In the midst of two unfinished major wars, the United States has quietly opened a third, largely covert front against Al Qaeda in Yemen.
A year ago, the Central Intelligence Agency sent several of its top field operatives with counterterrorism experience to the country, according a former top agency official. At the same time, some of the most secretive Special Operations commandos have begun training Yemeni security forces in counterterrorism tactics, senior military officers said.
The Pentagon is spending more than $70 million over the next 18 months, and using teams of Special Forces, to train and equip Yemeni military, Interior Ministry and coast guard forces, more than doubling previous military aid levels.
A year ago, the Central Intelligence Agency sent several of its top field operatives with counterterrorism experience to the country, according a former top agency official. At the same time, some of the most secretive Special Operations commandos have begun training Yemeni security forces in counterterrorism tactics, senior military officers said.
The Pentagon is spending more than $70 million over the next 18 months, and using teams of Special Forces, to train and equip Yemeni military, Interior Ministry and coast guard forces, more than doubling previous military aid levels.
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Verizon Wireless said Friday that it doubled the fees for customers to break service contracts for smart phones because those devices cost much more.
Verizon said the difference between what it pays manufacturers for phones and what it charges contract customers is more than twice as large for smart phones as it is for standard cell phones.
The explanation Friday came in response to an inquiry earlier this month from the Federal Communications Commission on why the carrier doubled the maximum early termination fee for smart phones to $350 from $175.
FILE - In this May 30, 2007 file photo, a Google sign inside Google headquarters is seen in Mountain View, Calif. A Paris court has convicted Google Inc. Friday, Dec. 18, 2009, in a copyright infringement case over online publication of French books.
A Paris court ruled Friday that Google Inc.'s expansion into digital books breaks France's copyright laws, and a judge slapped the Internet search leader with a euro10,000-a-day fine until it stops showing literary snippets.
Besides being fined the equivalent of $14,300 for each day in violation, Google was ordered to pay euro300,000 ($430,000) in damages and interest to French publisher La Martiniere, which brought the case on behalf of a group of French publishers.
Google attorney Alexandra Neri said the company would appeal.
The decision erects another legal barrier that may prevent Google from realizing its 5-year-old goal of scanning all the world's books into a digital library accessible to anyone with an Internet connection.
As widespread fraud in the Afghanistan presidential election was becoming clear three months ago, the No. 2 United Nations official in the country, the American Peter W. Galbraith, proposed enlisting the White House in a plan to replace the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, according to two senior United Nations officials.
Mr. Karzai, the officials said, became incensed when he learned of the plan and was told it had been put forth by Mr. Galbraith, who had been installed in his position with the strong backing of Richard C. Holbrooke, the top American envoy to Afghanistan. Mr. Holbrooke had himself clashed with the Afghan president over the election.
Mr. Karzai, the officials said, became incensed when he learned of the plan and was told it had been put forth by Mr. Galbraith, who had been installed in his position with the strong backing of Richard C. Holbrooke, the top American envoy to Afghanistan. Mr. Holbrooke had himself clashed with the Afghan president over the election.
Shopping Kosher Has Never Been Easier With A Wide Verity Of Kosher Online Supermarkets Each With A Huge Selection Of Kosher Foods From Chocolate And Candy Too Veal And Duck.
As Technology Is Being Developed We Adapt To Them, Now We Can Order From The Comfort Of Our Home Or Office Or Even Cell Phone.
While U.S. newspapers are losing subscribers at a staggering rate, a few dailies stand out because their circulation is rising. But they aren't necessarily selling more copies.
Here's why: Since April 1, new auditing rules have made it easier for newspapers to count a reader as a paying customer.
These looser standards are especially helpful to a newspaper if it sells an “electronic edition.” That can include a subscriber-only Web site, such as what The Wall Street Journal has, or it can be a digital replica of a newspaper's printed product. Several dozen publications, including USA Today, sell access to these daily “e-editions” that show how the news was laid out in print.
Here's why: Since April 1, new auditing rules have made it easier for newspapers to count a reader as a paying customer.
These looser standards are especially helpful to a newspaper if it sells an “electronic edition.” That can include a subscriber-only Web site, such as what The Wall Street Journal has, or it can be a digital replica of a newspaper's printed product. Several dozen publications, including USA Today, sell access to these daily “e-editions” that show how the news was laid out in print.
HAVANA — President Barack Obama has answered questions submitted by a celebrated Cuban blogger, saying he isn't interested in “talking for the sake of talking” with Raul Castro and indicating he won't visit the island until the communist government changes its ways.
In an unusual written response to Yoani Sanchez, who has gained international acclaim for daring to criticize her government online, Obama also said it is up to Cuba to act if it wants normal relations with Washington, saying that a true thaw in nearly 50 years of deep-freeze “will require action by the Cuban government.”
In an unusual written response to Yoani Sanchez, who has gained international acclaim for daring to criticize her government online, Obama also said it is up to Cuba to act if it wants normal relations with Washington, saying that a true thaw in nearly 50 years of deep-freeze “will require action by the Cuban government.”
