HP lifts Wall Street, S&P on pace for first weekly loss of year

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks rose on Friday, rebounding off two days of losses as Dow component Hewlett-Packard surged on strong results, but the S&P 500 was on track to end a seven-week-long streak of gains. The S&P shed 1.9 percent over the previous two sessions, its worst two-day drop since early November, putting the index on pace for its first weekly decline of the year. The...

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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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Hedge fund manager Einhorn takes Apple campaign to shareholders

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Hedge fund manager David Einhorn, who is battling Apple Inc in court as part of a wider effort to get the iPhone-maker to share more of its cash pile, will now make a direct appeal to the company’s shareholders.He will host a conference call on Thursday to argue the merits of distributing perpetual preferred stock — his favored way of rewarding shareholders.Einhorn’s $ 8...

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Diem Brown Blogs: Farewell for Now

By Diem Brown 02/21/2013 at 04:00 PM EST In her PEOPLE.com blog, Diem Brown, the Real World/Road Rules Challenge contestant recently diagnosed with ovarian cancer for the second time, opens up about her desire for a child and the ups and downs of cancer and fertility procedures. First and foremost, I feel so...

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Flu shot did poor job against worst bug in seniors

ATLANTA (AP) — For those 65 and older, this season's flu shot is only 9 percent effective against the most common and dangerous flu bug, according to a startling new government report.Flu vaccine tends to protect younger people better than older ones and never works as well as other kinds of vaccines. But experts say the preliminary results for seniors are disappointing and highlight the need for...

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The Lede: Assad Denies Starting War in New Interview

Last Updated, Thursday, 3:48 p.m. The Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, denied in an interview broadcast last week on German television that he was responsible for starting the bloody conflict tearing his country apart.The interview, featured in a new documentary on the conflict in Syria by the filmmaker Hubert Seipel, was conducted in English but later overdubbed in German for broadcast on the network...

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Twitter begins integrating advertising software

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Twitter Inc said on Wednesday it is opening up its platform to third-party advertising management software, taking another step to establish its ad-based business model ahead of an initial public offering.The ads application programming interface, or API, would allow advertisers to connect their existing ad management software to their Twitter account to automate ads on the...

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Check Out Pregnant Maya Rudolph's Undercover Bump

Mom & Babies Celebrity Baby Blog 02/20/2013 at 03:00 PM ET Jason Merritt/Getty What baby bump?Maya Rudolph, who recently told Up All Night producers that she’s expecting her fourth child with Paul Thomas Anderson, swathed her belly in an animal-print teal and black sheath dress for Tuesday’s...

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Obama administration tackles colonoscopy confusion

WASHINGTON (AP) — It's one part of the new health care law that seemed clear: free coverage for preventive care under most insurance plans.Only it didn't turn out that way.So on Wednesday, the Obama administration had to straighten out the confusion.Have you gone for a colonoscopy thinking it was free, only to get a hefty bill because the doctor removed a polyp?No more.Taking out such precancerous...

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Wall Street extends losses; Nasdaq off one percent

DEAR ABBY: My boyfriend, "Doug" (24), and I (22) have been in a long-distance relationship for a year, but we were friends for a couple of years before that. I had never had a serious relationship before and lacked experience. Doug has not only been in two other long-term relationships, but has had sex with more than 15 women. One of them is an amateur porn actress.I knew about this, but it didn't...

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