Wall Street advances as defensive stocks extend rally

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks advanced on Tuesday, led by defensive sectors, in a sign the cash piles recently moving into the market are being put to use by cautious investors to pick up more gains. The S&P 500 is on track to post its best monthly performance since October 2011 and its best January since 1997 as investors poured $55 billion in new cash into stock mutual funds and exchange-traded...

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Yemen Seizes Boat Suspected of Smuggling Iranian Arms

WASHINGTON – Authorities in Yemen have seized a boat in their territorial waters filled with a large quantity of explosives, weapons and money, according to American officials briefed on the interdiction. The officials said there were indications that Iran was smuggling the military contraband to insurgents inside Yemen, although they declined to provide details. Yemeni security forces halted...

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TSX little changed, RIM positioning offsets banks

TORONTO (Reuters) – Canada‘s main stock index finished little changed on Monday, as gains in the financial group were partially offset by Research In Motion Ltd shares, which sagged ahead of its critical BlackBerry 10 launch this week.The Toronto Stock Exchange‘s S&P/TSX composite index <.gsptse> was down 0.72 of a point at 12,815.91. Half of the index’s 10 key sectors climbed higher.</.gsptse>(Reporting...

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Elisa Donovan Blogs: The Waste of Talking About Our Waists

With Scarlett on Christmas – Courtesy Elisa Donovan Thanks for welcoming one of our newest celebrity bloggers, Elisa Donovan!Best known for her roles as Amber in Clueless and Morgan on Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, Donovan currently stars in the ABC Family franchise The Dog Who Saved Christmas. Following that, she will costar in MoniKa, set for release this year.Donovan, 41, is also a writer and yogi....

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Soldier who lost 4 limbs has double-arm transplant

On Facebook, he describes himself as a "wounded warrior...very wounded."Brendan Marrocco was the first soldier to survive losing all four limbs in the Iraq War, and doctors revealed Monday that he's received a double-arm transplant.Those new arms "already move a little," he tweeted a month after the operation.Marrocco, a 26-year-old New Yorker, was injured by a roadside bomb in 2009. He had the transplant...

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S&P 500 eases, ends longest winning run in eight years

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The S&P 500 eased slightly on Monday after an eight-day run of gains, while the Nasdaq edged higher as Apple shares rebounded. The index remained above 1,500, however, after closing above that level on Friday for the first time in more than five years. The S&P 500's eight sessions of gains was its longest winning streak in eight years. Caterpillar...

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Egypt’s Morsi Declares State of Emergency

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's president declared a state of emergency and curfew in three Suez Canal provinces hit hardest by a weekend wave of unrest that left more than 50 dead, using tactics of the ousted regime to get a grip on discontent over his Islamist policies and the slow pace of change. Angry and almost screaming, Mohammed Morsi vowed in a televised address on Sunday night that he would...

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Nicole 'Snooki' Polizzi Explains How She Lost 44 Lbs. After Baby

By Paul Chi 01/27/2013 at 05:30 PM EST Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi Kristina Bumphrey/StarTraks No meatball here!Just five months after giving birth to son Lorenzo, Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi says she's shed the 44 lbs. she gained during her pregnancy. "Right now I'm...

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CDC: Flu seems to level off except in the West

New government figures show that flu cases seem to be leveling off nationwide. Flu activity is declining in most regions although still rising in the West.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says hospitalizations and deaths spiked again last week, especially among the elderly. The CDC says quick treatment with antiviral medicines is important, in particular for the very...

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Fed waits for job market to perk up

LONDON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve's ultra-loose monetary policy is a root cause of the "currency wars" that some see as a looming threat to the world economy, but don't expect the U.S. central bank to signal a shift back to normal any time soon. The Fed, whose policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee concludes a two-day meeting on Wednesday, said just last month that it expects...

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