Black Friday Deals Kick Off on 'Gray Thursday'

Black Friday is the Super Bowl of retail, but some of the nation's largest big-box stores can't wait until the day after Thanksgiving to open their doors to shoppers eager to grab great deals the same day as their turkey dinner.Traditional Black Friday door-busting deals now start tonight, on what's been dubbed Gray Thursday. Major retail stores such as Kmart, Toys R Us, Walmart...

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Egyptian-brokered Hamas-Israel ceasefire takes hold

CAIRO/GAZA (Reuters) - Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement ruling the Gaza Strip agreed on Wednesday to an Egyptian-sponsored ceasefire to halt an eight-day conflict that killed 162 Palestinians and five Israelis. Both sides fought right up to 9 p.m. (1900 GMT) when hostilities were due to stop, with several explosions shaking Gaza City and rockets hitting the Israeli city of Beersheba....

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6.1 magnitude quake rocks Chile

SANTIAGO: A 6.1 magnitude quake rocked central Chile on Wednesday but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties, authorities said.The earthquake occurred at 2136 GMT, 35 kilometres (22 miles) west of Navidad, Chile, in the O'Higgins region south of Santiago, the University of Chile's Seismology Service reported.The government's National Emergency Office issued a preliminary...

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Major among four indicted for DR Congo sex scandal

NEW DELHI: Four soldiers, including a major and a junior commissioned officer, have been indicted by the Army court of inquiry (CoI) into the sexual misconduct allegations levelled against Indian troops while deployed in a UN peace-keeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2007-2008.Incidentally, a group of retired military officers and civil activists earlier this year had tried to...

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Study finds mammograms lead to unneeded treatment

Mammograms have done surprisingly little to catch deadly breast cancers before they spread, a big U.S. study finds. At the same time, more than a million women have been treated for cancers that never would have threatened their lives, researchers estimate.Up to one-third of breast cancers, or 50,000 to 70,000 cases a year, don't need treatment, the study suggests.It's the most detailed look yet at...

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Cease-Fire Reached in Israel-Hamas Conflict in Gaza

A bomb exploded on an Israeli bus near the nation's military headquarters in Tel Aviv, wounding at least 10 people, Israeli officials said today.The bus exploded about noon local time Wednesday in one of the city's busiest areas, near the Tel Aviv museum. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said authorities were investigating whether the bomb had been planted and left on the bus...

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Clinton meets Netanyahu to seek Gaza truce

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday and pledged to work for a truce in the Gaza Strip "in the days ahead". As the two began late-night talks in Jerusalem, Palestinian rocket fire and Israeli air strikes continued. Netanyahu said he would prefer a "long-term" diplomatic solution but repeated his readiness...

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HP woes deepen with bad deal writedown

SAN FRANCISCO: Hewlett-Packard's woes deepened Tuesday as the US tech giant reported a massive loss, blaming deliberate financial misstatements from a British software firm it bought last year.HP called for a probe by US and British authorities of software maker Autonomy, saying "accounting improprieties" before the acquisition led to an "overvalued" acquisition price, which forced HP...

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Parkash Singh Badal wants Rs 5,000 crore to diversify crop

CHANDIGARH: Punjab government has asked the Centre to help the state in promoting farm diversification and demanded a technology mission for the same with an allocation of Rs 5,000 crore for green revolution areas in the 12th Five Year Plan. Batting for the state's case before a high-level delegation of experts from agriculture, animal husbandry, dairy and fisheries led by Union agriculture minister...

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OB/GYNs back over-the-counter birth control pills

WASHINGTON (AP) — No prescription or doctor's exam needed: The nation's largest group of obstetricians and gynecologists says birth control pills should be sold over the counter, like condoms.Tuesday's surprise opinion from these gatekeepers of contraception could boost longtime efforts by women's advocates to make the pill more accessible.But no one expects the pill to be sold without a prescription...

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