Torino, 16:59 - CALCIO, TORINO: RECUPERA SERENI, DUBBI IN ATTACCO

Sono venti i giocatori convocati da Novellino per la trasferta di Roma, dove domani pomeriggio il To...


Description: BBC disc jockey John Peel, whose nightly Radio One program is credited with launching the careers of bands including New Order and Joy Division, suffered a fatal heart attack Monday.


Iranian-American who recently visited Iran missing

A dual U.S. and Iranian citizen who visited Iran this year has not been heard from since March and a California institute he is affiliated with said on Thursday it was concerned about his whereabouts.


On the Road: Battling to Get a Connection for a Flight or a Laptop

Between flight delays, missed connections and crowded flights, a business traveler has to have the resourcefulness of a person ready for stealthy ground combat.


A military probe's secret findings on the fire that crippled HMCS Chicoutimi has propelled the navy to dock its four second-hand submarines indefinitely.


According ZDNet's survey of IT professionals in August, application development is the last priority, but nonetheless an important one.


Edmonton scientists gave Cold-fX a booster shot yesterday, pumping the maker of the illness-fighting pill to a 5.68% gain on the stock market.


WABC-TV was back on the air Monday morning after a fire damaged equipment in its Manhattan studios and filled the building with thick smoke just before the start of an evening broadcast.


'O una ristrutturazione profonda o i libri in tribunale'


Five-years of over-optimistic forecasts did not help the Bank of England set rates and manage policy, a report says.


Paris bomb at Indonesia Embassy wounds 10

PARIS A bomb rocked a quiet, elegant neighborhood of apartment buildings in the west of the city, slightly wounding at least 10 people, including 4 workers at the Indonesian Embassy, where a rigged package exploded below its crimson and white national flag


Scientists Develop Promising New TB Drug

For the first time in four decades, a new antibiotic has emerged that researchers say will revolutionize the fight against tuberculosis.


Sony delivers MP3 playing Network Walkman

Sony has unveiled its latest attempt to capture a share of the iPod market. The new Network Walkman, snappily titled the NW-HD3, is the company's first to play MP3 files in addition to those in its own ATRAC format.


Viruses, X-Rays Join U.S. List of Cancer Agents

Viruses, X-rays and compounds found  in grilled meats joined the official list of known or suspected  cancer-causing agents released on Monday.


Delta ponders exchanging some of its debt

ATLANTA -- Delta Air Lines Inc. is considering exchanging some of its debt, possibly for equity in the company, as part of a larger effort to avoid bankruptcy.


Study: iPhone Dominant as Motorola Falls

New research claims consumers are searching out more advanced phones -- with Apple's iPhone and RIM's Blackberry leading the trend.


Undisputed super-middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe says his next fight could be his last.


CollinsÂ´ profile lifted with intelligence bill negotiations

The overwhelming congressional approval of sweeping reforms to the countryÂ´s intelligence gathering has marked a significant victory for MaineÂ´s Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who led negotiations surrounding the legislation.


Serena Williams ended Amelie Mauresmo's hopes of finishing the year as world number one with victory in the semi-finals of the Tour Championships.


Parigi, 14:53 - TENNIS, ROLAND GARROS: BRACCIALI ELIMINATO

Daniele Bracciali è stato eliminato dagli Internazionali di Francia di tennis. Al primo turno...


The numbers are so one-sided, it's startling. The American League is 8-0-1 in the last nine All-Star games. AL teams also swept the past two World Series and won an overwhelming 61 percent of interleague games against the NL this season.


GE to cut 60 pct of Japan consumer credit branches

General Electric Co.'s  consumer finance arm plans to close 60 percent of its personal loan branches in Japan and shed up to 400 employees amid an industrywide slump prompted by tighter regulation.


Second Madrid bomb suspect denies role in al Qaeda

Youssef Belhadj, accused of masterminding the Madrid train bombings and suspected of claiming the attack in the name of al Qaeda, denied he was a member of the extremist group in court on Friday.


A member of the Kansas group that has drawn criticism for protesting at soldiers' funerals has been arrested for letting her 10-year-old son stomp on a U.S. flag during a demonstration. She promised Wednesday to challenge the state's flag desecration law in court.


Eisner: Ovitz went into a 'downward spiral'

Disney CEO Michael Eisner vividly described his side of the painful 1996 breakup with former Disney president Michael Ovitz in testimony at a shareholder lawsuit here Tuesday.


Intel releases quad-core Tigerton processor

(InfoWorld) - Intel plans to unveil a version of its Xeon processor on Wednesday that's designed for high-end servers with multiple processors -- setting the stage for a showdown with rivalÂ Advanced Micro Devices' upcoming quad-core Barcelona chip. The Xeon 7300 chips, called Tigerton, are the first quad-core processors from Intel designed to be used in servers with four or more processors, a relatively small but lucrative segment of the server market. Previously, the Xeon processor for this segment of the market had two cores, despite the availability of quad-core Xeon chips for single-processor and two-way servers. The new chips offer significantly better performance compared to their predecessors,Â Intel's Xeon 5300 chips, said Adesh Gupta, regional platform architecture manager at Intel Asia-Pacific's Server Platforms Group. "Across the spectrum of different applications, we're seeing really, really good performance," Gupta said. Benchmarks run by Intel showed significant gains for many enterprise applications, including SAP's ERP (enterprise resource planning) software, Gupta said. The 7300 series chips can handle roughly 82 percent more ERP users and 92 percent more database transactions than the 5300 chips, he said. The 7300 is part of theÂ Caneland chip package, which also includes Intel's 7300 chip set, known as Clarksboro. The new chip set has four 1,066MHz interconnects that are linked to an individual processor, helping reduce latency between the processors and main memory. Caneland is the last release expected from Intel before AMD announces the availability of its Barcelona server chips on Sept. 10. Barcelona is widely expected to offer significant performance increases over AMD's existing dual-core server chips, and should mean tighter competition with Intel in the server space. Intel will initially offer six versions of Tigerton. At the top of the range is the X7350, a 2.93GHz chip designed with 8MB of shared on-chip cache and a thermal design power (TDP) of 130 watts. TDP is the highest sustainable level of power for applications that Intel expects to be run on the chip, and the number describes how much heat a system must be able to dissipate from the chip. Intel is also offering several Xeon 7300 chips with a TDP of 80 watts. The E7340 runs at 2.4GHz and offers 8MB of shared on-chip cache. The E7330 also runs at 2.4GHz, but has 6MB of cache. The E7320 and E7310 both have 4MB of shared cache and run at clock speeds of 2.13GHz and 1.6GHz, respectively. Intel will also release a 50-watt version that runs at 1.86GHz. The L7345 has 8MB of shared on-chip cache and is designed for blade servers and high-density rack servers. Two dual-core versions of the Tigerton chip, the E7220 and E7210, will also be available, running at speeds of 2.93GHz and 2.4GHz with a TDP of 80 watts. Both chips have a shared on-chip cache of 8MB and are designed for high-performance computing applications. Tigerton's improved performance doesn't come cheap. The processors are priced from $856 to $2,301 per chip in 1,000-unit quantities, a standard measure of processor pricing. The 7300 will also be the last server chip announced by Intel, before itsÂ upcoming Penryn chipsÂ are made available later this year. Made using a 45-nanometer process that will allow more cache to be put on each chip, the first Penryn server chips are expected to be released in November. Those chips are intended for use in single-processor and two-way servers. The Penryn server chip for multiple-processor servers is called Dunnington and will not be available until late 2008, Gupta said.


From blogs to insurgents, 2004's most looked-up words follow the ...

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. The most asked for definition on Merriam-Webster's Web site is for a word that's not even in the dictionary.


Madrid, 13:15 - CALCIO, HAGI PARLA CON CHIVU E GLI CONSIGLIA IL REAL MADRID

Secondo quanto scrive il quotidiano sportivo spagnolo 'Marca', il sogno di Chivu è giocare ne...


Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., was beaming over a cup of Capitol bean soup in the House of Representatives dining room one recent afternoon.


Family feud over control of India's leading business group intensifies

The rift in India's Ambani family which controls India's biggest private enterprise group Reliance deepened as elder brother Mukesh rejected his younger brother's objections to a change in their management roles, a report said.


British singer Jamelia wins three awards at the Mobos, which were overshadowed by protests.


US beef exports to Japan are to resume soon under an agreement reached yesterday to ease a 10-month ban on the meat prompted by a case of mad cow disease in Washington state.


European shares tumble further after Wall Street slump

Europe's main stock markets dived lower on Wednesday as fears about the troubled US housing sector reverberated across global equities, dealers said.


Doctors say Yushchenko was poisoned with dioxin, suspect foul play

Ukrainian opposition leader and presidential hopeful Viktor Yushchenko was the victim of dioxin poisoning, his doctor in Vienna has disclosed, adding that he suspected foul play.


In alcune cittÃ  autorizzate le auto con tre persone a bordoStop a Milano, Roma, Torino. A Verona tre giorni di divieto                                          Ritornano le targhe alterne si fermano i numeri dispari


Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman William H. Donaldson said in an interview this week that the accounting issues the SEC must address in its investigation of mortgage funding giant Fannie Mae are "not black and white."


Federal troops arrived Wednesday to enforce tighter regulations on welfare payments and a ban on pornography and alcohol in Aboriginal communities.


Finanziaria, al Senato il maxiemendamento

Battute finali del provvedimento di legge, che lâaula di Montecitorio dovrebbe poi varare definitivamente entro Natale. Reperiti fondi per il progetto âRoma Capitaleâ, ma inferiori alle aspettative.


International observers Tuesday called into question Kenyan election results that saw President Mwai Kibaki re-elected to a second term.


The Bush administration's global AIDS plan has helped put at least 25,000 people on antiretroviral therapy since it began disbursing money in February to organizations and governments in 15 targeted countries.


New figures show Japan's economy is barely staying out of recession with annual growth of just 0.2% in the third quarter.


The Maloof brothers, owners of the Palms resort in Las Vegas and the NBA's Sacramento Kings, are expanding into the movie business.


Golf: Woods vaults past Montgomerie to win World Challenge

THOUSAND OAKS, California : Tiger Woods shot a bogey-free 5-under-par 66 on Sunday to overtake a fading Colin Montgomerie and win the 5.25 million dollar World Challenge.


Two pilots killed at RAF Marham in Norfolk had both flown missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, it emerges.


Despite sitting on a shelf for nearly two years, Hero topped all films at the box office over the weekend. (Related story: Check out the weekend's top 10 films).


Israel and Hizballah: A Fight to the Finish?

