Wall Street gains as Apple rebounds; fiscal talks eyed

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks drifted near the unchanged mark on Thursday as investors postponed big bets before the November employment report on Friday, but technology stocks rose on gains in Apple and Broadcom.


Monthly payroll numbers, to be released by the Labor Department, are expected to show a sharp slowdown in jobs growth because of superstorm Sandy.


Broadcom boosted other semiconductor companies a day after it forecast fourth-quarter revenue at the high end of its target range due to slightly better-than-expected sales in its mobile business. Shares rose 1.9 percent to $32.97.


The S&P technology index <.gspt> was the best performing of the 10 major S&P sectors, gaining 0.36 percent. The PHLX semiconductor index <.sox> rose 0.5 percent.


Apple was up 1.4 percent after losing as much as 3.7 percent at the open. The stock suffered its biggest one-day drop in four years on Wednesday due to concerns about higher capital gains taxes in 2013 and the company's market share in the tablet market.


Apple Inc's rank in China's smartphone market fell to No. 6 in the third quarter as it faces tougher competition from Chinese brands, research firm IDC said.


Broader moves were limited, however, as traders focused on the "fiscal cliff" debate. About three weeks remain before a series of tax increases and spending cuts would begin that could slow growth. Legislators are trying to come up with a deal to avoid some of the negative effects on the economy while still reducing the U.S. budget deficit.


While Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives insist that raising tax rates on the rich is not negotiable, some GOP lawmakers now see it as inevitable to avoid the fiscal cliff.


"As we get close to the last two weeks, things will pick up," said Gordon Charlop, managing director at Rosenblatt Securities in New York. Congress and the White House will have final discussions near the end of the year about how to handle the "fiscal cliff," he said.


Without action from Congress, tax cuts on capital gains and dividends will expire at the end of 2012, which has contributed to selling certain stocks that have done extremely well in recent years, such as Apple.


The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> slipped 7.93 points, or 0.06 percent, at 13,026.56. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> fell 0.14 point, or 0.01 percent, at 1,409.14. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> gained 8.31 points, or 0.28 percent, at 2,982.00.


Sirius XM Radio shares rose 1.4 percent to $2.81 after its board approved a $2 billion stock repurchase and declared a special dividend, giving a big payout to its largest shareholder, Liberty Media , which rose 2.3 percent to $108.87.


Garmin shares rose 4.5 percent to $41.49 after Standard & Poor's said it would add the navigation device maker to the S&P 500 index. Garmin will replace R.R. Donnelley & Sons after the close of trading on December 11.


(Editing by Kenneth Barry)



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The Lede Blog: Clashes in Cairo After Morsi Supporters Attack Palace Sit-In

Last Updated, 1:58 p.m. Supporters of and opponents of President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt engaged in street battles Wednesday night in Cairo, after Islamists attacked protesters camped outside the gates of the presidential palace, according to journalists and activists who witnessed the raid.

Morsi supporters reportedly attempted to stifle coverage by attacking journalists and bloggers, but activists from the Mosireen film collective managed to record video of tents being ripped down, which was quickly posted on YouTube.

Raw footage of an attack on a sit-in outside the presidential palace in Cairo on Wednesday posted on YouTube by Mosireen, a collective of activist filmmakers.

Egypt’s ON TV also broadcast video of the president’s supporters clearing the sit-in and putting up barriers to block the return of protesters to the area.

Video from Egypt’s ON TV showed Islamists driving away protesters camped outside the presidential palace in Cairo on Wednesday

Activists and journalists posted images on Twitter showing the president’s supporters dispersing the sit-in and taking control of the area outside the palace, with the apparent acquiescence of the police.

The attack on the sit-in came one day after tens of thousands of protesters rallied outside the gates of the palace to protest the president’s decree granting himself unchecked power to help push through a new constitution written by Islamists.

Before the attack, a message posted on the Muslim Brotherhood’s official @Ikhwanweb Twitter account called for a million-man counter-demonstration at the same location.

