Treasury Will Not Mint $1 Trillion Coin to Raise Debt Ceiling

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department said Saturday that it will not mint a trillion-dollar platinum coin to head off an imminent battle with Congress over raising the government’s borrowing limit. “Neither the Treasury Department nor the Federal Reserve believes that the law can or should be used to facilitate the production of platinum coins for the purpose of avoiding an increase in...

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Israeli Police Evict Palestinian Protesters from E1

JERUSALEM — Israeli security forces evicted scores of Palestinian activists before dawn on Sunday from a tent encampment they had set up set up two days earlier in a strategic piece of Israeli-occupied West Bank territory known as E1, east of Jerusalem, where Israel says it plans to build settler homes. The police said the eviction had been carried out swiftly, with no injuries on either...

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Aaron Swartz, Internet Activist, Dies at 26

Aaron Swartz, a wizardly programmer who as a teenager helped develop code that delivered ever-changing Web content to users and who later became a steadfast crusader to make that information freely available, was found dead on Friday in his New York apartment. An uncle, Michael Wolf, said that Mr. Swartz, 26, had apparently hanged himself, and that a friend of Mr. Swartz’s had discovered...

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City Room: Cuomo Declares Public Health Emergency Over Flu Outbreak

With the nation in the grip of a severe influenza outbreak that has seen deaths reach epidemic levels, New York State declared a public health emergency on Saturday, making access to vaccines more easily available.There have been nearly 20,000 cases of flu reported across the state so far this season, officials said. Last season, 4,400 positive laboratory tests were reported.“We are experiencing...

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City Room: Cuomo Declares Public Health Emergency Over Flu Outbreak

With the nation in the grip of a severe influenza outbreak that has seen deaths reach epidemic levels, New York State declared a public health emergency on Saturday, making access to vaccines more easily available.There have been nearly 20,000 cases of flu reported across the state so far this season, officials said. Last season, 4,400 positive laboratory tests were reported.“We are experiencing...

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Business Briefing | Retailing: Best Buy Shares Rally on Improved Holiday Sales

The Best Buy Company had better-than-expected holiday sales, setting off a gain of $2, or 16.4 percent, in its stock price, to $14.21 a share on Friday. The holiday quarter accounted for about a third of Best Buy’s revenue last year. The chain said that revenue at stores open at least a year fell 1.4 percent for the nine weeks ended Jan. 5. The company’s performance in the United States was flat....

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Immigration Arrests Lead to Online Outcry, and Release

PHOENIX — Immigration agents arrested the mother and brother of a prominent activist during a raid at her home here late Thursday, unleashing a vigorous response on social media and focusing new attention on one of the most controversial aspects of the Obama administration’s policies on deportation. The agents knocked on Erika Andiola’s door shortly after 9 p.m., asking for her mother, Maria...

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Gadgetwise Blog: With Skullcandy, Look Stylish While Playing Video Games

Skullcandy is known for adding youthful flair to audio gear. So when the company acquired Astro Gaming, a maker of premium gaming accessories, it made sense that it would introduce a line of stylish, less-expensive gaming headsets with the Skullcandy brand.The new line, introduced over several months, includes three options, Slyr, Plyr1 and Plyr2, which offer different levels of performance. All three...

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Former Lab Technician Denies Faulty DNA Work in Rape Cases

A former New York City laboratory technician whose work on rape cases is now being scrutinized for serious mistakes said on Friday that she had been unaware there were problems in her work and, disputing an earlier report, denied she had resigned under pressure. The former lab technician, Serrita Mitchell, said any problems must have been someone else’s. “My work?” Ms. Mitchell said....

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Former Lab Technician Denies Faulty DNA Work in Rape Cases

A former New York City laboratory technician whose work on rape cases is now being scrutinized for serious mistakes said on Friday that she had been unaware there were problems in her work and, disputing an earlier report, denied she had resigned under pressure. The former lab technician, Serrita Mitchell, said any problems must have been someone else’s. “My work?” Ms. Mitchell said....

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Japan Approves $116 Billion in Emergency Economic Stimulus

TOKYO — The Japanese government approved emergency stimulus spending of more than $100 billion on Friday, part of an aggressive push by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to kick-start growth in Japan’s long-moribund economy. Mr. Abe also reiterated pressure on Japan’s central bank to make a firmer commitment to stopping deflation by pumping more money into the economy — a measure the prime minister...

