Feb
09

India Ink: Newswallah: Bharat Edition

Himachal Pradesh: Heavy snowfall for three straight days in the hill state has shut down several arterial roads in the interior areas on Thursday, affecting vehicular traffic, according to an IANS report on the NDTV Web site. In Shimla, a popular holiday destination, at least 10 people, most of them tourists, were injured while walking on the slippery roads, the report said.Sikkim: The ecologically...
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Minka Kelly: 'I'm Not Worthy' of Acting with Oprah

By Jennifer Cress 02/08/2013 at 07:40 PM EST Minka Kelly as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Pacific Coast News It's intimidating enough to play Jackie O, but Minka Kelly felt even more pressure to perform when she found out who was joining the cast of her latest film,...
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After early start, worst of flu season may be over

NEW YORK (AP) — The worst of the flu season appears to be over.The number of states reporting intense or widespread illnesses dropped again last week, and in a few states there was very little flu going around, U.S. health officials said Friday.The season started earlier than normal, first in the Southeast and then spreading. But now, by some measures, flu activity has been ebbing for at least four...
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State fires contractor on tech project

SACRAMENTO – The state has fired the contractor on one of its biggest and most troubled technology projects after deep problems...
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Feb
08

India Ink: Five Questions for: Author and Filmmaker Laleh Khadivi

Laleh Khadivi is an author and filmmaker who was born in Esfahan, Iran, and grew up in California. Her first novel, “The Age of Orphans,” received the Whiting Award for Fiction, the Barnes and Noble Discover New Writers Award and an Emory Fiction Fellowship, and it was translated into eight languages. Her latest novel, “The Walking,” will be published in March. Her debut documentary film, “900 Women,”...
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American Idol: Early Favorites Eliminated in Hollywood

TV Watch American Idol By Steve Helling 02/07/2013 at 10:30 PM EST From left: Randy Jackson, Mariah Carey, Ryan Seacrest, Nicki Minaj and Keith Urban Michael Becker/FOX. At the beginning of Thursday's American Idol, there were 43 men left in the competition. The...
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Southern diet, fried foods, may raise stroke risk

Deep-fried foods may be causing trouble in the Deep South. People whose diets are heavy on them and sugary drinks like sweet tea and soda were more likely to suffer a stroke, a new study finds.It's the first big look at diet and strokes, and researchers say it might help explain why blacks in the Southeast — the nation's "stroke belt" — suffer more of them.Blacks were five times more likely than whites...
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Big Bear locked down amid manhunt

The bustling winter resort of Big Bear took on the appearance of a ghost town Thursday as surveillance aircraft buzzed overhead...
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Feb
07

IHT Rendezvous: 'Rigoletto' in Vegas, 'Manon Lescaut' in the Metro

BRUSSELS—The day after the Metropolitan Opera in New York unveiled a production of Verdi’s “Rigoletto” set in Las Vegas during the 1960s, I was in Belgium, where another exercise in operatic updating is underway at the Théâtre royal de la Monnaie. Here, Mariusz Trelinski’s staging of Puccini’s “Manon Lescaut” — through Feb. 8 — situates the opera in the waiting room of a subway station.Opera goers...
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American Idol: It's a Guys' Night in Hollywood

TV Watch American Idol By Jamie Bufalino 02/06/2013 at 11:00 PM EST From left: Randy Jackson, Mariah Carey, Ryan Seacrest, Nicki Minaj and Keith Urban George Holz/FOX Caution: Contains spoilers!"It does feel a bit like The Hunger Games," said Keith Urban, ramping...
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New whooping cough strain in US raises questions

NEW YORK (AP) — Researchers have discovered the first U.S. cases of whooping cough caused by a germ that may be resistant to the vaccine.Health officials are looking into whether cases like the dozen found in Philadelphia might be one reason the nation just had its worst year for whooping cough in six decades. The new bug was previously reported in Japan, France and Finland."It's quite intriguing....
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Village mourns latest victim of runaway tour bus crash

MOUNTAIN HOME VILLAGE — Smoke from the warm fire inside Fred Richardson's home hung in the mountain air outside his house Wednesday,...
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Feb
06