Analysis: Four reasons why the war along Israel's northern border may get worse before it gets better


Struttura torna a disposizione del Comune di Catania


Directors cut: No screeners for DGA Awards

LOS ANGELES  - Once again marching to its own beat, the Directors Guild of America said Thursday it would ban studios from mailing promotional DVDs to its members ahead of the group's annual awards ceremony.


Iraqi elections must not be delayed - Italy

Italy said on Wednesday Iraqi elections planned for Jan. 30 should be seen through because any postponement could deal a blow to the prospects of a stable democracy emerging in the country.


Wind River acquires real-time Linux from FSMLabs

InfoWorld - Wind River Systems has acquired technology that lets it provide an embedded Linux OS for devices that need responses in real time.


Hamas and Fatah supporters exchange shots outside a Gaza hospital, in the latest factional violence.


The Tory leader defends his plans for an  annual limit on immigrants and denies it is a bid to shore-up his party's core support.


Manny Ramirez will arrive late to Red Sox camp — again. Now the question is, why?


A consortium led by RBS will announce on Tuesday whether it will make a formal offer for ABN Amro.


Palermo, 19:33 - CALCIO, PALERMO: BARZAGLI RECUPERATO, IN UEFA CI SARA'

Il palermitano Andrea Barzagli sta meglio dopo il leggero infortunio contro la Reggina e in Uefa ci ...


NCAA President Myles Brand warns colleges at the annual NCAA Convention that excessive spending on facilities and coaches is draining new revenue streams.


You gotta start somewhere, and it's always nice when you can call on a certified, gold-plated, All-American stud to get you in motion.


Lawmakers Ask Fannie To Explain Tainted Funds

Three House Financial Services subcommittee chairmen yesterday called on Fannie Mae to answer allegations  that the company failed to blow the whistle on a mortgage fraud scam and accepted $6.5 million that it knew had been swindled from a government agency.


Some 5,000 US Marines, British troops and Iraqi forces launched a new offensive Tuesday aimed at clearing a swath of insurgent hotbeds across a cluster of dusty, small towns south of Baghdad.


Enna, Reggio Calabria e Catanzaro, piu' difficile a Cagliari


Health Effects of Meth-Lab Exposure Being Studied

By Pat Reavy Deseret Morning News  They risk their lives to protect the public, but often it isn't a bullet or the flames from an inferno that law enforcers and firefighters have to worry about.


Torino, 14:59 - CALCIO, JUVE; DESCHAMPS: SEMPRE DIFFICILE IN TRASFERTA

La Juventus riparte da Vicenza, invece che dal match casalingo con il Rimini. Questo a causa dei tra...


PeopleSoft, Oracle square off in Delaware court

LOS ANGELES (CBS.MW) -- Oracle Corp.'s hostile $9.2 billion offer to acquire PeopleSoft Inc. moves to a Delaware courtroom on Wednesday.


New Orleans writers struggle to pen rebirth story

Quirky characters, raucous music, jazz funerals, a warm climate and plenty of service-industry jobs made New Orleans an ideal base for writers and a rich backdrop for their work.


iTunes Music Store downloads top 200 million songs

Well on its way to serving up a quarter-billion iTunes tracks by next Spring, Apple claims to have sold over 200 million tunes to date.


Dutch Mourn Murdered Filmmaker Amid Revenge Fears

The Netherlands mourned filmmaker Theo van Gogh killed last week by a suspected Islamic militant, while Dutch Muslims rallied to urge reconciliation on Tuesday after a wave of attacks on mosques and churches.


Boeing and British Airways finalize 787 contract

Boeing  said on Thursday that British Airways  finalized an order for 24 Boeing 787 airliners, an order valued at $4.4 billion at list prices.


With prices high, farming is bright spot

PRAIRIE CITY, Iowa  - Gordon Wassenaar has his eye on a $300,000 combine harvester to replace the 1990 model he repairs each winter in the workshop on his farm. And he just bought more land to add to his 1,600-acre spread.


Iraqis traumatised by violence barely have heeded the US election as a suicide bomber attacked a US checkpoint near Baghdad airport and kidnappers seized five more foreigners, including an American.


In a move that the White House says will save roughly 20 tons of paper, or about 480 trees, the Bush administration will release the governmentâs first-ever paperless budget on Feb. 4.


Report: Malaria Deaths Drop in Rwanda, Kenya

Widespread use of insecticide-treated mosquito nets and state-of-the art drugs have succeeded in cutting malaria deaths in half in two countries most heavily affected by the disease, the World Health Organization will report tomorrow.


Panasonic adds smart card function to SD memory

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd., better known for its Panasonic brand, will start selling SD (Secure Digital) memory cards that can be used as smart cards in Japan by the end of 2005, the company said Friday.


Marie Osmond was down, but she's still a competitor on ABC's "Dancing With the Stars."


Sweden to open first virtual embassy in Second Life

Sweden plans to be the first country  to open an embassy in popular virtual world Second Life.


Florida: Clouds Keep Shuttle From Launching

By AP Wire Service  Video:  NASA Scrubs Discovery Launch      CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.  -- Low clouds forced NASA to delay the launch of space shuttle Discovery Thursday night, and strong winds could delay another attempt for a day or two.


Five British tourists and a Canadian have been killed in a plane crash in northern Malawi, police say.


EDITORIAL: Juniper Dunes Pact Requires Cooperation

By Tri-City Herald, Kennewick, Wash.  Feb. 26--Outdoor enthusiasts who enjoy Juniper Dunes can finally return to the popular site without trespassing.   Decades of uncertainty about public access to the designated wilderness area have been resolved. At least for the next two years.


The US rejects  UK Chancellor Gordon Brown's plan to boost aid funding, saying it is unnecessary.


Sadr army becoming potent political force

The Mahdi Army has been politically energized by growing disenchantment among Shiites.


The ISS astronauts consume an average of about 3,000 calories during any given day in space. Under the current plan, Chiao and Sharipov will reduce their daily intake to a maximum of 2,700 calories.


In the Ring with the World's Youngest Bullfighter

With no minimum age for matadors, the country has children as young as 10 picking up the sword. Can they save a dying sport?


Scenes of enslaved Maya Indians building temples for a violent, decadent culture in Mel Gibson's new film "Apocalypto" may ring true for many of today's Mayas, who earn meager wages in construction camps, building huge tourist resorts on land they once owned.


Gabelli's GAMCO marks comeback, hits all-time high

Investor Mario Gabelli may want to thank billionaire tycoons Rupert Murdoch and Sam Zell for a good year in 2007 and a record high in the stock price of his GAMCO Investors Inc .


Using a mobile phone before going to bed could stop you getting a decent night's sleep, research suggests.


HALIFAX - Fruit flies, the common pests that swarm over compost bins, may hold the key to cloning mammals successfully, say Canadian scientists who've cloned the insects.


BEA's Largest Shareholder Demands Vote on Oracle Bid

BEA shareholder Carl Icahn threatens a suit to force a shareholder vote on Oracle's offer, expiring today.


Time Warner threatens court action over NFL channel

Time Warner Cable has threatened to  go to court to overturn a decision forcing the No. 2 U.S. cable  company to reinstate the NFL Network on some of its systems,  according to a filing obtained on Monday.


Miami's Thomas ruled out of Wembley game with Giants

The winless and injury-ravaged Miami Dolphins suffered another setback on Thursday when key linebacker Zach Thomas was ruled out of Sunday's game in London against the New York Giants.


A USA Today/Gallup/CNN poll published Thursday showed a dead heat: Kerry 45 percent, Bush 45 percent, Nader 5 percent. while the Pew Research Center and Harris Interactive found the bounce that the recent


Katharine McPhee has left RCA after a single album, Billboard reported.


A safety inspection of clifftops on the Antrim Coast Road near larne is to be carried after landslides.


Former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar has been called to testify before the parliamentary commission investigating the Madrid bombings.


Disney World to create "American Idol" attraction

Walt Disney World will host its own  version of the hit TV show "American Idol" starring park  visitors at a new attraction set to open later this year, the  Walt Disney Co said on Thursday.


Motorola is to shed an extra 4,000 jobs this year, as it continues efforts to reverse a fall in profits.


In the South, 'Borat' hits a peculiar funny bone

A box-office surprise, the movie jabs hard at Americans' biases.


A political dispute leaves 2,000 Palestinians returning from the Hajj stuck in boats off the Egyptian coast.


Extraterrestrial Street View shocker It appears that pretty much everyone in the world has given up any pretence at working and is currently scouring Google Maps' new Street View facility for entertaining revelations.â¦


Titmice guide out-of-town birds to best food, water

Traveling around the state last week, I noticed the fall foliage making its rapid transition to winter. In fact, Birmingham experienced its first freeze of the season - three weeks later than the normal date of Nov.


MUNICH - A simple test that scrutinizes bad cholesterol more closely may more reliably predict who is going to have a heart attack, new research indicates.


World Should Hold Darfur Rebels Accountable -UN

The world should hold Darfur rebels accountable for breaking their promises to end violence in the region of western Sudan, the UN envoy to Khartoum said on Thursday.


U.N. Iran sanctions vote not ready yet: diplomats

The U.N. Security Council will probably not vote on a third sanctions resolution targeting Iran's atomic program until after a key report by the U.N. nuclear watchdog is issued, diplomats said on Tuesday.


T-Mobile says mobile VoIP will not hit revenues

I see no ships 3GSM Mobile VoIP (voice over internet protocol) will not hit mobile telephony revenues, but will have more of an impact on fixed line services, according to T-Mobile International AG chief executive Hamid Akhavan.â¦


Sen. Barack Obama pushed through surging crowds and hurtled down roads lined with screaming fans Saturday before settling into the calm of a quiet meal with his grandmother in the Kenyan hamlet where his father grew up and is buried.


Greek Cypriots remove wall, seek Turkish pullout

Greek Cypriots earned international praise on Friday for tearing down an emblem of the island's division but Turkey appeared in no rush to respond to calls to remove its troops from the area.


BORMIO, Italy  - American Bode Miller blew away the field to claim his first World Cup win of the season in Saturday's men's downhill, according to provisional results.


Former Swedish Prime Minister Gran Persson has been awarded the tenth annual Sofie prize for his environmental efforts.Comment


Reggie White, who used football to spread Gospel, dies at 43

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--He was a two-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year, was elected to the Pro Bowl a record 13 straight times, set a Super Bowl record with three sacks and retired in 2000 as the NFL's all-time leader in sacks.


