Plenty of Theories, and Enemies, in Killing of 3 Kurds in Paris

Joel Saget/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThe brother of Sakine Cansiz (on poster), one of three Kurdish activists found shot on Thursday, said his family was convinced that it was a professional assassination. PARIS — With her signature long hennaed hair, fiery resolve and olive-green military fatigues, Sakine Cansiz was a feminist, guerrilla fighter and former political prisoner as adept at...

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Aaron Swartz, Internet Activist, Dies at 26

Michael Francis McElroy for The New York TimesAaron Swartz in 2009. Aaron Swartz, a wizardly programmer who as a teenager helped develop code that delivered ever-changing Web content to users and later became a steadfast crusader to make that information freely available, was found dead on Friday in his New York apartment. He was 26.  An uncle, Michael Wolf, said that Mr. Swartz...

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‘Bodega Clinicas’ Draw Interest of Health Officials

HUNTINGTON PARK, Calif. — The “bodega clinicas” that line the bustling commercial streets of immigrant neighborhoods around Los Angeles are wedged between money order kiosks and pawnshops. These storefront offices, staffed with Spanish-speaking medical providers, treat ailments for cash: a doctor’s visit is $20 to $40; a cardiology exam is $120; and at one bustling clinic, a colonoscopy is advertised...

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‘Bodega Clinicas’ Draw Interest of Health Officials

HUNTINGTON PARK, Calif. — The “bodega clinicas” that line the bustling commercial streets of immigrant neighborhoods around Los Angeles are wedged between money order kiosks and pawnshops. These storefront offices, staffed with Spanish-speaking medical providers, treat ailments for cash: a doctor’s visit is $20 to $40; a cardiology exam is $120; and at one bustling clinic, a colonoscopy is advertised...

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Aaron Swartz, Internet Activist, Dies at 26

Michael Francis McElroy for The New York TimesAaron Swartz in 2009. Aaron Swartz, a wizardly programmer who as a teenager helped develop code that delivered ever-changing Web content to users and later became a steadfast crusader to make that information freely available, was found dead on Friday in his New York apartment. He was 26.  An uncle, Michael Wolf, said that Mr. Swartz...

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At War Blog: Highlights From Karzai, Obama News Conference

President Obama, after meeting with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, said Friday that the United States would be able to accelerate the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan in coming months because of gains made by Afghan security forces.As the Times’s Mark Landler reported, Mr. Obama also made it clear that he contemplated leaving relatively few troops in Afghanistan after the NATO combat...

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Gadgetwise Blog: Q&A: Dealing With Duplicate Work on Dropbox

What happens if two people work on the same file at the same time in a shared Dropbox folder? Does one copy of the file overwrite the other?If two people are editing the same file at the same time, Dropbox saves both versions of the file in the shared folder. The service does not merge the two different files, but adds the words “conflicted copy” to the file name of the second version so it is obvious...

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Doctor and Patient: When the Doctor Returns to Doctoring

Several years ago, a highly respected medical expert I had just met shared a little-known detail of his illustrious career: as a young doctor, he had stopped practicing medicine for a few years to homeschool his son.His revelation took me completely by surprise. Doctors rarely talked about taking time off for fear that colleagues would assume them incompetent or in possession of some serious personal...

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Doctor and Patient: When the Doctor Returns to Doctoring

Several years ago, a highly respected medical expert I had just met shared a little-known detail of his illustrious career: as a young doctor, he had stopped practicing medicine for a few years to homeschool his son.His revelation took me completely by surprise. Doctors rarely talked about taking time off for fear that colleagues would assume them incompetent or in possession of some serious personal...

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France Near Deal to Simplify Labor Regulations

PARIS — French labor unions and business leaders appeared close to striking a deal Friday to make it easier to hire and fire employees in France’s notoriously rigid labor market. An accord would tame some of the most confounding rules in the 3,200-page labor code, as the country tries to increase its competitiveness and curb unemployment. After weeks of sparring among the five major labor...

