Kerry is easily confirmed as secretary of State

WASHINGTON — The Senate voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to confirm Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) as secretary of State, filling...

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<em>The Hobbit</em> Earns More in Worldwide Box Office Than <em>Fellowship</em> or <em>Two Towers</em>

Movie critics of America, foreign audiences would just like to remind you that you’re not the boss of them, thank you very much. After all, not only did the critics complain when Peter Jackson expanded J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit into three movies (although, please remember: it could be worse), but the first of those movies failed to make the grade for many professional moviegoers, with this...

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Justin Timberlake’s new album ’20/20′ is due out in March

(Reuters) – Singer-turned-actor Justin Timberlake has set a March date for his comeback album – his first in more than six years.RCA Records said on Tuesday “The 20/20 Experience,” the former N’Sync boy band member’s follow-up to 2006′s “FutureSex/LoveSounds” and only his third album ever, would be released on March 19.In recent years, Timberlake, 31, has focused more on films and business ventures...

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Report Links Rodriguez and Others to Clinic and P.E.D.’s

Investigators for Major League Baseball created an improvised war room in the commissioner’s Park Avenue offices in Manhattan in recent months, mapping out potential evidence that would tie an anti-aging clinic in Coral Gables, Fla., to the possible use of performance-enhancing drugs by some of baseball’s more prominent players.  But because the investigators cannot compel witnesses...

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F.D.A. Approves Genetic Drug to Treat Rare Disease

The Food and Drug Administration approved a new drug Tuesday that not only treats a rare inherited disorder that causes extremely high cholesterol levels and heart attacks by age 30, but does so using a long-sought technology that can shut off specific genes that cause disease. The drug, Kynamro, which was invented by Isis Pharmaceuticals and will be marketed by Sanofi’s Genzyme division,...

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Bipartisan group sees change in politics on immigration reform

A bipartisan coalition of senators said Monday they have created a set of principles based upon which they hope lawmakers will pass immigration reform by summer. ...

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Supernova Remnants: Dazzling Entrails of Violent Stellar Death

Even in death, there can be great beauty. Consider supernova remnants, the results of massive stars dying in great explosions, creating some of the most spectacular cosmic objects around.Every 50 years or so, a star in our galaxy with more than 10 times the mass of our sun will expire. When such stars die, they go supernova, one of the most violent events in our universe. These explosions shoot off...

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The CW orders “The Hundred” drama pilot, two others

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – The CW has gone post-apocalyptic with its pilot orders.The network has placed an order for the drama pilot “The Hundred,” based on the upcoming book series by Kass Morgan (which has received an initial two-book order from Little, Brown).The pilot will be set 97 years after a nuclear war has destroyed civilization, when a spaceship housing humanity’s lone survivors sends...

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Personal Health: Keeping Blood Pressure in Check

Since the start of the 21st century, Americans have made great progress in controlling high blood pressure, though it remains a leading cause of heart attacks, strokes, congestive heart failure and kidney disease.Now 48 percent of the more than 76 million adults with hypertension have it under control, up from 29 percent in 2000.But that means more than half, including many receiving treatment, have...

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Advertising: Playing Whac-a-Mole With Piracy Sites

OVER the years, the fight against online piracy has led to countless lawsuits by media companies and to escalating levels of law enforcement, all with mixed results. Lately, though, new attention has turned to an aspect of online commerce that critics say finances online piracy: advertising. Prodding from the White House and a recent academic report have put pressure on the online...

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