Wall Street Week Ahead: "Cliff" worries may drive tax selling

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors typically sell stocks to cut their losses at year end. But worries about the "fiscal cliff" - and the possibility of higher taxes in 2013 - may act as the greatest incentive to sell both winners and losers by December 31. The $600 billion of automatic tax increases and spending cuts scheduled for the beginning of next year includes higher rates for capital...

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World Briefing | Africa: South Sudan: Journalist Killed

A South Sudanese online journalist was shot and killed late Wednesday outside his home in the capital, Juba, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. The journalist, Diing Chan Awuol, who wrote for a number of online news outlets in South Sudan, had published articles critical of the government, its policy toward Sudan and its ties to Sudanese rebel groups. Other journalists said Mr. Chan...

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Crowdfunding websites clamor for clearer regulation

LONDON (Reuters) – A new breed of internet-based financiers are calling for action to end regulatory uncertainty they say is preventing them from getting money to the small and medium-sized businesses that need it.The so-called crowdfunding sector raises cash from members of the public to fund lending and investment. Regulators, however, have proved resistant to pleas for adjustments to rules that...

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Sofia Vergara Wears Lingerie on Set of Fading Gigolo

Sofia Vergara 12/07/2012 at 01:40 PM EST Sofia Vergara on the set of Fading Gigolo Cam Griffith CRI/Splash News Online On the set of her new film with Sharon Stone, Fading Gigolo, curvaceous Sofia Vergara busts a move in black lace lingerie.Vergara, the Modern...

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Smokers celebrate as Wash. legalizes marijuana

SEATTLE (AP) — The crowds of happy people lighting joints under Seattle's Space Needle early Thursday morning with nary a police officer in sight bespoke the new reality: Marijuana is legal under Washington state law.Hundreds gathered at Seattle Center for a New Year's Eve-style countdown to 12 a.m., when the legalization measure passed by voters last month took effect. When the clock struck, they...

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Solid jobs data spurs little buying, Apple falls again

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The S&P 500 eked out only a slight gain on Friday as weak consumer sentiment data offset enthusiasm from a better-than-expected jobs report, while the Nasdaq slipped after some investors resumed a sell-off of Apple shares. Wall Street opened higher after the U.S. Labor Department said non-farm payrolls added 146,000 jobs in November. However, the gains faded,...

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Bombers Strike Pakistani Military Base in South Waziristan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Suicide bombers in an explosives-laden car struck a Pakistani military base in the volatile South Waziristan tribal region on Wednesday, killing three soldiers, according to a senior security official in Peshawar. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the vehicle was spotted by guards in a security tower at the walled Javed Sultan Shaheed Camp, a...

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Windows 8: A ‘Christmas gift for someone you hate’

Microsoft (MSFT) is no stranger to criticism these days, and the company’s new Windows 8 platform is once again the target of a scathing review from a high-profile user. Well-known Internet entrepreneur and MIT professor Philip Greenspun handed Windows 8 one of its most damning reviews yet earlier this week, calling the new operating system a “Christmas gift for someone you hate.” Greenspun...

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Prince Charles Is 'Thrilled' to Become a Grandfather

12/06/2012 at 01:45 PM EST Prince Charles Allpix/Splash News Online Prince Charles's royal title can't compare to one he will earn next year – grandfather – now that Kate and his son Prince William are expecting their first child. "I'm thrilled," he told reporters Thursday as he was boarding...

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Celebrations planned as Wash. legalizes marijuana

SEATTLE (AP) — Legal marijuana possession becomes a reality under Washington state law on Thursday, and some people planned to celebrate the new law by breaking it.Voters in Washington and Colorado last month made those the first states to decriminalize and regulate the recreational use of marijuana. Washington's law takes effect Thursday and allows adults to have up to an ounce of pot — but it bans...

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