The Lede Blog: A 'Black Bloc' Emerges in Egypt

Last Updated, Saturday, 10:07 a.m. While using Twitter to narrate events in Tahrir Square on Friday, people in Egypt described tires burning in the street, protesters blocking traffic and hurling rocks, and police officers launching tear gas in an effort to break up crowds that had gathered to protest against the Muslim Brotherhood and the country’s new Islamist president.Many of the actions described...

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Facebook Profile May Expose Mental Illness

A person’s Facebook profile may reveal signs of mental illness that might not necessarily emerge in a session with a psychiatrist, a new study suggests.“The beauty of social media activity as a tool in psychological diagnosis is that it removes some of the problems associated with patients’ self-reporting,” said study researcher Elizabeth Martin, a psychology doctoral student at the University of...

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Waiter Michael Garcia Refuses to Serve Man Who Insulted Boy with Down Syndrome

By Dahvi Shira 01/26/2013 at 09:00 AM EST Waiter Michael Garcia made his regular customer Kim Castillo feel like family last week at the Houston restaurant Laurenzo's Prime Rib.Castillo was eating there with her husband and their 5-year-old son Milo when several waiters came by their table to chat. Milo, who...

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CDC: Flu seems to level off except in the West

New government figures show that flu cases seem to be leveling off nationwide. Flu activity is declining in most regions although still rising in the West.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says hospitalizations and deaths spiked again last week, especially among the elderly. The CDC says quick treatment with antiviral medicines is important, in particular for the very...

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For the record

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IHT Rendezvous: Which Companies' Sustainability Promises Do You Believe?

H&M, the Swedish clothing retail giant, has vowed to become greener and more sustainable when it comes to the water it uses to make its clothes.“Water is a key resource for H&M, and we are committed to ensuring water is used responsibly throughout our value chain. We do this to minimize risks in our operations, protect the environment and secure availability of water for present and future...

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Nokia CEO closes the door on a potential Android smartphone

Nokia (NOK) CEO Stephen Elop on Thursday shot down rumors that his company might be interested in developing Android-based smartphones. During Nokia’s fourth-quarter earnings call, the executive reiterated his support for the company’s Asha phones and Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows Phone platform, while shutting the door on earlier Android rumors. [More from BGR: Unlocking your smartphone will...

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Jennifer Lopez: The Twins Want a Rainbow Birthday Party

Mom & Babies Celebrity Baby Blog 01/24/2013 at 01:00 PM ET Henry Lamb/Photowire/BEImages Jennifer Lopez may be capable of juggling many activities at once, but her primary responsibility right now is planning the birthday party for her twins, Max and Emme.“They’re 5 next month, and they want a rainbow...

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Penalty could keep smokers out of health overhaul

WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of smokers could be priced out of health insurance because of tobacco penalties in President Barack Obama's health care law, according to experts who are just now teasing out the potential impact of a little-noted provision in the massive legislation.The Affordable Care Act — "Obamacare" to its detractors — allows health insurers to charge smokers buying individual policies...

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Palmdale woman accused of torturing her children

Neighbors of a Palmdale woman charged with assaulting and torturing two of her children said Thursday that they never even realized...

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IHT Rendezvous: Denying American Scots Their Holiday Haggis

LONDON — Scots at home and abroad will be sitting down on Friday night for Burns Night suppers to commemorate their national poet with a feast of haggis.Robert Burns’ “great chieftain o’ the puddin’-race,” a mix of sheep’s innards and oats tied up in a sheep’s stomach, is the centerpiece of the annual celebration of Scottishness.It is a pleasure that will once again be denied to Scots-Americans this...

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Go forth and Tweet! Pope sees web networks as “portals of truth”

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Benedict urged Catholics on Thursday to use social networks like Twitter and Facebook to win converts, as he launched his own smartphone app streaming live footage of his speeches.The websites – often associated with endless postings of idle gossip and baby photos – could be used as “portals of truth and faith” in an increasingly secular age, the pontiff said in his 2013...

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Julia Pace Mitchell Expecting First Child

Mom & Babies Celebrity Baby Blog 01/24/2013 at 09:00 AM ET Stephanie MatthewsLife will soon be imitating art for actress Julia Pace Mitchell — she’s pregnant!The Young and the Restless star, 27, and her husband Stephen L. Hightower are expecting a baby together in May, her rep tells PEOPLE exclusively.“I...

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AP Interview: UN wants better family planning

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — The U.N.'s top population official wants governments to do more to ensure that women have access to family planning.The U.N. says the world will add a billion people to its current population of some 7 billion within a decade, further straining the planet's resources.Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director of the U.N. Population Fund, says more than 220 million women in...

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California bills target false 911 calls in 'swatting' cases

SACRAMENTO — Alarmed that pranksters have called 911 to report false emergencies at the homes of celebrities including Justin...