As several journalists noted, the Morsi supporters cleared the sit-in just as the vice president told reporters that the crisis could be resolved by allowing a referendum on the draft constitution to proceed and then passing amendments to the document after a new Parliament convenes.

While Muslim Brotherhood officials denied that they were responsible for the violence, claiming that “both sides” engaged in attacks, opposition activists blamed the Islamist president for the escalation and compared the use of force by civilian supporters of the Islamist movement to the tactics of the Mubarak regime and the way Iran’s government deploys members of the Basij militia to attack protesters there.

After the Morsi supporters cleared the small number of protesters who had camped outside the palace walls following Tuesday night’s protest, they moved on to erasing graffiti left by the revolutionaries, including a portrait of a young man named Jika Gaber who was killed at the start of the protests against the president’s decree.

As opposition protesters rallied nearby in response to the attack, activists reported that the president’s supporters remained on the offensive. Video streamed live from the scene to the video-sharing site Bambuser by the activist blogger Tarek Shalaby seemed to capture the sound of shots being fired.

After reports of at least one death and graphic images began to circulate online, the journalists Sharif Kouddous and Sarah Carr reported on clashes between supporters and opponents of the president from the front line between the two groups.

After the violence escalated, Brotherhood officials, including Essam el-Erian, a senior leader of the group’s political party, and the young, Islamist bloggers running the official Twitter account tried to blame opposition politicians, and were met with jeers from activists.

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PlayStation 3 was the world’s No.1 Netflix streaming device this year












There are dozens of devices that can stream Netflix (NFLX), but only one can machine be crowned the king of the living room. According to Netflix, that device is Sony’s (SNE) PlayStation 3 console. Without revealing any specific figures, Netflix announced on its blog “in the U.S. and globally, PS3 is the largest TV-connected platform in terms of Netflix viewing” and that “at times, PS3 even surpassed the PC in hours of Netflix enjoyment to become our No. 1 platform overall.” 


Netflix’s blog is quick to mention why the PS3 is the most popular streaming device this year, applauding it for being the first console to have 1080p HD video and 5.1-channel Dolby Digital Plus surround sound, post-play, second screen controls, subtitles and easy app updates.












While the Xbox 360 is gaining ground in terms of how many hours users spend watching videos on it, streaming video services such as Netflix requires an Xbox LIVE Gold subscription. One reason why the PlayStation 3 might be leading Netflix streaming is because it doesn’t require a subscription fee to have access to the Netflix app, or any other streaming video app such as Amazon (AMZN) Instant Video.


“The PlayStation and Netflix communities both share a strong passion for high quality entertainment,” Sony Computer Entertainment of America CEO and president Jack Tretton said. “Netflix provides a fantastic experience for watching TV shows and movies on PS3, and our joint development will continue to produce innovations for our customers that further demonstrate PS3 as the true home for entertainment in the living room.”


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Dave Brubeck, Jazz Icon, Dies at 91















12/05/2012 at 01:30 PM EST



Dave Brubeck, the pianist, composer and leader of the iconic Dave Brubeck Quartet, died Wednesday at age 91 in Connecticut, according to the AP. The cause was heart failure.

Brubeck, whose music helped define the style of West Coast Jazz in the '50s, is best known for the 1959 classic "Take 5," which was written by collaborator Paul Desmond and featured on the album Time Out. To date, it remains one of the top-selling jazz records of all time.

Brubeck wasn't just a music icon – he was also a patriot. Born in California in 1920, he was drafted into the army to serve in Europe during World War II. Upon returning home in 1946, music teacher Darius Milhaud encouraged him to pursue music.

"He told me if I didn't stick to jazz, I'd be working out of my own field and not taking advantage of my American heritage," Brubeck told TIME in a 1954 cover story.

That heritage was cemented in 2009, when Brubeck was inducted as a Kennedy Center Honoree for his lifetime of contributions to American culture – one of the nation's most esteemed honors.

Of his love for music, Brubeck told TIME, "When I get inspired, I'm the happiest guy in the world."

