Smoking in pregnancy tied to lower reading scores

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Babies exposed to their mother's cigarette smoke in the womb later perform more poorly on reading comprehension tests, according to a new study."It's not a little difference - it's a big difference in accuracy and comprehension at a critical time when children are being assessed, and are getting a sense of what it means to be successful," lead author Dr. Jeffrey Gruen...

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Antibiotics in pregnancy tied to asthma in kids

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Children whose mothers took antibiotics while they were pregnant were slightly more likely than other kids to develop asthma in a new Danish study.The results don't prove that antibiotics caused the higher asthma risk, but they support a current theory that the body's own "friendly" bacteria have a role in whether a child develops asthma, and antibiotics can disrupt those...

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Exclusive: Google to replace M&A chief

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc is replacing the head of its in-house mergers and acquisitions group, David Lawee, with one of its top lawyers, according to a person familiar with the matter. Don Harrison, a high-ranking lawyer at Google, will replace Lawee as head of the Internet search company's corporate development group, which oversees mergers and acquisitions, said the source, who...

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SEC wrestles with Internet age in Netflix case

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. regulatory probe of Netflix Inc over disclosures made on its chief executive's Facebook page could prove an important test of whether a rule designed to prevent leaks to analysts can translate to the social media age. The movie and TV streaming service revealed on Thursday that it may face action from the Securities and Exchange Commission if the agency...

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Peer-to-peer lenders welcome step towards regulation

LONDON (Reuters) - The peer-to-peer lending industry has welcomed a commitment by the British government to regulate the internet-based financiers, describing it as a "watershed moment".So-called crowdfunding providers and peer-to-peer lenders, which help businesses and individuals to raise cash from members of the public, had said that rules tailored to more traditional markets were holding back...

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No Grammy love for Justin Bieber, One Direction

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Irate fans of Justin Bieber and boy band One Direction took to social media on Thursday to voice their outrage after being snubbed by the Grammys for a chance to win the biggest honors in the music industry. Indie-pop band fun and rapper Frank Ocean led the 2013 nominations, tying with The Black Keys, Mumford & Sons, Jay-Z and Kanye West for six nods....

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Software guru McAfee did not have heart attack: lawyer

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Software pioneer John McAfee did not have a heart attack in Guatemala as originally thought, but is suffering from stress and hypertension, his lawyer Telesforo Guerra said on Thursday. "He never had a heart attack. Nothing like that," Guerra said in Guatemala City. "I'm not a doctor. I'm just telling you what the doctors told me. He was suffering from...

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