Super Bowl advertisers tease viewers

NEW YORK (AP) — Super Bowl advertisers are learning the art of the tease.Supermodel Kate Upton appears in an online Mercedes-Benz video in a low-cut top. An unknown man wakes up with his face covered in smeared lipstick and his hands bound in furry handcuffs in a Gildan Activewear clip. And "30 Rock" star Tracy Morgan seemingly curses in a spot for Kraft's Mio flavored drops.Super Bowl advertisers...

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Well: Ask Well: Squats for Aging Knees

You are already doing many things right, in terms of taking care of your aging knees. In particular, it sounds as if you are keeping your weight under control. Carrying extra pounds undoubtedly strains knees and contributes to pain and eventually arthritis.You mention weight training, too, which is also valuable. Sturdy leg muscles, particularly those at the front and back of the thighs, stabilize...

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DealBook: R.B.S. Stock Drops Amid Concerns of Potential Guilty Plea in Libor Case

Shares of the Royal Bank of Scotland stumbled on Tuesday after it emerged that federal authorities are pursuing a guilty plea against an Asian subsidiary at the center of an interest rate manipulation scandal.Following a template developed in last year’s rare-rigging case against UBS, the Justice Department is pushing for the criminal action against the Royal Bank of Scotland, along with fines and...

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The Lede Blog: Images of New Clashes in Egypt, Two Years After the Revolution's 'Day of Rage'

Last Updated, 2:47 p.m. This post has been updated throughout the day with reports from bloggers and journalists in Egypt, where protests and clashes continued in major cities despite an attempt to impose emergency rule.As my colleague David Kirkpatrick reports from Egypt, there were protests in the Suez Canal city of Port Said and fresh clashes in Cairo on Monday.Video uploaded to YouTube on Sunday...

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Crucial, long-overdue BlackBerry makeover arrives

TORONTO (AP) — The maker of the BlackBerry smartphone is promising a speedy browser, a superb typing experience and the ability to keep work and personal identities separate on the same phone, the fruit of a crucial, long-overdue makeover for the Canadian company.Thorsten Heins, chief executive of Research In Motion Ltd., will reveal the first phone with the new BlackBerry 10 system in New York on...

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Michigan moves to No. 1 in AP poll

Michigan is No. 1 in The Associated Press' college basketball poll for the first time since its Fab Five days 20 years ago.For the second straight week the No. 1 team lost. This time it was Duke, which was routed 90-63 by Miami in the third-worst defeat by a top-ranked team.Michigan received 51 first-place votes from the 65-member national media panel Monday. Kansas moved up one spot to No. 2 and...

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Well: Keeping Blood Pressure in Check

Since the start of the 21st century, Americans have made great progress in controlling high blood pressure, though it remains a leading cause of heart attacks, strokes, congestive heart failure and kidney disease.Now 48 percent of the more than 76 million adults with hypertension have it under control, up from 29 percent in 2000.But that means more than half, including many receiving treatment, have...

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The Media Equation: ‘South Park’ Creators Fortify Their Content Empire

When it comes to success stories in the entertainment world, it doesn’t get much better than the one about a pair of regular guys from Colorado, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, who took cutout paper dolls, animated them and triumphed on cable television, on the Web, at the multiplex and on Broadway. Frederic J. Brown/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesMatt Stone, left, and Trey Parker are...

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The Lede Blog: Fire at a Nightclub in Southern Brazil

Victims of the fire are attended by medics. An intense fire ripped through a nightclub crowded with university students in southern Brazil early on Sunday morning, leaving behind a scene of horror, with bodies piled in the club’s bathrooms and on the street.At least 232 people were killed, many of them students in the agronomy and veterinary medicine programs at a local university, police officials...

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Smartphone pioneer RIM looks to put recent hardships behind it with BB10

TORONTO, Cananda – Once a leader but now derided as a laggard, BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion hopes to regain the confidence of cynical smartphone users this week as the curtain is lifted on its much-anticipated new smartphones.The stakes are high for the unveiling, which many observers say will determine whether RIM survives to see the launch of another BlackBerry smartphone.It has been a steep...

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