Wall Street dips on Wells Fargo, Boeing; S&P up on week

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks dipped on Friday after a record profit at Wells Fargo failed to attract buyers and Boeing shares were pressured by two further problems with its new Dreamliner aircraft. The benchmark S&P 500 index fell slightly but was still up on the week and just a few points shy of a five-year high set Thursday. Wells Fargo , the first major U.S. bank to...

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Way of the World: Economists, Consensus and Healthy Debates

SAN DIEGO — This is a tough time for experts. Empowered by the Internet and embittered by the sour economy, many people doubt the wisdom of expert elites. Journalism sometimes casts further doubt by seeking polarized positions that can draw an attention-grabbing debate, or by taking refuge in he-said-she-said accounts to avoid the harder job of figuring out who’s right. Now one tribe of specialists...

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Amazon steps up digital music competition with Apple

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc unveiled a service that increases competition with Apple Inc’s dominant iTunes store.Amazon launched Amazon AutoRip, which gives customers free digital versions of music CDs they purchase from the world’s largest Internet retailer.The digital music files are automatically stored in customer libraries in remote datacenters run by Amazon, where they are available...

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George Clooney Kicks Off a Tequila-Fueled Road Trip

Caught in the Act 01/10/2013 at 10:40 AM EST George Clooney (left) and Rande Gerber Seth Browarnik/Startraks Tequila trip!As part of the launch of his new spirit brand, Casamigos Tequila, George Clooney stepped out on Tuesday night to celebrate its launch at Rocco's...

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Retooling Pap test to spot more kinds of cancer

WASHINGTON (AP) — For years, doctors have lamented that there's no Pap test for deadly ovarian cancer. Wednesday, scientists reported encouraging signs that one day, there might be.Researchers are trying to retool the Pap, a test for cervical cancer that millions of women get, so that it could spot early signs of other gynecologic cancers, too.How? It turns out that cells can flake off of tumors in...

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China data lifts Wall Street on hopes for world growth

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks rose on Thursday as stronger-than-expected exports in China, the world's second-biggest economy, raised hopes for a more robust recovery in the global economy. Data showed China's export growth rebounded sharply to a seven-month high in December, a strong finish to the year after seven straight quarters of slowdown, even as demand from Europe and the United...

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In Old Taliban Strongholds, Qualms About What Lies Ahead

LOY BAGH, Afghanistan — The battle against the Taliban in Helmand Province was so fierce two years ago that farmers here say there were some fields where virtually every ear of corn had a bullet in it. Now it is peaceful enough that safety concerns were an afterthought during this year’s harvest. In districts of Helmand like Marja and Nad Ali that used to be Taliban strongholds, life has...

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Lawyers in Ohio football rape case want trial moved

(Reuters) – Attorneys for two Ohio teenage football players accused of raping a 16-year-old student have asked that the trial be moved because potential witnesses are afraid to come forward in defense of the boys, one of the lawyers said on Monday.Walter Madison, the attorney for one of the accused rapists, Ma’lik Richmon, said social media efforts to bring the alleged rape into the national spotlight...

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Bethenny Frankel: I Feel Like a Failure After Divorce

TV Watch By Maggie Coughlan 01/09/2013 at 10:55 AM EST Bethenny Frankel (left) and Ellen DeGeneres Michael Rozman/Warner Bros. Bethenny Frankel documented her marriage to Jason Hoppy on television – and now she's opening up about her divorce on television, too."I...

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Report: Death rates from cancer still inching down

WASHINGTON (AP) — Death rates from cancer are continuing to inch down, researchers reported Monday.Now the question is how to hold onto those gains, and do even better, even as the population gets older and fatter, both risks for developing cancer."There has been clear progress," said Dr. Otis Brawley of the American Cancer Society, which compiled the annual cancer report with government and cancer...

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