Brubeck is survived by his wife Iola, sons Darius, Dan, Chris, and Matthew, daughter Cathy, and two generations of grandchildren.

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Longer tamoxifen use cuts breast cancer deaths


Breast cancer patients taking the drug tamoxifen can cut their chances of having the disease come back or kill them if they stay on the pills for 10 years instead of five years as doctors recommend now, a major study finds.


The results could change treatment, especially for younger women. The findings are a surprise because earlier research suggested that taking the hormone-blocking drug for longer than five years didn't help and might even be harmful.


In the new study, researchers found that women who took tamoxifen for 10 years lowered their risk of a recurrence by 25 percent and of dying of breast cancer by 29 percent compared to those who took the pills for just five years.


In absolute terms, continuing on tamoxifen kept three additional women out of every 100 from dying of breast cancer within five to 14 years from when their disease was diagnosed. When added to the benefit from the first five years of use, a decade of tamoxifen can cut breast cancer mortality in half during the second decade after diagnosis, researchers estimate.


Some women balk at taking a preventive drug for so long, but for those at high risk of a recurrence, "this will be a convincer that they should continue," said Dr. Peter Ravdin, director of the breast cancer program at the UT Health Science Center in San Antonio.


He reviewed results of the study, which was being presented Wednesday at a breast cancer conference in San Antonio and published by the British medical journal Lancet.


About 50,000 of the roughly 230,000 new cases of breast cancer in the United States each year occur in women before menopause. Most breast cancers are fueled by estrogen, and hormone blockers are known to cut the risk of recurrence in such cases.


Tamoxifen long was the top choice, but newer drugs called aromatase inhibitors — sold as Arimidex, Femara, Aromasin and in generic form — do the job with less risk of causing uterine cancer and other problems.


But the newer drugs don't work well before menopause. Even some women past menopause choose tamoxifen over the newer drugs, which cost more and have different side effects such as joint pain, bone loss and sexual problems.


The new study aimed to see whether over a very long time, longer treatment with tamoxifen could help.


Dr. Christina Davies of the University of Oxford in England and other researchers assigned 6,846 women who already had taken tamoxifen for five years to either stay on it or take dummy pills for another five years.


Researchers saw little difference in the groups five to nine years after diagnosis. But beyond that time, 15 percent of women who had stopped taking tamoxifen after five years had died of breast cancer versus 12 percent of those who took it for 10 years. Cancer had returned in 25 percent of women on the shorter treatment versus 21 percent of those treated longer.


Tamoxifen had some troubling side effects: Longer use nearly doubled the risk of endometrial cancer. But it rarely proved fatal, and there was no increased risk among premenopausal women in the study — the very group tamoxifen helps most.


"Overall the benefits of extended tamoxifen seemed to outweigh the risks substantially," Dr. Trevor Powles of the Cancer Centre London wrote in an editorial published with the study.


The study was sponsored by cancer research organizations in Britain and Europe, the United States Army, and AstraZeneca PLC, which makes Nolvadex, a brand of tamoxifen, which also is sold as a generic for 10 to 50 cents a day. Brand-name versions of the newer hormone blockers, aromatase inhibitors, are $300 or more per month, but generics are available for much less.


The results pose a quandary for breast cancer patients past menopause and those who become menopausal because of their treatment — the vast majority of cases. Previous studies found that starting on one of the newer hormone blockers led to fewer relapses than initial treatment with tamoxifen did.


Another study found that switching to one of the new drugs after five years of tamoxifen cut the risk of breast cancer recurrence nearly in half — more than what was seen in the new study of 10 years of tamoxifen.


"For postmenopausal women, the data still remain much stronger at this point for a switch to an aromatase inhibitor," said that study's leader, Dr. Paul Goss of Massachusetts General Hospital. He has been a paid speaker for a company that makes one of those drugs.


Women in his study have not been followed long enough to see whether switching cuts deaths from breast cancer, as 10 years of tamoxifen did. Results are expected in about a year.


