More than 140 nations adopt treaty to cut mercury

GENEVA (AP) — A new and legally binding international treaty to reduce harmful emissions of mercury was adopted Saturday by more than 140 nations, capping four years of difficult negotiations but stopping short of some of the tougher measures that proponents had envisioned.The new accord aims to cut mercury pollution from mining, utility plants and a host of products and industrial processes, by setting...

Read More..

Wall Street Week Ahead: Earnings, money flows to push stocks higher

NEW YORK (Reuters) - With earnings momentum on the rise, the S&P 500 seems to have few hurdles ahead as it continues to power higher, its all-time high a not-so-distant goal. The U.S. equity benchmark closed the week at a fresh five-year high on strong housing and labor market data and a string of earnings that beat lowered expectations. Sector indexes in transportation...

Read More..

IHT Rendezvous: Can Armstrong be Redeemed? How About Galliano?

LONDON — While Lance Armstrong was (not quite) baring his soul to Oprah this week, a very different celebrity, the disgraced London fashion designer John Galliano, was taking a small step on the path to redemption.Two years after he was ousted from Dior in the wake of his arrest for a drunken, anti-Semitic rant in a Paris bar, Mr. Galliano is to make a modest comeback at the New York design studio...

Read More..

Thank You to the OpenStack Members Who Voted in the Individual Director Election

HP Cloud Services would like to thank all of the OpenStack® Foundation member/electors who participated in the recent Individual Director election.The OpenStack Foundation regularly conducts elections for Individual Directors of the Foundation’s Board.  This process is very important for the legitimacy of the Foundation and for the health of the project. These directors represent the voices and...

Read More..

Manti Te'o Speaks: 'I Wasn't Faking It'

By Stephen M. Silverman 01/19/2013 at 08:45 AM EST Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o has broken his silence on the topic of the his "dead" girlfriend, telling ESPN Friday night that he played no part in the bizarre hoax."I wasn't faking it," the star athlete, 21, told the sports cable network's Jeremy Schapp...

Read More..

Lilly drug chosen for Alzheimer's prevention study

Researchers have chosen an experimental drug by Eli Lilly & Co. for a large federally funded study testing whether it's possible to prevent Alzheimer's disease in older people at high risk of developing it.The drug, called solanezumab (sol-ah-NAYZ-uh-mab), is designed to bind to and help clear the sticky deposits that clog patients' brains.Earlier studies found it did not help people with moderate...

Read More..

Stock futures mixed as Intel offsets Morgan Stanley, China data

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street was set to open little changed on Friday, a day after the S&P 500 rose to its highest level in five years, as a weak outlook from Intel was weighed against encouraging data out of China and a fourth-quarter profit at Morgan Stanley . Shares of Intel Corp slumped 6.5 percent to $21.20 in premarket trading after the tech company forecast quarterly revenue...

Read More..

U.N. Refugee Agency Warns of Crisis in Mali

GENEVA — As French and African troops prepare to escalate their offensive against Islamist forces in the north of Mali, the United Nations refugee agency said on Friday it was preparing for around 700,000 people to flee the violence, many to neighboring countries. The U.N. believes more than 400,000 refugees could flee to neighboring countries and another 300,000 are likely to be displaced internally...

Read More..

Mo. lawmaker wants tax on violent video games

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Republican lawmaker from rural Missouri bucked her party’s anti-tax bent on Tuesday and called for a sales tax on violent video games in response to a deadly Connecticut school shooting.Rep. Diane Franklin, of Camdenton, said the proposed 1 percent sales tax would help pay for mental health programs and law enforcement measures aimed at preventing mass shootings. The tax...

Read More..

William & Kate and Harry's Gift List Reveals Riches from Their Travels

By Simon Perry 01/18/2013 at 08:20 AM EST What's on the gift list when party-lover Prince Harry comes to visit you? Reach for the rum.For the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge? How about matching bathrobes from a fabled hotel. These are just some of the gifts received last year by the Princes and Kate during their travels on behalf of Queen...

Read More..