Newark mayor says beating, witness silence are “evil”

(Reuters) – Newark Mayor Cory Booker on Wednesday condemned the failure of witnesses to alert police after seeing a young man forced to strip naked and whipped over a $ 20 debt – violence revealed only after a cell phone video went viral on the Internet.The two and a half minute video of the beating, which took place in Newark in August, got 40,000 views on YouTube before it was removed from the website,...

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'Blade Runner' Oscar Pistorius Charged with Girlfriend's Murder

Breaking News By Stephen M. Silverman UPDATED 02/14/2013 at 06:45 AM EST • Originally published 02/14/2013 at 06:30 AM EST Oscar Pistorius – the "Blade Runner" who made history last year as the first paralympian to compete in the able-bodied Olympics – was charged with murder Thursday after...

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Study questions kidney cancer treatment in elderly

In a stunning example of when treatment might be worse than the disease, a large review of Medicare records finds that older people with small kidney tumors were much less likely to die over the next five years if doctors monitored them instead of operating right away.Even though nearly all of these tumors turned out to be cancer, they rarely proved fatal. And surgery roughly doubled patients' risk...

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Stock index futures point to slightly higher start

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures edged higher on Wednesday, suggesting the market would continue a recent upward trend that took benchmark indexes near multi-year highs. * Equities have been strong performers of late, with the S&P 500 rising for the past six weeks, putting it up 6.5 percent so far this year. The Dow is about 1 percent from an all-time intraday high, reached...

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Pope asks for support after decision to resign, says strength diminishing

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict, in his first public comments since he announced that he would become the first pontiff in centuries to resign, on Wednesday said he was fully aware of the gravity of his decision but confident that it would not hurt the Church. "Continue to pray for me, for the Church and for the future pope," he said in unscripted remarks at the start of his weekly...

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Telenor ramps up investments to support shift to data

OSLO (Reuters) – Mobile telecoms firm Telenor expects to accelerate investments in data and digital services this year as customers flock to its higher margin products, it said on Wednesday.Telenor, which has around 150 million customers in Europe and Asia, will continue to roll out its third generation (3G) service in Thailand and fibre network in Norway to take advantage of “exploding” demand, and...

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Westminster Names Affenpinscher Banana Joe Best in Show

People Pets By Kiran Hefa & Alison Schwartz 02/12/2013 at 11:55 PM EST Westminster has its top dog!After two days of meticulous primping, prizes and the less-pretty realities of any spirited championship, the 137th Annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show came to its finale Tuesday night, declaring Affenpinscher...

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Pope shows lifetime jobs aren't always for life

The world seems surprised that an 85-year-old globe-trotting pope who just started tweeting wants to resign, but should it be? Maybe what should be surprising is that more leaders his age do not, considering the toll aging takes on bodies and minds amid a culture of constant communication and change.There may be more behind the story of why Pope Benedict XVI decided to leave a job normally held for...

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Yen steady, euro dips after G7 urges against FX war

LONDON (Reuters) - The yen hovered near three-year lows against the dollar and the euro fell on Tuesday after the G7 nations urged countries to refrain from competitive devaluations and a U.S. official backed Japan's new anti-deflation policies. The Group of Seven industrialized nations published a statement saying it remained committed to "market-determined" exchange rates, reacting...

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China joins U.S., Japan, EU in condemning North Korea nuclear test

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea conducted its third nuclear test on Tuesday in defiance of existing U.N. resolutions, drawing condemnation from the United States, Japan, Europe and Pyongyang's only major ally, China, which summoned the North Korean ambassador to protest. The North said the test had "greater explosive force" than the 2006 and 2009 tests. Its KCNA news agency said it had...

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