Katy Perry (Sort Of) Steals Spotlight at Bruce Springsteen Pre-Grammy Tribute

By Patrick Gomez and Marisa Laudadio 02/09/2013 at 11:45 AM EST Katy Perry at the MusiCares Person of the Year gala Lester Cohen/WireImage It may have been a tribute to Bruce Springsteen but Katy Perry seemed to be the main attraction for some at Friday's MusiCares Person of the Year tribute...

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After early start, worst of flu season may be over

NEW YORK (AP) — The worst of the flu season appears to be over.The number of states reporting intense or widespread illnesses dropped again last week, and in a few states there was very little flu going around, U.S. health officials said Friday.The season started earlier than normal, first in the Southeast and then spreading. But now, by some measures, flu activity has been ebbing for at least four...

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Wall Street advances after stream of economic data

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index rose on Friday after a batch of positive economic data points, but gains were checked with the benchmark S&P index at five-year highs as investors looked for strong catalysts to push the market further upward. Data showed Chinese exports grew more than expected in January, while imports climbed 28.8 percent, highlighting robust domestic demand, while...

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IHT Rendezvous: 'Downton Abbey' vs. 'Girls': Who's Happier?

BROOKLYN — Can we have too much freedom?Page TwoPosts written by the IHT’s Page Two columnists.That’s the question behind my latest Currents column, where I discuss what “Downton Abbey” and “Girls,” two wildly popular television shows set 100 years apart, have to tell us about ourselves and our society — especially when it comes to personal freedom and its consequences.What begins on ‘‘Downton’’ as...

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Facebook Broke the Internet

A weird thing happened on Thursday night. Anytime you clicked on a link — or most of the time anyways — some strange Internet force directed you to an error page on Facebook. The URL is full of weird randomly generated code, but it’s definitely a Facebook page. You can even check your notifications even though you didn’t even want to visit Facebook. No, this is not a conspiracy. In all likelihood,...

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Mariska Hargitay Loves Her Curves from Motherhood

By Andrea Billups 02/08/2013 at 11:15 AM EST Mariska Hargitay Courtesy Ladies Home Journal Motherhood and the perspective of age have helped Mariska Hargitay become a more confident – and fulfilled – woman and actress.The longtime Law & Order: Special Victims...

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Southern diet, fried foods, may raise stroke risk

Deep-fried foods may be causing trouble in the Deep South. People whose diets are heavy on them and sugary drinks like sweet tea and soda were more likely to suffer a stroke, a new study finds.It's the first big look at diet and strokes, and researchers say it might help explain why blacks in the Southeast — the nation's "stroke belt" — suffer more of them.Blacks were five times more likely than whites...

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Wall Street extends losses; Nasdaq off 1 percent

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell further on Thursday, with the Nasdaq falling 1 percent, as a sharp drop in the euro against the safe-haven dollar and yen curbed investors' appetite for risky assets. The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was down 119.84 points, or 0.86 percent, at 13,866.68. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was down 12.31 points, or 0.81 percent,...

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Lens Blog: Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen's Photos of Her Newcastle Neighborhood

On clear days in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, a small yet bustling working-class city in northeast England, the view from the hills of Byker can be spectacular. That shabby neighborhood’s rows of brick houses and terraced streets overlook a historic city center, the river and sometimes far beyond.Those vistas were rare in 1969, when Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen, a 21-year-old Finnish photographer, arrived. The...

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Cam Gigandet Welcomes a Son - Rekker Radley

Mom & Babies Celebrity Baby Blog 02/07/2013 at 11:00 AM ET Pacific Coast News It’s a boy!Cam Gigandet and his fiancée Dominique Geisendorff welcomed their second child on Wednesday, Jan. 23, his rep confirms to JustJared.com.Son Rekker Radley Gigandet, who weighed in at 9 lbs. 9 oz., joins the couple’s...

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