Australian prank call radio to donate profits to nurse’s family

CANBERRA (Reuters) – The Australian radio station behind a prank call to a British hospital will donate its advertising revenue until the end of the year to a fund for the family of the nurse who apparently took her own life after the stunt, the company said on Tuesday.Southern Cross Austereo, parent company of Sydney radio station 2Day FM, said it would donate all advertising revenue, with a minimum...

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Hug It Out: Public Charter and District Schools Given $25 Million to Get Along

If you need a loan, ask Bill and Melinda Gates. Or better yet, ask one of the seven cities that are splitting a new $ 25 million grant courtesy of the couple’s philanthropic foundation.The funds are going to promote cross collaboration between charter and district schools, which have previously operated in a strict and contentious independence from one another.The foundation announced the award this...

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Springsteen, Lady Gaga join Stones concert in NJ

NEW YORK (AP) — Bruce Springsteen, Lady Gaga and The Black Keys will join the Rolling Stones on Saturday for the final concert marking the band’s 50th anniversary.The concert will be held at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.The band said Monday the concert will be telecast live on pay-per-view.The Stones have played in London and New York on their “50 and Counting” tour. They will also play in...

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UK chooses doctor as new head of NICE

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s health ministry named a former practising doctor, David Haslam, as the preferred candidate to chair the country’s healthcare cost-effectiveness watchdog NICE on Monday.Haslam will take over as chairman of the renamed National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) from Michael Rawlins, assuming he passes scrutiny by a committee of MPs.Rawlins, who has chaired...

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China Nabs Airplanes and Batteries in Latest U.S. Shopping Spree

China’s U.S. shopping spree continues.On Dec. 9, Chinese auto parts and technology company Wanxiang Group won a bankruptcy auction to acquire lithium-ion battery-maker A123 Systems for $ 256.6 million, beating out competing bids by Johnson Controls, Siemens (SI), and NEC. And on Dec. 10, a consortium of Chinese financial firms agreed to purchase AIG’s aviation-leasing business for $ 4.26 billion,...

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McAfee wants to return to US, ‘normal life’

BACALAR, Mexico (AP) — Software company founder John McAfee said Sunday he wants to return to the United States and “settle down to whatever normal life” he can.In a live-stream Internet broadcast from the Guatemalan detention center where he is fighting a government order that he be returned to Belize, the 67-year-old said “I simply would like to live comfortably day by day, fish, swim, enjoy my...

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MiFi With Touchscreen is a Road Warrior’s Dream

Meet the Novatel MiFi Liberate: the first mobile access point with a touchscreen, letting you configure it without connecting it to a computer.If you’re not familiar with mobile access points, these handy gadgets allow you to hook up to the Internet via cellular networks. It’s useful, often essential, if you’re in an area that has no Wi-Fi. If you’re in range of a cellular tower, this MiFi Liberate...

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Factbox: Chavez’s chosen successor Nicolas Maduro

CARACAS (Reuters) – President Hugo Chavez has named Vice President Nicolas Maduro as the heir of his self-styled socialist revolution should cancer force him out of office. He urged Venezuelans to vote for Maduro in the event of a snap election.Here are some facts about Maduro:* A former bus driver and trade unionist with Caracas public transport, the mustachioed Maduro, 50, has been foreign minister...

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As “fiscal cliff” nears, market complacency sets in

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Like many on Wall Street, investor Todd Petzel cringed when U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said this past Wednesday that he was ready to let the economy go over the “fiscal cliff” if Republicans would not agree to higher tax rates on the rich.“I didn’t think good things would come out of the comment,” said Petzel, the chief investment officer at Offit Capital Advisors...

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Peru’s capital highly vulnerable to major quake

LIMA, Peru (AP) — The earthquake all but flattened colonial Lima, the shaking so violent that people tossed to the ground couldn’t get back up. Minutes later, a 50-foot (15-meter) wall of Pacific Ocean crashed into the adjacent port of Callao, killing all but 200 of its 5,000 inhabitants. Bodies washed ashore for weeks.Plenty of earthquakes have shaken Peru‘s capital in the 266 years since that fateful...

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