Russia Detains 271 in St. Petersburg Security Raid

MOSCOW — Russian police and security officials in St. Petersburg detained 271 people, mostly migrants from Central Asia and the North Caucasus region, during a raid on Friday on Muslim prayer rooms at a central market. They said the raid was carried out to check residency permits and to eliminate networks of religious extremists planning terrorist attacks. A statement published Friday night...

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Snowstorm forces rescheduling of Bruins-TB game

BOSTON (AP) — The Boston Bruins have postponed Saturday night's game against the Tampa Bay Lightning because of the blizzard that dumped more than 2 feet of snow on the area.No makeup date had been scheduled yet, according to a Bruins spokesman.Originally scheduled for 1 p.m., the game was pushed back until 7 p.m. to allow the storm to pass. But public transportation was not expected to resume on...

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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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Career Couch: Moving On From a Job That Has Defined You

Q. You want to move into management or a higher executive position, but you’re so good at your current job that you’re now defined by it. How can you find a way out of this pigeonhole? A. Start with some self-reflection, says Michael L. Buckman, managing director of executive advisory services at the BPI Group, a management consulting firm in Chicago. You can’t just walk into your boss’s...

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The Lede: Social Media Images From Tunisia, as an Opposition Leader Is Buried

Video of Friday’s funeral for Chokri Belaid, a Tunisian opposition leader assassinated two days ago, from the independent news site Nawaat.Last Updated, 3:44 p.m. Activists, bloggers and journalists in Tunisia posted a stream of images on social networks Friday, showing thousands of mourners packed into the largest cemetery in the capital, Tunis, for the funeral of Chokri Belaid, a leading opposition...

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AP Source: Hernandez on verge of new deal with M's

SEATTLE (AP) — Felix Hernandez and the Seattle Mariners are working on a $175 million, seven-year contract that would make him the highest-paid pitcher in baseball, according to a person with knowledge of the deal's details.The person spoke to The Associated Press Thursday on condition of anonymity because the agreement has not been completed. USA Today first reported the deal.Seattle would add $134.5...

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The New Old Age: The Executor's Assistant

I’m serving as executor for my father’s estate, a role few of us are prepared for until we’re playing it, so I was grateful when the mail brought “The American Bar Association Guide to Wills and Estates” — the fourth edition of a handbook the A.B.A. began publishing in 1995.This is a legal universe, I’m learning, in which every step — even with a small, simple estate that owes no taxes and includes...

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Venezuela Announces Currency Devaluation

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela's government announced Friday that is devaluing the country's currency, a change expected to push up prices in the heavily import-reliant economy. Officials said the fixed exchange rate is changing from 4.30 bolivars to the dollar to 6.30 bolivars to the dollar. The devaluation had been widely expected by analysts in recent months. It was the first...

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At War Blog: U.S. and Allies Conduct Drills in Persian Gulf, a Signal to Iran

Deterring Iran is a delicate balance of diplomacy, sanctions and military muscle-flexing, all intended to send a strong signal – without proving so provocative that the region is pushed toward war. One piece of the effort – halting the proliferation of illicit weapons – got a practice run in the Persian Gulf this week.Although the exercise did not explicitly name an adversary, geography certainly...

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Armstrong sued for $12 million bonus

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Dallas promotions company sued Lance Armstrong on Thursday, demanding he repay $12 million in bonuses and fees it paid him for winning the Tour de France.SCA Promotions had tried in a 2005 legal dispute to prove Armstrong cheated to win before it ultimately settled and paid him.Armstrong recently acknowledged using performance-enhancing drugs, and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency...

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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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DealBook: Ackman to Herbalife: You're Not the Girl Scouts

William A. Ackman is not letting his adversary compare itself to the Girl Scouts.Mr. Ackman, head of the hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management, issued a fresh challenge on Thursday to Herbalife, the nutritional supplements company that he is betting against.In a document posted online, Pershing Square takes aim at Herbalife’s disclosures about its business model. The company, which Mr. Ackman...

