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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Facebook releases ‘Poke’ for the iPhone to compete with Snapchat

Title Post: Facebook releases ‘Poke’ for the iPhone to compete with SnapchatRating: 100%based on 99998 ratings.5 user reviews.Author: Fluser SeoLinkThanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comm...

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Americans answer D.C.’s siren song of employment, strong economy

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Thirteen years ago the band The Magnetic Fields crooned that the U.S. capital city is “the greatest place to be,” in the indie love song “Washington, D.C.”Recently, a growing number of Americans are singing along as they move to the District in search of jobs, economic opportunity and cultural attractions.In a study on migration provided exclusively to Reuters that is set to...

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Colorado Woman Billed Medicaid for Dead Father

A Colorado woman was convicted this week for felony forgery for submitting fraudulent documents to Medicaid regarding personal health care services provided to her father after he died. It was the second announcement of Medicaid fraud-related convictions made by the Colorado Attorney General’s office in less than a week. Here are the details.* According to the office of Colorado Attorney General John...

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Major jobs boost in UK North Sea

21 December 2012 Last updated at 11:20 ETStatoil is to invest £4.3bn in a North Sea oil field, bringing hundreds of jobs to the north east of Scotland.The Norwegian company said the investment in the Mariner field was the largest new offshore development in the UK in more than a decade.Statoil expects to start production from Mariner in 2017, pending final approval by the UK authorities.More than...

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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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Ashton Kutcher files for divorce from Demi Moore

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ashton Kutcher filed court papers Friday to end his seven-year marriage to actress Demi Moore.The actor’s divorce petition cites irreconcilable differences and does not list a date that the couple separated. Moore announced last year that she was ending her marriage to the actor 15 years her junior, but she never filed a petition.Kutcher’s filing does not indicate that the couple...

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Lauded cancer researcher, Springfield native, dies

A Springfield High School and Wittenberg University graduate whose research transformed the treatment of breast cancer and saved and prolonged the lives of women afflicted by it died Sunday in Cincinnati.Elwood Jensen was 92.Known as the “Father of the Nuclear Receptor Field,” Jensen was one of three researchers to share the 2004 Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research, what some call the American...

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Steve Jobs’ super-yacht impounded

21 December 2012 Last updated at 12:29 ETVenus, the minimalist high-tech yacht commissioned by the late Apple founder Steve Jobs, has become embroiled in a row over a disputed bill.French designer Philippe Starck claims Mr Jobs’ heirs still owe him 3m euros of a 9m euro fee for the project, according to Dutch paper Het Financieele Dagblad.Mr Starck called in the debt collectors and had the yacht impounded,The...

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World Music Awards postponed due to visa issues, Newtown tragedy

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The World Music Awards was postponed on Thursday due to “logistical and multiple visa issue,” organizers said, two days before the event was scheduled to be held in Miami.Event producers John Martinotti and Marcol International said in a statement that the December 22 awards ceremony also was being delayed in the wake of the elementary school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut,...

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Pentagon day care review expanding to schools

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is expanding a Pentagon review of hiring at military day care centers to include Defense Department schools, youth centers and other facilities where children are present.Pentagon press secretary George Little said Wednesday that officials are also questioning why it took three months for the Army to inform Panetta about arrests and problems with background...

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Vote on US fiscal cliff ‘Plan B’

20 December 2012 Last updated at 17:23 ETThe Republican-led US House is set to vote on a package of spending cuts and tax rises party leaders say will keep the US away from the “fiscal cliff”.The vote includes tax rises on earnings above $ 1m (£614,000) on Speaker John Boehner’s so-called “Plan B” option.It comes as talks with the White House appear to have stalled, with President Barack Obama seeking...

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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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Changes in law aim to protect kids’ online data

WASHINGTON (AP) — Aiming to prevent companies from exploiting online information about children under 13, the Obama administration on Wednesday imposed sweeping changes in regulations designed to protect a young generation with easy access to the Internet.Two years in the making, the amended rules to the decade-old Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act go into effect in July. Privacy advocates...

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Music, roses at singer Jenni Rivera’s memorial

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. (AP) — Jenni Rivera‘s “celestial graduation” was marked by festive music, heartfelt speeches in Spanish and English and passionate chants of “Jen-ni! Jen-ni!”Rivera’s children and famed singers Olga Tanon and Joan Sebastian performed during the nearly 2 ½-hour memorial service Wednesday at the Gibson Amphitheatre, where thousands of fans gathered to salute the “Diva de la Banda”...

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New Laser Treatment at Cosmedics Skin Clinics Offers Fast, Efficient Results for Facial Thread Veins

Although thread veins are relatively common and medically harmless, they can look unpleasant and people can go to great lengths to hide them. Now laser technology is set to offer a fast, effective treatment on the high street and now Medical Director Dr Ross Perry of Cosmedics Skin Clinics offers laser thread vein removal in London and Bristol.London (PRWEB UK) 19 December 2012Thread veins are quite...

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Google given EU anti-trust deadline

19 December 2012 Last updated at 07:09 ETGoogle has been given a month to address complaints its search results favour its own services over those of its rivals.EU regulators said they would end their investigation into the allegations if Google came “forward with a detailed commitment text in January 2013″.If found guilty of breaching anti-trust rules, Google could face a fine of up to $ 4bn (£2.5bn).Google...

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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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Google Music adds free iTunes-like song-matching feature

Title Post: Google Music adds free iTunes-like song-matching featureRating: 100%based on 99998 ratings.5 user reviews.Author: Fluser SeoLinkThanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comm...

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Naomi Watts pulls off “The Impossible” to critical acclaim

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Days after the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, actress Naomi Watts took part in a fundraising telethon spearheaded by George Clooney to help the region’s hundreds of thousands of people in 14 nations whose lives were shattered.Little did Watts know that eight years later she would be starring in “The Impossible,” out in the U.S. movie theaters on Friday, about a real...

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Experts: Kids are resilient in coping with trauma

WASHINGTON (AP) — They might not want to talk about the gunshots or the screams. But their toys might start getting into imaginary shootouts.Last week’s school shooting in Connecticut raises the question: What will be the psychological fallout for the children who survived?For people of any age, regaining a sense of security after surviving violence can take a long time. They’re at risk for lingering...

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Dublin opposes Aer Lingus deal

18 December 2012 Last updated at 17:17 ETThe Irish government has voiced its opposition to Ryanair’s bid to buy rival Aer Lingus, saying the deal risked damaging competition.However, despite Dublin holding a 25% stake in Aer Lingus, it is the European Union that will decide whether the takeover can go ahead.Ryanair responded that the Irish government has no power to block its bid. It already owns...

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