Matthew & Camila McConaughey Name Their Son Livingston

12/29/2012 at 09:15 PM EST Camila and Matthew McConaughey Gary Miller/FilmMagic Matthew McConaughey has spilled the beans about his new baby!"Camila gave birth to our third child yesterday morning. Our son, Livingston Alves McConaughey, was born at 7:43 a.m....

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Kenya hospital imprisons new mothers with no money

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The director of the Pumwani Maternity Hospital, located in a hardscrabble neighborhood of downtown Nairobi, freely acknowledges what he's accused of: detaining mothers who can't pay their bills. Lazarus Omondi says it's the only way he can keep his medical center running.Two mothers who live in a mud-wall and tin-roof slum a short walk from the maternity hospital, which is affiliated...

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Wall Street Week Ahead: Cliff may be a fear, but debt ceiling much scarier

(Reuters) - Investors fearing a stock market plunge - if the United States tumbles off the "fiscal cliff" next week - may want to relax. But they should be scared if a few weeks later, Washington fails to reach a deal to increase the nation's debt ceiling because that raises the threat of a default, another credit downgrade and a panic in the financial markets. Market strategists...

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Barvikha, Russia, Draws Embattled Leaders Like Assad

Olga Kravets for The New York TimesBarvikha, near Moscow, is a magnet for deposed leaders given asylum in Russia. Barvikha Luxury Village, a mall, includes Gucci and Ralph Lauren shops. BARVIKHA, Russia — A few years back, before he settled in this bucolic town in a pine forest near Moscow, Askar Akayev, then the president of Kyrgyzstan, had a very stressful day. Outside his presidential...

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Matthew McConaughey & Wife Camila Welcome Baby No. 3

By Elizabeth Leonard 12/28/2012 at 06:10 PM EST Camila and Matthew McConaughey Gary Miller/FilmMagic It's a very merry holiday week for Matthew McConaughey and his wife Camila.The couple welcomed their third child together in Austin, Texas, on Friday, sources...

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Kenya hospital imprisons new mothers with no money

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The director of the Pumwani Maternity Hospital, located in a hardscrabble neighborhood of downtown Nairobi, freely acknowledges what he's accused of: detaining mothers who can't pay their bills. Lazarus Omondi says it's the only way he can keep his medical center running.Two mothers who live in a mud-wall and tin-roof slum a short walk from the maternity hospital, which is affiliated...

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Wall Street ends sour week with fifth straight decline

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks fell for a fifth straight day on Friday, dropping 1 percent and marking the S&P 500's longest losing streak in three months as the federal government edged closer to the "fiscal cliff" with no solution in sight. President Barack Obama and top congressional leaders met at the White House to work on a solution for the draconian debt-reduction measures set...

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Afghan Police, Betrayed in Sleep, Suffer Losses

KABUL, Afghanistan — A wave of betrayal has left at least 17 Afghan policemen dead in the past 10 days — all killed in their sleep, at the hands of those close to them. Early Thursday morning, an Afghan policeman unlocked the door of the check post where he was stationed in Oruzgan Province and let in his friends from the Taliban, who helped him attack his sleeping colleagues with knives...

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Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, Commander in Persian Gulf War, Dies at 78

By Mike Fleeman 12/27/2012 at 08:10 PM EST H. Norman Schwarzkopf, the Army general who commanded coalition forces in the Persian Gulf War against Saddam Hussein, died Thursday in Tampa, Fla., at age 78.The cause of death was not immediately known. His death was confirmed to the Associated Press by a source. Known...

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Kenya hospital imprisons new mothers with no money

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The director of the Pumwani Maternity Hospital, located in a hardscrabble neighborhood of downtown Nairobi, freely acknowledges what he's accused of: detaining mothers who can't pay their bills. Lazarus Omondi says it's the only way he can keep his medical center running.Two mothers who live in a mud-wall and tin-roof slum a short walk from the maternity hospital, which is affiliated...

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Consumer sentiment weakens as fiscal crisis looms

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. consumer confidence fell more than expected in December, hitting a four-month low as a looming fiscal crisis sapped what had been a growing sense of optimism about the economy. The report heightened concerns that a failure by Washington to avert planned tax hikes and spending cuts could lead households to close their wallets, threatening an economic recovery...

