Factbox: Key elements of U.S. “fiscal cliff” post-elections

affiliate marketing WASHINGTON (Reuters) – After the November 6 elections, Congress and the White House will face tough decisions on tax rates, tax breaks and budget cuts in a convergence of high-stakes deadlines that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke dubbed a ‘massive fiscal cliff.’The most urgent U.S. economic issue will be finding...

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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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Flamboyant Megaupload founder unveils file-sharing sequel

affiliate marketing WELLINGTON (Reuters) – Like a good Hollywood sequel, Megaupload is back.Kim Dotcom, the founder of the shuttered file-sharing site that housed everything from family photos to blockbuster films, on Thursday announced a new online storage service called Mega that will give users direct control – and responsibility...

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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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Insight: Crunching the numbers to boost odds against cancer

affiliate marketing FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Software engineers are moving to the fore in the war on cancer, designing programmes that sift genetic sequencing data at lightning speed and minimal cost to identify patterns in tumors that could lead to the next medical breakthrough.Their analysis aims to pinpoint the mutations in our genetic...

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Ahead of the Bell: US consumer confidence

affiliate marketing WASHINGTON (AP) — A measure of Americans’ confidence in the economy likely rose for a second straight month on expectations that business conditions will improve and hiring will pick up.Economists forecast that the Conference Board, a private research group, will report that its monthly consumer confidence index rose...

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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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Panasonic’s red ink grows, forecasts loss for year

affiliate marketing TOKYO (AP) — Panasonic Corp.‘s losses ballooned to 698 billion yen ($ 8.7 billion) for the fiscal second quarter as sales plunged in flat-panel TVs, laptops and other gadgets, and restructuring costs to turn itself around were proving bigger than initially expected.The red ink, announced Wednesday, proved far worse...

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“Neighbors,” “Scandal” get full-season orders

affiliate marketing NEW YORK, Oct 30 (TheWrap.com) – ABC has given full season orders to the aliens-next-door drama “The Neighbors” and the political drama “Scandal.”“Neighbors,” a freshman comedy, has benefitted from a Wednesday time slot between “The Middle” and “Modern Family,” ABC’s biggest hit. affiliate...

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British Medical Journal moves to flush out secret trial data

affiliate marketing LONDON (Reuters) – The respected British Medical Journal (BMJ) will refuse to publish research papers on drugs unless the clinical trial data behind these studies is made available for independent scrutiny.The requirement to make anonymised patient-level data available “on reasonable request” will apply to all clinical...

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