Canada spending growth sluggish in November, Mastercard says

(Reuters) – Canada‘s holiday shopping season got off to a slow start in November with retail sales rising only 1.3 percent from the previous year, compared with 4.2 percent growth a year earlier, according to data released by MasterCard on Thursday.Still, the shopping season was still young in November. MasterCard Advisors, the payment company’s research and consulting division, found that in recent...

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UK’s Kate and William to spend Christmas Day with her parents

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s Prince William and his pregnant wife Kate will spend Christmas Day with her parents, their office said on Saturday, in a break with the tradition of royals joining Queen Elizabeth at her country estate at Sandringham.The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will celebrate in private with Carole and Michael Middleton at their home in the village of Bucklebury, about 50 miles west...

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Violence, fear & suspicion imperil Pakistan’s war on polio

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistani health worker Bushra Bibi spent eight years trekking to remote villages, carefully dripping polio vaccine into toddlers’ pursed mouths to protect them from the crippling disease.Now the 35-year-old mother is too scared to go to work after masked men on motorbikes gunned down nine of her fellow health workers in a string of attacks this week.“I have seen so...

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Official: North Korea could have U.S. within missile range

SEOUL (Reuters) - This month's rocket launch by reclusive North Korea shows it has likely developed the technology, long suspected in the West, to fire a warhead more than 10,000 km (6,200 miles), South Korean officials said on Sunday, putting the U.S. West Coast in range. North Korea said the December 12 launch put a weather satellite in orbit but critics say it was aimed at nurturing...

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Italy PM Monti resigns, elections likely in February

ROME (Reuters) – Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti tendered his resignation to the president on Friday after 13 months in office, opening the way to a highly uncertain national election in February.The former European commissioner, appointed to lead an unelected government to save Italy from financial crisis a year ago, has kept his own political plans a closely guarded secret but he has faced growing...

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Google working on “X Phone”, “X” tablet to take on rivals – WSJ

(Reuters) – Google Inc is working with recently acquired Motorola on a handset codenamed “X-phone”, aimed at grabbing market share from Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.Google acquired Motorola in May for $ 12.5 billion to bolster its patent portfolio as its Android mobile operating system competes with rivals such as Apple...

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‘Skyfall’ Will Open January 21 in China, Won’t Face ‘Hobbit’

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Global blockbuster “Skyfall” will open on January 21 in China, a person with knowledge of the situation confirmed to TheWrap Friday.A strong run in China will be critical if “Skyfall” is to hit $ 1 billion at the worldwide box office.The date means that Sony and MGM’s newest 007 film will likely roll out ahead of Warner Bros.‘ Middle-earth epic “The Hobbit,” which is expected...

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Spectrum Pharma’s blood cancer drug meets trial goal

(Reuters) – Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc said a mid-stage trial of its experimental blood cancer drug met the main goal of reducing the size of tumors.The biotechnology company‘s shares, which have fallen about 22 percent over the past 12 months, were up about 3 percent at $ 11.60 in morning trade on the Nasdaq and touched a high of $ 11.75 .The drug, belinostat, was tested in patients with relapsed...

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NRA move exposes deep divide on guns

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Any chance for national unity on U.S. gun violence appeared to wane a week after the Connecticut school massacre, as the powerful NRA gun rights lobby called on Friday for armed guards in every school and gun-control advocates vehemently rejected the proposal. The solution offered by the National Rifle Association defied a push by President Barack Obama for new...

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Wounded presage health crisis for postwar Syria

ATMEH, Syria (AP) — A baby boy joined the ranks of Syria’s tens of thousands of war wounded when a missile fired by Bashar Assad‘s air force slammed into his family home and shrapnel pierced his skull.Four-month-old Fahed Darwish suffered brain damage and, like thousands of others seriously hurt in the civil war, he will likely need care well after the fighting is over. That’s something doctors say...

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Mission Impossible?: Can Tom Cruise Launch a Box-Office Franchise with ‘Jack Reacher’?

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Paramount hopes it’s launching a franchise with “Jack Reacher,” the Tom Cruise action thriller that hits theaters Friday.It will be tricky in a crowded holiday marketplace, and Cruise isn’t the box-office bonanza he once was. But one need only look back to last year’s “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol” to see how it might work. That film opened to $ 12 million on December...

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Women’s Excellence in Endometriosis: Introducing a Specialized Center Treating Pelvic Pain, Painful Intercourse, and Painful Menstrual Periods in Oakland County, MI

Endometriosis is a painful, sometimes disabling disease that attacks a woman’s reproductive tract and other pelvic organs and can ultimately lead to infertility and chronic pelvic pain (CPP). Women’s Excellence in Endometriosis is a one-of-a-kind, specialty center for woman suffering with the disease and its painful sequelae.Oakland County, MI (PRWEB) December 20, 2012Women with chronic pelvic pain...

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Boehner suffers major 'fiscal cliff' setback

House Speaker Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, speaks to the media about the fiscal cliff at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. …In a stinging setback for Republican House Speaker John Boehner, a lack of support from inside his own party for his “fiscal cliff” fall-back plan forced him late Thursday to cancel a much-trumpeted vote on the measure.“The House did not take up the tax measure today because...

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Worries grow in east Congo with fighter buildup

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Aid workers warned Wednesday that armed groups are setting up new front lines in and around the city of Goma in eastern Congo, where the U.N. said it now has documented at least 126 rape cases last month.Thousands of fighters from the M23 rebel group withdrew several weeks ago from Goma, and the fighters have since taken steps toward negotiating with the Congolese government.However,...

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New Online Privacy Loophole Lets Facebook Advertise to Kids

Mark Zuckerberg‘s been eager to find a way to get more kids on Facebook for years, and on Wednesday, the Federal Trade Commission handed it to him on a platter. That might be overstating it a little bit. It’s more like the FTC served it to him on a platter covered in plastic wrap with a note attached that says “Do not open.” Nevertheless, should Facebook decided to see what’s inside, experts in online...

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Miss USA Olivia Culpo is crowned Miss Universe

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A 20-year-old Boston University sophomore and a self-described “cellist-nerd” brought the Miss Universe crown back to the United States for the first time in more than a decade when she won the televised contest Wednesday.Olivia Culpo beat out 88 other beauty queens to take the title from Leila Lopes of Angola during the two-hour competition at the Planet Hollywood casino on the Las...

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HIV cases decline for black women, increase for gay men: CDC

ATLANTA (Reuters) – Fewer black women in the United States are being infected with HIV, but the number of young gay and bisexual men infected is rising, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday.Between 2008 and 2010, the number of newly infected black women dropped 21 percent, according to the CDC report. Yet despite the decline, they still accounted for 70 percent of all new...

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Funerals become routine in shattered town

NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) — One by one by one by one, each with fresh heartbreak, hearses crisscrossed two New England towns on Wednesday, bearing three tiny victims of the Sandy Hook school massacre and a heroic teacher in a seemingly never-ending series of funeral processions."The first few days, all you heard were helicopters," said Dr. Joseph Young, an optometrist who attended one funeral and would...

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NBC’s Engel, TV crew escape abduction in Syria

BEIRUT (AP) — NBC‘s chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel said Tuesday he and members of his network crew escaped unharmed after five days of captivity in Syria, where more than a dozen pro-regime gunmen dragged them from their car, killed one of their rebel escorts and subjected them to mock executions.Appearing on NBC’s “Today” show, an unshaven Engel said he and his team escaped during a firefight...

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