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India Ink: Pakistan: A New Clash in Kashmir

The Pakistani Army said Thursday that Indian troops had killed another Pakistani soldier in the latest round of clashes in Kashmir, the disputed Himalayan region. In a sudden escalation of longstanding tensions this week, each side has bitterly accused the other of violating the de facto border in Kashmir, which both sides claim in its entirety. In recent days, India said two of its soldiers had...

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In New Year, Errors Mount at High-Speed Exchanges

Confidence-shaking technology mishaps have been an almost daily occurrence at the nation’s stock exchanges in the new year. The latest example came Wednesday night when the nation’s third-largest stock exchange operator, BATS Global Markets, alerted its customers that a programming mistake had caused about 435,000 trades to be executed at the wrong price over the last four years, costing...

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Parental Consent Rule May Proceed for a Circumcision Ritual, a Judge Says

New York City health officials may proceed temporarily with a plan to require parental consent before an infant may undergo a particular Jewish circumcision ritual, a federal judge ruled Thursday. City officials say 12 cases of herpes simplex virus have likely resulted from the procedure, known as metzitzah b’peh, since 2000, including one Brooklyn case reported this week. Two infants died,...

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Parental Consent Rule May Proceed for a Circumcision Ritual, a Judge Says

New York City health officials may proceed temporarily with a plan to require parental consent before an infant may undergo a particular Jewish circumcision ritual, a federal judge ruled Thursday. City officials say 12 cases of herpes simplex virus have likely resulted from the procedure, known as metzitzah b’peh, since 2000, including one Brooklyn case reported this week. Two infants died,...

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S.E.C. Seeks to Penalize 2 Auditors in Bank Case

In its first case against auditors stemming from the financial crisis, the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday took action against two KPMG employees who had given a clean audit opinion to a Nebraska-based bank holding company that later failed because of bad loans it had made to real estate developers in Nevada and Florida. The S.E.C. asked an administrative law judge to...

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IHT Rendezvous: Rescuing China's Bears from Bile Farms, One by One

BEIJING — Some had wounded faces and bloodied paws. Some were angry after years of mistreatment.But six Asiatic black bears now have a chance at a life of dignity after being rescued on Wednesday from a Chinese bile farm by Animals Asia, an animal rights group, and the Chinese government’s State Forestry agency.The bear rescue will continue for a few days as the animals are settled into their new...

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Delegation to North Korea Urges More Access to Internet and Cellphones

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — A private delegation to North Korea that includes Google’s executive chairman, Eric E. Schmidt, is urging North Korea to allow more open Internet access and cellphones, although it is unclear how that message is being heard by a leadership that has long depended on a near-total ban on outside information to maintain its totalitarian rule. David Guttenfelder/Associated...

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Americans Under 50 Fare Poorly on Health Measures, New Report Says

Younger Americans die earlier and live in poorer health than their counterparts in other developed countries, with far higher rates of death from guns, car accidents and drug addiction, according to a new analysis of health and longevity in the United States. Researchers have known for some time that the United States fares poorly in comparison with other rich countries, a trend established...

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Americans Under 50 Fare Poorly on Health Measures, New Report Says

Younger Americans die earlier and live in poorer health than their counterparts in other developed countries, with far higher rates of death from guns, car accidents and drug addiction, according to a new analysis of health and longevity in the United States. Researchers have known for some time that the United States fares poorly in comparison with other rich countries, a trend established...

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DealBook: After I.P.O. Drought, Brazil Is More Hospitable to Investors

SÃO PAULO, Brazil — The nation’s main stock exchange here forecast at the start of 2012 that 40 to 45 companies would hold initial public offerings to list their shares. Only three did.“Very few transactions got done, and very few got done well,” said Fábio Nazari, head of equity capital markets at BTG Pactual. Many issuers encountered “very difficult conditions.”Some of the lackluster performance...

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Contractor Settles Case in Iraq Prison Abuse

WASHINGTON — An American contractor hired by the military to provide translation services for interrogators at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq has reached a $5 million settlement with scores of detainees who accused its employees of complicity in abusing them, according to financial disclosure documents. The widespread abuse of prisoners held at Abu Ghraib by the United States military early...

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