Ichiro's patience snaps with Yankees: report

during Game 3 in their MLB ALCS baseball playoff series in Detroit, Michigan, October …more TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese outfielder Ichiro Suzuki has lost patience with the New York Yankees over a contract extension and has begun talking with other teams, his agent said on Friday.The Yankees have been busy locking up their principle pitchers, paying Hiroki Kuroda $15 million, Andy Pettitte $12 million...

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Yankees' Rodriguez to have hip surgery

baseball playoff series against the Detroit Tigers in Detroit, Michigan, October …more NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez will likely miss the start of the 2013 Major League Baseball (MLB) season because of hip surgery, the team said on Monday.The 37-year-old Rodriguez, MLB's active home runs leader, must complete a four-to-six week pre-rehabilitation regimen before...

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Reds land Korean Choo in trade with Indians, D-Backs

(Reuters) - The Cincinnati Reds acquired South Korean outfielder Choo Shin-soo from the Cleveland Indians on Tuesday in a three-team trade that involved nine players.The 30-year-old Choo, entering the final year of his contract, declined to sign an extension with the Indians and will now give the Reds a potential lead-off hitter who batted .283 with 16 home runs last season."He fills the one big...

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Thousands rally against gay marriage in France

PARIS (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of protesters are mobilizing against the French president's plan to legalize gay marriage, streaming into Paris by bus, car and specially reserved high-speed train.Police are expecting about 300,000 people to march toward the Eiffel Tower from three different points in the city, tying up traffic and closing subway stations for hours in what could be the largest...

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Thousands gather to protest Russia's adoption ban

MOSCOW (AP) — Thousands of people are gathering in central Moscow for a protest against Russia's new law banning Americans from adopting Russian children.They are carrying posters of President Vladimir Putin and members of Russia's parliament who overwhelmingly voted for the law last month. The posters have the word "Shame" written in red over the faces and proclaim that Sunday's demonstration is...

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AP Interview: Dane's life as a spy inside al-Qaida

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — After converting to Islam, a former member of a Danish motorcycle gang travels to Yemen to study the Quran and soon comes in contact with radical preachers waging holy war against the West.On the verge of becoming a jihadist, he abruptly abandons his faith and embarks on a dangerous undercover mission to help Western intelligence agencies capture or kill terrorists.Morten...

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Serbia loosens grip over Kosovo

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia on Sunday adopted a set of guidelines for reconciliation talks with the leaders of Kosovo, in a strong first signal it is loosening its claim to its former province in hopes of getting closer to European Union membership.In a resolution adopted by an overwhelming majority in Parliament, Serbia maintained it will never recognize Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence....

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Steroids fallout: No BB Hall for Bonds, Clemens

NEW YORK (AP) — No one was elected to the Hall of Fame this year. When voters closed the doors to Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Sammy Sosa, they also shut out everybody else.For only the second time in four decades, baseball writers failed to give any player the 75 percent required for induction to Cooperstown, sending a powerful signal that stars of the Steroids Era will be held to a different...

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Hall of Famers happy to see Bonds, Clemens denied

NEW YORK (AP) — Nobody was happier about the Hall of Fame shutout than the Hall of Famers themselves.Goose Gossage, Al Kaline, Dennis Eckersley and others are in no rush to open the door to Cooperstown for anyone linked to steroids.Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa: Keep 'em all out of our club."If they let these guys in ever — at any point — it's a big black eye for the Hall and for baseball,"...

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Baseball-MLB, players agree to expand drug testing

Jan 10 (Reuters) - Major League Baseball and the players' union have agreed to expand their drug program to include random in-season blood testing for human growth hormone and a new test for testosterone, they said on Thursday.The testing will start this season.MLB has been conducting random blood testing for the detection of HGH among minor league players since July 2010.Starting this season, the...

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British retailers start online sales early

REUTERS/Paul HackettLONDON (Reuters) - British retailers have brought forward their Christmas clearance sales online in the hope that shoppers will log on to buy bargains and offset lackluster spending in stores.Marks & Spencer launched its sale online at midday on Monday, it said on its website, while department store John Lewis said it would cut online prices when its stores close at 1700 GMT....