First Look: IRiver Scores with New MP3 Player

H10 goes gunning for Apple's IPod Mini, and beats it on most counts.


Bomb Alert Prompts Greek Plane to Land in London

A bomb alert prompted a Greek Olympic passenger airliner to make an emergency landing at London's Stansted Airport on Sunday, an airport spokesman said.


Conti pubblici, Siniscalco: ''Faremo di tutto per tenere il ...

Lussemburgo, 21 ott. (Adnkronos/Aki) - ''Faremo di tutto per tenere il rapporto deficit/pil sotto il 3% nel 2004, la nostra stima e' caratterizzata da volonta' politica''. Questo l'impegno del ministro del


Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman said Sunday he is not interested in becoming President Bush's national intelligence director or homeland security chief, shooting down speculation he might be under consideration for those jobs.


Europe's Mars Express probe photographs the classic Red Planet surface feature known as "The Face".


Portsmouth, England (Sports Network) - Portsmouth coach Harry Redknapp resigned Wednesday after 2 1/2 years in charge of the south coast club.


Taliban release eight South Korean hostages

The Taliban freed eight of their 19 South Korean captives as the wrenching six-week hostage crisis in Afghanistan neared resolution.


Fife Police launch an investigation into what they describe as a suspicious death in Tayport.


Oil fell more than $2 on Thursday, resuming a downturn that has slashed 12 percent from record highs as growing stockpiles ease worries of a crunch ahead of the Northern Hemisphere winter.


At least 22 people, many of them women and children, die after a fire breaks out in a wedding tent in Pakistan.


Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is aligning himself with Democrats in hopes of enhancing his political legacy through an effort to improve minority health care.


HONG KONG/SAN FRANCISCO  - IBM is selling its  PC-making business to China's largest personal computer  company, Lenovo Group Ltd., for $1.25 billion, marking the U.S.  firm's retreat from an industry it helped pioneer in 1981.


Firenze, 13:24 - CALCIO, FIORENTINA: AVRAMOV RINNOVA FINO AL 2011

Vlada Avramov, portiere della nazionale serba, ha prolungato fino al 2011 il contratto con la Fioren...


At U.S. hearing, WW2 sex slaves spurn Japan apologies

Three women who were forced into sexual servitude by Japan in World War Two on Thursday told the U.S. Congress harrowing tales of abuse and said they rejected Japanese official apologies as an insult.


Time for Real to show real class in Champions League

Real Madrid, who began this season with high hopes of winning the European Cup for the 10th time, will need to show some real class against Dynamo Kiev on Tuesday if they are to keep that dream alive.


Cuneo, 23:08 - VOLLEY, CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: CUNEO SUPERA IL CANNES

In una gara valida per la quarta giornata della Pool A della Champions League di volley, la Bre Banc...


At this hour , one can make a case for the Patriots and Cowboys as the best teams in their respective conferences. In this spirit, let's step into the time machine and see what lies ahead.


NHL plans to reject the players' latest proposal

The NHL plans to reject the players' association's latest collective bargaining agreement proposal today in Toronto, and the 2004-05 season appears destined for cancellation.


After three tough races, in which he scored a total of just 10-points, Max Biaggi was back to his best at Sepang on Sunday - when he charged through the lead pack and proved the only rider capable of threatening race winner Valentino Rossi.


Private firms don't help Philadelphia schools: study

Philadelphia's groundbreaking privatization experiment with 46 of its worst public schools not only failed to significantly improve academic performance but cost an extra $300 per pupil, a new report said on Thursday.


France condemns Tel Aviv suicide bombing

PARIS, Nov 1  - France condemned the Palestinian suicide attack Monday in Tel Aviv that killed four people, including the bomber, and called on all sides in the Middle East conflict to avoid a new cycle of violence.


Serena Williams was left feeling "cheated and robbed" after a highly dubious overrule by the umpire in her defeat to Jennifer Capriati at the US Open.


The Colorado Rockies have signed left-handed pitcher Mark Redman from Triple-A Colorado Springs, the Major League Baseball team said on Friday.


Weekly jobless claims surge 69,000 last week

The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless aid jumped by a much larger-than-expected 69,000 last week to the highest in over two years, government data on Thursday showed, but the numbers were likely skewed by the timing of a public holiday.


Horse or zebra? Unusual zebrula draws crowds in Germany

A zebrula -- a cross between a horse and a zebra -- has drawn curious onlookers to a zoo in Germany because of its unusual coat.


The nation's spy chief on Sunday would not identify what CIA interrogators are allowed to do in getting information from terror suspects, but tried to assure critics that torture is not condoned or used.


Khartoum, main southern rebels in final race to clinch peace deal

The Sudanese government and the main rebel group are battling to clinch a final peace agreement by the deadline on Friday to end Africa's longest-running conflict in southern Sudan.


U.S. warns of severe pain with osteoporosis drugs

Patients treated with widely used osteoporosis drugs may develop severe and sometimes disabling muscle, joint and bone pain, U.S. officials said on Monday in an alert highlighting the previously known risk.


ST. LOUIS - Mike Matheny, Edgar Renteria and St. Louis can win with singles, doubles and triples, too. After tying a postseason record with five home runs in the opener, the Cardinals stayed in the ballpark for Game 2 Thursday night.


Chiron Won't Make Flu Vaccine, Stock Down

The company that makes half the flu  vaccine used in the United States said on Tuesday it will not  supply any vaccine for the coming flu season because of  problems at its plant in Britain, throwing a major U.S. flu  drive into disarray.


A reclusive millionaire author was killed by a man who stole his identity, the Old Bailey hears.


Iraqi president insists vote will go ahead as violence surges

BAGHDAD - Iraqâs interim President Ghazi al-Yawar insisted that crucial elections would go ahead as planned next month despite the sharp upsurge in insurgent attacks that have killed more than 90 people in three days.


Citigroup names American Express' Crittenden CFO

Citigroup , said on Sunday it had  named former American Express executive Gary Crittenden as its  CFO, the latest in a series of management reshuffles geared to  improve performance at a bank whose earnings growth has been  lagging.


"The three marriages is a deal killer," says evengelical leader Richard Land, as trouble mounts for the Republican candidate with the GOP's social-conservative base


The heat's been turned off on the Hugh Grant legume litigation. The actor won't be prosecuted for allegedly hurling baked beans at a photographer, Britain's Crown Prosecution Service said Friday.


Applebee's International Inc. shares fell more than 4 percent Wednesday after the restaurant company reported weak August sales and said it expects the Olympics will hurt sales for the first week of September.


US wholesale inflation surged by its highest amount in three decades in November, figures show.


Soon you will be able to deposit checks by scanning them at home and sending them electronically to your bank. No need to visit a branch or even an ATM.


Roma, 21:05 - CALCIO, CATTANEO: RAI TERRA' DIRITTI RADIO

''La Rai terrÃ  per sÃ¨ questi diritti'': il direttore generale della tv pubblica Flavio Cattaneo Ã¨ in...


Per il debutto dello stilista romano Ettore Bilotta


Thailand mulls "royal province" to honor king

Thailand is to consider creating a new "royal province" to honor the nation's revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the government's spokesman said.


Pakistani Security Forces Free Chinese Hostages

Pakistani commandos on Thursday freed two Chinese engineers taken hostage near the Afghan border and killed their five kidnappers, who are led by a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner, officials said.


Seattle Seahawks outside linebacker Isaiah Kacyvenski is doubtful for Sunday's game against the Carolina Panthers due to a sprained ankle.


Australia loses Iraqi wheat market to US following bribe scandal

Australia played down reports that it had lost almost all of the lucrative Iraqi wheat market to the United States following a bribes scandal.


The Orlando Magic gave center Dwight Howard a five-year, $85 million contract extension on Thursday. Howard was the No. 1 pick in the 2004 NBA draft, and he was selected for this past season's All-Star game.


Three Silicon Valley entrepreneurs want a simple way for folks to populate their mobile devices with data. As cell phones become the one thing to carry -- part phone, part PDA, part camera, part MP3 player -- using Vazu might do the trick.


To engage with an artwork, especially contemporary works, can be a daunting task.


(WebMD) New research is raising concerns about the safety of a preservative that is commonly found in shampoos and other commercially available cosmetics.


U.S. Air Force Excited About Near-Space Prospects

The U.S. Air Force could start operating aircraft in "near space," the no man's land above 65,000 feet but below an outer space orbit, within a year, a top U.S. Air Force space official said on Tuesday.


Russiaâs signing of the Kyoto Protocol, bringing the global climate change agreement into force, was today hailed as a âreal step forwardâ by Prime Minister Tony Blair.


The cheque will never be in the post again Anam Mobile and TR2 Communications have launched a service allowing cash payments over SMS, but you'll have to wait until network operators implement it before chucking the cheques.â¦


U.S. Bombs Falluja, Battles Guerrillas in North Iraq

U.S. forces launched new attacks on  Thursday in the towns of Falluja and Tal Afar, which they say  are havens for foreign militant fighters, and doctors said at  least 25 Iraqis were killed in air strikes and fighting.


LAHORE, Pakistan -- An explosion that tore through the lobby of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, injuring at least six people, was caused by a short circuit, Islamabad's chief of police told CNN.


Such a move would take chutzpah and would cost HP around $30 billion. But analyst Jon Oltsik believes an acquisition of Juniper makes a ton of sense.


A proposal for a wireless phone directory raises concerns in Congress.


U.S. stocks rebounded late on Tuesday  to end higher as gains in energy stocks offset investors'  jitters about the economy and worries that tech bellwether  Intel Corp. INTC.O may lower its revenue outlook.


Up this week are blue chip bargain hunter Harry Burn III and Gibbs Kane.


Blair concedes Northern. Ireland talks have failed

LEEDS CASTLE, England  - A high-stakes effort to revive a Catholic-Protestant government for Northern Ireland has ended in failure, British Prime Minister Tony Blair conceded Saturday. Negotiators have ``not yet achieved a comprehensive agreement,'' Blair said, speaking at the end of a three-day diplomatic push to revive the Good Friday peace accord of 1998


Bernanke says Bartiromo episode a mistake

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben  Bernanke said on Tuesday that he had made a mistake by talking  with a television reporter who then repeated his remarks, an  incident that roiled financial markets and heaped criticism on  the Fed chief's head.


Summary Box: Problems Mount for Halliburton

THE INVESTIGATION: The FBI is looking into whether a subsidiary of Halliburton Co. improperly received lucrative federal government contracts for work in Iraq without competitive bidding.


