Tennis-Injured Monaco first seed to fall at Australian Open

MELBOURNE, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Argentine Juan Monaco was the first seed to be knocked out of the Australian Open on Monday, succumbing as much to injury as to Russian Andrey Kuznetsov in a 7-6 6-1 6-1 first round defeat.With all the seeds safely through to the second round as the shadows lengthened over show court two, the 28-year-old took lengthy injury time outs for treatment on his lower back and...

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Toronto mayor battles for job as court appeal wraps up

TORONTO (Reuters) - The ruling to remove an "honest man" such as Toronto Mayor Rob Ford from office would be draconian, the mayor's lawyer said on Monday as arguments concluded in the appeal of a case that has cast a pall of uncertainty over who will run Canada's most populous city.The controversial mayor was evicted from his post by an Ontario Superior Court judge two years into his term after being...

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African Union head wants NATO to help fight Mali rebels

OTTAWA (Reuters) - The head of the African Union, Benin President Boni Yayi, on Tuesday called for a global coalition that includes NATO to intervene against Islamist rebels in northern Mali."My understanding is that in reality when we talk of an international force it's not just (West African regional group) ECOWAS, it's not just the African Union, it's also other forces from outside the African...

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Kings beat Raptors 105-96 to halt Toronto's win streak at ACC at five games

TORONTO - DeMarcus Cousins poured in 31 points and grabbed 20 rebounds to lift the Sacramento Kings to a 105-96 victory over the Raptors on Friday, handing Toronto its first loss at home in six games.Kyle Lowry scored 24 points to top the Raptors (12-21), who've lost just twice in 10 games.Alan Anderson added 20 points, DeMar DeRozan finished with 14, Jose Calderon had 13 points and just three assists,...

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Notre Dame women shock No. 1 UConn 73-72

STORRS, Conn. (AP) — Skylar Diggins and Notre Dame just seem to have Connecticut's number.The Irish have turned one of the best rivalries in women's basketball into a one-sided affair lately, winning five of the past six meetings.The senior All-American scored 19 points hitting big shot after big shot in the second half to lift fifth-ranked Notre Dame to a 73-72 victory over the top-ranked Huskies...

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Kelly wants Notre Dame keeping bar at title height

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Win or lose, Notre Dame's Brian Kelly doesn't want his team aiming any lower than the national championship game in the future.Kelly said Sunday "it's unacceptable for the standard to be any less than being back here again." First things first, his top-ranked Fighting Irish will face No. 2 Alabama Monday night hoping for their first national title since 1988.Kelly has...

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Kuwaiti journalist jailed for Twitter 'insults'

KUWAIT CITY (AP) — A Kuwait newspaper says an online journalist has been sentenced to two years in prison for posts deemed "insulting" to the Gulf nation's ruler — the second such ruling this week.The decision reflects a widening social media crackdown across the Gulf Arab states to quell perceived political dissent.Kuwait's pro-government Al Watan newspaper reported Monday that Ayyad al-Harbi, a...

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Mark Zuckerberg faces fine in Germany over Facebook privacy violations

Facebook (FB) founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg could face a fine of $26,000 for not allowing German citizens to maintain anonymous identities on Facebook, The Guardian reported. Thilo Weichert, the data protection commissioner for the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, said that Facebook is breaking a German law by requiring users to provide their identities, adding that “it is unacceptable...

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181,354 People on Twitter Think They're Experts at Twitter

Do you tweet a lot? Do you post everything on Facebook? Do you #hashtag #complete #sentences #like #this? Do you describe yourself, variously, as a social media "maven", "master", "guru", "freak", "warrior", "evangelist" or "veteran"? (Yes, a social media veteran. As if Tumblr were a deadly war you narrowly survived.) Well: you've got company! There are more than 181,000 such individuals on Twitter,...

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Global stocks, commodities rise on U.S. fiscal deal

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Global stocks jumped 2 percent or more and commodities rallied on Wednesday after U.S. legislators struck a deal to halt a round of automatic fiscal tightening that threatened to push the world's largest economy into recession.The deal reached on Tuesday to avert the "fiscal cliff" put off the immediate pain of income tax hikes for almost all U.S. households but did nothing to...

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