The Office

NBC's `Today' show faces transitions - Yahoo! News

NEW YORK – NBC's "Today" show has been one of the most stable and successful programs in the history of television over the past 15 years. Now it faces the possibility of a major makeover.

Co-host Meredith Vieira, the "newbie" on "Today" with five years in the early-morning anchor chair, is leaning toward leaving when her contract expires in September, according to multiple reports this week. That news was barely digested when an unconfirmed "Entertainment Tonight" story suggested that her partner, Matt Lauer, also may leave when his contract is done in nearly 21 months.

The two anchors have not commented on their futures. "There seems to be an awful lot of speculation on news anchors these days, and it's not our practice to comment on any of it," NBC News spokeswoman Megan Kopf said.

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ShowBiz Minute: Jackson, Cowell, 'Jersey Shore'

Forces impose blockade around Ivory Coast's Gbagbo - Yahoo! News

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast – Ivory Coast's democratically elected leader imposed a blockade Friday around the presidential residence where the country's entrenched strongman remains holed up underground and said he'll focus on normalizing life in this corpse-strewn, terrorized city.

As the military standoff dragged on in Abidjan, there were new concerns Friday about tensions erupting into deadly violence in the country's west. The U.N. said more than 100 bodies have been found in the last 24 hours, and some of the victims had been burned alive.

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Pit bull abandoned in NJ gains worldwide following - Yahoo! News

NEWARK, N.J. – When an emaciated pit bull found at the bottom of a trash chute in New Jersey was rushed to a veterinary emergency room last month, doctors there thought he would be dead within the hour.

Instead, the scrappy pup, nicknamed Patrick, has defied the odds and is getting stronger by the day.

"He is a tremendous fighter," said Dr. Thomas Scavelli, the director and founder of the Garden State Veterinary Specialists, the pet hospital in Tinton Falls where Patrick is being treated. "There are very few animals, or any life form, that could have gone through and survived what he has, and really never looked back."

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Budget deal elusive as negotiators scramble - Yahoo! News

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Facing a midnight deadline, the White House and Congress worked furiously on Friday to break a budget deadlock and avoid a federal government shutdown, after President Barack Obama and congressional leaders failed to reach a deal in late-night talks.

"I'm not prepared to express wild optimism, but I think we are further along today than we were yesterday," Obama told reporters late on Thursday after meeting with House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the top Democrat in Congress.

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Jobless claims fall slightly more than expected - Yahoo! News

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – New claims for unemployment benefits fell slightly more than expected last week, pointing to firming labor market conditions.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits slipped 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 382,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

Economists had forecast claims falling to 385,000.

"The downtrend in initial claims remains firmly in place, and overall the data point to a continued gradual improvement in the underlying pace of layoffs, consistent with the steady progress that we have seen in the payrolls data," said Omair Sharif, an economist at RBS in Stamford, Connecticut.

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A new Brand of comedy in 'Arthur'

"Your Highness" not funny in the slightest - Yahoo! News

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Great screen comedies that feature a severed Minotaur's penis as a key prop are, sadly, few and far between.

"Your Highness," opening Friday, aspires to such greatness but falls instead into a deep chasm of such comic lowness after less than five minutes that it's unable to extricate itself. Things get so bad you half expect a cameo by Nicolas Cage.

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Portugal sees "irreparable damage" in debt cost - Yahoo! News

LISBON (Reuters) – Portugal's caretaker government, fighting to avoid a bailout, said on Wednesday a political crisis had caused "irreparable damage" after borrowing costs rocketed as it sold a billion euros in short-term debt.

The sale of 6- and 12-month treasury bills brought some temporary relief for a country grappling with soaring rates, political uncertainty, rating downgrades and a warning by local banks they may no longer be able to buy government debt.

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Outsider Michael Martelly sweeps Haiti's presidential election - Yahoo! News

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – Singer Michel Martelly, a shaven-headed political outsider with no previous government experience, won Haiti's presidential election in a landslide victory that tapped into deep popular desire for change in the poor, earthquake-battered Caribbean state.

Preliminary results announced by the Provisional Electoral Council on Monday gave the 50-year-old entertainer a clear win with nearly 68 percent of the vote, compared with just under 32 percent for his rival, former first lady Mirlande Manigat.

Celebrations erupted in the scruffy capital Port-au-Prince as cheering, jubilant Martelly supporters flooded the streets, singing, waving his portrait and setting off fireworks.

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