door on a potential Android smartphone

Nokia (NOK) CEO Stephen Elop on Thursday shot down rumors that his company might be interested in developing Android-based smartphones. During Nokia’s fourth-quarter earnings call, the executive reiterated his support for the company’s Asha phones and Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows Phone platform, while shutting the door on earlier Android rumors. [More from BGR: Unlocking your smartphone will...

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Robin Roberts Stages 'Dry-Run' at Good Morning America Studio

TV Watch By Stephen M. Silverman 01/24/2013 at 09:50 AM EST Robin Roberts in the GMA" studio, Jan. 24, 2013 Ida Mae Astute/ABC Making good on her promise to practice a series of dry-runs at the Good Morning America studio in anticipation of returning to her anchoring...

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AP Interview: UN wants better family planning

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — The U.N.'s top population official wants governments to do more to ensure that women have access to family planning.The U.N. says the world will add a billion people to its current population of some 7 billion within a decade, further straining the planet's resources.Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director of the U.N. Population Fund, says more than 220 million women in...

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Wall Street opens lower after Apple results

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks opened lower on Thursday, a day after Apple Inc reported revenue that missed expectations, tanking the stock and weighing on technology shares. As the most valuable U.S. company and a heavy weight in both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 <.ndx>, a decline in Apple shares has an outsized impact on the broader market. Apple dropped 10.5 percent to $459.84...

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IHT Rendezvous: Denying American Scots Their Holiday Haggis

LONDON — Scots at home and abroad will be sitting down on Friday night for Burns Night suppers to commemorate their national poet with a feast of haggis.Robert Burns’ “great chieftain o’ the puddin’-race,” a mix of sheep’s innards and oats tied up in a sheep’s stomach, is the centerpiece of the annual celebration of Scottishness.It is a pleasure that will once again be denied to Scots-Americans this...

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Go forth and Tweet! Pope sees web networks as “portals of truth”

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Benedict urged Catholics on Thursday to use social networks like Twitter and Facebook to win converts, as he launched his own smartphone app streaming live footage of his speeches.The websites – often associated with endless postings of idle gossip and baby photos – could be used as “portals of truth and faith” in an increasingly secular age, the pontiff said in his 2013...

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Adele Wears the Name 'Angelo' Around Her Neck

Buzz By Simon Perry 01/23/2013 at 09:05 AM EST So far, Adele has kept her baby boy's name a closely guarded secret. But has she revealed the moniker by keeping it close to her heart?Born in October, the little boy is staying with his mother in Los Angeles during Hollywood's awards season. On an outing Monday...

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Foes of NYC soda size limit doubt racial fairness

NEW YORK (AP) — Opponents of the city's limit on the size of sugary drinks are raising questions of racial fairness alongside other complaints as the novel restriction faces a court test.The NAACP's New York state branch and the Hispanic Federation have joined beverage makers and sellers in trying to stop the rule from taking effect March 12. With a hearing set Wednesday, critics are attacking what...

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Wall Street edges up at open as tech leads

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks edged higher at the open on Wednesday, with technology stocks among the best performers after earnings from Google and IBM . The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> gained 44.78 points, or 0.33 percent, to 13,756.99. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> rose 0.81 point, or 0.05 percent, to 1,493.37. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic>...

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The Lede Blog: Live Updates: Clinton Testifies on Benghazi Attacks

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economyThe Lede is following Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks on the American Consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.Mrs. Clinton had been scheduled to testify...

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First “Firefox OS” Phones Previewed, to Launch in February

Mozilla, the non-profit organization behind the popular Firefox web browser, has been promoting its Firefox OS project (once known as “Boot to Gecko”) for some time now. A hardware partnership with Telefonica, the international telecom giant, had been announced, but no phones had yet been unveiled.But in an announcement today on its blog, Mozilla announced the impending launch of its first “developer...

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Adrienne Maloof Steps Out with Sean Stewart

TV Watch Buzz By Tim Nudd 01/22/2013 at 10:00 AM EST Adrienne Maloof and Sean Stewart Splash News Online After her bitter divorce battle, Adrienne Maloof is apparently getting back into the dating scene with a little help from rock royalty two decades her junior....

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Flu season fuels debate over paid sick time laws

NEW YORK (AP) — Sniffling, groggy and afraid she had caught the flu, Diana Zavala dragged herself in to work anyway for a day she felt she couldn't afford to miss.A school speech therapist who works as an independent contractor, she doesn't have paid sick days. So the mother of two reported to work and hoped for the best — and was aching, shivering and coughing by the end of the day. She stayed home...

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Wall Street opens flat as investors eye earnings

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks opened little changed on Tuesday as investors held back from making large bets at the start of a busy week for corporate earnings after major indexes notched five-year highs. The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> gained 16.95 points, or 0.12 percent, to 13,666.65. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> shed 0.33 point, or 0.02 percent,...

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Japan Makes Overture to China in Islands DisputeJapan Makes Overture to China in Islands Dispute

BEIJING — A member of Japan’s coalition government arrived in Beijing on Tuesday carrying a letter for the head of the Communist Party, Xi Jinping, from the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, to try to help calm the escalating dispute between the two countries over contested islands in the East China Sea, Japanese officials said. Separately, the Philippines announced Tuesday that it would...

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I Might Be Too Old for Facebook Graph Search

On Sunday, I turned 30.That’s not too old, I tell myself, yet the signs of aging are creeping in. Teenagers listen to music that I either haven’t heard of or believe to be mostly terrible. They use slang I don’t recognize, and I imagine my slang would sound to them like “groovy” or “far out” sound to me.But for the purposes of our tech blog, the most notable sign is how much more active teens...

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Barbara Walters Hospitalized After Inauguration Weekend Fall

By Andrea Billups 01/21/2013 at 09:30 AM EST Barbara Walters Mark VonHolden/DMIPhoto.com/FilmMagic The Inauguration festivities took a tough turn for at least one veteran newswoman.Barbara Walters, 83, fell Saturday night on a step at the residence of the British...

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Flu season fuels debate over paid sick time laws

NEW YORK (AP) — Sniffling, groggy and afraid she had caught the flu, Diana Zavala dragged herself in to work anyway for a day she felt she couldn't afford to miss.A school speech therapist who works as an independent contractor, she doesn't have paid sick days. So the mother of two reported to work and hoped for the best — and was aching, shivering and coughing by the end of the day. She stayed home...

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European shares test two-year highs, yen volatile before BOJ

LONDON (Reuters) - European shares inched towards two-year highs and German Bunds dipped on Monday, as a political attempt to break a budget impasse in the United States and expectations of aggressive Japanese stimulus bolstered the appetite for shares. U.S. House Republican leaders said on Friday they would seek to pass a three-month extension of federal borrowing authority in the coming...

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