Cliff fight may knock out December rally

NEW YORK (Reuters) - In normal times, next week's slew of U.S. economic data could be a springboard for a December rally in the stock market. December is historically a strong month for markets. The S&P 500 has risen 16 times in the past 20 years during the month. But the market hasn't been operating under normal circumstances since November 7 when a day after the U.S....

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Chinese Media Partly Retreat After Reports of Court Verdict

BEIJING — A brief news article published on Sunday by a score of state-run news media outlets offered an account of an unexpected judicial verdict: a Beijing municipal court had sentenced 10 people to jail for illegally detaining and assaulting a group of citizens who had come to the capital to lodge complaints about official malfeasance in their hometown in China’s central Henan Province. ...

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Facebook Cover Photos Are Disappearing

In the scope of a couple of days, several people — including Mashable staffers — have seen their Facebook cover photos disappear without explanation. The issue appears to be a move by Facebook to aggressively crack down on images that are considered promotional.[More from Mashable: 500,000 Facebook Users Chase Fake $ 1 Million From Powerball ‘Winner’]I first encountered the issue yesterday when Facebook...

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Ashley Hebert and J.P. Rosenbaum Are Married

The Bachelorette By Monica Rizzo 12/01/2012 at 06:15 PM EST J.P. Rosenbaum and Ashley Hebert Victor Chavez/Getty It’s official: Bachelorette star Ashley Hebert and her fiancé J.P. Rosenbaum tied the knot Saturday afternoon in Pasadena, Calif.Surrounded by family,...

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Asperger's dropped from revised diagnosis manual

CHICAGO (AP) — The now familiar term "Asperger's disorder" is being dropped. And abnormally bad and frequent temper tantrums will be given a scientific-sounding diagnosis called DMDD. But "dyslexia" and other learning disorders remain.The revisions come in the first major rewrite in nearly 20 years of the diagnostic guide used by the nation's psychiatrists. Changes were approved Saturday.Full details...

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Cliff fight may knock out December rally

NEW YORK (Reuters) - In normal times, next week's slew of U.S. economic data could be a springboard for a December rally in the stock market. December is historically a strong month for markets. The S&P 500 has risen 16 times in the past 20 years during the month. But the market hasn't been operating under normal circumstances since November 7 when a day after the U.S....

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Economic Frustration Simmers Again in Tunisia

Moises Saman for The New York TimesPeople in Tunis and across the country are struggling with high unemployment and inflation. TUNIS — Tahar Bayahi, who runs Tunisia’s largest grocery store chain, spent the days right after the revolution toting up his losses: one-quarter of his 60 stores nationwide incinerated and another quarter pillaged. Yet his company, Magasins Général, turned right...

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Act of kindness turns New York cop into media darling

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. national media just got the perfect holiday gift: a feel-good tale about a young police officer who dug into his own pocket to put boots on a barefoot panhandler on a freezing city sidewalk.Even better was the way the story of New York City Police Officer Larry DePrimo‘s kindness unfolded.Thanks to a blurry Facebook photo snapped on a cell phone by a tourist who happened...

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Jessica Biel: Married Life with Justin Timberlake 'Feels Incredible'

By Dahvi Shira 11/30/2012 at 06:30 PM EST Jessica Biel and Ellen DeGeneres Michael Rozman/Warner Bros It's all about the little things for newlywed Jessica Biel.The Hitchcock star, 30, who tied the knot last month, says a huge perk of being married to Justin Timberlake...

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Kenya village pairs AIDS orphans with grandparents

NYUMBANI, Kenya (AP) — There are no middle-aged people in Nyumbani. They all died years ago, before this village of hope in Kenya began. Only the young and old live here.Nyumbani was born of the AIDS crisis. The 938 children here all saw their parents die. The 97 grandparents — eight grandfathers among them — saw their middle-aged children die. But put together, the bookend generations take care of...

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