More than ever, Barca more than club for Catalans

affiliate marketing BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Nearly 20 minutes into the latest clash between Spain’s most popular football teams, Barcelona‘s 98,000-seat Camp Nou stadium erupted into a deafening roar. Tens of thousands of Catalans in the city at the heart of their separatist movement chanted in unison: “Independence!”More than ever,...

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Prowler at Cruise’s home turns out to be neighbor

affiliate marketing BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Police say a security guard at actor Tom Cruise‘s house used a stun gun on a would-be prowler, but the man turned out to be an intoxicated neighbor who may have mistakenly entered the property.Lt. Lincoln Hoshino says the confrontation occurred at Cruise’s Beverly Hills residence about...

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In San Francisco, tech investor leads a political makeover

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - One morning in April, Ron Conway, the billionaire technology investor, sat in a conference room on the second floor of San Francisco's City Hall with about 50 representatives from the city's business community. On the agenda was a sweeping proposal by Mayor Ed Lee to reform the city's payroll tax, a plan that would favor companies with many employees but little...

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GSK starts final-stage tests on severe asthma drug

affiliate marketing LONDON (Reuters) – GlaxoSmithKline has started final-stage testing of an experimental drug for treating severe asthma, Britain’s biggest drugmaker said on Monday.The move to progress the injectable antibody treatment mepolizumab into Phase III trials had been expected after an earlier study showed it nearly halved...

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Hurricane Sandy puts 50M people at risk

Residents up and down the East Coast are preparing for what forecasters predict could be the worst storm in two generations as Hurricane Sandy is strengthening, putting 50 million people at risk.The eye of Sandy is forecast to make landfall late Monday night in Atlantic City, N.J., bringing with it life-threatening storm surges, forceful winds and rainfall that could cripple transportation and leave...

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Lithuania opens 2nd round of national election

affiliate marketing VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Voting stations have opened in the second round of Lithuania’s parliamentary elections, with the results likely to determine whether the small East European nation continues tough austerity measures in an effort to join the euro zone.Nearly half of Parliament’s 141 seats are at stake in single-mandate...

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1960s music hero Riley: “The pendulum will swing”

affiliate marketing ARLES, France (Reuters) – American composer Terry Riley, who penned the 1960s piece “In C” that earned him his reputation as “the father of minimalism” in music, thinks the pendulum will swing back to that magical time.“I don’t really look on it with nostalgia, I just wonder how we didn’t hold onto it longer,” Riley,...

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Star Silicon Valley analyst felled by Facebook IPO fallout

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The firing of Citigroup stock analyst Mark Mahaney on Friday in the regulatory fallout from Facebook Inc's initial public offering was greeted with shock and dismay in Silicon Valley, where Mahaney was a well-known and well-liked figure. "Pretty shocked," was the reaction of Jacob Funds Chief Executive Ryan Jacob, who described Mahaney as one of the most respected...

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S.Africa’s Zuma drops suit over rape cartoon: paper

affiliate marketing JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South African President Jacob Zuma intends to drop a four-year-old lawsuit claiming nearly $ 600,000 in damages from a cartoonist who depicted him poised to rape “Lady Justice“, a newspaper said on Sunday.The Sunday Times, named as a defendant in the case, said it had reached an agreement...

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Storm scrambles presidential contest

LAND O'LAKES, Fla. (AP) — Scrambling to avoid the superstorm that threatens to disrupt the lives of millions of Americans up and down the East Coast, Republican Mitt Romney is returning to battleground Ohio to fight for momentum nine days before the election.The GOP presidential candidate had planned to campaign Sunday in Virginia, but will instead join running mate Paul Ryan in the Buckeye State....

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