French Forces Pressing Mali Campaign Seize Rebel Stronghold

BAMAKO, Mali — French troops took control overnight of the airport at the last major northern Mali town still in rebel hands, officials said on Wednesday, after Islamist militants abandoned two other principal settlements in the vast, desert region where residents’ relief and elation has given way to some measure of reprisal and frustration. A French military spokesman in Paris, Col. Thierry...

Read More..

Facebook Graph Search Still Doesn’t Speak Human

Despite hiring a couple of linguists to get its new search engine to move “beyond ‘Robospeak” and actually understand how people talk, Facebook hasn’t actually taught Graph Search how to do that very well just yet. And that’s a problem, no matter which way the social network spins it. Unlike Google‘s pattern-matching search engine, Facebook’s new recommendation-based social search platform tries to...

Read More..

Ashley Judd Splits from Husband Dario Franchitti

01/29/2013 at 08:05 PM EST Ashley Judd and Dario Franchitti Robin Marchant/Wireimage Ashley Judd and Dario Franchitti are splitting after more than a decade of marriage."We have mutually decided to end our marriage. We'll always be family and continue to cherish...

Read More..

Soldier with new arms determined to be independent

BALTIMORE (AP) — After weeks of round-the-clock medical care, Brendan Marrocco insisted on rolling his own wheelchair into a news conference using his new transplanted arms. Then he brushed his hair to one side.Such simple tasks would go unnoticed in most patients. But for Marrocco, who lost all four limbs while serving in Iraq, these little actions demonstrate how far he's come only six weeks after...

Read More..

Euro surges to 14-month high, Fed decision awaited

LONDON (Reuters) - The euro hit its highest level in over a year on Wednesday and shares, oil and metals were also on the rise, as confidence in the global economic outlook strengthened ahead of European data and the U.S. Federal Reserve's latest policy decision. The Fed is expected to maintain asset buying at $85 billion a month when it concludes its meeting later and retain its commitment...

Read More..

India Ink: Delhi Gang Rape Trial Will Be Held in Delhi, Supreme Court Rules

NEW DELHI —India’s Supreme Court dismissed on procedural grounds a plea on Tuesday to transfer the New Delhi gang rape trial outside the city.Advocate M.L. Sharma filed the petition on behalf of Mukesh Singh, one of the five men accused of the fatal gang rape of a young woman on a moving bus last month. The petition claimed that press coverage of the trial and continued agitations had created bias...

Read More..

Soldier talks about his new arms after transplant

BALTIMORE (AP) — A soldier who lost all four limbs in an Iraq roadside bombing has two new arms following a double transplant at Johns Hopkins Hospital.Twenty-six-year-old Brendan Marrocco along with the surgeons who treated him will be at the Baltimore hospital on Tuesday to discuss the new limbs.The transplants are only the seventh double-hand or double-arm transplant ever conducted in the United...

Read More..

Stock index futures point to slightly lower start

LONDON (Reuters) - Stock index futures pointed to a slightly lower open on Wall Street on Tuesday, with futures for the S&P 500 down 0.1 percent. Futures for the Dow Jones were flat, while contracts on the Nasdaq 100 shed 0.2 percent at 04.47 a.m. EST. European shares edged up to hover near two-year highs, with strong earnings reports and a brightening economic outlook...

Read More..

Letter From Washington: Changing the Path to the Presidency

WASHINGTON — Imagine if the 2012 election had turned out this way: President Barack Obama won the popular vote by five million votes and almost 4 percentage points, taking seven of the eight largest states, as he did, yet the Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, took the oath of office last week. Such a scenario might not be far-fetched if some Republican politicians in statehouses around the...

Read More..

Pentagon to boost cybersecurity force

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Pentagon plans to assign significantly more personnel in coming years to counter increasing threats against U.S. government computer networks and conduct offensive operations against foreign foes, a U.S. defense official said on Sunday.The plan, which would increase both military and civilian staffing at U.S. Cyber Command, comes as the Pentagon moves toward elevating the...

Read More..