World Briefing | The Americas: Mexico: Statue of Ex-Leader of Azerbaijan Removed

The Mexico City government removed a large statue of a former president of Azerbaijan from a central boulevard early Saturday, giving in after months of complaints by critics who said that Mexico’s capital was no place for the likeness of a man accused of suppressing democracy and committing human rights abuses. City workers, accompanied by police officers, arrived shortly after midnight at the little...

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Vine Is Teaching Everyone This Terrible Habit

“No more vertical videos.” – Joan Crawford’s message for the digital generation.Twitter’s new snap-and-share video service, Vine, has forced users to break the first rule of iFilm making: never shoot vertical videos.[More from Mashable: 10 Awesome Pranks to Play On Your Facebook Friends]SEE ALSO: Vine Mania! 10 Creative Vines on TwitterOf course, Vine’s videos appear as a square, so you could argue...

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Guy Fieri Says His Beef Sandwich Recipe Is 'the Bomb!'

By Maggie Coughlan 01/26/2013 at 07:00 PM EST Guy Fieri's Beef Sandwich Andrew Purcell; Inset: Michael Tran/Getty After crossing the nation on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, Guy Fieri knows a thing or two about what makes a sandwich spectacular.The co-host of Food...

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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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Wall Street Week Ahead: Bears hibernate as stocks near record highs

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks have been on a tear in January, moving major indexes within striking distance of all-time highs. The bearish case is a difficult one to make right now. Earnings have exceeded expectations, the housing and labor markets have strengthened, lawmakers in Washington no longer seem to be the roadblock that they were for most of 2012, and money has returned to stock...

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DealBook: On Lookout in Davos for Next Growth Story in Emerging Markets

DAVOS, Switzerland — With Europe in a sharp slowdown and the United States forging only a slow recovery, the business and academic elites gathering here are scouring the global landscape for any new economic success story. And a number of countries are stepping forward here at the World Economic Forum to peddle their tales — even if the smart money knows that betting on emerging markets continues...

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BlackRock to buy $80 million Twitter stake: source

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – BlackRock, the world’s largest asset management company, has taken an $ 80 million stake in Twitter Inc, a person with knowledge of the deal said Friday.The six-year old social media company will not raise new capital as part of the private deal that values the firm at more than $ 9 billion. BlackRock will buy shares directly from early Twitter employees seeking to liquidate...

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Liberty Ross Files for Divorce from Rupert Sanders

By Dahvi Shira 01/25/2013 at 08:20 PM EST Liberty Ross Michael Buckner/Wireimage It's over for Rupert Sanders and Liberty Ross.The Snow White and the Huntsman actress, 34, filed for divorce Friday from her director-husband Sanders, 41, in Los Angeles County Superior...

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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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Wall Street Week Ahead: Bears hibernate as stocks near record highs

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks have been on a tear in January, moving major indexes within striking distance of all-time highs. The bearish case is a difficult one to make right now. Earnings have exceeded expectations, the housing and labor markets have strengthened, lawmakers in Washington no longer seem to be the roadblock that they were for most of 2012, and money has returned to stock...

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Czech Prince, Schwarzenberg, Runs a Punk Campaign

PRAGUE — His face stares out from campaign posters in music clubs and hip cafes, a 75-year-old prince retooled as a punk rocker with a hot pink mohawk and lofty presidential ambitions. As Czechs head to the polls in presidential elections on Friday and Saturday, advisers to the prince, Karel Schwarzenberg, who is also the Czech Republic’s foreign minister, hope that the jarring image — modeled...

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Beyond Google Fiber: Google looks to create its own experimental wireless network

Look out, wireless carriers: Google (GOOG) may have its eye on shaking up your business as well. The Wall Street Journal reports that Google “is trying to create an experimental wireless network covering its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters” that “could portend the creation of dense and superfast Google wireless networks in other locations that would allow people to connect to the Web using their...