Cisco router at fault for Duke's wireless issues

After blaming Apple’s iPhone for its wireless networking problems, Duke University said earlier today that it hadn’t been able to pinpoint what the problem was. Now, it has been confirmed that a Cisco router was at fault for the networking issues.


Father's rights campaigner intrudes Buckingham Palace

A father's rights campaigner entered the grounds of British Queen's residence Buckingham Palace and gained access to a balcony Monday afternoon.


At the Country Music Awards, the awards presentations are minimized, to make room for performances by old favorites and new ones.


Aftershocks strike fear after Japan quake kills 16

Aftershocks shook northern Japan on Sunday, a day after a powerful earthquake killed at least 16 people and injured about 1,000 as houses collapsed and landslides devastated a village, stranding hundreds of people.


Microsoft's YouTube Rival Arrives in Public Beta

Microsoft unveils a public beta of its MSN Soapbox video-upload service, its competitor to Google's popular video service.


The NFL is investigating the Patriots for possible improper use of video equipment during Sunday's game against the Jets to catch signals being sent by New York coaches to players on the field.


Sutton gambles his aces in first pairing

HAL SUTTON is a poker fan, Bernhard Langer doesnât gamble but both declared satisfaction with their opening hands in Michigan. But the Americanâs decision to pair Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson in the


It's outlived two world wars and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Now Vienna's imperial "Sisi Palm" Â a tree named for the late Empress Elisabeth Â faces the ax.


Senza la bussola di Wall Street, chiusa per festivita'


Florida man's headache mystery solved by a bullet

A Florida man awoke with a severe headache and asked his wife to drive him to a hospital, where doctors found a bullet lodged behind his right ear, sheriff's deputies said.


Observing that the Composite Dialogue process was being pursued step-by-step, External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh today made it clear that until cross-border terrorism was stopped, talks on the Kashmir issue cannot move forward.


Rice says arrests of Pakistani opposition troubling

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Monday the arrest of opposition activists in Pakistan was troubling, making a rare criticism of U.S. ally Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's government.


Passive smoking increases lung cancer and heart disease risk:

[Health India]: London, Oct 19: Passive smoking may have long been known to be a health hazard and now a new report by The Scientific Committee on Tobacco and Health (Scoth) confirms that it significantly increases the risk of lung cancer and heart disease


In programma una nuova versione di 'Costruzioni' del 1963


In a proud and colorful procession stretching almost two miles from the Washington Monument to the US Capitol, tens of thousands of American Indians from across the Western


ADV: Health Insurance for the Self-Employed!

Affordable health, dental, and life insurance for you and your family. Ideal for self-employed, small business owners. Fill out our form for a competitive quote.


Decision reached on British charges for Abu Hamza

Prosecutors said they have reached a decision on whether to charge radical Islamic cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri under British law, a move that could stall his extradition to the United States.


Two U.N. Officials  Suspended In Iraq Probe

Secretary General Kofi Annan has suspended the former director of the oil-for-food program and another official following a critical report on the now-defunct plan for Iraq, the United Nations said Monday.


For those not ready to retire Sonnet Technologies is to launch a new line of dual processor upgrade cards for the PowerMac.â¦


Treasuries Give Ground as Rate Hike Looms

Treasuries gave ground on Monday as  the market prepared to absorb $51 billion of new supply in a  week where official interest rates are likely to rise for the  fourth time this year.


On a diet? Be careful what your friends eat.

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Dieters beware. You might be watching what you eat but if a friend next to you is tucking into a calorie loaded snack you could be in trouble.


In vendita solo in esclusive boutique Saks Fifth Avenue


"Luxury" migrant camp sparks row on Italian island

LAMPEDUSA, Italy - The barbed wire has gone and the dormitories look basic but reasonably clean. Welcome to the new-look camp for immigrants on the island of Lampedusa.


Barton fined six weeks' wages over cigar attack

Manchester City midfielder Joey Barton has been fined six weeks' wages for poking a lit cigar in the eye of a trainee during a row at the club's Christmas Party.


Vertice Fao a Roma da novembre, servono 4 mld dlr per Aceh


US swimmers wrap up meet with golden harvest

The United States swim team sealed the swimming competition of the Athens Olympics in the same way it opened it - with a world record and another gold medal for Michael Phelps.


(InfoWorld) - When Intel says its Classmate PC is built to be rugged, the company isn't kidding. This little laptop feels ready to take the worst a 10-year-old could offer. The Classmate PC, with its distinctive blue cover, wasÂ designed by Intel for schools in emerging markets. Intel gave me one to play with for a week, offering a rare chance to take a close-up look at the laptop. Intel says the Classmate PC is "almost kid-proof," and the beefy design backs that up. The case measures 24.5 centimeters wide by 19.6 centimeters deep. With the screen closed, it measures 4.4 centimeters thick. The laptop's 7-inch screen -- which offers a resolution of 800 pixels by 480 pixels -- is guarded by a thick housing and the laptop's body has a protective bumper. The laptop itself is well built and surprisingly heavy for its size, weighing about 1.4 kilograms. Other laptops with a 7-inch screen are significantly lighter, coming in at 900 grams or less. Most of the Classmate PC's weight seems to come from its six-cell battery, which gives the laptop three to four hours of battery life. The ruggedized case probably adds a bit of weight as well. At any rate, the Classmate PC is still lighter than a bag full of books. Compared to theÂ One Laptop Per Child project's XO laptop, the Classmate PC feels better suited for the classroom environment. I had the chance to briefly try an XO prototype recently and was not impressed. Compared to the Classmate PC, the XO seemed lightly constructed and the case flexed easily. To be fair, the XO laptop that I saw was an engineering prototype, and not a final production model. Let's hope the final version of the XO is more rugged. The heart of the Classmate PC is a 900MHz Celeron M processor, not Intel's fastest chip but good enough for the job here. The Classmate PC came with Windows XP installed, Wi-Fi, 256MB of RAM, and 2GB of flash memory instead of a hard disk. As Windows XP booted up, the Classmate PC began looking for a teacher's computer. The laptop is designed to be used as part of a network, not as a standalone machine. In the classroom, the Classmate PCs can be monitored by the teacher's computer, allowing the teacher to view what each student sees on their screens. Teachers are also able to send information from their screens to every Classmate PC in the room. Since there was no network for the Classmate PC to find in my test, the system continued to boot as a standalone PC. To test its performance, I tried watching a YouTube video, which played smoothly, although at times the system seemed to be pushing its limits -- most likely due to the limited amount of DRAM installed. The Classmate PC's keyboard was too cramped for me to type comfortably, but I liked the round trackpad. In actual practice, the keyboard size shouldn't be a problem; this machine is designed for children, not adults. Among the smart touches evident in the Classmate PC design, Intel chose to place the power socket on the right side of the laptop's case, instead of the rear. This allows the laptop to be charged in a classroom storage rack that helps keep them safe and reduces classroom clutter. Another touch that struck me was the absence of an Intel logo on the Classmate PC. Intel isn't shy about branding, and it's good to see they've apparently resisted the urge to use their logo here, since I've seen pictures of other Classmate PC samples with the Intel logo. Corporate logos and marketing don't belong inside schools. Overall, the Classmate PC is an impressive product. Intel has done a good job with the design and manufacture of these laptops. Â


Moneta unica vale 1,3123 dollari e 159,43 yen


SAP AG's first court meeting with rival Oracle Corp. over an industrial espionage lawsuit has been rescheduled for Sept. 11, the German company said Wednesday.


Money is key sticking point as first ministers talk health

OTTAWA (CP) - Day one of a national summit intended to fix medicare for a generation degenerated into a numbers war, with premiers poking holes into what Prime Minister Paul Martin claimed was a federal cash offer of $58.1 billion over 10 years.


Parma, 19:59 - CALCIO, PARMA: PARTE DELL'INCASSO COL RUBIN IN BENEFICENZA

Domani era in UEFA il Parma affronta il Rubin Kazan non solo per il passaggio ai gironi di Coppa Uef...


Natural gas giant Gazprom to participate in Russian auction of key Yukos unit

MOSCOW  - The nascent petroleum division of natural gas giant Gazprom will bid for the crown jewels of the battered Yukos oil empire, its chief said Tuesday - a widely anticipated move that could put the heart of the company jailed billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky created in Kremlin-friendly hands.


General Motors Corp.  on  Tuesday posted a steeper-than-expected 24 percent drop in June  sales, as U.S. automakers lost share to Japanese brands and  overall vehicle sales sputtered in the face of high gas prices  and a weak housing market.


Key Litvinenko witness goes skiing in Europe

One of the key witnesses in the radiation poisoning death of former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko has told a Russian news agency that he has left Russia to go skiing in Europe.


Nyon, 16:46 - CALCIO DONNE, EUROPEI 2009: ITALIA CON SVEZIA E UNGHERIA

Si è tenuto a Nyon il sorteggio della fase a gironi per la qualificazione agli Europei femmin...


Pistons Coach Fined $15K for Verbal Abuse

Detroit Pistons coach Larry Brown was fined $15,000 by the NBA on Thursday for verbal abuse of an official, a day after he had to be restrained during a postgame argument with referee Anthony Jordan.


VeruTEK Technologies and MECX Announce Strategic Partnership

VeruTEK Technologies, Inc. (VTKT.OB) and MECX,  LLC announced today that the companies have formed a strategic  partnership. Under the terms of the agreement MECX  will implement environmental remediation solutions that utilize VeruTEK's  breakthrough green chemistry remediation technology.


Rischi recessione Usa e alti prezzi alimentari ed energia


U.S. companies ordered to expense options

In a move that may be seen by some in corporate America as an early lump of coal in many Christmas stockings, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) will require companies to report the cost of stock options in their financial statements beginning next year, it announced Thursday.


Woman Accuses Pacman Jones of Punching Her

A woman is seeking an arrest warrant against suspended Titans cornerback Adam 'âPacmanâ' Jones, claiming he punched her at an Atlanta strip club.


San Francisco's New Wi-Fi Provider Plays it Safe

As Meraki takes over the project, it applies a strategy to duck the problems that have stalled municipal wireless plans.


The price of crude oil fell for a third straight day today, brought down from a midweek record high by news of higher-than-expected US stocks and by Chinaâs latest moves to cool its economy.


Anacleto Angelini, Chilean Billionaire, Dead at 93

Angelini built his fortune by investing in fishing and then forestry companies in Chile after emigrating from Italy in 1948.


David Beckham's father suffers a heart attack, a spokesman for the England footballer says.


The CIA posts hundreds of papers on its website detailing some of its illegal activities from  the 1950s to 1970s.