The cancer conference is sponsored by the American Association for Cancer Research, Baylor College of Medicine and the UT Health Science Center.


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Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP


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Wall Street rebounds as banks, Travelers offset Apple

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks advanced in a choppy session on Wednesday as a rally in bank shares and The Travelers, a Dow component, overshadowed Apple's unexpected drop and weakness in the technology sector.


Equities staged a turnaround in the face of a drop in Apple , the largest U.S. company by market capitalization and a big weight in both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq. Apple's stock fell 4.2 percent to $551.74, after dropping as low as $545.56.


Market participants cited a host of reasons for the slide in the iPad maker's stock, including a consultant's report about the company losing share in the tablet market and reports that margin requirements had been raised by at least one clearing firm.


The S&P 500 reversed course after briefly falling below the 1,400 level, seen as a key support point over the past two weeks.


"There's still psychological interest in buying the market," said John Brady, managing director at R.J. O'Brien & Associates in Chicago.


"The S&P hit the 1,400 level so we find again ‘dip buyers' there. They strongly believe a deal (on the fiscal cliff) is going to get done, and that's really the trade."


Investors have been reluctant to take big positions as lawmakers continue to negotiate a deal to avoid a series of mandatory spending cuts and tax increases effective in early January - known as the "fiscal cliff" - that could push the U.S. economy into recession next year.


President Barack Obama told the Business Roundtable, a group of chief executives, that a "fiscal cliff" deal was possible within about a week if Republicans acknowledged the need to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans.


For several weeks, the market has reacted quickly to often-conflicting headlines out of Washington about budget negotiations, prompting investors to be cautious.


The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> gained 123.74 points, or 0.96 percent, to 13,075.52. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> rose 6.92 points, or 0.49 percent, to 1,411.97. But the Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> dropped 9.51 points, or 0.32 percent, to 2,987.17.


Banking shares were the best performers, led by a 6.4 percent climb in Citigroup to $36.48 after the company said it will cut 11,000 jobs worldwide, or about 4 percent of its workforce. The KBW Bank Index <.bkx> rose 2.1 percent.


Bank of America shares shot up 5.1 percent to $10.40 after hitting a new 52-week high at $10.44.


Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc slumped 13.6 percent to $33.07. The company said it is acquiring Plains Exploration & Production Co and McMoRan Exploration Co in two separate deals for $9 billion in cash and stock in a major expansion into energy.


But shares of McMoRan Exploration soared 82.7 percent to $15.46 and Plains Exploration & Production shares surged 25.5 percent to $45.23.


Shares of The Travelers Cos Inc rose 4.7 percent to $73.81 and ranked as the Dow's top gainer after the property and casualty insurance company said its preliminary estimate of net losses from Superstorm Sandy was about $650 million after tax.


Economic data from payrolls processor ADP showed U.S. private-sector hiring took a hit in November due to the impact of Superstorm Sandy, which ravaged consumers and businesses in the Northeastern United States, but the huge services sector kept expanding albeit at a modest pace, according to the Institute for Supply Management.


(Additional reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Jan Paschal)



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5 Nations Summon Israeli Envoys to Protest Settlement Plans





JERUSALEM — Britain, France, Spain, Sweden and Denmark summoned the Israeli ambassadors to their countries on Monday to protest Israel’s plans for increased settlement construction, an unusually sharp diplomatic step that reflected the growing frustration abroad with Israel’s policies on the Palestinian issue.




After the General Assembly voted overwhelmingly last week to upgrade the status of the Palestinians at the United Nations, Israel announced plans for 3,000 more housing units in contested areas of East Jerusalem and around the West Bank.


Israel raised particular alarms with its decision to continue planning and zoning work for the development of a contentious area known as E1, a project vehemently opposed internationally because it would partially separate the northern and southern West Bank, harming the prospects of a contiguous Palestinian state in that territory.


The move raised questions in Israel about whether the country’s leaders were putting domestic political interests ahead of its foreign relations, with Israeli elections scheduled for late January.


