The Lede Blog: New Photographs Stir Doubts About Bashar's Baby and Iran's Space Monkey

Last Updated, Saturday, 12:37 p.m. Bad news, readers: new images appear to cast doubt on the accuracy of two of the week’s most widely-reported stories — the rumored pregnancy of Syria’s first lady, and the pioneering space flight of an Iranian monkey.As the Washington Post correspondent Liz Sly reported, President Bashar al-Assad’s office posted five new photographs of his wife, Asma, on Facebook,...

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Apple TV Is Running Late

So, Apple‘s big plan to talk cable companies into making the iPod of the television industry thus far involves getting Time Warner to let it put HBO Go on its box (if you buy a cable subscription!), something other similar boxes already do. How very unexciting. It’s surprising that Apple TV doesn’t already offer HBO Go, since its biggest competitors Roku and Xbox 360...

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Christina Ricci Is Engaged to James Heerdegen

02/02/2013 at 12:05 PM EST Christina Ricci Noel Vasquez/Getty. Inset:Splash News Online Christina Ricci's happy secret has been confirmed – she's engaged!The actress, 32, who has been wearing ring finger bling since October, is headed to the altar with James...

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New rules aim to get rid of junk foods in schools

WASHINGTON (AP) — Most candy, high-calorie drinks and greasy meals could soon be on a food blacklist in the nation's schools.For the first time, the government is proposing broad new standards to make sure all foods sold in schools are more healthful.Under the new rules the Agriculture Department proposed Friday, foods like fatty chips, snack cakes, nachos and mozzarella sticks would be taken out...

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Man killed, cut up wife, burned body parts at campsite, jury finds

A college computer manager on Friday was sentenced to 15 years to life for beating his wife to death with a statue, decapitating and dismembering her body, then burning her remains in a Ventura County campground, prosecutors said. Richard Gustav Forsberg, 64, was found guilty in December of second-degree murder for the death of his longtime wife, a former Daily Pilot feature writer.Forsberg...

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The Lede Blog: Video Shows Aftermath of U.S. Embassy Bombing in Turkey

Associated Press video showing the damage to the perimeter of the United States Embassy in Turkey after a suicide bombing in Ankara on Friday.As my colleagues Sebnem Arsu and Rick Gladstone report, a suicide bomber attacked the American Embassy in the Turkish capital Ankara on Friday, in a blast that officials said killed at least one Turkish citizen and wounded another at a side entrance to the compound.A...

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Google moves closer to resolving EU investigation

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Google has offered to take specific steps to allay competition regulators’ concerns about its business practices, in a major move towards ending a two-year investigation and avoiding billions of dollars in fines.The European Commission said on Friday it had received detailed proposals from the world’s most popular search engine, which has been under investigation following complaints...

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Jennifer Lawrence: 'My Pants Fell Off' at the SAG Awards!

Stylewatch Style News Now 02/01/2013 at 12:00 PM ET She’s been picking up Best Actress statues left and right for the few weeks, but we’re giving Jennifer Lawrence an award that really counts: Best Narration of a Wardrobe Malfunction.“My...

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Hedgehog Alert! Prickly pets can carry salmonella

NEW YORK (AP) — Add those cute little hedgehogs to the list of pets that can make you sick.In the last year, 20 people were infected by a rare but dangerous form of salmonella bacteria, and one person died in January. The illnesses were linked to contact with hedgehogs kept as pets, according to a report released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Health officials on Thursday...

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School board member pimped out girls for sex, authorities allege

The young woman on the witness stand said Mike Rios approached her on the street with a school district business card in his hand and a job opportunity on his mind: He wanted her “to gather girls and sell them," she said. The young woman, identified in court only as Valery, testified Wednesday that she and others worked as prostitutes for Rios, a member of the Moreno Valley Unified School...

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Hagel Offers Endorsement of U.S. Military Might

Brendan Hoffman for The New York TimesChuck Hagel arrived for his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday. WASHINGTON — Chuck Hagel, President Obama’s nominee to be secretary of defense, engaged in a sharp exchange with his old friend, Senator John McCain, at the opening of his confirmation hearing on Thursday when Mr. McCain, Republican of Arizona, pressed him...

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The 7 most dedicated employees

You probably don’t want to forward this roster of tireless go-getters to your bossSome people probably feel they deserve a medal for merely getting up and going to work every day, but only a few actually merit one. Take Deborah Ford, for example. This 64-year-old Detroit postal worker, who recently retired, didn’t use a single sick day in all of her 44 years on the job. Not a single one!...

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Slain School Bus Driver Hailed as Hero After Gunman Demanded Students

True Crime By Stephen M. Silverman 01/31/2013 at 12:50 PM EST Law enforcement personnel and driver Charles Poland (inset) Phil Sears/Landov; Inset: AP When a gunman boarded a stopped school bus in Midland City, Ala., Tuesday afternoon and demanded that all the...

