Mary J. Blige honored by Vibe at pre-Grammy party

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Babyface called her an icon; Diddy said she was like a sister; and Anita Baker credited her for helping secure her latest Grammy nomination.There was no shortage of superlatives bestowed on Mary J. Blige on Friday night as Vibe magazine celebrated the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul’s career, which has now spanned for more than two decades.“She’s a musical soulmate, she’s my sister, she’s...

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In Nigeria, Polio Vaccine Workers Are Killed by Gunmen

At least nine polio immunization workers were shot to death in northern Nigeria on Friday by gunmen who attacked two clinics, officials said. The killings, with eerie echoes of attacks that killed nine female polio workers in Pakistan in December, represented another serious setback for the global effort to eradicate polio. Most of the victims were women and were shot in the back of...

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Degrees of Debt: College Costs, Battled a Paycheck at a Time

If Steve Boedefeld graduates from Appalachian State University without any student loan debt, it will be because of the money he earned fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan and the money he now saves by eating what he grows or kills. Zack Tolmie managed to escape New York University with no debt — and a degree — by landing a job at Bubby’s, the brunch institution in TriBeCa, where he made...

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Big Bear locked down amid manhunt

The bustling winter resort of Big Bear took on the appearance of a ghost town Thursday as surveillance aircraft buzzed overhead...

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Watch Pirate Bay Documentary <em>TPB AFK</em> Here (Or on Pirate Bay, Naturally)

Get ready to pirate the pirates — legally. DIY indie documentary The Pirate Bay — Away From Keyboard (aka TPB AFK) premiered Friday at the Berlin International Film Festival, and quickly became available for viewing via YouTube, paid digital download, and, naturally, the torrent-based file-sharing site The Pirate Bay.Partially funded by Kickstarter, where director Simon Klose raised...

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Well: Think Like a Doctor: A Confused and Terrified Patient

The Challenge: Can you solve the mystery of a middle-aged man recovering from a serious illness who suddenly becomes frightened and confused?Every month the Diagnosis column of The New York Times Magazine asks Well readers to sift through a difficult case and solve a diagnostic riddle. Below you will find a summary of a case involving a 55-year-old man well on his way to recovering from a series of...

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European Union Leaders Agree to Slimmer Budget

BRUSSELS — As European Union leaders began their 14th hour of budget negotiations after a sleepless night, Valdis Dombrovskis, the prime minister of Latvia, took the floor early Friday to address what, for his Baltic nation of around just two million people, is a vital question: Why should a Latvian cow deserve less money than a French, Dutch and even Romanian one? In a system that requires...

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Ex-cop at center of manhunt called 'depraved,' 'cowardly'

The fired LAPD officer suspected of terrorizing Southern California in a bloody rampage opened fire on two Riverside police...

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It's Time to Make Vague Software Patents More Clear

Editor’s Note: The U.S. Patent Trademark Office (USPTO) is seeking input on software-related patents beginning with its first-ever public roundtable in Silicon Valley next week, so Wired Opinion is closing its special series on “The Patent Fix” with specific solutions like these that don’t require changing the law. This expert’s opinion is one of the proposals under consideration by...

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Well: The 'Monday Morning' Medical Screaming Match

I did not think I would ever see another “morbidity and mortality” conference in which senior doctors publicly attacked their younger colleagues for making medical errors. These types of heated meetings were commonplace when I was a medical student but have largely been abandoned.Yet here they were again on “Monday Mornings,” a new medical drama on the TNT network, based on a novel by Dr. Sanjay Gupta,...

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