“Bibi had to do something” in response to the United Nations vote, said Prof. Shmuel Sandler of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan Universiy, referring to the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, by his nickname, “first because he is Bibi and second because of the elections.”


Mr. Sandler said that Mr. Netanyahu, a conservative, was making the mistake of competing against those farther to the right, adding, “But I don’t think he expected such a reaction” internationally.


Yet Israel remained defiant. The prime minister’s office issued a statement on Monday, saying, “Israel will continue to stand for its essential interests, even in the face of international pressure, and there will be no change in the decision it has taken.”


A press officer for United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement on Sunday that construction in E1 “would represent an almost fatal blow to remaining chances of securing a two-state solution.”


European countries long opposed to Israeli settlement construction went beyond their usual statements of condemnation. The countries that called in the Israeli ambassadors “expressed their strong protests about the announced settlement plans,” said Yigal Palmor, the spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry.


Mr. Palmor said that the Israeli ambassadors told their hosts that Israel had been warning for months that the Palestinian bid at the United Nations would not go unanswered and that it would have implications.


Israel has described the bid as a unilateral Palestinian step that violates previous signed agreements. The Palestinians have long refused to negotiate with Israel without a halt in settlement construction.


France, Spain, Sweden and Denmark voted for the Palestinian upgrade, while Britain abstained. Although Israel had expected the resolution to pass, officials here expressed disappointment over the lack of support from several friendly European nations. Israel was particularly surprised by Germany’s decision to abstain in the vote, having expected Germany to go with Israel.


Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to visit Germany this week. Despite the so-called special relationship between Israel and Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel has not minced words about her opposition to Israeli settlement construction in the past.


Philippe Lalliot, a spokesman for the French Foreign Ministry, said in a statement on Monday, “Settlement activity is illegal under international law, hurts the confidence necessary for a return to dialogue and constitutes an obstacle to a just peace founded on the two-state solution.”


The British Foreign Office said that it deplored the Israeli settlement plans and that it had called on the Israeli government to reverse the decision.


But Israeli officials denied that the government’s policies were isolating Israel.


“It is well known that Europe and Israel have a different approach on settlements,” said one Israeli official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “There is nothing new here. If European countries would have behaved differently in their vote at the United Nations last week,” he continued, “we may have reacted differently.”


Analysts here said that after showing strong support for Israel during its military campaign last month against Hamas, the Islamic militant group that controls Gaza, European countries had felt the need to bolster the more moderate Palestinian wing led by President Mahmoud Abbas in its United Nations bid.


At the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, Mr. Netanyahu said, “Today we are building and we will continue to build in Jerusalem and in all areas that are on the map of the strategic interests of the State of Israel.”


But beyond the tit-for-tat measures set off by the United Nations vote, analysts pointed to a trend of deteriorating relations between Israel and Europe in particular.


“That is because the top-level people making decisions here in recent years are completely insular and out of touch with the rest of the world, especially regarding the Palestinians and the settlements,” said Mark Heller, a foreign-policy analyst at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University. “Self-righteousness may be good for domestic politics,” he said, “but it is not a policy.”


At the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, 138 nations voted in favor of upgrading the status of the Palestinians and 41 abstained. The nine that voted against it were Israel, the United States, Canada, the Czech Republic, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Panama and Palau.


Scott Sayare contributed reporting from Paris.



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Is the iPad Mini as Good as the iPad?












The iPad Mini‘s screen doesn’t have the same “resolutionary” Retina display as its bigger brother, but don’t worry: the Apple snobs appear to have gotten over that. After spending time with his new baby-tablet, The New York Times‘s Nick Bilton gave in, calling the gadget his new “Desert Island Device.” (It replaced his iPhone, by the way.) The inferior screen had worried Bilton like it had others, but no longer: ”I used it for two weeks and my concerns about the screen’s quality are completely irrelevant.” It’s not that Bilton prefers the “fuzzy” screen, as he called it. But the portability of the lightweight Mini outweighs that for him, making this tablet, in his opinion, really the best tablet Apple has ever made.


