Mental health toll emerges among Sandy survivors

NEW YORK (AP) — The image of his brother trapped in a car with water rising to his neck, his eyes silently pleading for help, is part of a recurring nightmare that wakes Anthony Gatti up, screaming, at night.Gatti hauled his brother out of the car just in time, saving his life at the height of Superstorm Sandy. The two men rode out the hurricane in their childhood Staten Island home and survived....

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UBS faces $1.6 billion fine over Libor rigging: paper

ZURICH (Reuters) – UBS faces a fine of 1.5 billion Swiss francs ($ 1.63 billion) to settle interest rate rigging charges, a Swiss newspaper reported on Saturday.Citing unnamed sources, Tages-Anzeiger daily said the bank would admit 36 traders around the globe manipulated yen Libor between 2005 and 2010. A UBS spokesman declined to comment.People familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday UBS...

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Top Canada court upholds anti-terrorism law in unanimous ruling

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada‘s Supreme Court on Friday upheld an anti-terrorism law enacted after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, ruling unanimously that those who choose to engage in terrorism must “pay a very heavy price.”The law’s constitutionality was challenged by Mohammad Momin Khawaja, convicted in Canada of terrorism for involvement with a British group that had plotted...

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RIM shows how BlackBerry 10 touch screen keys could rival its traditional keyboards [video]

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“Bennifer” buried as Ben Affleck’s star soars

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – It has taken 10 years of hard work and indie movies, but Ben Affleck finally has moved past his “Bennifer” nightmare.Affleck, 40, once a tabloid staple who risked becoming a laughingstock during his romance with Jennifer Lopez and their movie flop “Gigli,” is back on top in Hollywood, winning accolades for his work both in front of and behind the camera.Fifteen years after...

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Roche wins EU nod for breast cancer drug Perjeta

ZURICH (Reuters) – European health regulators recommended Roche‘s breast cancer drug Perjeta for approval on Friday, cementing the company’s hopes that the drug will become the standard of care for an aggressive, incurable form of cancer.Roche is hoping that combining Perjeta with its older drug Herceptin will become the standard treatment for women with a form of cancer known as HER2-positive, which...

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UPDATE 3-Cricket-Hughes shines as Australia reach 299-4

* Hughes falls just short of century* Clarke and Hussey combine for 101* Welegedera takes 3-99 (Adds quotes)HOBART, Dec 14 (Reuters) – Phil Hughes made a solid 86 on his return to test cricket before Michael Clarke and Mike Hussey took up the running and steered Australia to 299 for four at close of play on the first day of the first test against Sri Lanka on Friday.Hughes was the only batsmen to...

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Home invasion victim gets help over Xbox headset

NORTH APOLLO, Pa. (AP) — Police say a Pennsylvania man used his Xbox headphones to call for help after being bound with duct tape and menaced with a gun during a home invasion.Investigators say the 22-year-old suburban Pittsburgh man was playing video games in an upstairs bedroom when he heard his front door open. The man initially thought it was a family member but saw an armed man wearing a ski...

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Shawn Levy’s 21 Laps signs new first look deal with Fox

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) – Fox has signed a new three-year first look deal with director/producer Shawn Levy‘s 21 Laps, the production company behind “Night at the Museum” and “The Watch,” the companies announced on Wednesday.21 Laps is already based at Fox, having supplied the studio with several comedy titles over the past few years. While its most recent, “The Watch,” disappointed at the box office,...

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Best Pals Paralyzed Just 2 Years Apart

Alan Brown had just wrapped up a fundraiser for his high school best friend, Danny Heumann, who had been paralyzed after he broke his back in a car accident.“We were 18 years old, ready to live life,” said Brown, who became his friend’s caregiver, staying by his side at New York City‘s Rusk Institute after the 1985 accident.But just six weeks after he had helped raise $ 15,000 for his friend’s new...

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Walmart vs. Walmart

Cindy Murray has been working at Walmart store No. 1985 in Laurel, Md., for 13 years. She’s stationed in the fitting rooms and earns $ 12.40 an hour. Murray, who’s in her fifties, says she loves her job. She thinks of herself as a model employee. She also helped start OUR Walmart, or Organization United for Respect at Walmart, the group of employees who defied one of the most powerful companies...