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Sex to burn calories? Authors expose obesity myths

Fact or fiction? Sex burns a lot of calories. Snacking or skipping breakfast is bad. School gym classes make a big difference in kids' weight.All are myths or at least presumptions that may not be true, say researchers who reviewed the science behind some widely held obesity beliefs and found it lacking.Their report in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine says dogma and fallacies are detracting...

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Man fell in love with Manti Te'o, pretended to be girlfriend

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economyFor the last two weeks, the story of Manti Te’o’s fake girlfriend has unraveled one layer at a time.The Notre Dame linebacker spoke, then a Long Beach woman whose pictures were used in the ruse came forward. But the biggest questions could be answered only by a 22-year-old man from Palmdale -- the man Te’o and the...

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Syrian Opposition Leader Softens Position on Talks with Assad

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Syria’s top political opposition leader expressed willingness for the first time on Wednesday to talk with representatives of President Bashar al-Assad, softening what had been an absolute stand of refusing to negotiate with the government in an increasingly chaotic civil war. The opposition leader, Sheik Ahmad Moaz al-Khatib, coupled his offer with two demands: the release...

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California police probe stunts that shut down freeways

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The California Highway Patrol is investigating two apparently unrelated stunts that jammed freeways over the weekend, including one involving hundreds of motorcyclists celebrating a marriage proposal that inconvenienced motorists east of Los Angeles.Both events created a flurry of viral Internet videos, fueling concerns about a repeat performance by copycats.On Interstate 10...

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Karolína Kurková: Why I Chose a Home Waterbirth

Target Presse Agentur Gmbh/GettyFor Karolína Kurková, there was no place like home to welcome her first child.Setting up a birthing suite in the comforts of her Tribeca apartment, the model mama admits her motivation behind her decision to deliver naturally was simple: childbirth is nothing new.“Of course we had the midwife, we had the doula, but that’s something we really did a lot of research on...

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Soldier with new arms determined to be independent

BALTIMORE (AP) — After weeks of round-the-clock medical care, Brendan Marrocco insisted on rolling his own wheelchair into a news conference using his new transplanted arms. Then he brushed his hair to one side.Such simple tasks would go unnoticed in most patients. But for Marrocco, who lost all four limbs while serving in Iraq, these little actions demonstrate how far he's come only six weeks after...

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Video: Bikers shut down freeway for marriage proposal

With the help of his biker friends, a motorcyclist briefly shut down the 10 Freeway in West Covina to propose to his girlfriend amid a cloud of pink smoke. Now the California Highway Patrol is investigating. Videos of the Sunday afternoon proposal were posted on YouTube and have collected thousands of views.Now CHP investigators are reviewing the videos, said Officer Jose Barrios. Possible...

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Ukrainian General Given Life Sentence in Killing of Journalist

Sergey Dolzhenko/European Pressphoto AgencyGen. Oleksei Pukach listened to his sentence from the defendant's cage during a court session of the Pechersk district court on charges of murder of the journalist Georgy Gongadze in Kiev, Ukraine, on Tuesday. MOSCOW — A Ukrainian court sentenced a former security official to life in prison on Tuesday for the death of Georgy Gongadze, a journalist whose mysterious...

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China may consider ending its decade-long ban on video game consoles

Shares of Sony (SNE) and Nintendo (NTDOY) surged on Monday following a report from China’s official newspaper that claimed the country is considering the lift of a decade-long ban on video game consoles. An unnamed source told the China Daily newspaper that the Ministry of Culture is “reviewing the policy,” and has conducted surveys and held discussions with other ministries on the possibility of...

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The Most Dramatic Bachelor Style News ... Ever

Stylewatch Style News Now 01/28/2013 at 04:00 PM ET Tommaso Boddi/WireimageBachelors come and go, but one constant remains: the show’s unflappable host Chris Harrison and his reliably dapper wardrobe. And since we’re always excited to see what he’ll wear next on the show, it didn’t surprise us to...

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Study says leafy greens top food poisoning source

NEW YORK (AP) — A big government study has fingered leafy greens like lettuce and spinach as the leading source of food poisoning, a perhaps uncomfortable conclusion for health officials who want us to eat our vegetables."Most meals are safe," said Dr. Patricia Griffin, a government researcher and one of the study's authors who said the finding shouldn't discourage people from eating produce. Experts...

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Nude woman runs over nude fiance with car, CHP says

Authorities are investigating after a woman in San Bernardino County allegedly struck her fiance with a car. The California Highway Patrol said both were naked at the time of the Thursday incident.CHP officials told KTLA News that the couple were in the parked car on Phelan Road in Phelan when Alberto Giovanni Bravo got out and walked in front of the vehicle. For reasons that are not clear,...

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India Ink: At Literature Festival, Yearning for Bollywood Past

Nostalgia for classic Bollywood cinema reigned at the Jaipur Literature Festival, which celebrated 100 years of Indian cinema with several sessions featuring veteran actors and writers, who offered critiques of contemporary Indian film-making.In the session titled “Bollywood and National Narrative,” Javed Akhtar, the Indian poet and lyricist who scripted several popular Hindi films in the 1970s and...

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