Obama, Karzai accelerate end of U.S. combat role in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai agreed on Friday to speed up the handover of combat operations in Afghanistan to Afghan forces, raising the prospect of an accelerated U.S. withdrawal from the country and underscoring Obama's determination to wind down a long, unpopular war. Signaling a narrowing of differences, Karzai appeared to give ground...

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The Worst ‘Wheel of Fortune’ Player Ever

We realize there’s only so much time one can spend in a day watching new trailers, viral video clips, and shaky cell phone footage of people arguing on live television. This is why every day The Atlantic Wire highlights the videos that truly earn your five minutes (or less) of attention. Today:  RELATED: Movie and Television Characters Need a Lesson in Talking TrashIf we’re ever on Wheel of Fortune...

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Taylor Swift, Marie Osmond Draw Love, Laughs from Readers This Week

By Andrea Billups 01/12/2013 at 08:30 AM EST Taylor Swift and Rachael, Gabriel and Marie Osmond Steve Granitz/Wireimage; Courtesy R&C What's on the minds of PEOPLE readers this week? We love receiving your feedback, and as always, you weighed in with plenty...

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Flu season puts businesses and employees in a bind

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly half the 70 employees at a Ford dealership in Clarksville, Ind., have been out sick at some point in the past month. It didn't have to be that way, the boss says."If people had stayed home in the first place, a lot of times that spread wouldn't have happened," says Marty Book, a vice president at Carriage Ford. "But people really want to get out and do their jobs, and sometimes...

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Wall Street Week Ahead: Attention turns to financial earnings

NEW YORK (Reuters) - After over a month of watching Capitol Hill and Pennsylvania Avenue, Wall Street can get back to what it knows best: Wall Street. The first full week of earnings season is dominated by the financial sector - big investment banks and commercial banks - just as retail investors, free from the "fiscal cliff" worries, have started to get back into the markets. ...

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Shi'ite leader challenges Pakistan army chief over attacks

QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - In a rare challenge, a Shi'ite leader publicly criticized powerful Pakistani army chief General Ashfaq Kayani over security in the country on Friday after bombings aimed at the minority sect killed 114 people. "I ask the army chief: What have you done with these extra three years you got (in office). What did you give us except more death," Maulana Amin Shaheedi,...

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Skype founder browses globe for next tech earner

LONDON (Reuters) – Niklas Zennstrom, co-founder of internet phone service Skype, believes the next hot tech business will just as likely spring from Istanbul or Sao Paolo as from Silicon Valley or the coolest districts of London.And he is prepared to fly around the world to find it.“Talent can pop up anywhere in the world, it’s not just one city block,” the Swedish entrepreneur and venture capitalist...

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Kate's Official Portrait Unveiled

By Simon Perry 01/11/2013 at 08:40 AM EST From left: artist Paul Emsley, the Duchess and Duke of Cambridge REX USA The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge had an art outing early Friday – for the unveiling of her official portrait.And they were not alone. Kate's parents and siblings also made the...

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Flu season strikes early and, in some places, hard

NEW YORK (AP) — From the Rocky Mountains to New England, hospitals are swamped with people with flu symptoms. Some medical centers are turning away visitors or making them wear face masks, and one Pennsylvania hospital set up a tent outside its ER to deal with the feverish patients.Flu season in the U.S. has struck early and, in many places, hard.While flu normally doesn't blanket the country until...

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Stock futures little changed after S&P hit five-year high

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures were little changed on Friday, a day after the S&P 500 hit a five-year high and following higher-than-expected results from Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo , the first major U.S. bank to post earnings this season, reported a higher fourth-quarter profit on Friday as it set aside less money to cover bad loans and made more fees from mortgages. Still,...

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NATO official says more missiles launched in Syria

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A short-range ballistic missile was fired inside Syria on Wednesday, following similar launches last week, a NATO official said on Thursday. The official condemned as "reckless" the missile launches, which U.S. officials called an escalation of the 21-month-old Syrian civil war when their use was first spotted last month. "The use of such indiscriminate...

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Netflix announces ‘Super HD’ and 3D streaming for select ISPs

Netflix (NFLX) on Tuesday announced new enhanced streaming options for users on select ISPs. Following a series of rumors that suggested as much, Netflix has confirmed the availability of “Super HD” streaming — which is simply Netflix’s branding for 1080p content — and 3D video streaming. Both services are available immediately with a huge caveat: only Netflix subscribers with Cablevision or Google...

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It's a Girl for Lily Allen

Mom & Babies Celebrity Baby Blog 01/10/2013 at 08:30 AM ET PA Photos/LandovCue the lullabies: Lily Allen is a mom — again!The “Smile” singer and her husband Sam Cooper welcomed her second daughter — and the baby girl shares her special day with rock legends Elvis and David Bowie. Marnie Rose arrived...

