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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Watch 9-Year-Old’s Comical Weather Report

Even if you’ve been overwhelmed with weather reports in the past 24 hours, here’s one you don’t want to miss. Not because it contains vital information ahead of a storm, but because it’s simply adorable and hilarious. Watch as 9-year-old William Hallman helps deliver the forecast for NBC affiliate station KVLY in Fargo, ND.[More from Mashable: Nemo-Inspired ‘Bread & Milk’ Video Storms Facebook]SEE...

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Pink Reveals Her Secret to a Happy Marriage: Listening ... in Moderation

By Marisa Laudadio 02/09/2013 at 05:00 PM EST Three-time Grammy winner Pink, 33, who is up for best pop vocal album at this month's Grammy Awards – and kicks off her U.S. tour on Feb. 13 – shares the secrets behind her music.You're nominated for The Truth About Love. So how does the magic happen? When I start a record, I'm like, 'God, I...

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After early start, worst of flu season may be over

NEW YORK (AP) — The worst of the flu season appears to be over.The number of states reporting intense or widespread illnesses dropped again last week, and in a few states there was very little flu going around, U.S. health officials said Friday.The season started earlier than normal, first in the Southeast and then spreading. But now, by some measures, flu activity has been ebbing for at least four...

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US Air, AMR near $11 billion merger, deal seen within week : sources

NEW YORK (Reuters) - US Airways Group Inc and AMR Corp are nearing an $11 billion merger that would create the world's largest airline and could announce a deal within a week, after resolving key differences on valuation and management structure, people familiar with the matter said. Under terms of a deal that are still being finalized, US Airways Chief Executive Doug Parker would become...

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3 North Korean Doctors Are Killed in Nigeria

POTISKUM, Nigeria (AP) — Assailants in northeastern Nigeria have killed three North Korean doctors, beheading one of them, officials said Sunday. The attack on Saturday night in Potiskum, a town in Yobe State, comes after gunmen killed at least nine women who were administering polio vaccines in Kano, the major city in Nigeria’s predominantly Muslim north. The assailants apparently...

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Why the Lumia 620 is so important to Nokia: Windows Phone is hammering the iPhone in India

The latest Nielsen survey confirms one of the major smartphone trends of 2012: That the Windows Phone operating system showed remarkable strength in India even before the new wave of Nokia (NOK) and HTC (2498) models launched in January. According to Nielsen, Windows Phone grabbed 8% of India’s smartphone market last autumn, far ahead of BlackBerry (BBRY) at 3% and iPhone at 1%. [More from BGR:...

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