Paese sfilacciato, rafforzare pensioni e stipendi bassi


The European Commission and President George Bush are in a war of words over subsidies given to aircraft makers Airbus and Boeing.


Badgers tailback Anthony Davis runs for 168 yards and a touchdown to send No. 15 Wisconsin to a 24-13 triumph over host No. 18 Ohio State on Saturday.


Tony Blair says he came to push Mideast peace efforts ahead. But Britain's beleaguered prime minister may be hoping his success eases anger back home over his close ties with the U.S., animosity that led to a rebellion in his own Labour Party.


UPDATE 1-Injured Gerrard only 50-50 to face Austria

England midfielder Steven Gerrard is a major doubt to face Austria in Saturday's opening 2006 World Cup qualifier, coach Sven-Goran Eriksson said on Friday.


Japan's biggest satellite suffers glitch on antenna

Japan's biggest satellite, launched last  year and designed to improve cell phone communications, has a  technical glitch on one of its massive antennas, Kyodo news  agency reported on Friday.


The steep slump in housing intensified at the end of last year, pushing home construction down by the biggest amount in nearly three decades.


Wayne Gretzky fears the NHL could be shut down for as long as two years if a labor deal is not reached soon.


Italy, U.S. police target Mafia in raids

Authorities in Italy and the United States conducted raids Thursday targeting dozens of alleged members of Mafia clans who controlled drug trafficking between the two sides of the Atlantic, officials said.


Da domani la verde costera' 1,338 euro e il gasolio 1,138


Huckabee tax plan raises eyebrows in U.S.

Republican  presidential candidate Mike Huckabee's plan to eliminate all  income taxes and replace them with a flat consumption tax has  the support of martial arts guru Chuck Norris but few economic  analysts.


President Bush's White House conference on the economy is sure to attract some of the nation's political and economic superstars to Washington this week.


FCC approves $27.5 billion Alltel buyout

The Federal Communications Commission on Friday approved a $27.5 billion buyout of Alltel Corp., the nation's fifth-largest wireless carrier, to a private investment group.


Yasir Arafat's nephew has turned over his medical records to the Palestinian Authority, giving it a first glimpse of the file since the Palestinian leader's death.


Paris Hilton out of prison for medical reasons

Hotel heiress Paris Hilton was released from prison on Thursday for medical reasons after serving just over three days of a 23-day sentence but she will be confined to her home for 40 days, officials said.


The number of Americans filing first-time claims for unemployment benefits dipped to 334,000 last week, the government said on Thursday, matching economists' forecasts.


Milano, 16:00 - CALCIO, MILAN; CRESPO: L'ARBITRO FATICAVA A STARCI DIETRO

"Penso che la lotta al vertice tra Juve e Milan faccia bene al campionato. Certo, sarebbe stato megl...


Protests over welfare cuts in St. Petersburg spread to other Russian cities

ST.PETERSBURG, Russia  - Pensioners and veterans angered over the cutoff of welfare payments clogged streets and paralysed traffic in St. Petersburg, hometown to President Vladimir Putin, for a second day Sunday and the street demonstrations spread to other Russian cities.


LONDON, England -- William Shatner wants to boldly go where he's only pretended to go so far. The "Star Trek" star is among more than 7,000 people who have told Richard Branson they would gladly pay him $210,000


Pat White threw two touchdown passes and ran for two more scores, and Steve Slaton scored four times in No. 3 West Virginia's 62-24 rout of Western Michigan on Saturday.


Saturday Interview: Making Botox Both Medicine and Cosmetic

David E. I. Pyott, president and chief executive of Allergan, discussed the companyâs recent developments.


Mahmoud Abbas, favourite to become the new Palestinian president, is given a hero's welcome in Gaza.


EU urges Russia to lift economic sanctions on Georgia

The European Union called on Russia on  Tuesday to lift economic sanctions on Georgia or risk deepening  the crisis between the ex-Soviet neighbors sparked by a spying  row.


A hospital which gave 12 patients the wrong results after cancer checks, finds more 'discrepancies'.


Royal Society unearths top secret nuclear research

Only 66 years late 75 years of the neutron In his long-awaited energy white paper, published this May, Tony Blair opined that energy could be "as important to our future as defence".â¦


France's Sarkozy under fire from top judges

France's interior minister and presidential frontrunner Nicolas Sarkozy stood accused by top judges Thursday of undermining the work of the judiciary after he lashed out at the courts of a riot-hit Paris suburb ...Comment


Shares in the fashion retailer Inditex fall after its nine-month sales come in below expectations.


Modena, 22:06 - CALCIO, MODENA: PRESI LOMBARDI E OKAKA

Il Modena che ingaggiato il difensore Stefano Lombardi e l'attaccante Stefano Okaka Chuka. Lombardi,...


Panel Urges Strong Warning on Antidepressants for Children

An expert panel advising the Food and Drug Administration recommended today that antidepressants carry a warning in a black box on the label saying that the medications


England end day two of the third Test 175 runs ahead as West Indies suffer a dramatic collapse at Old Trafford.


Having overtaken Tiger Woods as the world's premier golfer, Vijay Singh on Sunday pushed Woods further into his wake by claiming the PGA Tour's single-season money record.


Vedere nome, cognome e certificato penale dei candidati


Ukraine's Yushchenko Poisoned by Dioxin-Doctors

Ukrainian presidential hopeful Viktor Yushchenko was a victim of dioxin poisoning, but it remains unclear if it was the result of a deliberate act, Austrian doctors treating him said on Saturday.


By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO    NEW YORK  -- Sears, Roebuck and Co., which has successfully sold its tools and appliances on the Web, is counting on having the same magic with bedspreads and sweaters, thanks in part to expertise gained by its purchase of Lands' End Inc.    The company's venture into online sales of home furnishings and apparel, which officially launches Monday, may be considered late...


NASA assessing hail damage to space shuttle

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida  - Hail damaged the fuel tank of the space shuttle Atlantis and NASA managers were to meet at the Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday to determine if the damage will delay next month's launch.


Canberra, 12:09 - Tennis, Canberra: Garbin vince doppio

Tathiana Garbin ha vinto il doppio al torneo di Canberra, prova Wta da 110mila dollari in svolgiment...


Attore reduce da spettacolo a San Severo festeggia 70 anni


Pollster: GOP women will support Clinton

Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton 's top strategist predicted Thursday that up to a quarter of Republican women could support Clinton in the presidential contest Â a claim that later drew sharp rebukes from the rival campaigns of Barack Obama and Rudy Giuliani.


Judge rejects PeopleSoft class action settlement

The Delaware judge overseeing the legal wrangling there between PeopleSoft (Profile, Products, Articles) and hostile suitor Oracle (Profile, Products, Articles) rejected on


Jose Pekerman takes over as coach of Argentina

One-time taxi driver Jose Pekerman took over as coach of Argentina on Thursday, replacing sudden quitter Marcelo Bielsa. Pekerman, who presided over Argentina's youth programs


The Huygens space probe plunged through the hazy atmosphere of Titan early Friday morning and landed on the Saturn moon.


Singer Cat Stevens denied entry to USA: flight had to divert

Singer and peace movement supporter Cat Stevens and his daughter were escorted off a diverted transatlantic flight by FBI agents. The singer and writer, who converted to Islam many years ago and uses the name


French doctors say Arafat improving, rule out leukemia

A French hospital treating Palestinians Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat said on Tuesday the leader's condition was improving with treatment and ruled out leukemia.


Kung fu monks battle Colombian karate assassins

Who is the hardest of them all? Reader poll Our recent piece on the verbal spat between China's kung fu monks and an anonymous gobby net ninja provoked a certain amount of reader speculation as to who might in fact be the meanest kick-ass mutha on the planet.â¦


Do low hemlines spell bad news for the market?

Lower hemlines are coming back in fashion for spring and that could spell bad news for the U.S. stock market.


Qatar ups stake in London Stock Exchange

Qatar has upped its stake in the London Stock Exchange to nearly 24 percent by acquiring an additional three percent of shares, a Qatari newspaper said Sunday.


INTERNATIONAL human rights organisations have launched a withering attack on the military hearing for David Hicks, claiming the Australian terror suspect's legal team will be denied the "basic right" to confront evidence against him.


France sends plutonium from scrapped US nuclear warheads south under heavy guard to be reprocessed.


A dozen rats were caught on video scurrying around the floor of a New York City KFC/Taco Bell restaurant early Friday, running between counters and tables and climbing on children's high chairs.


Boston Scientific to end suit, pay $195m

Boston Scientific Corp. will pay $195 million to settle a class-action suit against its Guidant division, ending a legal battle in which patients claimed Guidant Corp. knowingly hid defects in its implantable heart devices.


C. Europe Job Portals Merge to Take on Monster

Four central European web portals have agreed to merge their Internet job search sites hoping to smooth labor movements within the EU's newest members and take on the global job Web Site Monster Worldwide .


New inquest opens into Rachel Whitear death

Move comes seven years after original inquest recorded open verdict on 21-year-old heroin addict found dead in bedsit.


Could the Meadowlands be the next stop for the vagabond Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals Major League Baseball franchise? That would be good move for the sport, according to New Jersey Sports


Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysia's most famous prisoner,  has a sodomy conviction overturned and is released.


A Russian art exhibition will be one step closer to opening in London when a law to protect the works comes into force.


BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan -- This week's trip to the international space station will be the cosmonauts' first flight in a Soyuz spacecraft -- a rupture with the 30-year tradition of having at least one crewman with previous experience in piloting the capsule.


Milan railway station to host Holocaust memorial

Milan central railway station's notorious Platform 21, which witnessed the deportation of hundreds of Jews in 1943-45, will host the city's first Holocaust memorial, local authorities said.


Syria denied Iranian claims that the two countries would conduct a joint investigation into the assassination of a top Hezbollah commander, the Syrian state news agency reported.


Intel Reorganizes, Creates Two Divisions

Intel Corp. INTC.O on Monday said it  was reorganizing, forming three groups to lead its efforts in  platforms for mobility, the digital enterprise and digital home  as part of its efforts to drive development of complete  technology platforms.


The Supreme Court refused Monday to reinstate a Florida law passed to keep a severely brain-damaged woman hooked to a feeding tube, clearing the way for it to be removed. How soon that would happen, however, was unclear.


Olmert pays tribute to murdered Jews at start of Berlin visit

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at the start of a two-day visit to Germany on Tuesday paid homage to Jews deported to concentration camps during World War II.Comment


Bonilla Talks to GOP Convention Delegates

Texas Rep. Henry Bonilla has helped President Bush appeal to Hispanic voters around the nation, but back home, the party helped Bonilla's re-election chances by removing thousands of Hispanics from his district.