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Blasts in Pakistan Kill at Least 88 and Raise Fears Over Elections

Waheed Khan/European Pressphoto AgencyThe worst violence was concentrated in the southwestern city of Quetta, where two explosions killed at least 57 people and wounded more than 110, the police said. ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Bomb blasts in two Pakistani cities killed at least 88 people on Thursday and wounded more than 270, offering harrowing evidence of how the country’s myriad internal conflicts...

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2 Years Into Its Turnaround, Nokia Shows Promise

BERLIN — Nearly two years ago, Stephen Elop, fresh from a senior post at Microsoft, spoke of flaming ocean platforms and shark-infested waters to describe the competitive climate he inherited at Nokia, the erstwhile leader in mobile phones that was then teetering on the brink of irrelevance. Mr. Elop, an affable Canadian engineer, painted the bleak outlook as he prescribed a radical cure...

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City Room: How Are You Warding Off the Flu?

Sure, you could go out and get a flu shot like everyone keeps telling you to do. It’s relatively cheap, and available just about everywhere.But the shot is not 100 percent effective. And it takes two weeks to kick in. Although influenza can be deadly, some have been making light of the virus’s symptoms.On the bright side, having the flu was a great start to my spring break diet.. eating nothing and...

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City Room: How Are You Warding Off the Flu?

Sure, you could go out and get a flu shot like everyone keeps telling you to do. It’s relatively cheap, and available just about everywhere.But the shot is not 100 percent effective. And it takes two weeks to kick in. Although influenza can be deadly, some have been making light of the virus’s symptoms.On the bright side, having the flu was a great start to my spring break diet.. eating nothing and...

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Sharp Words From European Minister for Countries in North

BRUSSELS — Jean-Claude Juncker, the departing leader of the group of ministers who oversee the euro currency, sharply criticized northern Europeans on Thursday for demanding austerity budgets from their southern neighbors. But in the same speech he seemed to endorse as his successor an official from the Netherlands, one of countries that has made the toughest demands for fiscal rigor...

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Global Update: China Moves to Prevent Spread of Yellow Fever From Africa

In a move that underlines how many Chinese citizens now work in Africa, China’s quarantine officials recently urged greater efforts to make sure that a yellow fever epidemic now raging in Sudan does not come back to China. Local health authorities were asked to scan all travelers arriving from Sudan for fevers. Chinese citizens planning travel to Sudan were advised to get yellow fever shots....

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Baseball Dumping Dugout-to-Bullpen Landlines

The reserve clause is dead. And so are wool uniforms. There are no longer eight teams in each league. And the Houston Astros have departed the National League.  Major League Baseball is now about to disconnect the landlines that link dugouts to bullpens. Long after the rest of society embraced cellphones, managers and coaches will soon be able to discuss pitching changes on Samsung Galaxy...

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Pap Test May Prove Useful at Detecting More Types of Cancer, Study Suggests

The Pap test, which has prevented countless deaths from cervical cancer, may eventually help to detect cancers of the uterus and ovaries as well, a new study suggests. For the first time, researchers have found genetic material from uterine or ovarian cancers in Pap smears, meaning that it may become possible to detect three diseases with just one routine test. But the research is...

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Pap Test May Prove Useful at Detecting More Types of Cancer, Study Suggests

The Pap test, which has prevented countless deaths from cervical cancer, may eventually help to detect cancers of the uterus and ovaries as well, a new study suggests. For the first time, researchers have found genetic material from uterine or ovarian cancers in Pap smears, meaning that it may become possible to detect three diseases with just one routine test. But the research is...

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Wall Street Modestly Higher

Wall Street stocks traded higher on Wednesday after Alcoa got the earnings season under way with better-than-expected revenue and an encouraging outlook for the year. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index rose 0.2 percent in late trading, the Dow Jones industrial average added 0.4 percent and the Nasdaq composite index was up 0.4 percent. European shares closed moderately higher....

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