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SAN JOSE, Calif. – Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) shares rose more than 3 percent in early trading on Friday, after the company reported a drop in fourth-quarter earnings that still came in higher than Wall Street estimates. Late on Thursday, HP posted fiscal fourth-quarter sales that jumped 7 percent, but net …

WASHINGTON – Mortgage finance company Freddie Mac (FRE) Tuesday said it will revise its profit for the first half of 2005 downward by about $220 million, citing computer-related accounting errors. Net income for the first half of 2005 dropped to $1.4 billion, compared with $1.6 billion previously reported by the …

BERKLEY, Mich. – A song about people picking cotton was pulled from a middle school concert in suburban Detroit after a black parent complained that it glorifies slavery. Superintendent Tresa Zumsteg decided Monday to remove the song “Pick a Bale of Cotton” from the program, said Gwen Ahearn, spokeswoman for …

Sometimes it gets tough walking the street down old Hooker Lane (search). Tired of the giggles, the well-to-do residents living on the street in the Cos Cob section (search) of Greenwich, Conn., have demanded a name change to Stonebrook Lane, according to The New York Times. “When you order something …

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – A ferry overloaded with people heading to a memorial for three drowned boaters capsized on Friday in the Arabian Sea off southern Pakistan (search), killing about 60 people, officials said. Five people who managed to swim to shore notified authorities, said Mohammed Ali Shah, chairman of the …

Physical activity lowers a woman’s risk of breast cancer, researchers find. The benefit is modest — a 20 percent lower risk of breast cancer at ages 35 to 64 — but it’s real. It’s just as true for black women as it is for white women. And it doesn’t take …

AUSTIN, Texas – Travis County is not so prejudiced against Rep. Tom DeLay (search) that former House majority leader couldn’t get a fair trial in the city, a veteran defense attorney said Monday in a sworn court statement. The affidavit by Betty Blackwell (search) was filed on behalf of prosecutors …

This is a partial transcript of “The Big Story With John Gibson,” November 14, 2005, that has been edited for clarity. JOHN GIBSON, HOST: In Monday’s “Political Smackdown,” the White House returns fire over the fight of pre-war intelligence. The president is on his way to the Far East, but …

KARACHI, Pakistan – Pakistani police on Wednesday arrested a man wanted in the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl (search) and already sentenced to death in absentia for a hotel bombing that killed 11 French engineers. The suspect, Mohammed Sohail (search), was among six people who fired on …

An elderly Canadian woman ended up in the morgue a bit too early. The unnamed 87-year-old resident of a Surrey, British Columbia, extended-care facility, was sleeping deeply Saturday night when her roommate quietly died. An ambulance driver came to pick up the dead woman, but forgot to check wristbands to …