NYT.COM
The company, Prime View International, said this summer that it would pay about $215 million to acquire E-Ink, which owns the technology for displaying text in the most popular readers, including Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s Reader.
Prime View, often referred to as P.V.I., recently sweetened its offer and says it hopes to close the deal by the end of the year. It already manufactures e-reader display modules for the Kindle and the Reader.
It was still dark on Thursday when Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan left his aging apartment complex to attend 6 a.m. prayers at the brick mosque near Fort Hood. Afterward, he said goodbye to his friends there and asked forgiveness from one man for any past offenses.
“I’m going traveling,” he told a fellow worshiper, giving him a hug. “I won’t be here tomorrow.”
Six hours later, Major Hasan walked into a processing center at Fort Hood where soldiers get medical attention before being sent overseas. At first, he sat quietly at an empty table, said two congressmen briefed on the investigation.
Then, witnesses say, he bowed his head for several seconds, as if praying, stood up and drew a high-powered pistol. “Allahu akbar,” he said — “God is great.” And he opened fire. Within minutes he had killed 13 people.
“I’m going traveling,” he told a fellow worshiper, giving him a hug. “I won’t be here tomorrow.”
Six hours later, Major Hasan walked into a processing center at Fort Hood where soldiers get medical attention before being sent overseas. At first, he sat quietly at an empty table, said two congressmen briefed on the investigation.
Then, witnesses say, he bowed his head for several seconds, as if praying, stood up and drew a high-powered pistol. “Allahu akbar,” he said — “God is great.” And he opened fire. Within minutes he had killed 13 people.
News Vine
AT&T Inc. is suing Verizon Wireless over its competitor's “There's a Map for That” commercials, saying in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that the ads are misleading and amount to deceptive trade practices.AT&T filed the suit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia and is asking for a temporary restraining order and a permanent injunction to stop the ads. The company requests an immediate hearing and said AT&T has “suffered and continues to suffer irreparable harm” as a result of the commercials.
New York Times
A moderate Republican whose candidacy for an upstate New York Congressional seat had set off a storm of national conservative opposition, abruptly withdrew on Saturday, emboldening the right at a time when the Republican Party is enmeshed in a debate over how to rebuild itself.The candidate, Dede Scozzafava, said she was suspending her campaign in the face of collapsing support and evidence that she was heading for a loss in a three-way race on Tuesday involving Douglas L. Hoffman, running on the Conservative Party line, and Bill Owens, a Democrat.
Ms. Scozzafava had been under siege from conservative leaders because she supports gay rights and abortion rights and was considered too liberal on various fiscal issues.
New York Times
House Democrats on Thursday unveiled an $894 billion package to remake the health care system, and celebrated by holding an outdoor rally at the Capitol where they asserted that tens of millions of Americans would soon gain affordable insurance.The 1,990-page measure, which was months in the making, would broadly expand Medicaid, the state-federal insurance program for the poor, by offering subsidies to moderate-income Americans to buy insurance either from private carriers or a new government-run plan.
“It is with great pride and with great humility that we come before you to follow in the footsteps of those who gave our country Social Security and then Medicare — and now universal, quality, affordable health care for all Americans,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi told a crowd of several hundred people.
The 83-year-old dean of the House, Representative John D. Dingell of Michigan, stole the show with a combative speech in which he assailed insurance companies and Republicans, who have been warning that the legislation would slash Medicare.
By expanding coverage and reining in health costs, Mr. Dingell said, the bill would meet “the greatest humanitarian need this country confronts, and the greatest economic problem.”
“The only citizens who will have to worry about their participation in Medicare being cut are the insurance companies,” Mr. Dingell said.
In January 2000, in his fourth year as New York City’s Board of Education president, William C. Thompson Jr. tired of living in wartime. Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani had just claimed the scalp of another schools chancellor, and now the mayor vowed to impose his own candidate on the school system.
Under heavy international pressure, President Hamid Karzai conceded Tuesday that he fell short of a first-round victory in the nation’s disputed presidential election, and agreed to hold a runoff election with his top challenger on Nov. 7.
Flanked at a news conference in Kabul by Senator John Kerry, the head of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Kai Eide, the top United Nations official in Afghanistan, Mr. Karzai said he would accept the findings of an international audit that stripped him of nearly one-third of his votes in the first round, leaving him below the 50 percent threshold that would have allowed him to avoid a runoff and declare victory over his main rival, Abdullah Abdullah.
Flanked at a news conference in Kabul by Senator John Kerry, the head of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Kai Eide, the top United Nations official in Afghanistan, Mr. Karzai said he would accept the findings of an international audit that stripped him of nearly one-third of his votes in the first round, leaving him below the 50 percent threshold that would have allowed him to avoid a runoff and declare victory over his main rival, Abdullah Abdullah.
NEW YORK TIMES
Nokia, the Finnish company that is the world’s biggest maker of mobile phones, is an undisputed powerhouse in Europe, Asia and Latin America, with market shares regularly topping 30 percent.But in the United States, Nokia’s signal has faded. As recently as March 2002, it led the American market with a 35 percent share. By last year, though, it slipped to 10 percent and by June of this year — the most recent figure available — Nokia’s share was only 7 percent.
