Syria army quits base on strategic Aleppo road

affiliate marketing BEIRUT (Reuters) – The Syrian army abandoned its last base near the northern town of Saraqeb after a fierce assault by rebels, further isolating the strategically important second city Aleppo from the capital.But in a political setback to forces battling to topple President Bashar al-Assad, the United Nations said...

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‘We’re Apple, And You’re Suckers,’ Says iPad Mini Parody Ad

affiliate marketing The new iPad mini was released Friday, and Jimmy Kimmel doesn’t seem very enthusiastic about it.[More from Mashable: The Top 250 Movies of All Time in Less Than 3 Minutes [VIDEO]] affiliate marketing In a parody iPad mini commercial that aired on Jimmy Kimmel Live...

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Chuck Lorre slams Romney, GOP with “Big Bang Theory” vanity card

affiliate marketing (Please note profanity in second-to-last paragraph))LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – That Chuck Lorre – what a card. affiliate marketing No, seriously; what a card.The “Big Bang Theory” and “Two and a Half Men” honcho – who’s used the vanity cards at the end of his...

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Amsterdam struggles to evade ban on dope-smoking tourists

affiliate marketing AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – The mayor of Amsterdam may be unable to deliver on his promise to scrap the ban on tourists visiting the city’s marijuana-selling coffee shops, the Dutch justice ministry said on Friday.Dope smokers were relieved this week when mayor Eberhard van der Laan said the coffee shops would remain open...

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RBS sees PPI bill rise by £400m

affiliate marketing 2 November 2012 Last updated at 05:28 ETRoyal Bank of Scotland has set aside a further £400m to cover the cost of claims for mis-sold payment protection insurance (PPI). affiliate marketing It takes the bank’s total charges for PPI mis-selling to £1.7bn.The figures...

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Syrian rebels kill 28 soldiers, several executed

affiliate marketing BEIRUT (Reuters) – Anti-government rebels killed 28 soldiers on Thursday in attacks on three army checkpoints around Saraqeb, a town on Syria’s main north-south highway, a monitoring group said.Some of the dead were shot after they had surrendered, according to video footage. Rebels berated them, calling them “Assad’s...

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Researchers Predict Twitter Trends With 95% Accuracy [STUDY]

affiliate marketing Researchers at MIT say they’ve created an algorithm for Twitter that predicts trending topics better than the site’s existing equation.[More from Mashable: Explore Obama and Romney’s Most Engaging Tweets With This Map] affiliate marketing Associate Professor Devavrat...

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Songwriter Bill Dees,”Oh, Pretty Woman” co-writer, dead at 73

affiliate marketing LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Singer-composer Bill Dees, best known for his songwriting collaboration with Roy Orbison on the hits “Oh, Pretty Woman” and “It’s Over,” has died at age 73 in Mountain Home, Arkansas, according to an obituary posted online by a local funeral home.Dees, a Texas native who got his start in the...

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Floods render NYC hospitals powerless

affiliate marketing NEW YORK (AP) — There are few places in the U.S. where hospitals have put as much thought and money into disaster planning as New York. And yet two of the city’s busiest, most important medical centers failed a fundamental test of readiness during Superstorm Sandy this week: They lost power.Their backup generators...

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Shell CFO says weak Europe economy “all around us”

affiliate marketing LONDON (Reuters) – Europe‘s top oil company Royal Dutch Shell is seeing signs of a weak European economy “all around us,” the company’s finance director Simon Henry said during a third-quarter results conference call on Thursday.He was making the comment in the context of strong refining margins in the quarter, which...

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Mexico’s Day of Dead brings memories of missing

affiliate marketing MEXICO CITY (AP) — Maria Elena Salazar refuses to set out plates of her missing son’s favorite foods or orange flowers as offerings for the deceased on Mexico‘s Day of the Dead, even though she hasn’t seen him in three-and-a-half years.The 50-year-old former teacher is convinced that Hugo Gonzalez Salazar, a university...

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“The Details” Review: airless all-star comedy is devilishly dull

affiliate marketing LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – The devil is in “The Details,” but only in that this smug and airless comedy feels like 91 minutes in hell. The first few minutes promise a Rube Goldberg whirligig of bad behavior, unhappy coincidences and plain old rotten luck, but all writer-director Jacob Aaron Estes (“Mean Creek”) can...

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Republican candidate calls aborting rapist’s child ‘more violence on woman’s body’

affiliate marketing OLYMPIA, Washington (Reuters) – Tea Party politician John Koster, the Republican nominee for a hotly contested congressional seat in Washington state, says he opposes abortions, even in cases of “the rape thing,” because it is tantamount to inflicting “more violence onto a woman’s body.”The Snohomish County councilman...

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Heseltine issues growth challenge

affiliate marketing 31 October 2012 Last updated at 04:55 ETLord Heseltine, the former Conservative party deputy prime minister, has challenged the government to take bolder action to stimulate the economy. affiliate marketing In a new report, commissioned by Downing Street, he says...

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Syrian air force on offensive after failed truce

affiliate marketing AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian warplanes bombed rebel targets with renewed intensity on Tuesday after the end of a widely ignored four-day truce between President Bashar al-Assad‘s forces and insurgents.State television said “terrorists” had assassinated an air force general, Abdullah Mahmoud al-Khalidi, in a Damascus suburb,...

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Holiday gadgets: Microsoft phones, Google gadgets

affiliate marketing NEW YORK (AP) — Microsoft launched its new Windows phone system and Google unveiled new devices under its Nexus brand. Both part of an effort to grab more of consumers’ holiday-shopping dollars.Last week, Microsoft started selling its Windows 8 operating system and Surface tablet computer. Apple announced new iPads...

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Ratings: ‘The Voice’ rises as NBC takes night

affiliate marketing LOS ANGELES, Oct 30 (TheWrap.com) – “The Voice’s” first-ever knockout round Monday raised the singing competition’s ratings enough to give NBC a win for the night, according to preliminary numbers.While preemptions for coverage of Hurricane Sandy and power outages render the ratings for all of the networks approximate,...

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How to wage a smart cancer fight

affiliate marketing Receiving a cancer diagnosis can leave patients feeling dazed, dismayed and deluged. While these reactions are natural, cancer patients must play a major role in their own treatment. Asking the following questions is an important first step.Q: What’s the cancer type and stage? affiliate...

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Riding Out Sandy, Investors Get Extra Time to Mull Deals

affiliate marketing With stock exchanges closed and trading halted, Hurricane Sandy has brought much of the East Coast’s financial activity to a standstill. Yet deals that had been in the works in the days leading up to the storm are still being announced—such as this morning’s news that publishers Random House and Penguin will...

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Cuba’s 2nd city without power, water after Sandy

affiliate marketing HAVANA (AP) — Residents of Cuba‘s second-largest city of Santiago remained without power or running water Monday, four days after Hurricane Sandy made landfall as the island’s deadliest storm in seven years, ripping rooftops from homes and toppling power lines.Across the Caribbean, the storm’s death toll rose to 69,...

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