S.Africa’s Harmony Gold earnings weather strike storm

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Harmony Gold, South Africa‘s third largest gold producer, said its second quarter earnings were higher despite a 9 percent fall in output after post-strike violence at one of its biggest South African mines forced it to halt the operation.Headline earnings were 28 percent higher at 158 cents per share for the three months October to December, which beat the Reuters consensus...

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Should we still fear al Qaeda?

Mali military battles Islamist insurgentsMali military battles Islamist insurgentsMali military battles Islamist insurgentsMali military battles Islamist insurgentsMali military battles Islamist insurgentsMali military battles Islamist insurgentsMali military battles Islamist insurgentsMali military battles Islamist insurgentsMali military battles Islamist insurgentsMali military battles Islamist...

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Overnight snow expected to snarl morning commute

Margaret Even of Rogers Park walks with her dog, Tilly, at Montrose Harbor on a chilly and sunny Sunday. Up to a half a...

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Syrian opposition chief under fire for talks with Assad allies

MUNICH (Reuters) - Syria's opposition leader flew back to his Cairo headquarters from Germany on Sunday to explain to skeptical allies his decision to talk with President Bashar al-Assad's main backers Russia and Iran. The Russian and Iranian foreign ministers, and U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden, portrayed Syrian National Coalition leader Moaz Alkhatib's new willingness to talk with the...

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"Great Rotation"- A Wall Street fairy tale?

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street's current jubilant narrative is that a rush into stocks by small investors has sparked a "great rotation" out of bonds and into equities that will power the bull market to new heights. That sounds good, but there's a snag: The evidence for this is a few weeks of bullish fund flows that are hardly unusual for January. Late-stage bull markets...

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Peterson double winner of AP NFL awards

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Adrian Peterson called it a blessing in disguise.Strange way to describe career-threatening major knee surgery.The Minnesota Vikings' star came back better than ever, just missing Eric Dickerson's longstanding rushing record and closing out the season with two of the top NFL awards from The Associated Press: Most Valuable Player and Offensive Player of the Year.As sort of an added...

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Exxon’s 2012 profit of $44.9B just misses record

Exxon Mobil Corp. nearly set a record for annual profit. The oil giant reported Friday that 2012 net income was $ 44.88 billion, just $ 340 million — less than 1 percent — short of the company’s record set in 2008, when crude oil prices hit an all-time high. Exxon‘s profit for the last 10 years totals $ 343.4 billion.— $ 44.88 billion in 2012— $ 41.06 billion in 2011— $ 30.46 billion in 2010— $ 19.28...

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Hillary: Secretary of empowerment

Girls hug U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during a 2010 tour of a shelter run for sex trafficking victims in Cambodia.STORY HIGHLIGHTSDonna Brazile: Clinton stepping down as Secretary of State. Maybe she'll run for presidentShe says as secretary she expanded foreign policy to include effect on regular people She says she was first secretary of state to focus on empowering women and girlsBrazile:...

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More 911 calls won't get in-person response starting Sunday

The Chicago Police Department hopes to free up the equivalent of 44 officers a day by no longer dispatching cops for certain...

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Suicide bomber, gunmen kill 33 in Iraq's Kirkuk

KIRKUK, Iraq (Reuters) - A suicide bomber driving a car and gunmen disguised in police uniforms killed at least 33 people in the Iraqi city Kirkuk on Sunday when they tried to storm the police headquarters. It was the third major attack in several weeks in or near the northern city, an ethnically mixed area of Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen at the heart of a dispute over oil and land between...

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