Two wards at Wrexham Maelor Hospital are closed to new admissions after an outbreak of norovirus, the winter vomiting bug.

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Hospital wards hit by norovirus

On a farm on the outskirts of Frederick, Kelly Rausch and Adam Finkelstein crack open a wooden beehive whose design dates to the 19th century. Inside, they point out a superbee they have made for the 21st century. In two months, the carefully bred queen bee has built a large, productive colony that knows how to cluster against the cold and fill the winter larder with honey. Read full article > >

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In search of a better bee

Baby Jesus is keeping strange company. For the better part of 50 years, a creche and a Christmas tree were the only holiday displays on the Loudoun County Courthouse grounds. Then came the mannequin Luke Skywalker and signs celebrating the winter solstice. This month, a skeleton Santa Claus was mounted on a cross, intended by its creator to portray society’s obsession with consumerism. A pine stands adorned with tinsel — and atheist testimonials. (“I can be moral without religion,” one declares.) Read full article > >

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In Leesburg, holiday displays bring controversy and change

Baby Jesus is keeping strange company. For the better part of 50 years, a creche and a Christmas tree were the only holiday displays on the Loudoun County Courthouse grounds. Then came the mannequin Luke Skywalker and signs celebrating the winter solstice. This month, a skeleton Santa Claus was mounted on a cross, intended by its creator to portray society’s obsession with consumerism. A pine stands adorned with tinsel — and atheist testimonials. (“I can be moral without religion,” one declares.) Read full article > >

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In Leesburg, holiday displays bring controversy and change

The Minister for Social Development has said he is “appalled” at Westminster’s decision to cut the winter fuel payment.

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McCausland ‘appalled’ by fuel cut

The Reporters Who Cover Television — settling in for the long winter’s nap that starts shortly after the November sweeps and generally lasts until the start of Winter TV Press Tour in January — were rudely jolted out of their slumber and into action Thursday when actual news erupted: NBC News suits had been seen dining with Ryan Seacrest. In Los Angeles. Read full article > >

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Spotted: Ryan Seacrest with NBC News execs: Is ‘Today’ in his future?

SUNRISE, Fla. — The Washington Capitals have won the Southeast Division each of the past four seasons. But their reign will be tested this winter by Florida — a point the revamped Panthers hammered home Monday. Stephen Weiss registered two goals and an assist, and the Panthers struck three times on six power-play opportunities to hold off the Capitals, 5-4 , at BankAtlantic Center. Read full article > >

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Capitals vs. Panthers: Washington digs too big a hole and falls, 5-4

The new marching orders for federal workers during snowstorms this winter: Leave the office by the time we tell you to go home—or stay put until we say the roads are safe. In the first overhaul in 14 years to its bad-weather policy, the government is vowing to avoid the chaos that unfolded on Jan. 26 when thousands of commuters were trapped in their cars in gridlock for up to 12 hours. Most left the office just as a fast-moving snowstorm struck at rush hour. The government took the heat for dismissing people too late and not telling transportation officials. Read full article > >

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New snow policy for feds: Shelter in place

CAIRO — Egypt’s finance minister tendered his resignation Tuesday to protest the government’s role in the most violent unrest since the winter uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak , according to an aide. But his attempt to quit was quickly rejected by the country’s transitional military leadership. Read full article > >

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Egyptian minister offers to quit after Christian deaths

CHARLOTTESVILLE — When Michael Rocco was a boy, he had allergies so severe they would inflame his airways to the point where breathing no longer was a subconscious act. So his parents often found themselves on the front porch of their Western Pennsylvania home, holding Michael in a rocking chair and praying the dampness of the evening would moisten their youngest child’s lungs. “It always acted up in the fall and into the winter,” Rocco said. “Whenever the seasons started to change, I started feeling pressure on my chest.”  Read full article > >

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Virginia football hoping that QB Michael Rocco is a breath of fresh air

A talking cactus named Spike returns to Aberdeen’s Winter Gardens at Duthie Park after more than 12 years absence.

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Sharp talk – speaking cactus returns to park

In a pristine white greenhouse in La Jolla, Calif., maverick molecular biologist Craig Venter is showing off tubs of dark green goop that might help rescue the planet. Winter sunlight streams through the glass roof onto rows of long, white troughs filled with algae and seawater. A little water wheel in each trough turns to keep the liquid circulating and the growing cells evenly exposed to light and to carbon dioxide-enriched air. Computers maintain a constant temperature. Giant transparent bags of algae varieties waiting to be tested hang from metal beams. Read full article > >

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Is Craig Venter going to save the planet? Or is this more hype from one of America’s most controversial scientists?

You’ll be able (or forced, depending on your opinion) to catch the Olympics on the Peacock Network and its sister channels until the year 2020. NBC won the TV rights to the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia; the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro;…

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NBC Secures Next Four Olympics

In the winter of 2010, the cheerfully effervescent romance novelist Nyree Belleville suffered the same fate as many a scribe — she was dropped by her publisher. The most any of her 12 spicy romances, penned under the name Bella Andre , had earned was $21,000. She was, in her Cali-girl vocabulary, “bummed.” She was 36. She had two young children, a husband and a little house in the hills above this picturesque wine-making region. A thin, pretty brunette who majored in economics at Stanford, Belleville had been a singer in her 20s, but that career died, and now her writing career was so flat line that one of her old publishers had even given her the rights to her first two novels. Read full article > >

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Novel rejected? There’s an e-book gold rush!

Some of the patients struck by swine flu in the winter could take 18 months to fully recover and need long term rehabilitation.

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Swine flu victims’ 18 month fight