Wall Street dips as earnings season begins

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks were little changed at the open on Tuesday as an earnings season expected to show sluggish corporate growth gets under way. Profits in the fourth quarter are seen above the previous quarter's lackluster results, but analysts' current estimates are down sharply from where they were in October. Quarterly earnings are expected to grow by 2.8 percent, according...

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Supporters Back Strike at Newspaper in China

James Pomfret/ReutersDemonstrators gathered outside the headquarters of Southern Weekly newspaper Monday in Guangzhou, China. BEIJING — Hundreds of people gathered outside the headquarters of a newspaper office in southern China on Monday to show their support for journalists who had declared a strike to protest what they called overbearing censorship by provincial propaganda officials. The...

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Kuwaiti journalist jailed for Twitter ‘insults’

KUWAIT CITY (AP) — A Kuwait newspaper says an online journalist has been sentenced to two years in prison for posts deemed “insulting” to the Gulf nation’s ruler — the second such ruling this week.The decision reflects a widening social media crackdown across the Gulf Arab states to quell perceived political dissent.Kuwait’s pro-government Al Watan newspaper reported Monday that Ayyad al-Harbi, a...

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Bethenny Frankel Steps Out After Filing For Divorce

People Pets By Maggie Coughlan 01/07/2013 at 10:50 AM EST It's business as usual for Bethenny Frankel.After filing for divorce from husband Jason Hoppy a few days earlier, the Skinnygirl mogul took her beloved dog, Cookie, for a walk in New York's Tribeca neighborhood on Sunday. Bundled up in a down jacket and...

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Your medical chart could include exercise minutes

CHICAGO (AP) — Roll up a sleeve for the blood pressure cuff. Stick out a wrist for the pulse-taking. Lift your tongue for the thermometer. Report how many minutes you are active or getting exercise.Wait, what?If the last item isn't part of the usual drill at your doctor's office, a movement is afoot to change that. One recent national survey indicated only a third of Americans said their doctors asked...

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Wall Street falls after five-year high, earnings in focus

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks fell on Monday as traders cashed in recent gains that lifted the S&P 500 to a five-year high on Friday and awaited Tuesday's start of the fourth-quarter earnings season. Last week was the best for U.S. stocks in more than a year as a budget deal and economic data boosted investor confidence. Investors will likely turn their attention to the...

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Ex-Officer Is First From C.I.A. to Face Prison for a Leak

Christaan Felber for The New York TimesJohn Kiriakou with his daughter Kate at home in Arlington, Va., last month. He has struggled with how to explain to his children that he will be going away. WASHINGTON — Looking back, John C. Kiriakou admits he should have known better. But when the F.B.I. called him a year ago and invited him to stop by and “help us with a case,” he did not hesitate. ...

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RIM unveils a new BlackBerry phone! (But it’s only a Curve for T-Mobile running BlackBerry 7)

Research In Motion (RIMM) on Thursday took the wraps off a brand new BlackBerry smartphone — but it’s not the kind of smartphone BlackBerry fans have been waiting more than a year for. Instead, it’s a low-end BlackBerry Curve 9315 that will launch later this month on T-Mobile. The phone features the BlackBerry 7.1 operating system, a 3.2-megapixel camera, microSD memory expansion and a full QWERTY...

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Melissa Joan Hart Shares Son's Plea for Less Phone Time

Mom & Babies Celebrity Baby Blog 01/03/2013 at 06:00 PM ET As a mom of three boys, Melissa Joan Hart knows all too well how to tackle even the toughest brotherly love.But for her sons Mason Walter, 7 next week, and Brady Hart, 4½, it’s more often a lesson that love, well — hurts!“They are boys, for...

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"Cliff" concerns give way to earnings focus

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors' "fiscal cliff" worries are likely to give way to more fundamental concerns, like earnings, as fourth-quarter reports get under way next week. Financial results, which begin after the market closes on Tuesday with aluminum company Alcoa , are expected to be only slightly better than the third-quarter's lackluster results. As a warning sign, analyst current...

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