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China may require real name registration for internet access

BEIJING (Reuters) - China may require internet users to register with their real names when signing up to network providers, state media said on Tuesday, extending a policy already in force with microblogs in a bid to curb what officials call rumors and vulgarity.A law being discussed this week would mean people would have to present their government-issued identity cards when signing contracts for...

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Tajikistan blocks scores of websites as election looms

DUSHANBE (Reuters) - Tajikistan blocked access to more than 100 websites on Tuesday, in what a government source said was a dress rehearsal for a crackdown on online dissent before next year's election when President Imomali Rakhmon will again run for office.Rakhmon, a 60-year-old former head of a Soviet cotton farm, has ruled the impoverished Central Asian nation of 7.5 million for 20 years. He...

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Netflix suffers Christmas Eve outage, points to Amazon

NEW YORK (Reuters) - An outage at one of Amazon's web service centers hit users of Netflix Inc.'s streaming video service on Christmas Eve and was not fully resolved until Christmas day, a spokesman for the movie rental company said on Tuesday.The outage impacted Netflix subscribers across Canada, Latin America and the United States, and affected various devices that enable users to stream movies...

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Netflix blames Amazon for Christmas Eve outage

NEW YORK (Reuters) - An outage at one of Amazon's web service centers hit users of Netflix Inc's streaming video service on Christmas Eve and was not fully resolved until Christmas Day, a spokesman for the movie rental company said on Tuesday.The outage impacted Netflix subscribers across Canada, Latin America and the United States, and affected various devices that enable users to stream movies...

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Markets rise as Alcoa sees stronger demand

LONDON (AP) — World stock markets rose Wednesday after the fourth-quarter earnings season got off to a positive start in the U.S. with aluminum giant Alcoa forecasting higher demand for 2013.Sales of aluminum have been hurt by the weak global economy, but Alcoa predicted a 7 percent increase in demand this year, slightly better than the 6 percent increase in 2012. Because Alcoa supplies so many key...

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Wall Street gains as earnings flow in; Alcoa up

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks rose on Wall Street Wednesday after U.S. corporate earnings reports got off to a good start.The Dow Jones industrial average rose 57 points to 13,396 as of 2:12 p.m. EST. The Dow is coming off of two days of losses.The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained four points to 1,461 and the Nasdaq composite rose 16 points to 3,108.Having rallied after a last-minute resolution stopped...

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Wall Street gains as earnings flow in; Boeing up

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks rose on Wall Street Wednesday after U.S. corporate earnings reports got off to a good start.The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 61.66 points to 13,390.51, its first gain of the week. The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 3.87 points to 1,461.02, and the Nasdaq composite rose 14 to 3,105.81.Having rallied after a last-minute resolution stopped the U.S. from going over...

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Oakley challenges Nike over McIlroy move

American sunglasses maker Oakley has launched legal action to try to retain its sponsorship of world number one golfer Rory McIlroy who is set to become the new face of sportswear giant Nike.U.S. PGA champion McIlroy is poised to rubber-stamp a 10-year deal with U.S. company Nike worth as much as $250 million, according to media reports.Nike is set to supply the 23-year-old Northern Irishman's clubs...

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Institute of Medicine to study U.S. youth sports concussions

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Institute of Medicine launched on Monday a sweeping study of rising sports-related concussions among U.S. youth, amid concerns that the injuries may have contributed to the suicides of professional football players.The Institute, part of the private, non-profit National Academies, will probe sports-related concussions in young people from elementary school through early...

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Jets sack offensive coordinator Sparano after losing season

(Reuters) - The New York Jets have fired offensive coordinator Tony Sparano, the National Football League team said on Tuesday in the latest shakeup to the franchise's coaching staff after a disappointing season.Sparano, who was head coach of the Miami Dolphins from 2008 to 2011, spent just one season in charge of a Jets offense that ranked 30th in the league in total offense."At the end of the day,...

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RPT-Wall St Week Ahead: 'Cliff' concerns give way to earnings focus

NEW YORK, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Investors' "fiscal cliff"worries are likely to give way to more fundamental concerns,such as earnings, as fourth-quarter reports get under way thisweek.Financial results, which begin after the market closes onTuesday with aluminum company Alcoa, are expected to beonly slightly better than the third-quarter's lacklusterresults. As a warning sign, analysts' current estimates...

