Canada spending growth sluggish in November, Mastercard says

(Reuters) – Canada‘s holiday shopping season got off to a slow start in November with retail sales rising only 1.3 percent from the previous year, compared with 4.2 percent growth a year earlier, according to data released by MasterCard on Thursday.Still, the shopping season was still young in November. MasterCard Advisors, the payment company’s research and consulting division, found that in recent...

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Is the Christmas card dead?

Author Nina Burleigh says the holiday photo is dead — and the internet killed itEvery year around the holidays, countless Americans sit down at their dining room tables to thoughtfully scribble pen-and-paper updates about how they are and what they’ve been doing with their lives to a select number of friends. These messages are usually written on the back of a recent family photograph (sometimes with...

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Slave-Revenge Film ‘Django Unchained’ Tracking Strongly With African-Americans

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – “Django Unchained” – about a bounty hunter who partners with a freed slave to take down a plantation owner – is tracking extremely well with African Americans, the Weinstein Company said Thursday.Quentin Tarantino wrote and directed the violent Western, which stars Christoph Waltz, Jamie Foxx and Leonardo DiCaprio, respectively. Opening on Christmas Day, it’s a front-runner...

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Hepatitis C tests continue after NH tech’s arrest

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Hospitals across the country recommended hepatitis C testing for about 7,900 patients last summer after a traveling medical worker was accused of stealing drugs and infecting patients with tainted syringes in New Hampshire. But five months later, nearly half of those who were possibly exposed to the liver-destroying disease in other states have yet to be tested.Described by prosecutors...

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Final day of funerals for Newtown shooting victims

The final three victims of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School will be laid to rest today, ending a somber week of funerals.A mass will take place today at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church for Josephine Gay, who had celebrated her 7th birthday on Dec. 11.Friends and family have been asked to wear Josephine's favorite color, purple, in her honor. ...

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SaleSpider Media Gets Ready for 2013

SaleSpider Media had an extremely successful 2012 and looks to bring that success into 2013.toronto, ON (PRWEB) December 21, 2012SaleSpider Media had an extremely successful 2012 and looks to bring that success into 2013. Over the past year each of SaleSpider Media’s social networks have growth substantially. SaleSpider.com, North America‘s largest SMB social network, grew by over 500% in 2012. SaleSpider...

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BMG Scores Rights to Nirvana, Tears for Fears Songs

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) – BMG has acquired the worldwide rights to several music catalogues, a deal that will give it songs from artists including Kurt Cobain, Tears for Fears, The Human League, Iggy Pop, and Take That.The company announced Friday that it will purchase the rights for the Virgin Music Publishing Companies, Famous UK Music Publishing and selected current songwriters from Sony/ATV and...

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Gilead A Strong Buy On New HIV Treatments

By Jordo Bivona – December 21, 2012 | Tickers: BMY, GILD, YMI | 0 CommentsJordo is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network — entries represent the personal opinions of our bloggers and are not formally edited.Despite the expiration of some of its HIV patents in 2018, Gilead Sciences’ (NASDAQ: GILD) new HIV treatments will enable the company to extend its HIV-based profitability for...

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NRA: 'Good guy with a gun' could have saved lives at Sandy Hook

The NRA's Wayne LaPierre speaks at Friday's press conference (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)The National Rifle Association on Friday, a full week after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, gave its first response to the massacre that killed 20 schoolchildren in Newtown, Conn. Wayne LaPierre, the NRA's executive vice president, argued at a press conference in Washington, D.C., that gun...

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Wounded presage health crisis for postwar Syria

ATMEH, Syria (AP) — A baby boy joined the ranks of Syria’s tens of thousands of war wounded when a missile fired by Bashar Assad‘s air force slammed into his family home and shrapnel pierced his skull.Four-month-old Fahed Darwish suffered brain damage and, like thousands of others seriously hurt in the civil war, he will likely need care well after the fighting is over. That’s something doctors say...

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Huge Savings With MyBatua Season’s Sale

The online Islamic clothing store MyBatua.com brings more reasons to smile. The Store announces huge discounts and assured gifts on every purchase of women Abayas, kurtis and Jibabs.(PRWEB) December 21, 2012MyBatua.com has extended its seasonal sale on Islamic clothing range for a fortnight to appreciate the huge response of buyers. Being one of the most renowned stores for a vibrant range of Islamic...