Japan televises appeal for hostage's release

Japan's Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura has urged Islamic militants in Iraq to release a Japanese hostage, in an interview with the Arabic satellite network Al-Jazeera.


Constant Worry May Increase Alzheimer's Risk

NEW YORK  - People who have a tendency to  worry or feel very stressed out may be more likely to develop  Alzheimer's disease later in life, new research reports.


Prime Minister Tony Blair was recovering in hospital tonight after undergoing treatment for a recurring heart condition. Chancellor Gordon Brown said the


Independence 'will be gift to terrorists and illegal immigrants'

Labour paints doom-laden picture of Scotland under SNP Families, economy and security all to be in deep trouble if the Nats get control SNP say Scotland would be safer without Labour, however Key quote ...Comment


'Why the Bombings?' Ask Bangladesh Protesters

Thousands of Bangladesh opposition  activists holding banners reading "Why the bombings, why the  bloodshed?" protested on Monday against a deadly grenade attack  as extra armed police stood by to quell violence.


Tributes are paid to the late Dame Anita Roddick at a memorial for the entrepreneur and campaigner.


Is HP Serious About Its Software Business This Time?

TechWeb - Driven by in-house development and acquisitions, it has a new plan to become a top-tier software vendor. It's worth a look.


U.S. manufacturing sector growth slowed in August

U.S. factory activity expanded at a   slightly reduced pace in August, while new order growth slowed   as well, according to a survey published on Friday.


IRS official Jim Dupree will join Michelle Singletary for a one-hour Web chat to answer reader questions about filing 2004 income taxes.


Torino 2006: tra un anno la fiaccola a Roma

ROMA -Il 7 dicembre 2005 la torcia olimpica inizierÃ  il suo viaggio da Roma verso le Olimpiadi 2006. L'annuncio Ã¨ stato dato oggi al Salone d'Onore del Coni. La fiaccola dei giochi sarÃ  accesa in Grecia


Tv: Rossi Stuart, 'Il tunnel della liberta'' fu impresa eroica

''Il tunnel della liberta''' per raccontare un'impresa eroica compiuta da italiani e anche per cercare di risollevare gli ascolti di Canale 5. Andra' in onda lunedi' e martedi' prossimi in prima serata su Canale 5 ''Il tunnel della liberta''', la


The Live Earth global concert series to raise awareness about climate change kicked off in Sydney on Saturday.


Individual investors need to practice patience and long-term investing.


His hat tilted off his forehead, New York Yankees manager Joe Torre slumped behind a microphone late Monday night. For the second time in 24 hours, he


Hundreds of visitors to the same  bar as the murdered ex-KGB spy on the day he fell ill will be tested for radiation.


Bernanke indicates Fed to act 'as needed' to steady economy

Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said in a letter to a US senator that the central bank would act "as needed" to ease the impact of a credit squeeze on the US economy.


U.S. pushes Russia to endorse latest Kosovo plan

The United States threatened on  Friday to move forward on Kosovo, which is clamoring for  independence from Serbia, whether Russia agreed or not to the  latest U.N. Security Council draft resolution.


American International Group Inc.  AIG.N on Monday said it received new subpoenas from New York  Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and the U.S. Securities and  Exchange Commission related to insurance products that might  help companies smooth earnings or hide losses.


Virus writers have latched onto the publicity surrounding football star David Beckham and his sexual escapades and are luring unsuspecting web users to a site that offers a whole lot more than just a couple of Photoshopped pics of David Beckham and his


A new front has been opened in the long-dormant browser war, with an open-source program called Firefox aiming to challenge Microsoft's dominant Internet Explorer.


Dal libro simbolo dei giovani anni '90 alla fiction


Israeli 'Economic Warfare' to Include Electricity Cuts in Gaza

JERUSALEM, Jan. 27 -- Saying they were waging "economic warfare" against the Gaza Strip's Hamas leaders, Israeli officials told the Supreme Court on Sunday that the military intends to start cutting electricity to the Palestinian territory and continue restricting fuel.


Not so fast, Sen. McCain. John McCain's campaign issued a statement last week claiming the Arizona senator had surpassed the number of delegates needed to secure the GOP nomination for president, after Mitt Romney endorsed him. John McCain sure looks like he has the nomination all but wrapped up. But he isn't there yet, and here's why:


La Ferrari scarica Ecclestone Parte il mondiale parallelo

ROMA, 26 OTTOBRE 2004 - Dal 2008 sparira' l'attuale Formula uno, governata da Bernie Ecclestone, e partira' un Mondiale parallelo, gestito direttamente dalle case motoristiche, di vetture a ruote scoperte.


By David Nivens, High Point Enterprise, N.C.  Dec. 18--HIGH POINT -- The cranky elevator in the downtown Department of Social Services building has become a bad joke that social workers will have to deal with for a while longer.


Yasser Arafat was not in a coma but remained in intensive care Saturday after undergoing more medical tests, a senior aide to the ailing Palestinian leader said. Test results were expected within days.


Hamas official says BBC reporter to be freed Sunday

A Hamas official said on Sunday BBC reporter Alan Johnston, abducted in Gaza three months ago, would be released within hours, but as the clock ticked by another senior member of the Islamist group counseled caution.


France appeared to have removed a threat to one of Europe's largest energy deals on Sunday after the boards of Suez and Gaz de France voted on a politically charged merger delayed by disputes over strategy and control.


That'll thrill the Americans.... After this year's visit to the south of France and last year's to the greenery of Vienna's Stadtpark, RSA Conference Europe is moving to east London next year, more specifically to the fleshpots of Docklands and the ExCel exhibition centre.â¦


No other buyer will be willing to pay more for Yahoo. Since Yahooâs management will not be able to justify turning down that sort of premium, Microsoft is likely to win the prize.


Ufficializzate anche le ultime quattro identita'


Knicks 104, Hawks 100 (O.T.): Marbury and Francis Give Knicks What They Need

Stephon Marbury scored 38 points and Steve Francis had a season-high 26 points as the Knicks moved to a game behind the Nets for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.


'We're good to go,' NASA says of June 8 shuttle launch

NASA said Thursday that on June 8 it would attempt to launch the US shuttle Atlantis to the orbiting International Space Station, a mission that has been delayed since March due to fuel tank damage.


Napoli, 22:06 - CALCIO, NAPOLI; DE LAURENTIIS: SE NON CAMBIA LASCIA QUESTO MONDO

Aurelio De Laurentiis è pronto a lasciare il mondo del calcio se ''non ci sarà un camb...


The rocket plane SpaceShipOne is just one flight away from claiming the Ansari X-Prize, a $10m award designed to kick-start private space travel.


Linking to songs Three multinational record companies have filed copyright infringement claims in a Beijing court against China's most popular internet search engine, Baidu.com Inc.â¦


Royal Group Technologies shares remain halted as rumours swirl

TORONTO (CP) - Trading in shares of Royal Group Technologies Ltd. remained halted by regulatory order Thursday amid rumours about police and securities commission investigations of the building products maker.


IQ-Related Brain Areas May Differ in Men, Women

While neither men nor women may be the more intelligent sex, their brains may take different paths to reach the same intellectual level, according to one team of researchers.


Sex, Psychiatry and Kidnapping, From Assorted Points of View

Elliot Perlman's long-winded novel is intensely conversational, articulately cruel and devoted to the settling of sexual scores.


Analysis: a Bush 2nd Term Could Be Thorny

On the campaign trail, belting out promises for the next four years, President Bush exudes confidence and optimism. Yet the reality of a second term is that Bush would be boxed in by many of the momentous decisions he made in the first.


Somali insurgents launch a rocket attack on an army base in southern Mogadishu, killing at least two civilians.


Legendary British rock band The Who   is reaching out to a new generation of listeners.


"Heeere's Johnny!" is top U.S. TV catchphrase

"Heeere's Johnny!" -- the  introduction for U.S. talk-show host Johnny Carson for 30 years  -- has been ranked the most memorable TV catchphrase in a Top  100 list covering 60 years of American television shows,  cartoons, commercials and quotes from news programs.


Facial recognition software makes finding Web photos easier

Polar Rose AB plans to offer free software to make photos searchable on computers and across the Web by analyzing the contents of pictures with facial recognition technology to locate specific faces.


Gozo Channel reduces loss making, still recipient of Government subsidies

Gozo Channel Ltd has successfully reduced its financial loss-making from almost Lm1 million to Lm27, 000.


Character actor Charles Lane dies at 102

Charles Lane, the prolific character actor whose name was little known, but whose bespectacled face and crotchety persona made him instantly recognizable to generations of movie-goers, has died, his son said Tuesday. He was 102.


The Masters signs three sponsors two years after going commercial free and will return to broadcasting four television ad minutes per hour.


Dopo termine indagini su presunto insider trading


IBM in Discussions on Issues in Pension Suit

IBM, in the latest turn in a pension plan case that could reverberate through the Fortune 500, said on Friday it is in talks to resolve some of the issues in a lawsuit that could cost Big Blue billions of dollars.


Namibia  and South Africa are told at a Bangkok animal trade summit they can  each kill five endangered black rhinos per year.


Mulberry trees bring misery to Pakistani city

Spring has arrived in the Pakistani capital bringing clear skies and balmy weather but for many residents of Islamabad, spring heralds weeks of suffering and for some, it could mean death.


Clay Aiken was involved in an airplane disturbance with another passenger Saturday while en route to Tulsa International Airport, a newspaper reported.


MySpace, the social networking  Web site, could be worth around $15 billion within three years,  measured in terms of the value created for shareholders of  parent company News Corp., a Wall Street media analyst forecast  on Wednesday.


In Article, Castro Reflects on Clinton-Obama Ticket

MEXICO CITY, Aug. 28 -- Days after rumors of his death swept the Internet, Fidel Castro mused about the U.S. presidential election in an editorial published Tuesday in the Communist Party newspaper Granma.


Un mercato che vale oltre 56 miliardi di euro


Epilepsy Drug Linked to Developmental Delays in Offspring

THURSDAY, Oct. 14 (HealthDayNews) -- The epilepsy drug sodium valproate has been linked to children born with developmental delays and lower IQs, says research published in the current issue of the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.


Record labels lose against Chinese search engine

'If the music companies had won, the whole search engine sector would have ground to a halt' A group of international record companies has lost a case against Chinese search engine Baidu over allegations about illegally downloaded music. A Chinese court has ruled in Baidu's favour.â¦


An EU court reverses a four-year-old decision to freeze the funds of an Iranian opposition group.