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Baby Born with Heart Outside Her Chest Goes Home from Hospital

By Dahvi Shira 01/24/2013 at 06:40 PM EST Ashley and Audrina Cardenas Three-month-old Audrina Cardenas is a survivor.The infant, delivered on Oct. 15 with a rare genetic deformity called "ectopia cordis," was born with part of her heart outside of her body. Following...

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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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S&P rises for seventh day but 1,500 too steep a climb

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The smallest of gains gave the Standard & Poor's 500 its seventh straight winning day on Thursday, but the index failed to hold above the 1,500 line, restrained by Apple's worst day in more than four years. Apple Inc slid 12.4 percent to $450.50 a day after it posted revenue that missed Wall Street's forecast as iPhone sales were poorer than expected. ...

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At War Blog: Women Have Always Served in Combat Roles

8:51 p.m. | Updated Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta is lifting the military’s ban on women in combat, a groundbreaking decision that overturns a 1994 Pentagon rule that restricts women from artillery, armor, infantry and other such roles.As Elisabeth Bumiller and Thom Shanker of The Times report, the move means that hundreds of thousands of frontline jobs will now be open to women. Yet women have...

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Google dominates the mobile app market, has 5 of the top 6 apps in the U.S.

Wondering why Apple (AAPL) is sinking so much effort into building its own Maps application? Because it doesn’t want Google (GOOG) to gobble up all the revenue from big-name mobile applications. ComScore has published its most recent monthly review of the top iOS and Android apps in the United States ranked by unique visitors and has found that Google captured 5 of the top 6 spots with Google Maps,...

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Women have caught up to men on lung cancer risk

Smoke like a man, die like a man.U.S. women who smoke today have a much greater risk of dying from lung cancer than they did decades ago, partly because they are starting younger and smoking more — that is, they are lighting up like men, new research shows.Women also have caught up with men in their risk of dying from smoking-related illnesses. Lung cancer risk leveled off in the 1980s for men but...

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S&P up for sixth day, Apple slip could halt rally

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The S&P 500 rose for a sixth day on Wednesday after stronger-than-expected profits from IBM and Google but the rally could be halted as Apple's after-hours miss sent its shares lower. The S&P was just 4.7 percent from its all-time closing high as IBM's and Google's earnings, released after Tuesday's close, followed on the heels of stronger U.S. economic data....

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Worker at Algerian Gas Facility Describes Escape

BERGEN, Norway — After militants stormed his remote desert workplace last week, Liviu Floria, a Romanian gas worker, locked the door and sought refuge under a desk. For five hours, as he stayed hidden, he communicated by text message with a Romanian co-worker in another part of the sprawling In Amenas gas facility. Then an ominous final message flashed on his cellphone from the colleague....

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Google’s fourth quarter results shine after ad rate decline slows

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Revenue from Google Inc’s core Internet business outpaced many analysts’ expectations during the crucial holiday quarter and advertising rates fell less than in previous periods, pushing its shares up more than 4 percent.The world’s largest Internet search company introduced new product listings during the fourth quarter – typically its strongest – and also benefited from...

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PEOPLE's Music Critic: Why We're Upset About Beyoncé's Lip-Synching Drama

By Chuck Arnold 01/22/2013 at 08:40 PM EST Did she lip-synch or didn't she?That's the question surrounding Beyoncé after reports surfaced that she didn't sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" live at yesterday's presidential inauguration. A spokesperson for the U.S. Marine Band, which backed the pop diva at the ceremony,...

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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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Banks, commodity stocks lift S&P 500 to five-year high

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bank and commodity shares led the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 Index to a fresh five-year closing high on Tuesday on hopes that the global economy continues to mend. Travelers' shares climbed after the insurer's results and lifted the Dow Jones industrial average to a new five-year closing high. On Friday, both the Dow and the S&P 500 ended...

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Algeria Defends Tough Response to Hostage Crisis as Toll Rises

Ramzi Boudina/ReutersRescue workers with the coffin of one of the slain hostages. ALGIERS — The prime minister of Algeria offered an unapologetic defense on Monday of the country’s tough actions to end the Sahara hostage crisis, saying that the militants who had carried out the kidnappings intended to kill all their captives and that the army saved many from death by attacking. But the assertion...

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