Wall Street gains on Bernanke comments, S&P above 1,500

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks rose on Wednesday, with major indexes posting their best daily gains since early January, as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke remained steadfast in supporting the Fed's stimulus policy and data pointed to economic improvement. In a second day before a congressional committee, Bernanke defended the Fed's buying of bonds to keep interest rates low to boost...

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Rocket From Gaza Hits Israel, Breaking Cease-Fire

Tsafrir Abayov/Associated PressIsraeli explosives experts gathered near a rocket believed to have been fired from the Gaza Strip, landing near Ashkelon, on Tuesday. JERUSALEM — A Grad rocket fired from the Gaza Strip struck in southern Israel early Tuesday, threatening to further escalate tensions that have been mounting since Saturday, when a 30-year-old Palestinian prisoner died in an Israeli jail....

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See Which Star Dyed Her Hair Red for The Amazing Spider-Man

Stylewatch Style News Now 02/26/2013 at 12:30 PM ET Splash News Online; Inset: LandovEmma Stone went blonde for her role in the Spider-Man series, and now another star has made a change for the franchise. Shailene Woodley debuted...

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C. Everett Koop, 'rock star' surgeon general, dies

NEW YORK (AP) — Dr. C. Everett Koop has long been regarded as the nation's doctor— even though it has been nearly a quarter-century since he was surgeon general.Koop, who died Monday at his home in Hanover, N.H., at age 96, was by far the best known and most influential person to carry that title. Koop, a 6-foot-1 evangelical Presbyterian with a biblical prophet's beard, donned a public health uniform...

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Wall Street rebounds on Bernanke comments, data

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rebounded from their worst decline since November on Tuesday after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke defended the Fed's bond-buying stimulus and sales of new homes hit a 4 1/2-year high. The S&P 500 had climbed 6 percent for the year and came within reach of all-time highs before the minutes from the Fed's January meeting were released last Wednesday....

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Skepticism Surrounds Resumption of Nuclear Talks With Iran

ALMATY, Kazakhstan — Talks between Iran and six world powers over its nuclear program resume here on Tuesday after a break of eight months, but there is a general atmosphere of gloom about their prospects for success, even if narrowly defined. Since talks in Moscow last June, Iran has continued to increase its stockpile of uranium enriched to 20 percent purity, has begun to install a new...

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Oscar Gowns: The 12 Best Dresses of the Night

02/25/2013 at 05:50 PM EST Jason Merritt/Getty; John Shearer/AP; Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic In order to earn a spot in the PEOPLE.com Oscars Best Dressed gallery, a gown must do one of two things: get the unanimous approval of the entire PEOPLE.com style staff…or wow one editor so much that...

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Koop, who transformed surgeon general post, dies

With his long silver beard and uniform with braided trim, former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop became one of the most recognizable figures of the Reagan era — and one of the most unexpectedly enduring.His nomination in 1981 met a wall of opposition from women's groups and liberal politicians, who complained President Ronald Reagan selected Koop, a pediatric surgeon and evangelical Christian from...

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Wall Street trips and falls on cloudy Italian election

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks on Monday suffered their biggest drop since November after a strong showing in Italian elections by groups opposed to the country's economic reforms triggered worry that Europe's debt problems could once again destabilize the global economy. The decline marks the biggest percentage drop for the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 Index since November7, and...

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World Briefing | Middle East: Iran: News Agency Clarifies Drone Report

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said it had conducted tests aimed at bringing down a “hypothetical” foreign surveillance drone during a military exercise, the official Fars news agency said late Saturday, and did not actually shoot down or capture a foreign drone. The Islamic Republic News Agency, another official news agency, also reported on the exercise, but omitted the word hypothetical,...

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