Reeva Steenkamp's Father: If Oscar Pistorius Speaks the Truth, 'I Can Perhaps Someday Forgive Him'

By Stephen M. Silverman 02/23/2013 at 09:30 AM EST Oscar Pistorius and Reeva Steenkamp Elite/EMPICS Entertainment/ABACA Having been freed on bail Friday as he awaits trial for the premeditated murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, Oscar Pistorius "will have...

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FDA approves new targeted breast cancer drug

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration has approved a first-of-a-kind breast cancer medication that targets tumor cells while sparing healthy ones.The drug Kadcyla from Roche combines the established drug Herceptin with a powerful chemotherapy drug and a third chemical linking the medicines together. The chemical keeps the cocktail intact until it binds to a cancer cell, delivering a potent...

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Investors face another Washington deadline

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors face another Washington-imposed deadline on government spending cuts next week, but it's not generating the same level of fear as two months ago when the "fiscal cliff" loomed large. Investors in sectors most likely to be affected by the cuts, like defense, seem untroubled that the budget talks could send stocks tumbling. Talks on the U.S. budget...

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India Ink: In Hyderabad, Anger and Frustration

Srinivas Mahesh, 28, was snacking outside his hostel near the Konark Theater in Dishknagar, his usual hangout in Hyderabad, when he heard a loud explosion Thursday evening. Not long after, he saw smoke filling up the air. Once he realized it was a bomb blast, instead of rushing back to his hostel he resolved to helping the injured.“I saw disfigured bodies for the first time in my life,” he said. He...

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Sexting and bugging revealed at the FBI: CNN

(Reuters) – One FBI employee was fired for sleeping with a drug dealer and lying about it under oath, while another got the boot for bugging the boss’s office.The FBI suspended for 10 days still another employee for emailing a nude photograph of herself to her ex-boyfriend’s wife – the bureau showed compassion for the woman after she sought help for depression.Those cases over the past year were among...

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Music Mogul Clive Davis: My Lucky Life

By Kevin O'Donnell 02/22/2013 at 10:00 AM EST On a late January afternoon, Clive Davis is sitting in his wood-paneled office in Sony Music's Manhattan headquarters. Soon he'll be off to catch the opening night of his pal Barry Manilow's new Broadway show. But right now he's gazing at his wall, which holds photos...

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Govs to hear Oregon health care plan

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber will brief other state leaders this weekend on his plan to lower Medicaid costs, touting an overhaul that President Barack Obama highlighted in his State of the Union address for its potential to lower the deficit even as health care expenses climb.The Oregon Democrat leaves for Washington, D.C., on Friday to pitch his plan that changes the way doctors...

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Wall Street opens higher on data, HP earnings

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks opened higher Friday after two days of losses, lifted by better-than-expected earnings from Hewlett-Packard Co and positive economic data from Europe. HP, a Dow component, jumped 7.4 percent to $18.34 in early trading. The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was up 45.85 points, or 0.33 percent, at 13,926.47. The Standard & Poor's 500...

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IHT Rendezvous: Russian Nationalists Say ‘Nyet’ to Foreign Words

LONDON — Nationalist Russian legislators have introduced a bill to hold back a tide of foreign words, specifically English ones, which they claim is swamping the Russian language.A bill submitted by the minority Liberal Democratic Party would impose fines of up to $1,700 on officials, advertisers and journalists who use foreign words rather than their Russian equivalents.Their main gripe appears to...

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Nokia to sell cheaper phones to counter low-end rivals – sources

PARIS (Reuters) – Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia is set to launch cheaper handset models in an attempt to fend off growing competition from Chinese rivals in the low-end market, company sources said on Friday.The new models, due to be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress industry convention in Barcelona next week, show Nokia is expanding its focus after concentrating in the past two years on catching...

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Shia LaBeouf Drops Out of Broadway Play Due to 'Creative Differences'

Buzz 02/21/2013 at 10:00 AM EST Shia LaBeouf (left) and Alec Baldwin Danny Moloshok/Invision/AP; Jamie McCarthy/Getty Shia LaBeouf will not be bowing on the Great White Way this spring.The actor, who was scheduled to make his Broadway debut in a revival of the...

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Adults get 11 percent of calories from fast food

ATLANTA (AP) — On an average day, U.S. adults get roughly 11 percent of their calories from fast food, a government study shows.That's down slightly from the 13 percent reported the last time the government tried to pin down how much of the American diet is coming from fast food. Eating fast food too frequently has been seen as a driver of America's obesity problem.For the research, about 11,000 adults...

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Wall Street opens lower after jobless data

TORONTO, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Canada's Rebecca Marino, a rising star in women's tennis, stepped away from the sport in search of a normal life on Wednesday, weary of battling depression and cyber-bullies. Ranked number 38 in the world two years ago, the 22-year-old admitted she had long suffered from depression and was no longer willing to make the sacrifices necessary to reach the top. "After thinking...

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The Lede: Reporters in Syria See No End in Sight

It has been nearly two years since Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, deployed troops to clear the streets of first peaceful protesters and then armed rebels intent on overthrowing him.The ensuing war, a mix of the sectarian, political and personal, has turned bustling streets, workplaces and homes across the country into rubble-strewn battlegrounds, contested bitterly for the smallest strategic...

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Downton Abbey Cast Covers One Direction's 'What Makes You Beautiful'

TV Watch By Maggie Coughlan 02/20/2013 at 09:45 AM EST You don't know you're beautiful, Downton Abbey. But comedian Richard Sandling does! Sandling is the brains behind a video mashup of the Crawley crew performing One Direction's "What Makes You Beautiful." Using footage from seasons 1 through 3 (and both Christmas...

