Iraq President’s Health Is Improving, Doctor Says

KIRKUK, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi President Jalal Talabani is now able to talk, his doctor said, adding he was hopeful the Kurdish statesman would soon be fit to return to Iraq from Germany, where he has been receiving medical treatment for a stroke. A peace-maker who often mediated among Iraq's Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish factions, 79-year-old Talabani was flown abroad in December in critical...

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Adele, 'Les Miserables' cast sing on Oscar stage

LOS ANGELES (AP) — It was an extra starry, musical day at the Dolby Theatre.Adele took the stage first Friday, followed by the cast of "Les Miserables," singing together of the first time.Oscar nominees Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway, along with co-stars Russell Crowe, Amanda Seyfried, Helena Bonham-Carter, Sasha Baron-Cohen, Eddie Redmayne, Aaron Tveit and Samantha Barks rehearsed their performances...

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Drone Pilots Found to Get Stress Disorders Much as Those in Combat Do

U.S. Air Force/Master Sgt. Steve HortonCapt. Richard Koll, left, and Airman First Class Mike Eulo monitored a drone aircraft after launching it in Iraq. The study affirms a growing body of research finding health hazards even for those piloting machines from bases far from actual combat zones. “Though it might be thousands of miles from the battlefield, this work still involves tough stressors...

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Pistorius Returns to Bail Hearing

PRETORIA, South Africa — Oscar Pistorius, the double amputee track star accused of murdering his girlfriend, returned to court on Friday for the fourth straight day of hearings about whether he should be granted bail in a case that has riveted the nation. News reports said he slipped into the courthouse, his head covered by a jacket, some time before the start of hearings that have packed...

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Oscar animators ready to be taken seriously

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — In the animated feature film category at this year's Oscars, there's a film set in medieval Scotland, another that features old-school video game characters, one that relies heavily on dry British humor, while the other two take inspiration from the supernatural.It's not exactly kid stuff — and that's how the directors like it."I think this year with these films — and...

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Governors Fall Away in G.O.P. Fight Against More Medicaid

Under pressure from the health care industry and consumer advocates, seven Republican governors are cautiously moving to expand Medicaid, giving an unexpected boost to President Obama’s plan to insure some 30 million more Americans. The Supreme Court ruled last year that expanding Medicaid to include many more low-income people was an option under the new federal health care law, not a requirement,...

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Sign of a Comeback: U.S. Carmakers Are Hiring

Tony Dejak/Associated PressJoseph R. Hinrichs, head of Ford's Americas region, with a two-liter EcoBoost engine at the Cleveland plant. DETROIT — A few years ago, American automakers cut tens of thousands of jobs and shut dozens of factories simply to survive. But since the recession ended and General Motors and Chrysler began to recover with the help of hefty government bailouts and bankruptcy...

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Vleteren Journal: Cult Beer Westvleteren 12 Gives Belgian Town a Lift

Jock Fistick for The New York TimesA bar near St. Sixtus, where monks make Westvleteren 12, rated by some as the world’s best. VLETEREN, Belgium — On the face of it, this quaint Belgian town has few attractions — a charming brick parish church; a tall wooden windmill at the town’s main intersection. But it has the world’s best beer. In the past few years, several Web sites that ask beer drinkers...

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Rapper Ja Rule set to leave NY prison in gun case

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Platinum-selling rapper Ja Rule was set to leave an upstate prison on Thursday after serving most of his two-year sentence for illegal gun possession but head straight into federal custody in a tax case.The rapper, who had been in protective custody at the Mid-State Correctional Facility because of his celebrity, has some time remaining on a 28-month sentence for tax evasion, correction...

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In Reversal, Florida to Take Health Law’s Medicaid Expansion

MIAMI — Gov. Rick Scott of Florida reversed himself on Wednesday and announced that he would expand his state’s Medicaid program to cover the poor, becoming the latest — and, perhaps, most prominent — Republican critic of President Obama’s health care law to decide to put it into effect. It was an about-face for Mr. Scott, a former businessman who entered politics as a critic of Mr. Obama’s...

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The Trade: A Revolving Door in Washington With Spin, but Less Visibility

Obsess all you’d like about President Obama’s nomination of Mary Jo White to head the Securities and Exchange Commission. Who heads the agency is vital, but important fights in Washington are happening in quiet rooms, away from the media gaze.After a widely praised stint as a tough United States attorney, Ms. White spent the last decade serving so many large banks and investment houses that by the...