IHT Rendezvous: IHT Quick Read: Feb. 6

NEWS Individual strikes by Predator and Reaper drones are almost never discussed publicly by U.S. officials. But the clandestine war will receive a rare moment of public scrutiny on Thursday, when its chief architect, John O. Brennan, the White House counterterrorism adviser, faces a Senate confirmation hearing as President Obama’s nominee for C.I.A. director. Robert F. Worth reports from Sana, Yemen,...
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Kim Kardashian's Pregnancy Is No Reason to Speed Divorce, says Kris Humphries

By Mike Fleeman 02/05/2013 at 09:20 PM EST Kris Humphries and Kim Kardashian Seth Browarnik/StarTraks Kim Kardashian's baby is not even born yet and already is being drawn into mama's divorce.Kardashian, carrying boyfriend Kanye West's child, has bristled at what...
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Critics seek to delay NYC sugary drinks size limit

NEW YORK (AP) — Opponents are pressing to delay enforcement of the city's novel plan to crack down on supersized, sugary drinks, saying businesses shouldn't have to spend millions of dollars to comply until a court rules on whether the measure is legal.With the rule set to take effect March 12, beverage industry, restaurant and other business groups have asked a judge to put it on hold at least until...
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L.A. rave promoter moving concert to Devore

After complaints about drug use and noise, a Los Angeles-based rave company is moving one of its annual concerts from its longtime...
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Feb
05

India Ink: Where a Poet's Vision Lives on in India

Sami Siva for The New York TimesStudents have class outdoors at the school Tagore started, now known as Visva-Bharati University. Great writers often shape our impressions of a place. Steinbeck and Dust Bowl Oklahoma, for instance. Sometimes a writer might even define a place, as Hemingway did for 1920s Paris. Rarely, though, does a writer create a place. Yet that is what the Indian poet and...
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Jillian Michaels: My Son Phoenix Is 'Fiery' Like Me

Mom & Babies Celebrity Baby Blog 02/04/2013 at 03:00 PM ET Gregg DeGuire/WireImageJillian Michaels‘ son Phoenix is already taking after his mama — just not the expected one!Although The Biggest Loser trainer expected her baby boy to inherit her partner’s laidback approach to life — Heidi Rhoades...
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Bullying study: It does get better for gay teens

CHICAGO (AP) — It really does get better for gay and bisexual teens when it comes to being bullied, although young gay men have it worse than their lesbian peers, according to the first long-term scientific evidence on how the problem changes over time.The seven-year study involved more than 4,000 teens in England who were questioned yearly through 2010, until they were 19 and 20 years old. At the...
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Long Beach police chief mulls challenge to Baca

Since Lee Baca became Los Angeles County sheriff 15 years ago, defeating an incumbent who died days before the vote, he has...
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Feb
04

India Ink: Felling Trees to Save Kashmir's Wullar Lake

A vast shoreline forest of willow trees is being chopped down and dredged out in Kashmir Valley to help restore water levels, fish stocks and wildlife in one of Asia’s largest bodies of freshwater.The 2.2 million willows that were planted around Wullar Lake and its tributaries, fed by melted snow and ice and rain, suck up water and trap silt. They were planted from 1916 to 2002 under various government...
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Looks Like Alicia Keys Will Play Piano During Super Bowl National Anthem

Alicia Keys woke up on Super Bowl Sunday and apparently had the urge to tweet, sharing a rehearsal photo of herself behind a piano in an empty Mercedes-Benz Superdome.Keys, who was just named Blackberry’s global creative director, will sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” before kickoff and the photo suggests she’ll do so while playing piano.[More from Mashable: Super Bowl 2013 Commercials: Watch Them...
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What Football Game? Beyoncé Rocks the Superdome in Leather & Lace

Stylewatch Style News Now 02/03/2013 at 09:06 PM ET One thing was certain going into Super Bowl XLVII: Beyoncé was going to put on a killer halftime show, and she was going to look amazing doing it. And if she practiced until...
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Bullying study: It does get better for gay teens

CHICAGO (AP) — It really does get better for gay and bisexual teens when it comes to being bullied, although young gay men have it worse than their lesbian peers, according to the first long-term scientific evidence on how the problem changes over time.The seven-year study involved more than 4,000 teens in England who were questioned yearly through 2010, until they were 19 and 20 years old. At the...
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LAUSD league unites students with, without disabilities

Half a dozen arms reached for the sky, some gently grazing a basketball as it escaped the court and thudded out of bounds at...
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