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Aides: Chavez in tough fight, may miss swearing-in

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Somber confidants of President Hugo Chavez say he is going through a difficult recovery after cancer surgery in Cuba, and one close ally is warning Venezuelans that their leader may not make it back for his swearing-in next month.Information Minister Ernesto Villegas said Wednesday night that Chavez was in “stable condition” and was with close relatives in Havana. Reading...

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Lidl Christmas dinner offer goes viral on Twitter

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Discount retailer Lidl faces a 200,000-euro ($ 260,000) Christmas dinner bill after an offer of chicken vol-au-vents and ice cream cake for the poor went viral.The supermarket launched a Twitter campaign in Belgium on Monday, saying it would hand out five four-course Christmas dinners to food banks for each tweet on a hash tag.Lidl had expected to hand out about 1,000 of the 20-euro...

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Britney Spears, Taylor Swift are top-earning women in music

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Pop star Britney Spears edged past Taylor Swift to claim the title of top-earning woman in music after bringing in an estimated $ 58 million from her album, endorsements and a perfume in the past year, Forbes said on Wednesday.Country-pop singer Swift, 22, was a close second with an estimated $ 57 million paycheck thanks to her tour – which made more than $ 1 million each night...

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Medicines Co to spend $300 million to boost hospital products line

(Reuters) – Medicines Company, a maker of drugs used in hospitals, will spend about $ 300 million in two deals to bulk up its surgical care products portfolio.The company will pay $ 105 million upfront for a two-year license to market Bristol-Myers Squibb Company‘s device to control bleeding during surgery.Medicines Co also said it agreed to pay $ 185 million to acquire privately held Incline Therapeutics,...

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North Korea’s new leader burnishes credentials with rocket

SEOUL/TOKYO (Reuters) – North Korea successfully launched a rocket on Wednesday, boosting the credentials of its new leader and stepping up the threat the isolated and impoverished state poses to its opponents.The rocket, which North Korea says put a weather satellite into orbit, has been labeled by the United States, South Korea and Japan as a test of technology that could one day deliver a nuclear...

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Top 2012 searches include Whitney, PSY, Sandy

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The world’s attention wavered between the tragic and the silly in 2012, and along the way, Web surfers searched in huge numbers to find out about a royal princess, the latest iPad, and a record-breaking skydiver.Whitney Houston was the “top trending” search of the year, according to Google Inc.’s year-end “zeitgeist” report. Google‘s 12th annual roundup is “an in-depth look at the...

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TV’s “Storage Wars” is rigged, fired cast member charges

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The popular TV show “Storage Wars” – in which treasure hunters bid to buy unseen items in abandoned units – is rigged, with producers sometimes planting valuable items among the junk, a former contestant said in a lawsuit on Tuesday.David Hester, one of the reality TV show‘s longest-serving cast members, said producers buried a BMW Mini under trash in one unit featured in the...

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Mandela responding to lung infection treatment

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Former South African President Nelson Mandela, who is 94 and has been in hospital since Saturday for tests, has suffered a recurrence of a lung infection but is responding to treatment, the government said on Tuesday.The revered anti-apartheid leader and Nobel Peace laureate is spending his fourth day in hospital in the capital, Pretoria.Known affectionately by his clan name...

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Delta buys into Virgin Atlantic

11 December 2012 Last updated at 10:24 ETDelta Air Lines has agreed a deal to buy Singapore Airlines’ 49% stake in Virgin Atlantic for $ 360m (£224m).Virgin Group and Sir Richard Branson will retain a 51% shareholding, and the Virgin brand will remain in place, the new partners said in a joint statement.The deal is subject to regulatory approval in the US and Europe.It follows a spat between Sir Richard...

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Australian prank call radio to donate profits to nurse’s family

CANBERRA (Reuters) – The Australian radio station behind a prank call to a British hospital will donate its advertising revenue until the end of the year to a fund for the family of the nurse who apparently took her own life after the stunt, the company said on Tuesday.Southern Cross Austereo, parent company of Sydney radio station 2Day FM, said it would donate all advertising revenue, with a minimum...

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