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Putin offers French tax row actor Depardieu a Russian passport

MOSCOW (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin offered French actor Gerard Depardieu a Russian passport on Thursday, saying he would welcome the 63-year-old celebrity who is embroiled in a bitter tax row with France‘s socialist government.Weighing into a dispute over a hike in taxes, Putin heaped praise on Depardieu, making the offer of citizenship in response to a question during his annual televised...

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Spartan Bioscience Announces 6,000-Patient Study of Personalized Medicine for Cardiac Stents

Landmark clinical trial begins for rapid DNA testing and personalized anti-blood clotting drugs.Ottawa, Ontario (PRWEB) December 20, 2012Spartan Bioscience today announced the start of a 5,945-patient study of personalized medicine for cardiac stent patients. The study is sponsored by the Center for Individualized Medicine at Mayo Clinic and is entitled “Tailored Antiplatelet Initiation to Lessen...

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Snowstorm triggers deadly Iowa pileup

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The first widespread snowstorm of the season crawled across the Midwest on Thursday, with whiteout conditions stranding holiday travelers and sending drivers sliding over slick roads — including into a fatal 25-vehicle pileup in Iowa.The storm, which dumped a foot of snow in parts of Iowa and Wisconsin, was part of a system that began in the Rockies earlier in the week before...

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Worries grow in east Congo with fighter buildup

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Aid workers warned Wednesday that armed groups are setting up new front lines in and around the city of Goma in eastern Congo, where the U.N. said it now has documented at least 126 rape cases last month.Thousands of fighters from the M23 rebel group withdrew several weeks ago from Goma, and the fighters have since taken steps toward negotiating with the Congolese government.However,...

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Google launches ‘scan and match’ music service

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Google is turning on a “scan and match” service for Google Music users to store copies of their songs online, offering for free what Apple charges $ 25 a year for.The service, which launched Tuesday, cuts uploading time for those who want to save their music libraries online. It scans a user’s computer and gives them online access to the songs it finds, as long as they match the...

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“Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry,” “Bully” first theatrical releases to win duPont awards

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Two documentary films were among the 14 winners of the 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award, making them the first theatrical releases to be honored with the prize. USA Today also won its first duPont award.“Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry,” Alison Klayman‘s profile of the Chinese artist-activist, and Emmy-winning filmmaker Lee Hirsch‘s tale of schoolyard torment, “Bully,”...

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Court approves Amgen’s $762 million payment in drug case

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A federal judge on Wednesday approved a $ 762 million payment from Amgen Inc, the final step to resolve nearly a dozen criminal and civil cases stemming from the sale of its once-blockbuster anemia drug Aranesp and several others.Prosecutors previously said in Brooklyn federal court on Tuesday the company had agreed to pay $ 612 million in a civil settlement, a $ 14 million criminal...

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Obama: 'Words need to lead to action' on gun control

WASHINGTON (AP) — Spurred by a horrific elementary school shooting, President Barack Obama tasked his administration Wednesday with creating concrete proposals to reduce gun violence that has plagued the country."This time, the words need to lead to action," said Obama, who set a January deadline for the recommendations. He vowed to push for their implementation without delay.The president, who exerted...

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NBC’s Engel, TV crew escape abduction in Syria

BEIRUT (AP) — NBC‘s chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel said Tuesday he and members of his network crew escaped unharmed after five days of captivity in Syria, where more than a dozen pro-regime gunmen dragged them from their car, killed one of their rebel escorts and subjected them to mock executions.Appearing on NBC’s “Today” show, an unshaven Engel said he and his team escaped during a firefight...

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New Android botnet discovered across all major networks

A new Android spam botnet has been discovered across all major networks that sends thousands of text messages without a user’s permission, TheNextWeb reported. The threat, which is known at SpamSoldier, was detected on December 3rd by Lookout Security in cooperation with an unnamed carrier partner. The malware is said to spread through a collection of infected phones that send text messages, which...

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CBS dominates week in TV ratings

NEW YORK (AP) — CBS had little competition for dominance last week in the television ratings.The network had 17 of the 25 most-watched programs on the air last week, according to the Nielsen company. It beat second-place NBC by an average of nearly four million viewers a night last week, and also took the 18-to-49-year-old demographic that advertisers seek.“60 Minutes” and “NCIS” were the most popular...

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