Morsi Defends Wide Authority in Egypt as Turmoil Rises

CAIRO — Egypt descended deeper into political turmoil on Thursday as the embattled president, Mohamed Morsi, blamed an outbreak of violence on a “fifth column” and vowed to proceed with a referendum on an Islamist-backed constitution that has prompted deadly street battles between his supporters and their opponents. As the tanks and armored vehicles of the elite presidential guard ringed...

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The X Factor Reveals Its Four Semi-Finalists

TV Watch The X Factor By Aaron Parsley 12/06/2012 at 09:20 PM EST There were tears on The X Factor Thursday night. With only four spots in next week's semi-finals, the six acts who performed two songs each Wednesday night were a tense bunch. Especially after last week's shocking elimination that sent home fan...

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Asia shares at 2012 high, markets await U.S. jobs data

TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares touched fresh 16-month highs on Friday as investors awaited U.S. nonfarm payrolls data due later in the day, with sentiment underpinned by signs that China's economy is stabilizing. European shares will likely gain modestly, with financial spreadbetters predicting London's FTSE 100 <.ftse>, Paris's CAC-40 <.fchi> and Frankfurt's DAX <.gdaxi>...

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IHT Rendezvous: Typhoon Bopha: Hurricane Sandy Times Two

HONG KONG — The official death toll from Typhoon Bopha climbed to 325 by Thursday afternoon, and with nearly 400 Filipinos still unaccounted for, the typhoon appeared as if it would be twice as deadly as Hurricane Sandy, the storm that thrashed the Caribbean and the eastern United States six weeks ago.Sandy killed at least 253 people, including 132 in the United States. President Obama is expected...

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Apple’s shares swallow biggest loss in four years

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Apple Inc shares tumbled more than 6 percent on Wednesday, chalking up their biggest single-day loss in four years as fears grow about intensifying competition in the mobile device market.Investors and analysts blamed the sell-off on a mix of factors, including a forecast by an influential research firm that the iPad maker is continuing to cede ground to rival Google...

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Frank Ocean, Taylor Swift Collect Grammy Nominations

12/06/2012 at 01:00 AM EST How FUN!The Grammys handed out their nominations Wednesday night at a concert in Nashville and there was a decidedly youthful feel: Taylor Swift earned a nod for record of the year and the band FUN joined Frank Ocean with the trifecta of album and record of the year and best new artist. In...

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Dow, S&P rise, but Nasdaq sours with Apple in wild day

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A volatile trading session ended with U.S. stocks mostly higher on Wednesday, even as Apple, the most valuable company in the United States, suffered its worst day of losses in almost four years. In a strange occurrence, Apple accounted for the entirety of the Nasdaq 100's <.ndx> fall of 1.1 percent, while the Dow industrials - which do not include Apple as...

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Changing of the Guard: How Crash Cover-Up Altered China’s Succession

BEIJING — “Thank you. I’m well. Don’t worry,” read the post on a Chinese social networking site. The brief comment, published in June, appeared to come from Ling Gu, the 23-year-old son of a high-powered aide to China’s president, and it helped quash reports that he had been killed in a Ferrari crash after a night of partying. It only later emerged that the message was a sham, posted by someone...

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Amazon launches Kindle content service for kids

NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon is launching a subscription service for children’s games, videos and books aimed at getting more kids to use its Kindle Fire tablet devices.Amazon.com Inc. plans to announce Wednesday that the Kindle FreeTime Unlimited service will be available in the next few weeks as part of an automatic software update.Amazon said subscribers will have access to “thousands” of pieces of content,...

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The Voice Reveals Top Four Contestants

TV Watch By Julia Haskins 12/04/2012 at 09:35 PM EST The Voice"'s top six contestants were under double pressure Monday night when they had to sing two songs each. But there was even more stress at Tuesday's elimination. "It went as well as it could have gone," Team Blake's Terry McDermott said on Monday of his...

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