Heavy Snow and Winds Batter Northeast

A powerful nor’easter swept fast and furiously across the Northeast on Saturday, dumping mountains of snow, forcing hundreds of motorists to abandon their cars at the height of the blizzard and knocking out power for hundreds of thousands of people. Through the night, winds gusted with hurricane force strength in some places, downing powerlines and creating white-out conditions. More than...

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In Nigeria, Polio Vaccine Workers Are Killed by Gunmen

At least nine polio immunization workers were shot to death in northern Nigeria on Friday by gunmen who attacked two clinics, officials said. The killings, with eerie echoes of attacks that killed nine female polio workers in Pakistan in December, represented another serious setback for the global effort to eradicate polio. Most of the victims were women and were shot in the back of...

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John E. Karlin, 1918-2013: John E. Karlin, Who Led the Way to All-Digit Dialing, Dies at 94

Courtesy of Alcatel-Lucent USAJohn E. Karlin, a researcher at Bell Labs, studied ways to make the telephone easier to use. A generation ago, when the poetry of PEnnsylvania and BUtterfield was about to give way to telephone numbers in unpoetic strings, a critical question arose: Would people be able to remember all seven digits long enough to dial them? And when, not long afterward, the dial...

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Flights and Trains Canceled as Storm Heads to Northeast

Richard Perry/The New York TimesIn Jersey City, Jose Angelo, left, helped Isauro Palacios, a contractor from Belleville, N.J., as he loaded a new snow blower into the back of his truck Thursday as a snowstorm approached the region. As heavy, wet snow started to blanket much of the Northeast on Friday morning, people rushed to stores to stock up on supplies, drivers lined up at gas stations to fill...

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Alicia Keys, Bobby Brown perform at Will.i.am show

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Fergie may have been absent — but the Black Eyed Peas were joined by another female diva onstage: Alicia Keys.Keys sang "Where Is the Love" with the pop-rap group at will.i.am's charity event Thursday night at The Avalon Hollywood in Los Angeles. British singer Estelle also sang Fergie's portion of "The Time (Dirty Bit)."Will.i.am's TRANS4M benefit show — which assists his i.am.angel...

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The New Old Age Blog: The Executor's Assistant

I’m serving as executor for my father’s estate, a role few of us are prepared for until we’re playing it, so I was grateful when the mail brought “The American Bar Association Guide to Wills and Estates” — the fourth edition of a handbook the A.B.A. began publishing in 1995.This is a legal universe, I’m learning, in which every step — even with a small, simple estate that owes no taxes and includes...

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Chinese Imports and Exports Soar in January

HONG KONG — January trade data from China on Friday showed a surge in exports and imports from the levels of a year earlier — a phenomenon largely due to the timing of the Lunar New Year holiday but also supporting the view that the Chinese economy is firming up. Economic data from China are often severely distorted by the holiday, when many factories shut down for a week or more. ...

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European Central Bank Leaves Interest Rate Unchanged

FRANKFURT — The European Central Bank left its main interest rate unchanged at its current record low Thursday, as expected, amid signs that the euro zone economy could be crawling out of recession. The E.C.B. left its main rate at 0.75 percent, where it has been since July. Recent surveys of business sentiment have raised expectations that the euro zone could be slowly recovering, although...

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Selena Gomez works the front row at Neo show

NEW YORK (AP) — Selena Gomez sat front and center at the fashion show to preview the first collection in her collaboration with Adidas' streetwear Neo label.But the runway at Wednesday evening's show was a next-gen catwalk: Teenager bloggers were charged with styling the outfits instead of industry professionals.Gomez thanked them as she stood on stage at the end of the show. She was flanked by models...

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Well: Think Like a Doctor: A Confused and Terrified Patient

The Challenge: Can you solve the mystery of a middle-aged man recovering from a serious illness who suddenly becomes frightened and confused?Every month the Diagnosis column of The New York Times Magazine asks Well readers to sift through a difficult case and solve a diagnostic riddle. Below you will find a summary of a case involving a 55-year-old man well on his way to recovering from a series of...

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DealBook: Ireland to Liquidate Anglo Irish Bank

LONDON – The Irish government passed emergency legislation on Thursday to liquidate Anglo Irish Bank, one of the country’s largest financial institutions.The legislation, which was signed into law after an all-night parliamentary session, came after negotiations with the European Central Bank over swapping so-called promissory notes, which were used to bail out the Irish lender in 2009, for long-term...

