As Self-Immolations Near 100, Some Tibetans Ask, Is It Worth It?

NEW DELHI — A crowd of Tibetans came here to India’s capital last week, bearing flags and political banners and a bittersweet admixture of hope and despair. A grim countdown was under way: The number of Tibetans who have set themselves on fire to protest Chinese rule in Tibet had reached 99, one short of an anguished milestone. Yet as that milestone hung over the estimated 5,000 Tibetans...

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Sony Teases ‘The Future’ of PlayStation in Short #PlayStation2013 Video

Sony‘s CEO, Kazuo Hirai, said he would let Microsoft “make the first move” when it came to releasing a next-generation game console, according to IGN’s Daniel Krupa. But now the official PlayStation blog is teasing viewers with a video entitled “See the Future,” with the #PlayStation2013 Twitter hashtag.Whatever the future is, it’s apparently got something to do with Feb. 20, the date mentioned in...

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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: Vacation on Syria's Front Lines Goes Wrong for Russian Judge

Last Updated, Friday, 11:43 a.m. A Russian judge who decided to spend his vacation moonlighting as a war correspondent in Syria survived being shot in the face and arm this week in the Damascus suburb of Darayya, according to the Web news agency he writes for as a volunteer.The shooting of the judge, Sergey Aleksandrovich Berezhnoy, was caught on video by the crew from the Abkhazian Network News Agency...

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How I learned to stop worrying and love Twitter

Is anything more uniquely American than our free-wheeling, 140-character missives?Twitter is dead, you guys. Writers used to send pithy tweets across cyberspace, borne on the golden wings of Hermes. Now, as T.S. Eliot would say, “Our dried voices, when we whisper together are quiet and meaningless.” Twitter is so uncool, that even if we resurrected the spirits of Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix and...

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Tracy Morgan Reveals How He's Celebrating the 30 Rock Finale ... and His Baby on the Way

TV Watch By Lesley Messer 02/01/2013 at 12:00 PM EST Tracy Morgan and Megan Wollover Theo Wargo/WireImage Thursday was a busy day for Tracy Morgan: not only did he and his fiancée Megan Wollover announce that they're expecting their first child together, but his...

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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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India Ink: Image of the Day: Jan. 31

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Diem Brown Blogs: How I Cope With My Anxiety

In her PEOPLE.com blog, Diem Brown, the Real World/Road Rules Challenge contestant recently diagnosed with ovarian cancer for the second time, opens up about her desire for a child and the ups and downs of cancer and fertility procedures. The waiting game. We have the technology to put a man on the moon, and the President and the Pope Tweet us in real-time updates. But when it comes to medical test...

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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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Prior Problems In 787 Battery Set Off Concerns Boeing Was Aware of 787 Battery Problems Before Failure

Toru Hanai/ReutersAll Nippon Airways, the biggest operator of 787s, is holding jets at Haneda airport in Tokyo. Even before two battery failures led to the grounding of all Boeing 787 jets this month, the lithium-ion batteries used on the aircraft had experienced multiple problems that raised questions about their reliability. Officials at All Nippon Airways, the jets’ biggest operator, said...

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RIM starts glitzy BlackBerry 10 launch parties

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Research In Motion Ltd on Wednesday kicked off a string of global launch parties for a long-delayed line of smartphones it says will put it on the comeback trail in a market it once dominated.The new BlackBerry 10 phones will compete with Apple‘s iPhone and devices using Google‘s Android technology, both of which have soared above the BlackBerry in a competitive market.They boast...

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Karolína Kurková: Why I Chose Natural Childbirth

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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At War Blog: On the Job in Afghanistan, Female Soldiers Reflect

KABUL, Afghanistan — In the shadow of transport aircraft, rows of helicopters and supply pallets, women in uniform are a well-established part of the fabric of military life on bases and near the front lines in Afghanistan — a minority, to be sure, but one so common on the job that it’s hardly seen as an issue.For active-duty military women in Afghanistan, the news of the end of the combat exclusion...

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Cricket-Australia board play straight bat to Warne twitter rant

Jan 29 (Reuters) – Cricket Australia (CA) chief executive James Sutherland has defended the organisation following a scathing attack aimed at them by spin great Shane Warne, who panned the board in a series of Twitter rants.Sutherland added that he was prepared to meet with Warne and discuss the 43-year-old’s criticism of CA’s player rotation policy and his claim that “rubbish” decisions were turning...

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Jason Priestley Jokes Jennie Garth's Weight Loss Was the Result of 'Heartbreak'

By Becky Randel 01/29/2013 at 11:40 PM EST Jennie Garth and Jason Priestley Kevin Winter/Getty Is it a makeover ... or a breakover?According to Jason Priestley, Jennie Garth's recent body makeover may have gotten a boost from good old-fashioned heartbreak. "You...

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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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Before Dawn, Funerals Begin for Victims of Brazil Nightclub Fire

SANTA MARIA, Brazil — The first funerals began before dawn on Monday for the more than 230 people killed after a fire ignited by a flare from a band’s pyrotechnics spectacle swept through a nightclub filled with hundreds of university students early Sunday in this city in southern Brazil. The disaster in Santa Maria, a city of about 260,000 residents that is known for its cluster of universities,...

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