Those symptoms started within a few weeks: "I experienced a sudden, severe pain in my left abdomen, perhaps the worse persistent pain I have ever known, " Smarr wrote in an article in Strategic News.

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Do this enough and Google Now will thoughtfully include a persistent weather screen, which will slot in to the left.

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She also wrote movingly about a persistent illness, eventually diagnosed as the painful womb condition endometriosis, that left her unable to have children.

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Known as the "Sage of Omaha" for his investment success, Mr Buffett has historically left existing management in place, preferring good businesses with what he calls a "moat", a persistent competitive advantage, to prospects for a turnround.

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