FCC chairman urges FAA to revise in-flight iPad rules

No, it doesn’t make any sense that you have to turn off your iPad or Kindle during airplane landings, and now the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission wants to see that change. In a letter to the Federal Aviation Administration, FCC chairman Julius Genachowski urged the agency to “enable greater use of tablets, e-readers, and other portable devices” on flights, The Hill reports. Genachowski...

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Kate's Severe Morning Sickness Could Be Hereditary

By Michelle Tauber 12/08/2012 at 11:15 AM EST Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge Ben Pruchnie/Getty Even duchesses can get the monster of all morning sicknesses.Known as hyperemesis gravidarum (HG), the condition – for which Kate was hospitalized for four days – is characterized by debilitating...

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Smokers celebrate as Wash. legalizes marijuana

SEATTLE (AP) — The crowds of happy people lighting joints under Seattle's Space Needle early Thursday morning with nary a police officer in sight bespoke the new reality: Marijuana is legal under Washington state law.Hundreds gathered at Seattle Center for a New Year's Eve-style countdown to 12 a.m., when the legalization measure passed by voters last month took effect. When the clock struck, they...

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Wall Street Week Ahead: "Cliff" worries may drive tax selling

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors typically sell stocks to cut their losses at year end. But worries about the "fiscal cliff" - and the possibility of higher taxes in 2013 - may act as the greatest incentive to sell both winners and losers by December 31. The $600 billion of automatic tax increases and spending cuts scheduled for the beginning of next year includes higher rates for capital...

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Cairo Protesters Take to Streets as Political Crisis Deepens

CAIRO — Supporters and opponents of the government of President Mohamed Morsi staged competing demonstrations on Friday after noon prayers, throwing Egypt deeper into political crisis. Thousands of pro-government Islamists attended the funeral of two men killed in clashes on Wednesday outside the presidential palace, the site of continuing demonstrations by the opposition. “With blood and...

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Eddie Redmayne: 5 Things You Should Know

By Mary Green and Julie Jordan 12/07/2012 at 10:15 AM EST Eddie Redmayne, breakout star of Les Miserables, is receiving awards buzz as the student French revolutionary Marius, who falls in love with Cosette, played by Amanda Seyfried. Redmayne, who also played Michelle Williams's love interest...

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Smokers celebrate as Wash. legalizes marijuana

SEATTLE (AP) — The crowds of happy people lighting joints under Seattle's Space Needle early Thursday morning with nary a police officer in sight bespoke the new reality: Marijuana is legal under Washington state law.Hundreds gathered at Seattle Center for a New Year's Eve-style countdown to 12 a.m., when the legalization measure passed by voters last month took effect. When the clock struck, they...

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Wall Street flat in wake of weak consumer sentiment data

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks were little changed on Friday after a weak consumer confidence survey for December overshadowed earlier gains triggered by a better-than-expected employment report. Wall Street had opened higher after Labor Department data showed nonfarm employment increased more than expected by 146,000 jobs in November. But major U.S. stock indexes gave up their...

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Resignations Continue in Egypt as Tanks Deploy Around Presidential Palace

Tara Todras-Whitehill for The New York TimesEgyptian soldiers put up barbed-wire fences near the presidential palace on Thursday in Cairo. More Photos »CAIRO — Resignations rocked the government of President Mohamed Morsi on Thursday as tanks from the special presidential guard took up positions around his palace and the state television headquarters after a night of street fighting between his Islamist...

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Brooke Burke-Charvet Recovering After Successful Thyroid Surgery

TV Watch Dancing With the Stars By Julia Haskins 12/06/2012 at 11:35 AM EST Brooke Burke-Charvet is happy to report that she's doing well after undergoing thyroid surgery on Wednesday. The Dancing with the Stars co-host stayed optimistic when faced with the threat thyroid cancer and preparing for the surgery....

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Celebrations planned as Wash. legalizes marijuana

SEATTLE (AP) — Legal marijuana possession becomes a reality under Washington state law on Thursday, and some people planned to celebrate the new law by breaking it.Voters in Washington and Colorado last month made those the first states to decriminalize and regulate the recreational use of marijuana. Washington's law takes effect Thursday and allows adults to have up to an ounce of pot — but it bans...

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Wall Street flat, volatile; fiscal talks, Apple in focus

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks were little changed in choppy morning trading on Thursday as upbeat guidance from Broadcom partially offset weakness in Apple shares, while traders kept an eye on fiscal negotiations in Washington. Extending Wednesday's 6.4 percent decline, Apple was trading down 0.7 percent at $535 early on Thursday, after falling as much as 3.7 percent at the open, which...