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The Lede Blog: Live Updates: Clinton Testifies on Benghazi Attacks

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economyThe Lede is following Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks on the American Consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.Mrs. Clinton had been scheduled to testify...

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First “Firefox OS” Phones Previewed, to Launch in February

Mozilla, the non-profit organization behind the popular Firefox web browser, has been promoting its Firefox OS project (once known as “Boot to Gecko”) for some time now. A hardware partnership with Telefonica, the international telecom giant, had been announced, but no phones had yet been unveiled.But in an announcement today on its blog, Mozilla announced the impending launch of its first “developer...

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Adele Wears the Name 'Angelo' Around Her Neck

Buzz By Simon Perry 01/23/2013 at 09:05 AM EST So far, Adele has kept her baby boy's name a closely guarded secret. But has she revealed the moniker by keeping it close to her heart?Born in October, the little boy is staying with his mother in Los Angeles during Hollywood's awards season. On an outing Monday...

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Foes of NYC soda size limit doubt racial fairness

NEW YORK (AP) — Opponents of the city's limit on the size of sugary drinks are raising questions of racial fairness alongside other complaints as the novel restriction faces a court test.The NAACP's New York state branch and the Hispanic Federation have joined beverage makers and sellers in trying to stop the rule from taking effect March 12. With a hearing set Wednesday, critics are attacking what...

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LAPD grapples with responding to possible 'swatting' calls

Los Angeles police are recalibrating their response to some emergency calls in light of a series of prank "swatting" calls reporting...

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IHT Rendezvous: It's Davos Time Again

Our colleagues over at DealBook, in their first posts about Davos 2013, ruminate on how many of Davos predictions each year actually come true and whether capital can really compete with politics in the real New World Order.This year Davos will again take place against a changing economic landscape in Europe. The Continent, no longer a ticking time bomb, is “potentially facing a starker problem,”...

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I Might Be Too Old for Facebook Graph Search

On Sunday, I turned 30.That’s not too old, I tell myself, yet the signs of aging are creeping in. Teenagers listen to music that I either haven’t heard of or believe to be mostly terrible. They use slang I don’t recognize, and I imagine my slang would sound to them like “groovy” or “far out” sound to me.But for the purposes of our tech blog, the most notable sign is how much more active teens...

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Michelle Obama Wears Jason Wu (Again!) at Inaugural Ball

Stylewatch Style News Now 01/22/2013 at 09:00 AM ET Jewel Samad/AFP/GettyJust like President Obama, Jason Wu is getting a second term!Michelle Obama stunned in a custom ruby red chiffon and velvet halter-neck gown by Jason Wu at...

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Flu season fuels debate over paid sick time laws

NEW YORK (AP) — Sniffling, groggy and afraid she had caught the flu, Diana Zavala dragged herself in to work anyway for a day she felt she couldn't afford to miss.A school speech therapist who works as an independent contractor, she doesn't have paid sick days. So the mother of two reported to work and hoped for the best — and was aching, shivering and coughing by the end of the day. She stayed home...

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County official calls car leasing contract procedure 'embarrassing'

Auditors reviewing a $1.75-million car leasing contract given to a company with a politically connected lobbying firm found...

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The Lede Blog: Bulgarian Politician Faces Off With Gunman During Televised Conference

A man climbed onstage and attempted to fire a gas pistol Saturday at the leader of the country’s ethnic Turkish political party while he was giving a speech at his party’s annual conference in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria.The gun misfired, according to a BBC report citing Bulgarian officials, and Ahmed Dogan, the leader of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, was not harmed. Video of the incident...

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Why Google Isn’t Scared of Facebook’s Graph Search

Facebook may have just released a major search product that many are saying “declares war” on Google or may at least put the social network “on a collision course” with the search giant, but Google CEO Larry Page doesn’t sound all that worried about the new competition. Because who said Facebook and Google couldn’t get along someday? In an interview for the new issue of Wired published...

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Barbara Walters Hospitalized After Inauguration Weekend Fall

By Andrea Billups 01/21/2013 at 09:30 AM EST Barbara Walters Mark VonHolden/DMIPhoto.com/FilmMagic The Inauguration festivities took a tough turn for at least one veteran newswoman.Barbara Walters, 83, fell Saturday night on a step at the residence of the British...

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Flu season fuels debate over paid sick time laws

NEW YORK (AP) — Sniffling, groggy and afraid she had caught the flu, Diana Zavala dragged herself in to work anyway for a day she felt she couldn't afford to miss.A school speech therapist who works as an independent contractor, she doesn't have paid sick days. So the mother of two reported to work and hoped for the best — and was aching, shivering and coughing by the end of the day. She stayed home...

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