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Review: Microsoft Office Pricey, but Good Value

As much as I like Google Docs for word processing and spreadsheets, I find the online software clunky at times. So I was skeptical when I heard Microsoft is trying to sell its new version of Office as an online subscription.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the subscription gets you the same software you'd get buying it at a retail store. In fact, I'm using the new Office 2013 to write this review, and it feels as smooth as the customized version of Office 2010 I regularly use.

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Genetics May Explain Severe Flu in Chinese People

A genetic variant commonly found in Chinese people may help explain why some got seriously ill with swine flu, a discovery scientists say could help pinpoint why flu viruses hit some populations particularly hard and change how they are treated.

Less than one percent of Caucasians are thought to have the gene alteration, which has previously been linked to severe influenza. Yet about 25 percent of Chinese people have the gene variant, which is also common in Japanese and Korean people.

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Actor Jason London Arrested after U.S. Bar Fight

Authorities say actor Jason London has been arrested on suspicion of assault and disorderly conduct after an Arizona bar fight.

Scottsdale police say London allegedly sneezed on a man who then asked him to apologize, but London refused and instead hit the man in the face.

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Judd Announces Separation from Franchitti

Ashley Judd and Dario Franchitti are separating after 11 years of marriage.

Judd's spokeswoman confirmed a Tuesday report from People magazine that the 44-year-old actress and 39-year-old Scottish race car driver are ending their marriage.

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Singer Ke$ha to Debut MTV Reality Series in April

"Jersey Shore" might have ended, but another partygoer is lending her wild life to MTV: Ke$ha.

MTV announced late Tuesday that the pop singer will debut a documentary series, "Ke$ha: My Crazy Beautiful Life," in April.

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Lakers Edge Hornets 111-106 for 3rd Straight Win

The Los Angeles Lakers hung on to beat the New Orleans Hornets 111-106 Tuesday for their first three-game winning streak in five weeks.

Dwight Howard scored 24 points, and Kobe Bryant had 14 points and 11 assists in another pass-first performance for Los Angeles.

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New Brand Costs Dent H&M's Q4 Profits

Fashion retailer Hennes & Mauritz AB blamed higher costs developing a new brand and the effects of a stronger Swedish krona for a 1 percent fall in further-quarter profits.

The decline broke a three-quarter streak of rising earnings for H&M, which specializes in offering trendy fashion lines at low prices.

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U.S. Report: Iran, Hizbullah Threat Rising

Iran's elite Quds Force and Hizbullah are learning from a series of botched “terror attacks” over the past two years and pose a growing threat to the U.S. and other Western targets as well as Israel, a prominent counterterrorism expert says.

Operating both independently and together, the groups are escalating their activities around the world, fueling worries in the U.S. that they increasingly have the ability and the willingness to attack the U.S., according to a report by Matthew Levitt of the Washington Institute for Near East Studies.

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Search is on for Golden Cookie Stolen in Germany

Missing: One golden cookie, weighing around 44 pounds (20 kilograms).

Suspect: The Cookie Monster?

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Whitney Houston's Mother has Words for Bobby Brown

Cissy Houston has a few words, and a few more, for Bobby Brown.

In "Remembering Whitney," the mother of the late Whitney Houston writes that from the start she had doubted whether Brown was right for her daughter. And she thinks that Whitney might not have ended up so "deep" into drugs had they not stayed together.

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