UK 'plebgate' scandal becomes police crisis

The "plebgate" scandal started with an angry exchange over a bicycle in front of Downing Street. The controversy over what a senior politician did or didn't say to officers guarding the prime minister's official residence has now grown into a full-blown crisis which is raising new questions about the ethics of Britain's largest police force.Scotland Yard's reputation has already been battered over...

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UK household finances worsen sharply in December - Markit

- Britons suffered the biggest deterioration in their finances in seven months in December and turned more downbeat about 2013, a survey showed on Monday.The Markit Household Finance Index fell to 36.8 - the lowest since May - from November's near two-year high of 39.3, sinking further below the 50 level that would mark no change in the financial situation compared with a month ago.Around a third...

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Russian opposition leader faces new probe

A prominent Russian opposition leader faces his third investigation in five months as authorities intensify pressure on the opposition.The Investigative Committee said in a statement on Monday that they launched a new probe against Alexei Navalny, who was already charged with theft and with fraud and money laundering in two separate cases.Investigators now say they also suspect Navalny of defrauding...

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Pope lights Christmas candle in his Vatican window

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI has lit a Christmas peace candle set on the windowsill of his private studio.Pilgrims, tourists and Romans gathered below in St. Peter's Square for the inauguration Monday evening of a Nativity scene and cheered when the flame was lit.Later, he will appear in St. Peter's Basilica to lead Christmas Eve Mass. The ceremony begins at 10 p.m. (2100 GMT) instead of...

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Pope leads a packed Christmas Eve Mass

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Heralded by the blare of trumpets, Pope Benedict XVI is presiding over Christmas Eve Mass in a St. Peter's Basilica packed with tourists, Italians and other faithful.The ceremony began at 10 p.m. (2100 GMT) Monday night instead of the traditional midnight start time. The schedule was changed at the Vatican years ago to let the pontiff rest before he is to deliver a Christmas Day...

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Twitter and Nielsen pair up to publish new "social TV" ratings

 Nielsen Holdings NV, the television viewership measurement company, said on Monday it will partner with Twitter to publish a new set of ratings that measure chatter on Twitter about TV programming.The new measurement, dubbed the "Nielsen Twitter TV Rating," seeks to tap into the stream of viewer commentary and armchair musings generated on "second screens" - the smartphones and tablets perched...

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Florida man sentenced to 10 years in "hackerazzi" case

 A Florida man who pleaded guilty to hacking into the email accounts of celebrities to gain access to nude photos and private information was sentenced to 10 years in prison by a federal judge in Los Angeles on Monday.Former office clerk Christopher Chaney, 36, said before the trial that he hacked into the accounts of film star Scarlett Johansson and other celebrities because he was addicted...

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Massachusetts fines Morgan Stanley over Facebook IPO

- Morgan Stanley , the lead underwriter for Facebook Inc's initial public offering, will pay a $5 million fine to Massachusetts for violating securities laws governing how investment research can be distributed.Massachusetts' top securities regulator, William Galvin, charged on Monday that a top Morgan Stanley banker had improperly coached Facebook on how to disclose sensitive financial information...

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ARM security improvement to speed mobile e-commerce

 British chip designer ARM Holdings and its partners Gemalto and Giesecke & Devrient have launched a new security standard for smartphones that can speed up e-commerce transactions.Trustonic, a joint venture between the companies formed in April, said the security standard could be built into every level of a device, from the chip through the operating system to applications.Ben Cade, Trustonic's...

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Online shopping to breathe new life into run-down sheds

 Owners of run-down warehouses on the edge of European cities could be sitting on goldmines because online shopping will force firms to seek distribution sites closer to customers who think speedy delivery is the norm.In an increasingly fierce market where the likes of Amazon and Tesco pledge next-day or same-day delivery in specific time slots, warehouse rents could rise 40 percent over the...

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Worker Reprimanded For Flatulence

An employee at the Social Security Administration's Baltimore office has been formally reprimanded for "conduct unbecoming of a federal employee," specifically for disrupting co-workers "by passing gas and releasing an unpleasant odor."According to the letter, issued in December and obtained by the Smoking Gun website, the employee, who has been identified as a 38 year old male but was not identified...

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Rebels surround air bases across Aleppo-commander

 Syrian rebels are surrounding bases and military airports loyal to President Bashar al-Assad across the northern province of Aleppo, a commander said, but are struggling to counter attacks from jet fighters which can fly even from besieged airfields.Colonel Abdel-Jabbar Oqaidi, who heads the rebels' military council in the province, also told Reuters that his forces are fighting without any...