Now the company is struggling to make amends in America, and its comeback effort has started to make some headway. And yet, going into the crucial Christmas shopping season in the United States, Nokia does not have a strong offering for the American smartphone market, the only part of the mobile industry that is growing. Three years after Apple introduced the iPhone, Nokia still has no alternative.
NEW YORK TIMES
As the Senate prepares to tackle global warming, the nation’s energy producers, once united, are battling one another over policy decisions worth hundreds of billions of dollars in coming decades.Producers of natural gas are battling their erstwhile allies, the oil companies. Electrical utilities are fighting among themselves over the use of coal versus wind power or other renewable energy. Coal companies are battling natural gas firms over which should be used to produce electricity. And the renewable power industry is elbowing for advantage against all of them.
Ecommerce is all about putting your products before as many potential customers as possible. Traditionally, that's done by attracting shoppers to whatever sales venue you have, whether that's a website or eBay Store. But as many entrepreneurs are finding, a more effective approach is to go where your customers hang out online, and connect with them there.
When it comes to websites, you can't get much more popular than Facebook. According to its current statistics, this site attracts a set of consumers any businessperson would die for: 300 million registered users, more than 50 percent of whom log in every day; users in 70 countries; the fastest growing user group is over age 35; and on and on.
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When it comes to websites, you can't get much more popular than Facebook. According to its current statistics, this site attracts a set of consumers any businessperson would die for: 300 million registered users, more than 50 percent of whom log in every day; users in 70 countries; the fastest growing user group is over age 35; and on and on.
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While TD Bank works to resolve a computer problem that has left customer accounts out of date, local competitors say they have benefited from frustrated people willing to switch banks.
Citizens Bank said that “thousands” of people had taken them up on a promotion last Friday aimed at luring new customers. Under the offer, which started Saturday, customers who open a new checking account with Citizens get $100 automatically deposited into their new account.
The bank said that the number of new accounts was seven times normal volume but would be no more specific than that.
Citizens Bank said that “thousands” of people had taken them up on a promotion last Friday aimed at luring new customers. Under the offer, which started Saturday, customers who open a new checking account with Citizens get $100 automatically deposited into their new account.
The bank said that the number of new accounts was seven times normal volume but would be no more specific than that.
Sears is following in the footsteps of Wal-Mart Stores with the launch of a third-party marketplace.
The department store confirmed that the new service has been integrated with Sears.com to allow merchants to list their products on the site.
“The Sears' Marketplace platform provides new opportunities for us to deliver more shopping choices to our customers as well as open up new lines of communication with our business partners,” the company said. “This current platform expansion is an evolution of a process we established with Internet partners last November 2008.”
Walmart.com launch today Walmart Marketplace, which enables a “select group of retailers” to offer additional products at Walmart.com. The new program has added nearly one million new items to the ecommerce site in categories such as Home, Baby, Apparel, Toys and Sporting Goods / Sports Memorabilia.
Current Walmart Marketplace retailers include CSN Stores (www.csnstores.com), eBags (www.ebags.com) and Pro Team, a subsidiary of Dreams, Inc. According to a press release, the company will continue to grow the Walmart Marketplace program with additional retailers over the next year:
Some of the world's most prominent technology companies are offering suggestions to publishers on how they can charge readers for news online.
IBM Corp., Microsoft Corp., Oracle Corp. and Google Inc. — a company some newspapers blame for helping dig their financial hole — responded to a request by the Newspaper Association of America for proposals on ways to easily charge for news on the Web.
But building the infrastructure for charging readers is one part of the equation. The other part looks more challenging: getting publishers to make the leap and stop giving news out for free on the Web.
IBM Corp., Microsoft Corp., Oracle Corp. and Google Inc. — a company some newspapers blame for helping dig their financial hole — responded to a request by the Newspaper Association of America for proposals on ways to easily charge for news on the Web.
But building the infrastructure for charging readers is one part of the equation. The other part looks more challenging: getting publishers to make the leap and stop giving news out for free on the Web.
On a rainy, wind-whipped morning that bore little resemblance to the crisp and glass-clear dawn of Sept. 11, 2001, politicians and survivors of that day’s attack gathered early on Friday to observe the eighth anniversary of the destruction of the World Trade Center.
They gathered near the pit where the twin towers once stood. Politicians spoke, a choir of students sang, and the name of each victim was read aloud, one at a time, 2,752 in total, one more than last year. At the end, taps was played, and the relatively small group that lasted for the entire three-and-a-half-hour ceremony — much of if buffeted by fierce winds and lashing rain — dispersed, some into Lower Manhattan, some to a reflecting pool where flowers were tossed to remember those who died.
They gathered near the pit where the twin towers once stood. Politicians spoke, a choir of students sang, and the name of each victim was read aloud, one at a time, 2,752 in total, one more than last year. At the end, taps was played, and the relatively small group that lasted for the entire three-and-a-half-hour ceremony — much of if buffeted by fierce winds and lashing rain — dispersed, some into Lower Manhattan, some to a reflecting pool where flowers were tossed to remember those who died.