Firenze, 18:43 - CALCIO, FIORENTINA: LIVERANI E DAINELLI TORNANO TITOLARI

Non cambia modulo ma qualche interprete il tecnico della Fiorentina Cesare Prandelli in vista della ...


Nanowires put more power in smaller packages, researcher reports.


S.Korea's LG.Philips to boost LCD capacity

LG.Philips LCD Co. Ltd. , the world's second-biggest maker of large liquid crystal display (LCD) panels, said on Sunday it would increase the capacity of its biggest TV panel production line by 22 percent to meet growing demand for large LCD televisions.


Nikkei Weakens as Dollar Slips Below Y103

Tokyo's Nikkei fell 0.9  percent by  mid-afternoon on Tuesday as selling increased in the wake of  the dollar's retreat below 103 yen and put more pressure on  exporters such as Sharp Corp.


Si riapre la questione sulla guida del partito unico del centrosinistraI Verdi: "La sua sconfitta danneggia tutta la coalizione"                                          Pd, Ã¨ giÃ  tensione sulla scelta del leader Chiti: "Bisogna decidere chi lo guiderÃ "


Accusations of Fraud Mar Afghan Election

KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghans packed polling stations on Saturday for a historic presidential election that was blemished when all 15 candidates opposing U.S.-backed interim President Hamid Karzai withdrew, charging the government and the U.N. with fraud and incompetence...


SocGen reels from record $7 billion rogue trader fraud

A "massive fraud" by a junior rogue trader has punched a $7 billion hole in the finances of French bank Societe Generale, leaving its credibility in tatters and forcing it to get emergency cash.


Indianapolis, IN (Sports Network) - Peyton Manning continued his MVP-type season by throwing for 320 yards and five touchdowns, as the Indianapolis Colts rolled to a 49-14 rout of the Houston Texans at the RCA Dome.


Many years ago, Carlie said to me, "You will never retire--just, someday, you will die." 100% correct. As I am neither retired nor dead, expect to start hearing from me on this site. read more


Protesters Stage Annual Abortion Rallies

Abortion opponents on Monday marked the 32nd anniversary of the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion with a day of rallies, protests and other activities.


The Democratic Party questions President Bush's credibility on Iraq and the economy in a new campaign ad that shows the Republican on an aircraft carrier declaring an end to major combat under a "Mission Accomplished" banner.


By Constance Loizos, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.  Jun.


FDA warns of heart risks with schizophrenia drug

U.S. regulators said on Monday that Johnson & Johnson added new warnings to its schizophrenia drug, Haldol, about the potential risk of death and of dangerous heart conditions observed in some patients.


An image of England footballer Wayne Rooney is shortlisted for the Â£10,000 Comme Ca Art Prize.


Edwards's wife told she has breast cancer

ELIZABETH EDWARDS, the wife of the Democrat vice-presidential candidate John Edwards, was given a diagnosis of breast cancer on Wednesday, the day her husband and John Kerry conceded the US election to President Bush.


West Virginia is hoping that a little wheel can make a big difference in the state's obesity problem.


Le candidature per migliori attori e migliori attrici


Arafat's Wife Clashes with Palestinian Leaders

Description: Yasser Arafat's wife and leaders of the Palestinian Authority are in a tug of war over information regarding Arafat's condition and treatment.


Ukraine Rivals Fail to Resolve Stalemate

Ukraine's two rivals for power failed in nearly three hours of talks Friday to resolve the political stalemate over who will lead the bitterly divided nation, and opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko told a huge rally that he was insisting on a new election.


Karzai keeps on leading Afghan polls with over one third votes ...

Afghan interim President Hamid Karzai has been keeping on leading the ballot counting as he garnered 62.6 percent of the votes counted till Wednesday noon, Afghan election website said.


Call for restrictions on antidepressants

The UK drugs regulatory agency warned yesterday that the SSRI class of anti-depressant medicines had been too widely prescribed by doctors for the treatment


A POTENTIALLY devastating equine disease has been detected in the heart of Newmarket's multi-million pound bloodstock industry.


Su fusione bocciata da Corte Ue dopo ricorso Impala


Pixar Rallies, Boosting Distribution Deal Chances

Shares of Pixar Animation Studios Inc hit an all-time high on Monday after a second strong weekend at the box-office for "The Incredibles," which analysts said will give Pixar more clout in its search for a new distributor of its computer-animated films.


San Jose Mercury News, Calif., Patty Fisher Column: Preserving a Treasure Close to the Heart

By Patty Fisher, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.  Dec. 18--When you consider Bill and Jean Lane's lifetime of contributions to open-space preservation, their campaign to prevent two measly houses from being built in their Portola Valley neighborhood may seem like small potatoes.


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Contro la riapertura della discarica 'Tre Ponti' in strada anche il sindaco di Montesarchio                                           Rifiuti, la protesta nel Beneventano manifestanti bloccano Appia e treni


SAIC Profits Up 8 Percent in First Post-IPO Filing

By Bruce V. Bigelow, The San Diego Union-Tribune  Dec. 14--Posting financial results for the first time since its initial  public stock offering, San Diego's SAIC said yesterday that profits grew  almost 8 percent for the three months that ended in October.


No bull: CMT taps Garrett, Baldwin, Vanilla Ice

Rapper-musician Vanilla  Ice, actor Stephen Baldwin and actor-musician Leif Garrett are  among the celebrities set to take part in CMT's upcoming  reality series "Ty Murray's Celebrity Bull Riding Challenge."


Militants bombed two churches Tuesday in Mosul, wounding three people in a coordinated attack apparently aimed at stirring trouble between religious groups in this ethnically diverse northern city.


US economic growth will slow to 3.3 per cent in 2005, more than a full percentage point below this year, with the effect of high energy prices dragging on the economy for the next few quarters, the OECD said on Tuesday.


Poll predicts landslide defeat for Megawati

Indonesia's President Megawati looks set for a crushing defeat at next Monday's presidential election run-off, according to an opinion poll published in Jakarta today.


Although Google's non-search engine products, like its Google Apps Web hosted collaboration and communication software suite, get much attention, search technology and its companion ad system and network still generate most of the company's revenue.At last week's Web 2.0 Summit, IDG News Service caught up with Marissa Mayer, Google Inc.'s vice president of Search Products & User Experience, to chat about video search, semantic versus keyword search, Google's universal search effort, and the challenge of indexing the "deep Web."What follows is an edited transcript of the interview:IDGNS: There are different technology approaches to video search. Blinkx, for example, maintains it does it better than Google because it indexes the text of what is said in videos with speech recognition technology. Where is Google with video search today?Mayer: Google Video has had an interesting evolution. When we first launched it, it was based on closed captions, so literally a transcription of the program, but interestingly, you couldn't play video. So we changed it so that you could play video, and now we're searching the meta content. That said, one of the future elements of what's likely to happen in search is around speech recognition.You may have heard about our [directory assistance] 1-800-GOOG-411 service. Whether or not free-411 is a profitable business unto itself is yet to be seen. I myself am somewhat skeptical. The reason we really did it is because we need to build a great speech-to-text model ... that we can use for all kinds of different things, including video search.The speech recognition experts that we have say: If you want us to build a really robust speech model, we need a lot of phonemes, which is a syllable as spoken by a particular voice with a particular intonation. So we need a lot of people talking, saying things so that we can ultimately train off of that. ... So 1-800-GOOG-411 is about that: Getting a bunch of different speech samples so when you call up or we're trying to get the voice out of video, we can do it with high accuracy.IDGNS: What about non-speech content in videos -- the action in the clip?Mayer: That's going to be particularly hard, given that most of Google's approaches are based on text right now. So we really do need the text, which is why our inclination is to build a great speech-to-text model and pull the text out.... That said, there are a lot instances of humor, context, things that happen in frame that don't necessarily have words, but for that we're going to have to rely on the community to do things like tagging.There is some very early research happening around recognizing faces in videos, recognizing particular objects, understanding that hey, there's a ball in the frame right now, but it's very early and not at all ready to be deployed in a commercial application.IDGNS: Some people criticize Google because its query-analysis technology is mostly based on keywords as opposed to understanding natural language, like full sentences.Mayer: Right now Google is really good with keywords, and that's a limitation we think the search engine should be able to overcome with time. People should be able to ask questions, and we should understand their meaning, or they should be able to talk about things at a conceptual level. We see a lot of concept-based questions -- not about what words will appear on the page but more like "what is this about?" A lot of people will turn to things like the semantic Web as a possible answer to that. But what we're seeing actually is that with a lot of data, you ultimately see things that seem intelligent even though they're done through brute force.When you type in "GM" into Google, we know it's "General Motors." If you type in "GM foods" we answer with "genetically-modified foods." Because we're processing so much data, we have a lot of context around things like acronyms. Suddenly, the search engine seems smart like it achieved that semantic understanding, but it hasn't really. It has to do with brute force. That said, I think the best algorithm for search is a mix of both brute-force computation and sheer comprehensiveness and also the qualitative human component.IDGNS: Where is the universal search effort at Google?Mayer: It is early stage and we're working on more radical things now. The team launched [universal search] in May ... Books, images, news, video, and local information have now been blended in [with general Web search]. The team is now devoting its time and energy to three different pieces. They're working really hard to internationalize universal and bring it to all of our different countries and languages because it's English-only and largely in the U.S. They're working on bringing in [other vertical engines] like blog search, patents, scholar. And they're also looking at how to do more radical things in terms of overall ranking and relevance and user presentation, the user interface piece.The reason why universal search was such a big change for us was that there were three [key] pieces [to adapt]. We had to change the entire infrastructure to make the thing cost effective. Then there's the ranking piece: Now that you have all these results, how do you order them? And the final piece was the user interface.Now the infrastructure is in place and the engineers can finally get to have fun thinking about what they can do in terms of relevance, ranking, and user interface. With that third [user interface] piece, we're doing a lot of experimentation building a bunch of interesting prototypes of how universal search could play out this year or two or three years out.IDGNS: Is the ultimate goal to fold all these vertical tabs of news, image, video, book search, and so on into the general Web search query box?Mayer: We want people to think of the search box as one query box. That said, we do acknowledge that there are times when you know you want an image or a news story, so obviously we'll still have links to those independent indices. But you shouldn't have to use those if you're not an expert and you don't know what's there [in all our specialty search engines] ... we'd like all of those [secondary indices] to be integrated into the main [Web] search engine.IDGNS: What's Google's take on all the so-called "deep Web" content search engines can't get to for a variety of technical reasons?Mayer: The issue on "deep Web" content is that it's usually in databases and [Web] crawling isn't a great way of getting at a database. ... So we've been doing things like Google Base. Most databases allow people to do an XML feed off of them so you can do an XML output of your database and you can upload that database to Google and Google Base.IDGNS: Are you making progress with that approach?Mayer: Yes, literally hundreds of millions of items have been uploaded into Google Base. So we're making progress indexing that data, but we're not doing a good enough job surfacing that data in the search results. So we have it, and if you go to Google Base, you can find it but it's hard to figure out, from the universal search aspect, when it should be blended into the main search results.IDGNS: From an engineer's point of view, is working on search engine technology still "cool" and professionally stimulating?Mayer: Search is still very much an unsolved problem.... We're like six years into what's going to become a 500-year discipline. It's still very compelling, and we have people joining Google every day who are really excited to work on search.IDGNS: Three or four years ago, people were saying, 'Google is great, it's a cash cow, but for people to switch to another search engine, there's no cost in terms of effort or inconvenience.' But it turns out this hasn't happened. What's Google's view into this issue?Mayer: There are two non-obvious outcomes around the stickiness question. One is that it's true: If someone builds a better search, users will probably move over [to that competing engine.] That keeps our employees, especially our engineers, really well motivated to make sure no one has better search.... We have to prove to our users every day that we still have the best search.The other non-obvious observation is that search is much stickier than most people realize. Intuitively, you know you can go to [other search engines] ... but people have a source they trust, and it takes them a long time to feel like they're not giving anything up [by using another search engine.]When you find a long lost friend or information about a medical condition that is hard to diagnose or [you experience] that "I'm feeling lucky" moment when this amazing Web site turns up first on Google, each of those moments stays in your mind. There's an attachment, a trust there that this tool really brought me what I needed. So the switching cost for search is a lot higher [than people think.]IDGNS: Where do the carriers come in for mobile search? I guess you can bypass them if the user has a mobile browser. Or else you can choose to partner with the carriers for better integration of your services.Mayer: Certainly [mobile] Web browsers do work. That said, the deeper integration is much more advantageous. We've seen that right away with the [Google] Maps [service] being embedded into the iPhone.That said, downloadable applications like Google Maps for Mobile or Gmail for Mobile often do sidestep some of the limitations of the particular software that may come preinstalled with the phone. That's a good strategy to help people who have capable phones use those products. So you can partner with the carriers to get it embedded in the phone when it ships or you can have an application that people can download later.IDGNS: I imagine there are all sorts of business dealings and arrangements that need to be worked out.Mayer: The mobile space is very complicated. We've got some very successful mobile partnerships in a number of countries ... so we've been working with [telecom] partners, but we've also been pursuing an alternate downloadable-application path.


