News fire

Jan

Amazon holiday results to show sales tax impact

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Acting as a tax collector may have hurt Amazon.com, Inc’s holiday sales analysts and industry executives said, but they expect to know more when the internet retailer reports its fourth-quarter results on January 29.Best Buy Co., an archrival of Amazon in consumer electronics, saw holiday online sales increase in three states where Amazon started collecting sales tax ahead...

'Dear Abby' advice columnist dies at age 94

Label: Lifestyle

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Pauline Friedman Phillips, who under the name of Abigail Van Buren, wrote the long-running "Dear Abby" advice column that was followed by millions of newspaper readers throughout the world, has died. She was 94.Publicist Gene Willis of Universal Uclick said Phillips died Wednesday after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease.Phillips' column competed for decades with the advice...

Well: Life, Interrupted: Brotherly Love

Label: Health

Life, InterruptedSuleika Jaouad writes about her experiences as a young adult with cancer.There are a lot of things about having cancer in your 20s that feel absurd. One of those instances was when I found myself calling my brother Adam on Skype while he was studying abroad in Argentina to tell him that I had just been diagnosed with leukemia and that — no pressure — he was my only hope for a cure.Today,...

More homeowners rise above water as prices gain

Label: Business

One of the most pernicious effects of the housing bust was the huge number of borrowers stuck in homes worth far less than those...

Jan

Woman held captive in Nordstrom Rack raped 'multiple times'

Label: World

Prosecutors said one of the five people charged in connection with the take-over robbery at a Nordstrom Rack department store...

Facebook search to generate revenue, no rival to Google: analysts

Label: Technology

(Reuters) – Facebook Inc’s new search tool has strong potential to generate revenue for the social networking company, though it is unlikely to challenge Google Inc as the world’s dominant search engine, Wall Street analysts said on Wednesday.Facebook’s “graph search” tool, rolled out on Tuesday, lets its more than 1 billion users trawl their network of friends to find everything from restaurants...

Cotillard named Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year

Label: Lifestyle

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — Academy Award-winning actress Marion Cotillard (koh-tee-YAR') has been named the 2013 Harvard University Hasty Pudding Theatricals Woman of the Year.The French actress, who won the 2007 best actress Oscar for her role in "La Vie En Rose," will be honored with a parade and roast, and given her ceremonial pudding pot, at Harvard on Jan. 31.The 37-year-old Cotillard has appeared...

Well: Ask Well: Do I Need a Flu Shot if I've Had the Flu?

Label: Health

First, how do you know you had the flu? There are more than 100 viruses that can cause “colds and flu” symptoms — though a bad flu is worse than most of them. Doctors often describe it as “high fever, aches and the feeling that you’ve been hit by a truck.” The country is having an early flu season, plus a big wave of norovirus (sometimes called “stomach flu” or “winter vomiting flu”), plus its worst...