Police: Chiefs' Belcher accused in murder-suicide

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher fatally shot his girlfriend Saturday, then drove to Arrowhead Stadium and committed suicide in front of his coach and general manager.Authorities did not release a possible motive for the murder-suicide, though police said that Belcher and his girlfriend had been arguing recently. The two of them have an infant child.Belcher thanked...

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Saints' Vilma, Smith attend Williams hearing

WASHINGTON (AP) — Saints defensive end Will Smith says he's glad he got a chance to hear former defensive coordinator Gregg Williams testify at an appeals hearing in the bounties case.Smith and New Orleans linebacker Jonathan Vilma attended Friday's session, where Williams was cross-examined by the players' lawyers for about four hours.Smith described the hearing as "peaceful" and "not awkward."Smith...

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Hacking Report Criticizes Murdoch Newspaper and British Press Standards

LONDON — The leader of a major inquiry into the standards of British newspapers triggered by the phone hacking scandal offered an excoriating critique of the press as a whole on Thursday, saying it displayed “significant and reckless disregard for accuracy,” and urged the press to form an independent regulator to be underpinned by law. Dan Kitwood/Getty ImagesLord Justice Sir Brian Leveson...

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Tagliabue holds Saints bounties hearing in DC

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue and lawyers for the league and the players' union have arrived for a hearing in the Saints bounties case.Tagliabue is overseeing the latest round of player appeals in Washington.Former Saints assistant Mike Cerullo, a key witness in the NFL's investigation, is scheduled to speak Thursday. Former New Orleans defensive coordinator Gregg Williams...

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Cost of Brand-Name Prescription Medicines Soaring

The price of brand-name prescription medicines is rising far faster than the inflation rate, while the price of generic drugs has plummeted, creating the largest gap so far between the two, according to a report published Wednesday by the pharmacy benefits manager Express Scripts. The report tracked an index of commonly used drugs and found that the price of brand-name medicines increased...

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U.S. Growth Revised Up, but Year-End Slowdown Is Feared

Even as the government said that the United States economy grew faster than first estimated in the third quarter, economists warned that the rate of expansion could slow sharply before the end of the year as worries mount about the fiscal impasse in Washington. Nam Y. Huh/Associated PressAn employee on the assembly line this month at Generac Power Systems in Whitewater, Wis., a maker...

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Israel Plays Down Significance of Palestinians’ U.N. Bid

JERUSALEM — With Western support swelling in favor of a Palestinian bid for enhanced status at the United Nations, Israel engaged in damage control on Wednesday, a day before the vote. Israeli officials began to play down the significance of a draft resolution that calls for the upgrading of the Palestinian status from observer to nonmember observer state — a move also opposed by the United...

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Bonds, Clemens, Sosa on Hall ballot for first time

NEW YORK (AP) — The most polarizing Hall of Fame debate since Pete Rose will now be decided by the baseball shrine's voters: Do Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Sammy Sosa belong in Cooperstown despite drug allegations that tainted their huge numbers?In a monthlong election sure to become a referendum on the Steroids Era, the Hall ballot was released Wednesday, and Bonds, Clemens and Sosa are on it...

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F.D.A. May Tap Experts on Energy Drinks

The Food and Drug Administration said in a letter released on Tuesday that it was likely to seek advice from outside experts to help determine whether energy drinks posed particular risks to teenagers or people with underlying health problems. The letter appears to signal a change in the agency’s approach to the drinks, which contain high levels of caffeine. Previously, F.D.A....

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State of the Art: Tablets Are Hot Holiday Gifts, but Which One to Buy? - Review

From left: J. Emilio Flores for The New York Times, Jim Wilson/The New York Times, Everett Kennedy Brown/European Pressphoto AgencyFrom left, the Kindle PaperWhite, the iPad Mini and the  Nexus 7. The other day, I joined NPR for a segment about high-tech holiday gifts. I was ready for the calls from listeners. I’d brushed up on cameras, phones, laptops, music players and game consoles. I was...

