Top Canada court upholds anti-terrorism law in unanimous ruling

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada‘s Supreme Court on Friday upheld an anti-terrorism law enacted after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, ruling unanimously that those who choose to engage in terrorism must “pay a very heavy price.”The law’s constitutionality was challenged by Mohammad Momin Khawaja, convicted in Canada of terrorism for involvement with a British group that had plotted...

Read More..

Stars Tweet Over Gun Control Following Elementary School Shootings In Connecticut — Updated

Celebrities were outraged over the tragic elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn. on Friday, and many immediately turned to Twitter, to share their sadness.And some even urged America’s leaders to address gun control.PLAY IT NOW: Edward Norton Discusses Tragic Colorado Shootings“Gun control is our only road to freedom. Freedom from the fear of senselessly losing children. I’m so saddened. WE...

Read More..

Weight Watchers anniversary cookbook out in May

NEW YORK (AP) — Weight Watchers is marking its 50th year by shedding its old publisher and hoping to expand its audience for an anniversary cookbook.“Weight Watchers 50th Anniversary Cookbook: 270 Delicious Recipes for Every Meal,” will come out in May. The release starts a partnership between the diet company and St. Martin’s Press. Weight Watchers had previously released its cookbooks through Wiley.According...

Read More..

Venezuela’s Chavez in satisfactory condition: government

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela‘s President Hugo Chavez is recovering “satisfactorily” from his cancer surgery in Cuba although the process remains slow, Information Minister Ernesto Villegas said on Friday.Reading the latest of regular government updates on the socialist leader’s condition, three days after his operation, Villegas said the 58-year-old president had communicated with relatives and sent...

Read More..

Boeing delivers first new jet to Iraq in years

BAGHDAD (AP) — The first new Boeing jetliner sold to Iraq in years touched down in Baghdad on Saturday, signaling the country’s determination to rebuild its economy after decades of war and sanctions.Iraq is eager to improve its creaky aviation industry, which lags far behind that of its energy-rich neighbors. Boeing‘s delivery of the twin-aisle 777-200LR plane comes less than two weeks after the...

Read More..

UPDATE 3-Cricket-Hughes shines as Australia reach 299-4

* Hughes falls just short of century* Clarke and Hussey combine for 101* Welegedera takes 3-99 (Adds quotes)HOBART, Dec 14 (Reuters) – Phil Hughes made a solid 86 on his return to test cricket before Michael Clarke and Mike Hussey took up the running and steered Australia to 299 for four at close of play on the first day of the first test against Sri Lanka on Friday.Hughes was the only batsmen to...

Read More..

Online gambling companies struggle to clear EU hurdles

LONDON (Reuters) – A partnership stuck on Friday between bwin.party Digital Entertainment and a Belgian casino group has defused one of many disputes pitting online gambling companies against governments across Europe.The agreement came a month after bwin.party’s co-CEO was questioned by Belgian authorities in an escalating license dispute the company said was costing it 700,000 euros ($ 916,000)...

Read More..

Sally Struthers enters not guilty plea for DUI

YORK, Maine (AP) — Sally Struthers has entered a not guilty plea on charges she drove drunk in Maine, where she was performing in a musical.The Portland Press Herald (http://bit.ly/XleJBq) reports the 65-year-old Struthers did not appear in York District Court on Thursday, and entered the plea through her lawyer.Police arrested Struthers on Sept. 12 on U.S. Route 1 in the resort town Ogunquit (oh-GUHNG’-kwit)....

Read More..

US faces task of running dozens of health exchanges

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Fourteen U.S. states and the District of Columbia so far have told the federal government they plan to operate healthcare exchanges under President Barack Obama‘s reform law, leaving Washington with the daunting task of creating online marketplaces for at least two-thirds of the country.On the eve of a federal deadline for states to say whether they will run their own exchanges,...

Read More..

Construction output decline slows

14 December 2012 Last updated at 05:52 ETOutput in the UK construction industry fell in October, down 5.1% from the same month last year, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).Compared with the previous month, construction output rose 8.3%.Construction is a component of gross domestic product (GDP), which measures the value of everything produced in the economy.This figure is the first...

Read More..

Aides: Chavez in tough fight, may miss swearing-in

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Somber confidants of President Hugo Chavez say he is going through a difficult recovery after cancer surgery in Cuba, and one close ally is warning Venezuelans that their leader may not make it back for his swearing-in next month.Information Minister Ernesto Villegas said Wednesday night that Chavez was in “stable condition” and was with close relatives in Havana. Reading...

Read More..

iPad mini deemed a ‘game changer,’ outgrew Kindle Fire by nearly 50%

Smaller tablets in the 7-inch range have been on the market for more than two years now, but it looks like it took Apple (AAPL) just one month to vault to the top of the category. Mobile advertising firm Millennial Media recently published the findings of a study pitting the iPad mini against Amazon’s (AMZN) popular Kindle Fire, which has been an extremely popular iPad alternative since it first launched...

Read More..

Late BBC star Savile suspected of 199 crimes: UK police

LONDON (Reuters) – British television star Jimmy Savile is suspected of carrying out an unprecedented number of sex offences including 31 rapes, police said on Wednesday in their most comprehensive review of the scandal.Revelations about Savile, who died last year, provoked outrage across Britain where he had been a household name since the 1960s.News of Savile’s crimes threw his main employer the...