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Postal Service to Cut Saturday Mail to Trim Costs

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Postal Service will stop delivering mail on Saturdays but continue to deliver packages six days a week under a plan aimed at saving about $2 billion, the financially struggling agency says. In an announcement scheduled for later Wednesday, the service is expected to say the Saturday mail cutback would begin in August. The move accentuates one of the agency's...

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Disney working on stand-alone 'Star Wars' films

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Disney is mining The Force for even more new films.Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger said Tuesday that screenwriters Larry Kasdan and Simon Kinberg are working on stand-alone "Star Wars" movies that aren't part of the new trilogy that's in the works."There has been speculation about some standalone films that have been in development, and I can confirm to you today that in fact we are...

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Ipswich Journal: Paul Mason Is One-Third the Man He Used to Be

Paul Nixon PhotographyPaul Mason in 2012, two years after gastric bypass surgery stripped him of the unofficial title of “the world’s fattest man.” IPSWICH, England — Who knows what the worst moment was for Paul Mason — there were so many awful milestones, as he grew fatter and fatter — but a good bet might be when he became too vast to leave his room. To get him to the hospital for a hernia operation,...

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DealBook: Debevoise & Plimpton Drops Trusts and Estates Practice

Last month, the nation’s leading trusts and estates lawyers convened at a Florida resort to discuss the latest in estate planning.Between lectures and workshops, some of the lawyers exchanged whispers about an unsettling piece of gossip: Debevoise & Plimpton, the prominent white-shoe law firm, was eliminating its trusts and estates practice.Debevoise’s decision surprised members of the trusts...

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Iran Nuclear Talks to Resume This Month

LONDON – Breaking a deadlock over the location and timing of new talks on its disputed nuclear program, Iran reached agreement on Tuesday with world powers to resume the stuttering dialog later this month in Kazakhstan, according to the official IRNA news agency. The agreement to meet there on Feb. 26 came in a telephone conversation between senior officials of Iran’s National Security Council...

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NJ Gov. Christie, Letterman laugh about fat jokes

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and David Letterman have shared some laughs about the many fat jokes the comedian has made about the lawmaker's ample girth.Christie has termed his plumpness "fair game" for comedians. And during his first appearance on "Late Show with David Letterman" on Monday, the outspoken Republican and potential 2016 presidential contender read two of Letterman's...

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The New Old Age Blog: In Blended Families, Responsibility Blurs

Every year, Fran McDowell waited for the summer week when she would sing in a choral festival in the North Carolina mountains, then spend a few days in a lakeside cabin with close women friends.That getaway grew more complicated to arrange — but perhaps more necessary — after her husband, Herb Beadle, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. They had a “gloriously happy” marriage — her first, his second...

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DealBook: Liberty Global in Talks to Buy Virgin Media

6:59 a.m. | Updated LONDON – Liberty Global, the international cable company owned by the American billionaire John C. Malone, is in discussions to buy the British cable company Virgin Media.In a brief statement on Tuesday, Virgin Media said it was in talks with Liberty Global, which serves almost 20 million customers worldwide.“Any such transaction would be subject to regulatory and other conditions,”...

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Bolshoi Ballet Director Says He Knows Who Attacked Him

MOSCOW – Bolshoi Ballet artistic director Sergei Filin, who was severely burned by an acid attack on Jan. 17, said he believes he may have been targeted by a group of people who hoped to replace the theater’s current leadership, and who had previously attacked another top executive at the ballet, prompting him to leave his post in 2011. Mr. Filin, who left Russia for a clinic in Germany on...

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Estonian pleads guilty in U.S. court to Internet advertising scam

NEW YORK (Reuters) – An Estonian man pleaded guilty on Friday in U.S. federal court for his role in a massive Internet scam that targeted well-known websites such as iTunes, Netflix and The Wall Street Journal.The scheme infected at least four million computers in more than 100 countries, including 500,000 in the United States, with malicious software, or malware, according to the indictment. It included...

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Beyonce electrifies at Super Bowl halftime show

If naysayers still doubted Beyonce's singing talents — even after her national anthem performance this week at a press conference — the singer proved she is an exceptional performer at the Super Bowl halftime show.Beyonce opened and closed her set belting songs, and in between she danced hard and heavy — and better than most contemporary pop stars.She set a serious tone as she emerged onstage in all...

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Medicines Co. Licenses Rights to Cholesterol Drug

The drug, known as ALN-PCS, inhibits a protein in the body known as PCSK9. Such drugs might one day be used to treat millions of people who do not achieve sufficient cholesterol-lowering from commonly used statins, such as Lipitor. The Medicines Company will pay $25 million initially and as much as $180 million later if certain development and sales goals are met, under the deal expected to...

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