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Future science: Using 3D worlds to visualize data

CHICAGO (AP) — Take a walk through a human brain? Fly over the surface of Mars? Computer scientists at the University of Illinois at Chicago are pushing science fiction closer to reality with a wraparound virtual world where a researcher wearing 3D glasses can do all that and more.In the system, known as CAVE2, an 8-foot-high screen encircles the viewer 320 degrees. A panorama of images springs from...

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Wall Street little changed after data, Fed minutes on tap

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks were little changed on Wednesday after housing and inflation data pointed to a continuation of modest economic improvement and ahead of the minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee's January meeting later in the session. Groundbreaking to build new U.S. homes fell 8.5 percent in January but new permits for construction rose to a 4 1/2-year high while...

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The Lede: North Korean Video Shows Obama in Flames

North Korea has released a new propaganda video that shows President Obama and United States troops in flames and credits Washington with leading the impoverished country to become a proud nuclear power.Songs, operas and novels that stoke hatred against the United States and belittle South Korea are daily fare for North Koreans living under a leadership that uses propaganda as a critical tool of governing....

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Judge says Apple likely violated SEC rules

Major Apple (AAPL) shareholder Greenlight Capital, headed by billionaire hedge-fund manager David Einhorn, recently sued the consumer electronics giant in an effort to limit the company’s ability to offer preferred stock. At the heart of its claims, Greenlight is arguing that combining three separate items into one proposition — one of which would change the way Apple’s board issues...

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Michael Jackson's Son Prince Michael Works as TV Reporter

Only on People.com By Jennifer Garcia 02/19/2013 at 09:35 AM EST From left: James Franco, Zach Braff and Prince Michael Jackson Courtesy ET Michael Jackson's son, Prince Michael, stepped into a world his late father knew well, becoming a special correspondent for...

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Hip implants a bit more likely to fail in women

CHICAGO (AP) — Hip replacements are slightly more likely to fail in women than in men, according to one of the largest studies of its kind in U.S. patients. The risk of the implants failing is low, but women were 29 percent more likely than men to need a repeat surgery within the first three years.The message for women considering hip replacement surgery remains unclear. It's not known which models...

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Wall Street opens higher on M&A activity

(Reuters) - A Texas mother had a one-in-70-million kind of Valentine's Day this year when she gave birth to two sets of identical twin boys, a Houston hospital announced on Monday. The four brothers were delivered at 31 weeks to Tressa Montalvo, 36, via Cesarean section at The Woman's Hospital of Texas in Houston, according to a news release from the hospital. Tressa and Manuel Montalvo Jr. were not...

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IHT Rendezvous: As Europe Moves to Cap Bonuses, Britain Hesitates

LONDON — It is hard to imagine any European politician losing votes these days by promising to curb bankers’ pay, which may explain why members of the European Parliament are enthusiastically pushing for the toughest restrictions on bank bonuses since the 2008 financial crisis.Representatives of the Parliament and of the 27 European Union governments were meeting on Tuesday to finalize a deal on banking...

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British author attacks “plastic” princess Kate

LONDON (Reuters) – One of Britain‘s most celebrated authors has launched a withering attack on the Duchess of Cambridge, the pregnant wife of Prince William, branding her a “shop-window mannequin” with a plastic smile whose only role in life is to breed.Prime Minister David Cameron described award-winning writer Hilary Mantel as “misguided” after she likened the former Kate Middleton to a “machine...

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Kate, Back from Babymoon, Resumes Royal Duties

By Simon Perry 02/18/2013 at 09:20 AM EST Five months into her pregnancy and just back from a Caribbean "babymoon" in Mustique, the Duchess of Cambridge is stepping up her work as she returns to her royal duties.Kate, 31, is set for a visit to the port of Grimsby, about 180 miles from London in north eastern England, where she will be shown...

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Study: Better TV might improve kids' behavior

SEATTLE (AP) — Teaching parents to switch channels from violent shows to educational TV can improve preschoolers' behavior, even without getting them to watch less, a study found.The results were modest and faded over time, but may hold promise for finding ways to help young children avoid aggressive, violent behavior, the study authors and other doctors said."It's not just about turning off the television....

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Yen resumes fall after G20, earnings worries hit stocks

LONDON (Reuters) - The yen resumed falling on Monday after Japan signaled it would push ahead with expansionist monetary policies having escaped criticism from the world's 20 biggest economies at the weekend. European shares and industrial metals dropped on lingering worries about the economic outlook, especially for the euro zone. The risk of an inconclusive outcome in Italian elections...

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IHT Rendezvous: Holding Obama's Feet to the Climate-Change Fire

At first glance, it was hard to tell whether they had come to bury Obama or to praise him.Thousands of activists from hundreds of environmental, social justice and community groups marched on Washington yesterday in the biggest climate rally ever held in the U.S. capital. Activists both called on President Obama to make good on his climate change policy promises and protested the Keystone XL pipeline...

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LG to release full HD smartphone in SKorea

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — LG Electronics Inc. said Monday its new smartphone with a full high-definition screen will go on sale in South Korea this week before hitting shelves in Japan in April.The Optimus G Pro smartphone features a 5.5-inch screen that packs over 2 million pixels, or twice as many as smartphones with HD screens.The new Android-powered phone sports other upgrades including a camera...

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Kelly Ripa and Michael Strahan's Disney Vacation

TV Watch People Exclusive By Rennie Dyball 02/17/2013 at 10:00 AM EST Kelly Ripa with Joaquin (front), Michael and Lola in Disney World Todd Anderson/Disney Call it an on-location family vacation.Kelly Ripa and Michael Strahan are taping four episodes of Live in...

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