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Protesters Gather Again in Cairo Streets to Denounce Morsi

CAIRO — Thousands of people flowed into the streets of Cairo, the Egyptian capital, Tuesday afternoon for a day of protest against President Mohamed Morsi’s attempt to assert broad new powers for the duration of the country’s political transition, dismissing his efforts just the night before to reaffirm his deference to Egyptian law and courts. By early Tuesday afternoon in Cairo, a dense...

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Eagles lose receiver DeSean Jackson to injury

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The Philadelphia Eagles will place wide receiver DeSean Jackson on injured reserve after he sustained multiple rib fractures in Monday night's loss to Carolina.Jackson leads the team with 45 catches and 700 yards receiving, but has only two touchdowns. Coach Andy Reid says the injury could take six weeks to heal.Reid says running back LeSean McCoy remains in phase one of his concussion...

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Books: Woe Is Syphilis, and Other Afflictions of Famous Writers

The old Irishman was a swollen, wheezing mess, blood pressure wildly out of control, kidneys failing, heart fibrillating. “What we have here,” said his new Spanish doctor, “is an antique cardiorenal sclerotic of advanced years.” In fact, what the doctor had there was William Butler Yeats: the poet had a long list of chronic medical problems and experienced one of his regular cardiac crises...

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News Analysis: St. Jude Medical Suffers for Redacting a Product Name

Peter Muhly for The New York TimesDr. Ernest Lau holds a Durata lead from a St. Jude Medical Fortify ICD, an implanted heart defibrillator. IS covering a product’s name in a public document a sign that a company has something to hide? And how should doctors, patients and investors react if the product at issue is one on which peoples’ lives and a company’s fortunes depend? Such questions...

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Japan Expands Its Regional Military Role

Ko Sasaki for The New York TimesCoast guard officials from a dozen Asian and African nations, at right, joined a training cruise around Tokyo Bay aboard a Japanese Coast Guard cutter. TOKYO — After years of watching its international influence eroded by a slow-motion economic decline, pacifist Japan is trying to raise its profile in a new way, offering military aid for the first time in decades and...

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Online sales jump 24 percent early on Cyber Monday: IBM

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Online sales jumped during the first hours of Cyber Monday suggesting strong growth from earlier in the holiday shopping season continues, according to data from International Business Machines Corp.Online sales were up 24.1 percent as of 12:00pm EST on Cyber Monday, compared to the same period a year earlier, said IBM, which tracks transaction data from 500 U.S. retail websites....

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Longoria agrees to deal adding $100 million

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Evan Longoria has agreed to a new contract through 2022 that adds six guaranteed seasons and $100 million.The agreement announced Monday with the three-time All-Star incorporates the remainder of the 27-year-old's existing contract, which called for him to earn $36.6 million over the next four seasons. The new deal includes a team option for...

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Wealth Matters: Dealing With Doctors Who Accept Only Cash

James Edward Bates for The New York TimesDr. Stanford Owen no longer accepts insurance. He charges patients like Monica Knight $38 a month. A FEW weeks ago, my wife and I were at our wits’ end: our 4-month-old daughter wouldn’t sleep for more than an hour at a time at night. We had consulted books and seen our pediatrician, but nothing was working. So my wife called a pediatrician who specializes...

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Euro Finance Ministers Struggle to Reach Accord on Greece

BRUSSELS — Finance ministers from the euro area met on Monday for the third time in three weeks, seeking to bridge differences over bailouts for Greece that have bitterly divided creditor countries like Germany and the International Monetary Fund. The haggling continues against the background of a financial catastrophe unfolding in Greece, where the economy has shrunk by about one-fifth in...

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Bangladesh Fire Kills More Than 100 and Injures Many

MUMBAI — More than 100 people died Saturday and Sunday in a fire at a garment factory outside Dhaka, Bangladesh, in one of the worst industrial tragedies in that country. It took firefighters all night to put out the blaze at the factory, Tazreen Fashions, after it started about 7 p.m. on Saturday, a retired fire official said by telephone from Dhaka, the capital. At least 111 people were...

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