Wall Street Week Ahead: Attention turns to financial earnings

NEW YORK (Reuters) - After over a month of watching Capitol Hill and Pennsylvania Avenue, Wall Street can get back to what it knows best: Wall Street. The first full week of earnings season is dominated by the financial sector - big investment banks and commercial banks - just as retail investors, free from the "fiscal cliff" worries, have started to get back into the markets. ...

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Durant's 42 helps send Lakers to 6th straight loss

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Kevin Durant hit a 3-pointer in the final second of the first half and did a full reverse somersault to celebrate a 16-point lead. The Thunder were running the Lakers out of their own building, and not even Kobe Bryant could stop them.Oklahoma City is again clearly among the best teams in the Western Conference, and the struggling Lakers may not have enough time left in the season...

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Saudi execution: Brutal and illegal?

STORY HIGHLIGHTSSaudi authorities beheaded Rizana Nafeek, a Sri Lankan womanShe was convicted of killing a baby of the family employing her as a housemaidThis was despite Nafeek's claims that the baby died in a choking accidentBecker says her fate "should spotlight the precarious existence of domestic workers"Jo Becker is the Children's Rights Advocacy Director for Human Rights Watch and author of...

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14-year-old boy killed on West Side

Two gunmen shot a 14-year-old boy several times Friday night as he stood on his porch, leaving him to die in the front hallway...

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Obama, Karzai accelerate end of U.S. combat role in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai agreed on Friday to speed up the handover of combat operations in Afghanistan to Afghan forces, raising the prospect of an accelerated U.S. withdrawal from the country and underscoring Obama's determination to wind down a long, unpopular war. Signaling a narrowing of differences, Karzai appeared to give ground...

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Stock futures flat ahead of Wells Fargo earnings

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures were little changed on Friday, a day after the S&P 500 hit a five-year high and ahead of earnings from Wells Fargo, the first big bank to report this season. The Japanese government approved a massive $117 billion of spending to revive the economy in the biggest stimulus since the financial crisis, a move that boosted optimism about the global...

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Browns name Rob Chudzinski new coach

CLEVELAND (AP) — The Browns hauled their coaching search to Arizona and back. They talked to high-profile college coaches, NFL assistants and a fired pro coach who took a team to a Super Bowl.None of them was hired.Instead, Rob Chudzinski became their pick.With no experience as a head coach at any level, Chudzinski was hired Thursday night by the Cleveland Browns, the team he cheered for as a kid....

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Chevron sees higher fourth-quarter profit as output rises

(Reuters) – Chevron Corp , the second-largest U.S. oil company, said on Thursday its fourth-quarter profit would be “notably higher” than the previous quarter as oil and gas output bounced back and it booked a $ 1.4 billion gain on an asset transaction.Chevron is also preparing to bring its refinery in Richmond, California, back to full production this quarter, after the crude unit of the 245,000-barrels-per-day...

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Why global labor reforms are vital

STORY HIGHLIGHTSSaudi authorities beheaded Rizana Nafeek, a Sri Lankan womanShe was convicted of killing a baby of the family employing her as a housemaidThis was despite Nafeek's claims that the baby died in a choking accidentBecker says her fate "should spotlight the precarious existence of domestic workers"Jo Becker is the Children's Rights Advocacy Director for Human Rights Watch and author of...

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Boeing Dreamliner hit by two more mishaps in Japan

Boeing Co.'s 787 Dreamliner jet suffered a cracked cockpit window and an oil leak on separate flights in Japan on Friday --...

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Rights group warns of worsening Pakistani sectarian violence

QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Violence against Pakistani Shi'ite Muslims is rising and some communities are living in a state of siege, a human rights group said on Friday, warning that sectarian violence will only get worse a day after 114 people were killed in bombings. Most of the deaths were caused by twin attacks aimed at members of the Muslim Shi'ite sect in the southwestern city...

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US STOCKS-Futures gain as China data points to growth

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures rose on Thursday, alongside other risk assets, as stronger-than-expected exports in China, the world's second-biggest economy, raised hopes for a more robust recovery in the global economy this year. Data showed China's export growth rebounded sharply to a seven-month high in December, a strong finish to the year after seven straight quarters of...

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Junior Seau had brain disease CTE

Junior Seau, one of the NFL's best and fiercest players for nearly two decades, had a degenerative brain disease when he committed suicide last May, the National Institutes of Health told The Associated Press on Thursday.Results of an NIH study of Seau's brain revealed abnormalities consistent with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).The NIH, based in Bethesda, Md., conducted a study of three unidentified...

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Terror group fills Syria rebels' space

STORY HIGHLIGHTSU.S. declared a key opposition group in Syria a terrorist organizationNew report says it is the most effective group in the opposition, with 5,000 fightersNada Bakos: The group has ties to al Qaeda but also seeks to provide social servicesShe says the chances are slim that it could be persuaded to give up radical goalsEditor's note: Nada Bakos is a former Central Intelligence Agency...

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Car stolen from parking lot with 18-month-old inside

Kimberly Delgado (Provided photo / January 10, 2013) ...

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NATO official says more missiles launched in Syria

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A short-range ballistic missile was fired inside Syria on Wednesday, following similar launches last week, a NATO official said on Thursday. The official condemned as "reckless" the missile launches, which U.S. officials called an escalation of the 21-month-old Syrian civil war when their use was first spotted last month. "The use of such indiscriminate...

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Global shares buoyed by Alcoa earnings, dollar gains on yen

LONDON (Reuters) - World shares staged a modest recovery from two days of losses on Wednesday after aluminum giant Alcoa opened the U.S. earnings season with an optimistic outlook for world demand. However, with European and British central banks due to hold policy meetings on Thursday, the same day Spain will test demand for its debt and China releases its latest trade data, investors...

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Judgment day for Bonds, Clemens, Sosa at Hall

NEW YORK (AP) — Judgment day has arrived for Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Sammy Sosa to find out their Hall of Fame fates.With the cloud of steroids shrouding many candidacies, baseball writers may fail for the only the second time in more than four decades to elect anyone to the Hall.About 600 people are eligible to vote in the BBWAA election, all members of the organization for 10 consecutive...

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Star Hackers: Scientists Hold 1st Astronomy ‘Hack Day’

Astronomers have a “Big Data” problem. While telescopes around the world record reams of data every day, researchers struggle to manage this surplus of information. But there is a change brewing within the astronomy community, one where researchers  assume many different roles: astronomer, hacker and communicator.DotAstronomy, a community that bridges the gap between science research and computer...

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