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Kuwait to host Syria crisis meeting, envoy meets Assad

Kuwait will host an international conference next month to tackle Syria's humanitarian crisis, the ruling emir said on Monday, as foes of President Bashar al-Assad voiced frustration with international efforts to end the civil war.In Damascus, special international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi met Assad but the Syrian opposition vented its anger at what it called a "silence" over the unabated killing of...

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2012 a year of unparalleled justice for child sex abuse victims

 Experts say 2012 was a year of unparalleled justice for child sex abuse victims, but whether the string of high-profile convictions will translate into a turning point for juvenile safety remains to be seen.The year's headlines heralded the criminal convictions of former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky, Monsignor William Lynn of the Catholic Church's Philadelphia Archdiocese and ultra-Orthodox...

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Two drone strikes kill five in Yemen: officials

At least five people were killed in two drone strikes in south Yemen on Monday in what security and local officials said were attacks on suspected al Qaeda-linked insurgents.Improving stability and security in Yemen is a priority for the United States and its Gulf Arab allies because of its strategic position next to the world's top oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, and shipping lanes, and because it is...

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France extends deadline for publishers' talks with Google

 The French government said it would extend to the end of January the deadline for talks between Google Inc and the French press to settle a dispute over the search engine's links to online news articles.Press associations in France, and other European countries, want Google to pay when it displays links to newspapers in Internet searches.In reply, Google has threatened to stop indexing articles...

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Wells Fargo Web site troubles persist, U.S. OCC issues cyber alert

 Wells Fargo & Co customers on Friday had trouble accessing the bank's Web site for a fourth day, as a federal regulator reiterated the need for banks to have systems in place to ward off cyber attacks.A spokeswoman for the No. 4 U.S. bank by assets said some customers may have intermittent access to their online banking, although the high volume of traffic that has flooded the site has declined."Our...

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Facebook Poke App Is Frustrating as Hell

Facebook Poke: Startup ScreenPoke, the new iPhone app from Facebook, lets you send short messages, photos and videos to friends that automatically self destruct after a few seconds. If you have the Facebook app on your phone already, logging in is effortless.Click here to view this gallery.[More from Mashable: 2012′s Biggest Winners and Losers]I was never a big poker on Facebook. When I joined the...

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HTC upgrades Android devices faster than any of its rivals

The problem with Android has always been the erratic schedules manufacturers and carriers use to update devices. Due to custom user interfaces that are used to differentiate devices from the large pool of Android vendors, manufacturers often require more time to update devices than Google (GOOG) does for its own Nexus line of smartphones and tablets. Smartphone makers must then submit their update...

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Google, Motorola plotting a so-called ‘X Phone’ to take on the iPhone and Galaxy S III

Motorola engineers are said to be working on a “sophisticated” smartphone that will “provide more potent competition” to the iPhone, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. Google (GOOG) hopes the handset, which is known internally as “X Phone,” will stand apart from existing devices, although the company is said to be running into some obstacles. The device will reportedly be equipped...

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Margaret Thatcher in hospital after operation

LONDON (Reuters) - Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, the country's first woman elective leader, is in hospital recovering from surgery to remove a growth on her bladder, a source close to the family said on Friday.After experiencing pain in her bladder earlier in the week, he 87-year-old went to hospital where she underwent a minimally invasive operation, Tim Bell, a public relations...

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Margaret Thatcher in UK hospital after operation

LONDON (AP) — Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is recuperating at a hospital after an operation to remove a bladder growth, a friend said Friday.The 87-year-old Thatcher went to see her doctor after experiencing some discomfort and subsequently had the growth removed, according to longtime adviser Tim Bell.The operation was "completely satisfactory," Bell said. He said he couldn't go...

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Pope stresses family values as gay marriage gains

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The pope pressed his opposition to gay marriage Friday, denouncing what he described as people eschewing their God-given gender identities to suit their sexual choices — and destroying the very "essence of the human creature" in the process.Benedict XVI made the comments in his annual Christmas address to the Vatican bureaucracy, one of his most important speeches of the year....

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Pardon for pope's butler who stole papers expected

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican has summoned journalists for a briefing on what Italian news reports say is an expected pardon for Pope Benedict XVI'S former butler, who stole the pontiff's personal papers and leaked them in a bid to expose the "evil and corruption" in the Catholic Church.Paolo Gabriele was arrested May 23 after Vatican police found heaps of papal documents in his Vatican City apartment....

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Russia: Syrian chemical weapons under control

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's foreign minister says the Syrian government has consolidated its chemical weapons in one or two locations amid a rebel onslaught.Sergey Lavrov says Russia, which has military advisers training Syria's military, has kept close watch over its chemical arsenal. He says the Syrian government has moved them from many arsenals to just "one or two centers" to properly safeguard them.U.S....

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