Toronto reaches skyward, but how dark the clouds?

TORONTO (Reuters) – Barry Fenton walked to the bank of floor-to-ceiling windows in his 30th-floor uptown Toronto penthouse suite and declared, “This is the best view of the city.”To the south, a mass of steel-and-glass skyscrapers glinted in the bright autumn sun. Several cranes were in motion on unfinished buildings, a common sight in a city in the midst of a residential building boom.“If you look...

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Jessica Simpson’s Christmas gift: She’s pregnant

NEW YORK (AP) — Jessica Simpson‘s daughter has the news all spelled out: “Big Sis.”Simpson on Tuesday tweeted a photo of her baby daughter Maxwell playing in the sand, the words “Big Sis” spelled out.The 32-year-old old singer and personality has been rumored to be expecting again. The tweet appears to confirm the rumors.“Merry Christmas from my family to yours” is the picture’s caption. Simpson used...

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Obesity declining in young, poorer kids: study

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – The number of low-income preschoolers who qualify as obese or “extremely obese” has dropped over the last decade, new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show.Although the decline was only “modest” and may not apply to all children, researchers said it was still encouraging.“It’s extremely important to make sure we’re monitoring obesity in this low-income...

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Taking on Guns and the NRA, One Tweet at a Time

(Updates the number of video views, petition signatures, and twitter impressions)On Dec. 21, a group of A-list Hollywood celebrities, including Jon Hamm, Reese Witherspoon, Jamie Foxx, and Beyoncé, posted an 80-second, black-and-white video clip on YouTube calling for lawmakers to develop a comprehensive plan to deal with gun violence. The clip, uploaded the same day the National Rifle Association...

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Find room for God in fast-paced world, pope says on Christmas eve

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Benedict, leading the world’s Roman Catholics into Christmas, on Monday urged people to find room for God in their fast-paced lives filled with the latest technological gadgets.The 85-year-old pope, marking the eighth Christmas season of his pontificate, celebrated a solemn Christmas Eve mass in St Peter’s Basilica, during which he appealed for a solution to the Arab-Israeli...

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‘Not Fade Away’: An Age Gap Defined by the Rolling Stones

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – For David Chase, the counterculture revolution that consumed the 1960s was a generational conflict that played out against a soundtrack of killer rock songs.“The Sopranos” creator is poised to make his film directing debut this week with the release of “Not Fade Away” at the age of 67, but for his first foray into big screen entertainment he is fixated on a younger generation,...

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Catholic Church urges Irish to oppose abortion law

DUBLIN (Reuters) – The head of Ireland‘s Catholic Church urged followers in his Christmas Day message to lobby against government plans to legalize abortion.Ireland, the only EU member state that currently outlaws the procedure, is preparing legislation that would allow limited access to abortion after the European Court of Human Rights criticized the current regime.The death last month of an Indian...

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Start of “Santa Claus rally” dampened by “cliff’ worries

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stocks edged lower on Monday as caution over the potential for volatility driven by worries about the U.S. “fiscal cliff” dampened enthusiasm at the start of a seasonally strong period for equities.Investors are betting Congress will reach a deal to avert most of the austerity measures due to come into force at the start of next year. That has led to the best year for stocks...

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Syria jets kill tens as international envoy visits

BEIRUT (AP) — A government airstrike on a bakery in a rebel-held town in central Syria killed more than 60 people on Sunday, activists said, casting a pall over a visit by the international envoy charged with negotiating an end to the country’s civil war.The strike on the town of Halfaya left scattered bodies and debris up and down a street, and more than a dozen dead and wounded were trapped in tangled...

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‘Hobbit’ extends No. 1 journey with $36.7 million

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Tiny hobbit Bilbo Baggins is running circles around some of the biggest names in Hollywood.Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” took in $ 36.7 million to remain No. 1 at the box office for the second-straight weekend, easily beating a rush of top-name holiday newcomers.Part one of Jackson’s prelude to his “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, the Warner Bros. release raised...

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