Read More..

Lilly stops rheumatoid arthritis trial for lack of efficacy

(Reuters) – Eli Lilly and Co said it will stop one of three late-stage trials of its rheumatoid arthritis (RA) drug tabalumab due to insufficient efficacy.The decision to stop the trial came after an interim futility analysis of the study, called FLEX-M.The trial was testing the drug in patients with moderate-to-severe RA who had an inadequate response to methotrexate therapy, which is a standard...

Read More..

Airlines: 2013 profits to rise thanks to cost cuts

GENEVA (AP) — Airlines‘ profits will improve to $ 8.4 billion in 2013, mainly reflecting cost cuts and restructuring measures taken to compensate for stalling economic growth, the global industry‘s trade group forecast Thursday.For 2012, the industry anticipates net profits of $ 6.7 billion based on strong second and third quarters — particularly for larger carriers with bigger economies of scale...

Read More..

North Korea’s new leader burnishes credentials with rocket

SEOUL/TOKYO (Reuters) – North Korea successfully launched a rocket on Wednesday, boosting the credentials of its new leader and stepping up the threat the isolated and impoverished state poses to its opponents.The rocket, which North Korea says put a weather satellite into orbit, has been labeled by the United States, South Korea and Japan as a test of technology that could one day deliver a nuclear...

Read More..

Australian prank call radio to donate profits to nurse’s family

CANBERRA (Reuters) – The Australian radio station behind a prank call to a British hospital will donate its advertising revenue until the end of the year to a fund for the family of the nurse who apparently took her own life after the stunt, the company said on Tuesday.Southern Cross Austereo, parent company of Sydney radio station 2Day FM, said it would donate all advertising revenue, with a minimum...

Read More..

BlackBerry Messenger 7 adds free Wi-Fi voice calling, split-screen multitasking and more

Research in Motion (RIMM) updated its BlackBerry Messenger to version 7 on Monday, adding a new key feature called “BBM Voice” that “will allow customers to make free voice calls to their BBM contacts around the world over a Wi-Fi connection.” BBM 7 also introduces multitasking with split-screen, which allows users to BBM, check email, or use other apps while on a BBM Voice call; new compatibility...

Read More..

Novo bets on high-price niche for obesity drug

LONDON (Reuters) – Denmark’s Novo Nordisk is sizing up a high-price niche market for its drug liraglutide as a weight-loss treatment, with the United States the prime opportunity.The premium-price approach could turn it into a multibillion-dollar-a-year product, the company believes.Novo is studying the injected drug – already on the market as a treatment for type-2 diabetes under the brand name Victoza...

Read More..

Northern Rock will repay £270m

11 December 2012 Last updated at 08:19 ETSome 152,000 Northern Rock Asset Management customers will receive hundreds of pounds each in compensation owing to mistakes made in paperwork.Customers who took out personal loans of less than £25,000 will receive an average of £1,770 each.Bank staff failed to include key details on annual statements about loans, including the original amount which had been...

Read More..

McAfee wants to return to US, ‘normal life’

BACALAR, Mexico (AP) — Software company founder John McAfee said Sunday he wants to return to the United States and “settle down to whatever normal life” he can.In a live-stream Internet broadcast from the Guatemalan detention center where he is fighting a government order that he be returned to Belize, the 67-year-old said “I simply would like to live comfortably day by day, fish, swim, enjoy my...

Read More..

#OccupyCheerios: A Facebook Revolt

It wasn’t an obvious forum for an anti-GMO protest.A YouTube video posted on Cheerio’s Facebook page depicts an elderly woman leaning over the highchair of her infant grandchild, cooing about family and the holidays, drawing a map with pieces of cereal representing relative’s far-flung houses. “But don’t you worry,” the grandmother says, pushing two Cheerios together, “we’ll always be together for...

Read More..

Singer feared dead in Mexican plane crash

MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) — Mexico’s music world mourned Jenni Rivera, the U.S.-born singer presumed killed in a plane crash whose soulful voice and openness about her personal troubles had made her a Mexican-American superstar.Authorities have not confirmed her death, but Rivera’s relatives in the U.S. say they have few doubts that she was on the Learjet 25 that disintegrated on impact Sunday in rugged...

Read More..

Britain launches genome database to improve patient care

LONDON (Reuters) – Up to 100,000 Britons suffering from cancer and rare diseases are to have their genetic codes fully sequenced and mapped as part of government efforts to boost drug development and improve treatment.Britain will be the first country to introduce a database of genetic sequences into a mainstream health service, officials say, giving doctors a more advanced understanding of a patient’s...

Read More..

These Christmas Trees Have Frequent Flier Miles

People are finicky about their Christmas trees. For some, that holiday staple must hail from Wisconsin. That’s where Wayne Raisleger comes in. He’s been FedExing Wisconsin trees from his Windswept Tree Farm to customers across the nation since 1999.“A lot of my customers are ex-Wisconsin residents,” he says, noting that he’s shipped to at least 40 states. “They’re used to quality Christmas trees but...

Read More..