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Bulgarian Government Is Reported Set to Resign

The government of Bulgaria will resign Wednesday afternoon following a week of sometimes violent protests, Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said in a surprise announcement to Parliament. "The people gave us power and today we are returning it," he said, according to local news reports. The mass protests were triggered by electricity price increases and corruption scandals, including one over...

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Police say NY TV anchor threatened wife with death

A New York City TV anchorman issued a death threat against his wife as he was being arrested on charges of attacking her at their Connecticut home, according to a court document released Tuesday.New York City police, meanwhile, disclosed that they were called 11 times to the couple's home when they lived in Manhattan. One call resulted in an arrest, but the case was sealed, they said.In the Connecticut...

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Well: No Consensus on Plantar Fasciitis

Phys EdGretchen Reynolds on the science of fitness.There are more charismatic-sounding sports injuries than plantar fasciitis, like tennis elbow, runner’s knee and turf toe. But there aren’t many that are more common. The condition, characterized by stabbing pain in the heel or arch, sidelines up to 10 percent of all runners, as well as countless soccer, baseball, football and basketball players,...

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Boeing Engineers Approve Pact, but Tech Workers Say No

SEATTLE (AP) — The union representing Boeing Co.'s engineers and technical workers delivered a split decision on a new contract Tuesday, with the engineers accepting their offer and the technical workers rejecting theirs and authorizing a future strike. The union had recommended that both units reject the contract offer because it would not provide pensions to new employees. They would have...

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Pistorius Returns to Court Seeking Bail on Murder Charge

PRETORIA, South Africa — Prosecutors accused Oscar Pistorius, the double amputee track star, of premeditated murder on Tuesday, saying he opened fire four times on his girlfriend through a closed bathroom door after putting on his prosthetic legs and walking more than 20 feet from a bedroom. Prosecutor Gerrie Nel said Reeva Steenkamp, the victim, had been in a tiny room measuring roughly...

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Nudes check out nudes at Austrian museum

VIENNA (AP) — These museum goers didn't just leave their outerwear at the coat check. They handed over their shirts, trousers, underwear — everything, except their shoes and socks.The occasion Monday at Vienna's Leopold Museum was a special after-hour showing of "Nude Men from 1800 to Today" — an exhibit of 300 paintings, photographs, drawings and sculptures focused on the bare male.For many, the...

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National Briefing | South: Abortion Curbs Clear Senate in Arkansas

The State Senate voted 25 to 7 on Monday to ban most abortions 20 weeks into a pregnancy. The measure goes back to the House to consider an amendment that added exceptions for rape and incest. The legislation is based on the belief that fetuses can feel pain 20 weeks into a pregnancy, and is similar to bans in several other states. Opponents say it would require mothers to deliver babies with fatal...

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Japan Finds Swelling in Second Boeing 787 Battery

TOKYO (Reuters) - Cells in a second lithium-ion battery on a Boeing Co 787 Dreamliner forced to make an emergency landing in Japan last month showed slight swelling, a Japan Transport Safety Board (JTSB) official said on Tuesday. The jet, flown by All Nippon Airways Co, was forced to make the landing after its main battery failed. "I do not know the exact discussion taken by the research...

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Killing Off TV Characters Carries Risk

The shocking ending of this season’s “Downton Abbey” — shocking at least for those who managed to avoid the news when the finale was shown in Britain in December — most likely left thousands of the show’s fans mourning the loss of a beloved character and angry with the show’s creators for erasing him from their lives. The plot twist, though, was just the latest in a long tradition of television...

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Singer Mindy McCready dies in apparent suicide

HEBER SPRINGS, Ark. (AP) — Perhaps there was one heartbreak too many for Mindy McCready.The former country star appears to have taken her own life Sunday afternoon in Heber Springs, Ark. Authorities say McCready died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot to the head and an autopsy is planned. She was 37, the mother of two young sons.If confirmed, it was at least her fourth suicide attempt since 2005,...

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Allure of Self-Insurance Draws Concern Over Costs

WASHINGTON — Federal and state officials and consumer advocates have grown worried that companies with relatively young, healthy employees may opt out of the regular health insurance market to avoid the minimum coverage standards in President Obama’s sweeping law, a move that could drive up costs for workers at other companies. Companies can avoid many standards in the new law by insuring...

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