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Retooling Pap test to spot more kinds of cancer

WASHINGTON (AP) — For years, doctors have lamented that there's no Pap test for deadly ovarian cancer. Wednesday, scientists reported encouraging signs that one day, there might be.Researchers are trying to retool the Pap, a test for cervical cancer that millions of women get, so that it could spot early signs of other gynecologic cancers, too.How? It turns out that cells can flake off of tumors in...

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Stock futures gain as China data spurs growth hopes

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures rose on Thursday, alongside other risk assets, as stronger-than-expected exports in China, the world's second-biggest economy, raised hopes for a more robust recovery in the global economy this year. Data showed China's export growth rebounded sharply to a seven-month high in December, a strong finish to the year after seven straight quarters of...

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Exhausted Egyptians count cost of political turmoil

ZAGAZIG, Egypt (Reuters) - These days, craftsmen, shopkeepers and other inhabitants of the Egyptian Delta town of Zagazig are often too busy making ends meet to ponder why life seems to be getting harder every day. But when, exhausted, they finally come home and sit down to their evening meal, conversations inevitably turn to growing hardship and the frightening prospect of cuts in food...

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European businesses slow to go online: study

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European businesses are not doing enough to use the internet to grow their customer base and promote products, Belgian database and marketing firm Email-Brokers said after studying 13 million websites.Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands have the highest proportion of companies online but even in these countries 40 percent of business have no internet presence, it found.The European...

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Ryan Gosling: How He Weaves His Magic Spell

01/09/2013 at 08:00 AM EST Devoted son, quirky leading man – and everyone's favorite fantasy boyfriend. But how does Ryan Gosling stack up in his real-life romance with actress Eva Mendes? The "hey girl" Internet obsession, 32, "is an incredibly sweet boyfriend," a Gosling source tells PEOPLE in this week's...

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Report: Death rates from cancer still inching down

WASHINGTON (AP) — Death rates from cancer are continuing to inch down, researchers reported Monday.Now the question is how to hold onto those gains, and do even better, even as the population gets older and fatter, both risks for developing cancer."There has been clear progress," said Dr. Otis Brawley of the American Cancer Society, which compiled the annual cancer report with government and cancer...

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Wall Street set to open higher after Alcoa's positive results

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street was poised to open slightly higher on Wednesday after Alcoa got the earnings season under way with better-than-expected revenue and an encouraging outlook for the year. Alcoa Inc said it expects global demand for aluminum will continue to grow in 2013, though the company kept a cautious tone as worries lingered over a looming U.S. budget confrontation....

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Tunisia frees man held over attack on U.S. consulate in Libya

Tunis (Reuters) - Tunisia has freed, for lack of evidence, a Tunisian man who had been suspected of involvement in an Islamist militant attack in Libya last year in which the U.S. ambassador was killed, his lawyer said on Tuesday. Ali Harzi was one of two Tunisians named in October by the Daily Beast website as having been detained in Turkey over the violence in which Christopher Stevens,...

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Conn. lawmaker apologizes over Facebook post

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut lawmaker has apologized after saying in a Facebook post that shooting victim and former Arizona U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords should “stay out of my towns.”Giffords last week visited Newtown, Conn., where a gunman killed 20 young children and six adults at an elementary school last month. The Democrat, who met with families of the victims, was critically wounded...

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Jessica Alba: Cash Warren and I Are 'Kindred Spirits'

Courtesy InStyleLove may not have struck at first sight for Jessica Alba and Cash Warren, but the pair’s instant connection was enough to last a lifetime.“I just knew when I met him that I was going to know him forever. It was weird; He instantly felt like family,” the actress, 31, says in InStyle‘s February issue.“I’d never felt like that with anyone. We got each other. We’re kindred spirits.”Following...

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Report: Death rates from cancer still inching down

WASHINGTON (AP) — Death rates from cancer are continuing to inch down, researchers reported Monday.Now the question is how to hold onto those gains, and do even better, even as the population gets older and fatter, both risks for developing cancer."There has been clear progress," said Dr. Otis Brawley of the American Cancer Society, which compiled the annual cancer report with government and cancer...

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Stock futures flat as earnings season begins

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures were little changed in low volume on Tuesday before the unofficial start of the earnings season, which is expected to show sluggish corporate growth. Profits in the fourth quarter were expected to top the previous quarter's lackluster results, but analysts' current estimates are down sharply from where they were in October. Quarterly earnings are...

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Five accused of rape in India appear in court for charges

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Five men accused of the rape and murder of an Indian student appeared in court on Monday to hear charges against them after two of them offered evidence possibly in return for a lighter sentence in the case that has provoked widespread anger. The five men, along with a teenager, are accused of raping the 23-year-old physiotherapy student after she boarded their bus...

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