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Wall Street cheers "cliff" deal, but only for now

When lawmakers delivered a long-delayed, last-minute agreement on the budget, Wall Street celebrated. And it would be easy to think that the surge in the Dow the following day meant that investors had put their concerns about Washington's political gridlock behind them.The Dow Jones industrial average surged on the news, but that doesn't mean the volatility is over. In fact, there could be more turmoil...

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Analysis - U.S. fiscal crisis seen hurting tech earnings

Warning to investors: major U.S. technology companies could miss estimates for fourth-quarter earnings as "fiscal cliff" worries likely led some corporate clients to tighten their belts last month and refrain from spending all of their 2012 IT budgets.Tech companies usually enjoy a spike in orders in December as corporations use money left over in their budgets to buy goods on their wish lists -...

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Reports: sled crash kills 6 on Italian ski slope

ROME (AP) — Italian news reports say a motorized sled making a night run down an Italian ski slope slammed into a fence and flipped over into a ditch, killing six tourists and severely injuring two others aboard.RAI state radio reported early Saturday that the sled's occupants were Russian tourists. The crash occurred on an unlit slope late Friday on Mount Cermis in northeast Italy. Victims' names...

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Italy: 6 Russian tourists die in snowmobile crash

ROME (AP) — Italian news reports say six Russian tourists were killed and two others were injured after their snowmobile slammed into a fence and flipped over into a ditch during a night run down an Italian ski slope.RAI state radio reported early Saturday that the crash occurred on an unlit slope late Friday on Mount Cermis in northeast Italy. Victims' names were not immediately available. Cause...

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Excavators head to Myanmar to find WWII Spitfires

LONDON (AP) — An airplane-obsessed farmer, a freelance archaeologist and a team of excavators are heading to the Myanmar city of Yangon on Saturday to find a nearly forgotten stash of British fighter planes thought to be carefully buried beneath the former capital's airfield.The venture, backed with a million-dollar guarantee from a Belarusian videogame company, could uncover dozens of Spitfire aircraft...

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Hong Kong shares may trim strong 2013 start after Fed voices concern

HONG KONG, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Hong Kong shares could end atwo-day rally on Friday, tracking Wall Street weakness aftersigns that the U.S. Federal Reserve has growing concerns aboutits stimulative monetary policy.Any losses could be limited if mainland China markets reopenstrongly on Friday, trading for the first day in 2013 after athree-day New Year holiday.On Thursday, the Hang Seng Index ended up...

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Analysis: Alimta patent seen as Lilly's "wild card"

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Eli Lilly & Co may have a $15 billion wild card up its sleeve as it waits for desperately needed new drugs to bear fruit.Should an obscure patent on Lilly lung cancer drug Alimta survive a court challenge this year, the company would be able to wring more than five additional years of peak sales out of the fast-growing product that it would otherwise lose to cheaper generics.Annual...

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Stocks fade after Fed discloses split on stimulus

NEW YORK (AP) — A two-day rally in the stock market came to an end Thursday afternoon when an account of the Federal Reserve's last meeting revealed a split between bank officials over how long the Fed should keep buying bonds to support the economy.The Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor's 500 index treaded water for much of the day, then slid into the red around 2 p.m. Eastern,...

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Egypt says it seizes US-made missiles near Gaza

 Egyptian authorities seized six U.S.-made missiles in the Sinai Peninsula Friday that security officials said were likely smuggled from Libya and bound for the Gaza Strip.Libya's 2011 uprising and subsequent civil war left the country awash in weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades, automatic rifles and other munitions. Since the end of the country's eight-month conflict, smugglers have...

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Saudi's top cleric warns against mixing of genders

 Saudi Arabia's top cleric on Friday warned against the mixing of the genders, saying it poses a threat to female chastity and society, as the kingdom prepares for the first time to grant women seats on the country's top advisory body.Delivering his traditional Friday sermon, Grand Mufti Sheik Abdul-Aziz Al-Sheik said authorities must adhere to Shariah, or Islamic law, by ensuring men and women...

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