The Lede Blog: Vacation on Syria's Front Lines Goes Wrong for Russian Judge

Last Updated, Friday, 11:43 a.m. A Russian judge who decided to spend his vacation moonlighting as a war correspondent in Syria survived being shot in the face and arm this week in the Damascus suburb of Darayya, according to the Web news agency he writes for as a volunteer.The shooting of the judge, Sergey Aleksandrovich Berezhnoy, was caught on video by the crew from the Abkhazian Network News Agency...

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How I learned to stop worrying and love Twitter

Is anything more uniquely American than our free-wheeling, 140-character missives?Twitter is dead, you guys. Writers used to send pithy tweets across cyberspace, borne on the golden wings of Hermes. Now, as T.S. Eliot would say, “Our dried voices, when we whisper together are quiet and meaningless.” Twitter is so uncool, that even if we resurrected the spirits of Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix and...

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Tracy Morgan Reveals How He's Celebrating the 30 Rock Finale ... and His Baby on the Way

TV Watch By Lesley Messer 02/01/2013 at 12:00 PM EST Tracy Morgan and Megan Wollover Theo Wargo/WireImage Thursday was a busy day for Tracy Morgan: not only did he and his fiancée Megan Wollover announce that they're expecting their first child together, but his...

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Hedgehog Alert! Prickly pets can carry salmonella

NEW YORK (AP) — Add those cute little hedgehogs to the list of pets that can make you sick.In the last year, 20 people were infected by a rare but dangerous form of salmonella bacteria, and one person died in January. The illnesses were linked to contact with hedgehogs kept as pets, according to a report released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Health officials on Thursday...

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Nasdaq rises one percent, Wall Street extends rally

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks hit five-year highs and the Nasdaq rose 1 percent on Friday, after jobs and manufacturing data showed the economy's sluggish recovery is still on track. The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> gained 135.05 points, or 0.97 percent, to 13,995.63. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> rose 13.85 points, or 0.92 percent, to 1,511.96. The...

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India Ink: Image of the Day: Jan. 31

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Telecoms boom leaves rural Africa behind

JOHANNESBURG/FREETOWN (Reuters) – While mobile phone usage has exploded across Africa over the last decade, transforming daily life and commerce for millions, it’s a revolution that has left behind perhaps two thirds of its people.Poor or no reception outside the towns helps explain why the continent’s mobile penetration, in terms of the percentage of the population using the service, is far lower...

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Diem Brown Blogs: How I Cope With My Anxiety

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. The waiting game. We have the technology to put a man on the moon, and the President and the Pope Tweet us in real-time updates. But when it comes to medical test...

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Sex to burn calories? Authors expose obesity myths

Fact or fiction? Sex burns a lot of calories. Snacking or skipping breakfast is bad. School gym classes make a big difference in kids' weight.All are myths or at least presumptions that may not be true, say researchers who reviewed the science behind some widely held obesity beliefs and found it lacking.Their report in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine says dogma and fallacies are detracting...

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Wall Street flat after mixed data; Qualcomm lifts Nasdaq

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks were little changed on Thursday as investors mulled a mixed bag of economic data, though earnings from Qualcomm helped lift the Nasdaq. Data showed the labor market improved modestly; the number of Americans filing new claims last week for unemployment benefits rose, beating expectations and bouncing off five-year lows in the prior week. That comes...

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