RELATED: Prepare for an iPad Mini This Month












Considering all the fawning over the Retina display on the iPad proper, it’s pretty amazing to see reviewers toss that upgrade for something that Steve Jobs forbid the company to create. Bilton’s not the only one to prefer the new cousin, even if it is technically worse. Noted Apple-phile Jonathan Gruber said he hadn’t touched the fourth-generation iPad that Apple released this year as well “I’ve gone small and fuzzy,” he wrote. When the Retina display first came out, Gruber called it “pure joy” for his “dream iPad.” But a funny thing happened on the way out of the hype cycle: Apple put out something the masses were supposed to like more than the techies, and that just made everyone like it even more. Call it a holiday miracle, but the Apple snobs may be snobs no more.


Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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Holly Madison: I Want Six Kids




Celebrity Baby Blog





12/03/2012 at 01:00 PM ET



Holly Madison Wants Six Kids
AKM-GSI


With a daughter on the way in March, Holly Madison switched it up by wearing blue to Saturday’s Animal Foundation Happy Anniversary Hour, held at the House of Blues Foundation Room in Las Vegas.


It was a welcome change for the former reality star, who admits she was hit with “a tide” of pink product upon announcing the sex of her baby. Not that it’s unwelcome, of course — Madison has been patiently awaiting the bundle of joy she’s now expecting with boyfriend Pasquale Rotella.


“We knew we wanted to try to have kids, but probably next year,” she tells Las Vegas Weekly. “I don’t know why this is, maybe because I am 33, but I didn’t think it would be that easy for me to get pregnant. But it was.”


And if Madison has it her way, it will continue to be. “I want six kids,” she says. “We’ll see how it goes, but I want a big family.”


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CDC says US flu season starts early, could be bad


NEW YORK (AP) — Flu season in the U.S. is off to its earliest start in nearly a decade — and it could be a bad one.


Health officials on Monday said suspected flu cases have jumped in five Southern states, and the primary strain circulating tends to make people sicker than other types. It is particularly hard on the elderly.


"It looks like it's shaping up to be a bad flu season, but only time will tell," said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.


The good news is that the nation seems fairly well prepared, Frieden said. More than a third of Americans have been vaccinated, and the vaccine formulated for this year is well-matched to the strains of the virus seen so far, CDC officials said.


Higher-than-normal reports of flu have come in from Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas. An uptick like this usually doesn't happen until after Christmas. Flu-related hospitalizations are also rising earlier than usual, and there have already been two deaths in children.


Hospitals and urgent care centers in northern Alabama have been bustling. "Fortunately, the cases have been relatively mild," said Dr. Henry Wang, an emergency medicine physician at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.


Parts of Georgia have seen a boom in traffic, too. It's not clear why the flu is showing up so early, or how long it will stay.


"My advice is: Get the vaccine now," said Dr. James Steinberg, an Emory University infectious diseases specialist in Atlanta.


The last time a conventional flu season started this early was the winter of 2003-04, which proved to be one of the most lethal seasons in the past 35 years, with more than 48,000 deaths. The dominant type of flu back then was the same one seen this year.


One key difference between then and now: In 2003-04, the vaccine was poorly matched to the predominant flu strain. Also, there's more vaccine now, and vaccination rates have risen for the general public and for key groups such as pregnant women and health care workers.


An estimated 112 million Americans have been vaccinated so far, the CDC said. Flu vaccinations are recommended for everyone 6 months or older.


On average, about 24,000 Americans die each flu season, according to the CDC.


Flu usually peaks in midwinter. Symptoms can include fever, cough, runny nose, head and body aches and fatigue. Some people also suffer vomiting and diarrhea, and some develop pneumonia or other severe complications.


A strain of swine flu that hit in 2009 caused a wave of cases in the spring and then again in the early fall. But that was considered a unique type of flu, distinct from the conventional strains that circulate every year.


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Online:


CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly


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