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Typhoon Kills Hundreds in Philippines

Bullit Marquez/Associated PressA resident hung clothing amid fallen trees and debris on Wednesday, a day after Typhoon Bopha made landfall in the village of Andap, in southern Philippines. MANILA — With many roads and bridges washed away, rescue teams struggled on Wednesday to reach isolated villages in the southern Philippines after a powerful out-of-season typhoon tore through the region, leaving...

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Austrian farmers dip into Internet “milking” craze

VIENNA (Reuters) – Dumping a bottle of milk over your head and filming it for a video post on the Internet has become a popular youth craze, but Austrian farmers say the spillage is a crying shame.“Milking”, as the trend is known, is among a variety of tongue-in-cheek stunts in which young people shoot pictures or videos of themselves posing as owls, planks of wood, or famous people and then share...

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Frankie Muniz Couldn't See or Speak During Mini-Stroke

Only on People.com By Monica Rizzo 12/05/2012 at 11:40 AM EST Nobody was more surprised to learn that former Malcolm in the Middle star Frankie Muniz had a mini-stroke last Friday than the actor and musician himself."I consider myself to be very healthy," says Muniz, who spoke to PEOPLE from his Phoenix home...

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Longer tamoxifen use cuts breast cancer deaths

Breast cancer patients taking the drug tamoxifen can cut their chances of having the disease come back or kill them if they stay on the pills for 10 years instead of five years as doctors recommend now, a major study finds.The results could change treatment, especially for younger women. The findings are a surprise because earlier research suggested that taking the hormone-blocking drug for longer...

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Blue chips lead Wall Street bounce back

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks swung back to positive territory in late morning trading on Wednesday, led by gains in Dow components Caterpillar and The Travelers , while Citigroup's 5 percent gain boosted bank stocks. The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> rose 72.71 points, or 0.56 percent, to 13,024.49. The S&P 500 <.spx> edged up 1.49 points, or 0.11 percent, to 1,408.54....

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Royal Baby a ‘Delight,’ Especially to Britain’s Tabloids

LONDON — The speculation began virtually the moment Kate Middleton said “I will” to Prince William in April 2011, leaving an industry of tabloid newspapers and gossip magazines with a big black hole where their wedding coverage used to be. Why, they asked, was the former Ms. Middleton, now the duchess of Cambridge, drinking water instead of wine at an official dinner, in what appeared to...

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Swiss spy agency warns U.S., Britain about huge data leak

ZURICH (Reuters) – Secret information on counter-terrorism shared by foreign governments may have been compromised by a massive data theft by a senior IT technician for the NDB, Switzerland‘s intelligence service, European national security sources said.Intelligence agencies in the United States and Britain are among those who were warned by Swiss authorities that their data could have been put in...

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Prince William and Kate: What Will They Name the Baby?

By Anya Leon 12/04/2012 at 11:30 AM EST Kate and Prince William Pascal Le Segretain/Getty The much-awaited news may be confirmed, but there's still plenty to buzz about when it comes to Prince William and wife Kate's baby announcement. Namely, well, the name.With much speculation that the...

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Tapping citizen-scientists for a novel gut check

WASHINGTON (AP) — The bacterial zoo inside your gut could look very different if you're a vegetarian or an Atkins dieter, a couch potato or an athlete, fat or thin.Now for a fee — $69 and up — and a stool sample, the curious can find out just what's living in their intestines and take part in one of the hottest new fields in science.Wait a minute: How many average Joes really want to pay for the privilege...

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Wall Street flat, awaits movement on fiscal cliff talks

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks were little changed in early trading on Tuesday as the market remains hostage to negotiations in Washington on how to avert a "fiscal cliff" that could push the U.S. economy into recession. Republicans in Congress proposed steep spending cuts to bring down the budget deficit on Monday but gave no ground on President Barack Obama's call to raise taxes on the...

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Pope Starts Personal Twitter Account

Osservatore Romano, via ReutersPope Benedict XVI using an iPad at the Vatican last year. On Monday, the Vatican announced that the 85-year-old pontiff would begin posting messages on Twitter next week under the handle @pontifex, a term for pope that means bridge-builder in Latin. Within hours, he had more than 100,000 followers. Benedict is expected to hit “send” on his first post at a general...

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