An Oklahoma state senator hopes to revive cockfighting in the state by putting tiny boxing gloves on the roosters instead of razors.


Plane's maintenance records uncover no problems

KIRKSVILLE, Mo. Investigators have found no problems in reviewing the maintenance records of a Tennessee-based commuter plane that crashed Tuesday in Missouri, killing 13 people.


Bomber of US mess hall said to be Saudi student

CAIRO -- The suicide bomber who killed 22 people when he blew himself up in a US mess hall in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul was a Saudi medical student, an Arab newspaper reported yesterday.


Robert Altman, the acclaimed director of MASH, Nashville and Gosford Park, dies in a Los Angeles hospital.


No Funds in Bush Budget For Troop-Benefits Plan

President Bush drew great applause during his State of the Union address last month when he called on Congress to allow U.S. troops to transfer their unused education benefits to family members. "Our military families serve our nation, they inspire our nation, and tonight our nation honors them," he...


Johnson tries to repeat magical Masters at U.S. Open

OAKMONT, Pennsylvania  - Zach Johnson, who donned the green jacket after a magical Masters, hopes his skill with the putter will do the trick again at the U.S. Open starting on Thursday.


Wonderful Wisconsin ; Nicola Boden Enjoys a Stay in a Gangster Hideout

By Nicola Boden  WITH its dispersed population, deep forests and abundance of lakeside lodges, Wisconsin once made the perfect hideaway for some of America's most notorious gangsters.


Criminal charges will not be filed against a Disney employee accused of hitting a teenager while in costume as the Winnie the Pooh character "Tigger," authorities said.


Adios Ideal... Bell Micro is doing away with its current three brands to embrace a unified future.â¦


Right-hander was key part of 2002 World Series win

A weekend in Anaheim apparently in search of a reliever netted the Reds a starter from the local big league club. General manager Dan O'Brien announced Tuesday that


Ukrainian President Criticizes Court Order for New Vote

In his first interview since Ukraine held a disputed election, Leonid D. Kuchma blamed the candidates and external pressure.


Commercial bank North Fork Bancorp Inc. said Friday that it agreed to sell manufactured housing finance unit GreenPoint Credit LLC to Green Tree Servicing LLC.


California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi on Wednesday proposed broad regulations that would require brokers and some agents to disclose all compensation they receive from insurance companies and to recommend to their clients the best available


As the investigation continued into a foiled terrorist attack, there were divisions over new security measures.


BAGHDAD, Iraq - In a day of conflicting statements, Iraqi authorities first said, then denied they had captured Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, the most senior member still at large from Saddam Hussein's ousted regime.


EUROPA/ROMANIA - Ottobre missionario in Romania: i missionari Oblati di Maria Immacolata impegnati nellÂapprofondimento del Messaggio del Santo Padre partendo dai piÃ¹ piccoli Bucarest (Agenzia Fides) - La Giornata Missionaria Mondiale del prossimo 22 ottobre avrÃ  come tema Âla caritÃ , anima della missioneÂ. Il Santo Padre Benedetto XVI, nel testo del suo messaggio per questa occasione propone di vivere e pensare la missio...


Hal Sutton was swaggering around wearing a black cowboy hat and smile when the 35th Ryder Cup began. Barely an hour later at Oakland Hills Country Club, Sutton was sporting a cap and a scowl.


Researchers have found individual cells in the pancreas of adult mice that are capable of producing insulin, a discovery that might lead to a cure for diabetes.


Islanders to buy out center Yashin's contract

Alexei Yashin's career with the New York Islanders officially ended Wednesday when the NHL team said they would buy out the last four years on his decade-long contract.


Per ballottaggio Provincia Genova ha votato l'11,5%


Prisoner Release Key to Summit Success - Palestinians

Palestinian officials said on Saturday it was imperative to resolve a dispute with Israel over the release of Palestinian prisoners to avoid failure at a summit seen as crucial to ending over four years of violence.


EU Mustn't Attach Conditions to Talks, Turkey Says

The European Union must vote to start membership talks with Turkey immediately and without attaching more conditions when its leaders meet tomorrow in Brussels, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said.


US House Passes Intelligence Reorganization Bill

The US House of Representatives approved legislation to create a national intelligence director to oversee the nation's 15 intelligence agencies and to establish a counter-terrorism center to evaluate threats.


ATHENS, GREECE - The United States Olympic Committee pumped renewed fury into the Paul Hamm gymnastics saga on Friday, slamming the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) for asking Hamm to return his gold medal.


E' consigliere del re ed ex capo dello stato maggiore


Ukrainian officials to reopen probe of poison allegations

Ukrainian prosecutors yesterday reopened their investigation into allegations Viktor Yushchenko was poisoned, after doctors treating the opposition leader confirmed he had been slipped the toxic chemical dioxin.


And other assorted gadgets and goodies Tech Digest From the makers of Tech Digest, Shiny Shiny, eBay blog Bayraider and the cool new blog for blokes Brandish.â¦


Dutch extremist suspects planned to murder deputies: report

THE HAGUE : Two suspected Islamic extremists arrested this week are suspected of plotting to assassinate two Dutch lawmakers known for their critical stance towards Islam, the Dutch press reported.


The Saturday Profile: Within 25 Miles of New York, Iran Offers a Congenial Glow

Javad Zarif, the United Nations ambassador from Iran, a country that has had no diplomatic relations with the United States since 1980, is confined in New York.


Amazon Adds Warner Music Tunes to Download Service

Amazon.com has signed on Warner Music Group to its music download service, which aims to compete with Appleâs industry-dominating iTunes online store.


A couple who purchased a classic Doris Day DVD from a supermarket find a sex film instead.


Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank said he wanted to send Michael Vick a message that he wanted the star quarterback to be a part of the team "for a very long period of time.


Flooding From Gaston Kills 5 in Virginia

Flooding touched off by the remnants of Tropical Storm Gaston left at least five people dead in Virginia on Tuesday and devastated a historic Richmond neighborhood that was the heart of the Confederate capital during the Civil War.


A version of the new four-door Panamera will use the same gas-electric drivetrain as the upcoming Cayenne hybrid.


British magazine causes uproar with attack on 'mawkish' Liverpudlians

A British political magazine managed to cause a national storm by labelling the inhabitants of Liverpool a "mawkish" bunch who revel in sentimentality and a sense of victimhood.


A salvage vessel has begun towing a Canadian submarine which spent two days adrift off Ireland's west coast.


Report: Two More Top CIA Officials Resign

Two more top officials at the CIA's clandestine unit are retiring in the latest sign of upheaval in the agency under its new director Peter Goss, The New York Times reported Thursday.


Footballer Craig Bellamy tells a court he was slapped during a nightclub argument with a 19-year-old woman.


Mobile operators team up against child abuse

Access denied Mobile operators across Europe are teaming up against the use of mobile internet services to distribute child pornography images.â¦


NATO steps in as Serbs torch Kosovo border post

JARINJE, Kosovo  - NATO peacekeepers were being sent to newly independent Kosovo's border with Serbia on Tuesday to defend frontier posts under attack by Serbs who oppose its secession.


The big-bang theory of the universe, microcredit and literature exploring Turkey's clash of cultures will be honored as six American scientists, a Bangladeshi economist and a Turkish novelist receive the Nobel Prizes Sunday in Stockholm and Oslo.


Fake cigarettes make smoking even more deadly

London - British smokers were issued a stark government warning on Wednesday to beware of smuggled cigarettes, which while cheap are often faked and made with highly dangerous contaminated tobacco.


Defending champion Elena Dementieva posted a 6-3, 7-5 win over fellow Russian Elena Likhovtseva on Thursday to advance to the quarterfinals of the Pan Pacific Open.


Swedish PM Under Fire Over Tsunami Response

Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson  was defiant on Friday despite criticism his cabinet reacted too  slowly to the Asian tsunami that may have killed more than  1,000 Swedes.