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Iran Raises Level of Islamic Law Enforcement

The call to prayer, a five-times-a-day ritual for strict adherents to Islam, is reaching new heights in Iran. Under a directive announced Wednesday by Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization, all aircraft will be prohibited from flying across the country during the Adhan, or call to prayer, when many devout Muslims pause to face toward Mecca and pray. The directive also requires that planes scheduled...

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Kate Winslet Marries in Secret

By Mike Fleeman 12/26/2012 at 09:10 PM EST Talk about a Titanic secret.Kate Winslet has tied the knot with Richard Branson's nephew, Ned Rocknroll, her rep tells PEOPLE. "I can confirm that Kate Winslet married Ned Rock'nRoll in NY earlier this month in a private ceremony attended by her two children and a very...

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Predicting who's at risk for violence isn't easy

CHICAGO (AP) — It happened after Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora, Colo., and now Sandy Hook: People figure there surely were signs of impending violence. But experts say predicting who will be the next mass shooter is virtually impossible — partly because as commonplace as these calamities seem, they are relatively rare crimes.Still, a combination of risk factors in troubled kids or adults including...

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Wall Street drops in thin session, led by retailers

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks fell for a third straight day on Wednesday, dragged lower by retail stocks after a report showed consumers spent less in the holiday shopping season than last year. Trading was light, with volume at a mere 4.01 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and NYSE MKT, well below the daily average so far this year of about 6.48 billion...

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The TV Watch: Indian Soap Operas, Ruled by Mothers-in-Law

Kuni Takahashi for The New York TimesThe Bhats, of Mumbai, watch soap operas together. MUMBAI, India — Mothers-in-law are not a joke on Indian TV. They are the law. Soap operas dominate prime time here and the mother-in-law reigns in almost all of them. However plucky the heroine or serpentine the plot, every love story seems to circle back to marriage and the many relatives who come...

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Jessica Simpson’s Christmas tweet seems to confirm pregnancy rumor

(Reuters) – U.S. actress, singer and fashion designer Jessica Simpson sent a Christmas Twitter message that apparently confirms media rumors that she is pregnant – showing a photo of her daughter Maxwell with the words “Big Sis” spelled out in sand.The picture’s caption reads “Merry Christmas from my family to yours.”Simpson had her first child, Maxwell Drew Johnson, in May. She has since become a...

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Giada De Laurentiis: My Daughter Still Believes in Santa

Courtesy Giada De LaurentiisThe tree’s done. The stockings are hung. Giada De Laurentiis and her family — husband Todd Thompson and their daughter Jade Marie — are officially ready to host the holidays.“Christmas Eve is the big tradition in an Italian family. It’s when my entire family gets together,” the newest face of Clairol tells PEOPLE exclusively.“This year, for the first time, it will be held...

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Predicting who's at risk for violence isn't easy

CHICAGO (AP) — It happened after Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora, Colo., and now Sandy Hook: People figure there surely were signs of impending violence. But experts say predicting who will be the next mass shooter is virtually impossible — partly because as commonplace as these calamities seem, they are relatively rare crimes.Still, a combination of risk factors in troubled kids or adults including...

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Yen falls as Japan forms new government, supporting Nikkei

TOKYO (Reuters) - The yen fell to a 20-month low against the dollar on Wednesday, buoying the benchmark Nikkei stock average, as Japan ushers in a new prime minister eager to pursue drastic stimulus steps to drive the country's economy out of deflation. Asian shares and other assets were capped in thin holiday trade, with investors focusing on the fate of U.S. negotiations to avert a...

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Hugo Chávez Aides Want to Postpone Swearing-In

CARACAS, Venezuela — Top officials in the government of President Hugo Chávez, who is recuperating from cancer surgery in Cuba, say they will postpone his inauguration, now set for Jan. 10, if he is too ill to return to Venezuela to begin his new term. Opposition politicians and commentators have said that if Mr. Chávez is not in Venezuela to be sworn in on that date, a constitutional provision...

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