Surprise: New insurance fee in health overhaul law

WASHINGTON (AP) — Your medical plan is facing an unexpected expense, so you probably are, too. It's a new, $63-per-head fee to cushion the cost of covering people with pre-existing conditions under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.The charge, buried in a recent regulation, works out to tens of millions of dollars for the largest companies, employers say. Most of that is likely to be passed...

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Wall Street edges up, led by McDonald's and tech

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks advanced slightly on Monday, helped by gains in McDonald's after the fast-food giant posted strong sales results, and a move up in technology shares. Technology stocks were the S&P 500's best-performing sector as Hewlett-Packard Co climbed 2.5 percent to $14.14 on rumors that activist investor Carl Icahn is building a stake in the PC maker. The stock is...

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The New Islamists: Moroccans Fear That Flickers of Democracy Are Fading

TANGIER, Morocco — Until recently, politics in Morocco involved red carpets and speeches in high Arabic that the average citizen could not understand. But on a campaign swing this fall through a working-class area of this port city, Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane stood on a makeshift podium in a muddy vacant lot. Articles in this series are exploring the rise of political Islam in...

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China party chief stresses reform, censors relax grasp on internet

BEIJING (Reuters) – China must deepen reforms to perfect its market economy and strengthen rule of law, Communist Party chief Xi Jinping said in southern Guangdong, echoing groundbreaking comments by reformist senior leader Deng Xiaoping in the same province 20 years ago.Xi’s call for reform was reported on Monday, coinciding with an apparent easing of Internet search restrictions that the party has...

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Pink Offers Sympathy for Kate's Pregnancy Woes

By Andrea Billups 12/10/2012 at 02:30 PM EST Pink and Willow Sage Hart NPG She's tiny, athletic and so fit she can sing while hanging upside down performing Cirque du Soleil-style moves. But Pink says she was just like many other women when she was pregnant last...

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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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Wall St 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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Fear of Fighting Haunts Once-Tranquil Damascus

DAMASCUS, Syria — Business has been terrible for Abu Tareq, a taxi driver, so last week, without telling his wife, he agreed to drive a man to the Damascus airport for 10 times the usual rate. But, he said later, he will not be doing that again. On the airport road, he could hear the crash of artillery and the whiz of sniper fire. Dead rebels and soldiers lay on the roadsides. Abu Tareq saw...

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U.S. judge names lead plaintiffs in Facebook litigation

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A group of investors including state pension funds in North Carolina and Arkansas will be the lead plaintiffs in securities lawsuits arising out of Facebook Inc’s $ 16 billion initial public offering, a U.S. judge ruled on Thursday.The investors, in a proposed class-action case, have accused Facebook of misrepresenting its financial condition in the run-up to the May stock offering....

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What Does Matt Damon Have Planned for His Daughters This Christmas?

Mom & Babies Celebrity Baby Blog 12/07/2012 at 11:00 AM ET LuMar Jr./AFF-USABy blending their Christmas traditions, the holidays pay off in a big way for Matt Damon and Luciana‘s daughters.“We do the Latin American Christmas Eve gift opening and we do the American Christmas morning gift opening,” the...

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