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The Lede: Video of Protests Across Tunisia After an Opposition Leader Is Gunned Down

Video of a protest outside the interior ministry in Tunis on Wednesday from the blog Nawaat.As my colleagues Monica Marks and Kareem Fahim report, there were protests across Tunisia on Wednesday following the assassination of Chokri Belaid, a leader of the secular opposition.Video shot by activist bloggers for the independent Tunisian site Nawaat showed protesters rallying outside the interior ministry...

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Braun says he used Fla clinic owner as consultant

NEW YORK (AP) — Milwaukee Brewers slugger Ryan Braun said the person who ran the Florida clinic being investigated by Major League Baseball was used only as a consultant on his drug suspension appeal last year."I have nothing to hide," Braun said in a statement released by his representatives on Tuesday night.Earlier in the day, Yahoo Sports reported the 2011 NL MVP's name showed up three times in...

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The New Old Age Blog: For Women, Reduced Access to Long-Term Care Insurance

“This was a very, very good business for a short time, with people buying long-term care insurance like it was candy in a candy store,’’ said Michael Perry, a vice president at the Opus Advisory Group, a strategic financial planning firm in Purchase, N.Y.No more. Mr. Perry has sold only one long-term care policy in the last six months and is “backing off from marketing’’ them as he watches this corner...

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DealBook: R.B.S. to Pay $612 Million Over Rate Rigging

LONDON – The Royal Bank of Scotland on Wednesday struck a combined $612 million settlement with American and British authorities over accusations that it manipulated interest rates, the latest case to emerge from a broad international investigation.In an embarrassing blow to the bank, its Japanese subsidiary also pleaded guilty to criminal wrongdoing in its settlement with the Justice Department....

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The Lede Blog: North Korean Propaganda Video Uses 'Call of Duty' and 'We Are the World' to Imagine a Brighter World, Without Manhattan

Last Updated, 3:52 p.m. |UpdateWhen aliens strike, the climate goes berserk, the Russians invade, an asteroid threatens the Earth, New York City is often the first place to be destroyed. Hollywood has long used the city’s skyline to demonstrate what destruction looks like in action movies and video games. It seems as if North Korea, in seeking to show how an assault on America would play out, also...

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Lindsey Vonn tears knee ligaments, out for season

SCHLADMING, Austria (AP) — Lindsey Vonn will miss the rest of the ski season after tearing knee ligaments and breaking a bone in her leg in a high-speed crash Tuesday at the world championships. The U.S. team expects her to return for the next World Cup season and the 2014 Sochi Olympics.Vonn lost balance on her right leg while landing a jump in the super-G. She flipped in the air, landed on her back...

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SciTimes Update: Recent Developments in Science and Health News

Red Bull Stratos/European Pressphoto AgencyFelix Baumgartner of Austria jumps from 24 miles up in Roswell, New Mexico. Tuesday in science, sharks with an image problem, good teeth get more dates, dog geniuses and remembering your dreams. Check out these headlines and other science news from around the Web. Supersonic Skydiver: Skydiver Felix Baumgartner was faster than he or anyone else thought...

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DealBook: U.S. Case Details Internal Tension at S.&P.

The subprime loans packaged as complex securities for Standard & Poor’s to rate were already failing at such a fast clip in the fall of 2006 that some analysts at the firm thought they must be seeing typographical errors.At the time, the nation’s biggest rating agency was making record profits, attaching sterling ratings to mortgage-related securities that were increasingly going bad. Inside the...

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At War Blog: Veterans in College: Share Your Stories

“Graduate, graduate, graduate,” the secretary of veterans affairs, Eric K. Shinseki, recently implored the audience at a conference of the Student Veterans of America. But what, exactly, will it take to ensure that veterans succeed in college?Since the post-9/11 G.I. Bill took effect in 2009, about 877,000 people, mainly veterans and their dependents, have received tuition and other college benefits...

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