Kerry Says He Is Preparing Proposals on Syria Crisis

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday that he had ideas about how to persuade President Bashar al-Assad to agree to a political transition in Syria and planned to raise them on his first foreign trip this month. “We need to address the question of President Assad’s calculation currently,” Mr. Kerry said after a meeting with Jordan’s foreign minister, Nasser Judeh. “I...

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Does the Sold-Out Surface Pro Mean Microsoft is Beating the IPad?

The first Surface RT tablets were extremely limited. They could only run apps specifically written for Windows 8, and only used the classic “desktop” mode to run Microsoft Office. The new Surface Pro tablets, on the other hand, can run “normal” Windows games and apps, and the premium 128 GB model is widely reported to have sold out both online and in brick-and-mortar stores.According to Business Insider’s...

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Lady Gaga: I Can't Walk Due to Injury

02/12/2013 at 06:45 PM EST Lady Gaga is feeling like a little monster for postponing concerts because of an injury."I barely know what to say," she writes on her Facebook page, Tuesday. "I've been hiding a show injury and chronic pain for some time now, [and] over the past month it has worsened. I've been praying...

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Study questions kidney cancer treatment in elderly

In a stunning example of when treatment might be worse than the disease, a large review of Medicare records finds that older people with small kidney tumors were much less likely to die over the next five years if doctors monitored them instead of operating right away.Even though nearly all of these tumors turned out to be cancer, they rarely proved fatal. And surgery roughly doubled patients' risk...

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Wall Street ends slightly higher, Dow near a record

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks closed modestly higher on Tuesday, putting the Dow within striking distance of an all-time high, as investors looked ahead to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address. Investors will be listening to Obama's speech for any clues on a deal with Republicans to avert automatic spending cuts due to take effect March 1. The tone of the speech will also...

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The Lede: Latest Updates on the Pope’s Resignation

The Lede is providing updates on Pope Benedict XVI’s announcement on Monday that he intends to resign on Feb. 28, less than eight years after he took office, the first pope to do so in six centuries. (Turn off auto-refresh to watch videos.)4:17 P.M. |Subtitled Video of Pope’s Resignation StatementThe Telegraph has added English subtitles to video of the pope’s resignation statement, made in Latin...

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Taylor Swift Skips Grammys After-Parties - to Hang with Her Cat

People Pets By Alison Schwartz 02/11/2013 at 06:20 PM EST Taylor Swift and her cat Meredith Courtesy Taylor Swift. Inset: Christopher Polk/Getty Taylor Swift had plenty to celebrate Sunday after she picked up a Grammy for "Safe & Sound," her collaboration with...

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Pope shows lifetime jobs aren't always for life

The world seems surprised that an 85-year-old globe-trotting pope who just started tweeting wants to resign, but should it be? Maybe what should be surprising is that more leaders his age do not, considering the toll aging takes on bodies and minds amid a culture of constant communication and change.There may be more behind the story of why Pope Benedict XVI decided to leave a job normally held for...

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Wall Street ends flat as investors seek new catalysts

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks ended a quiet session with slight moves on Monday as investors found few reasons to keep pushing shares higher following a six-week advance, though the longer-term trend was still viewed as positive. The benchmark index is up more 6.4 percent in 2013, putting both the S&P 500 and Dow industrials near multi-year highs. The S&P is less than 4 percent...

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Middle-Class Afghans Face a Murky Future

Bryan Denton for The New York TimesHaji Safiullah, right, attends to a customer at his pharmacy along the Kabul River. He is part of a new generation of Afghans that has succeeded in the private sector. KABUL, Afghanistan — The landmarks of this capital city’s new middle class light up a once-restrained night sky — vast and glittering wedding halls with aspirational names like “Kabul-Paris,” streetlamp...

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