IBM taps partners to bolster speech applications

(InfoWorld) - Speech-enabled applications have been around for some time, but they have never reached the level of adoption that proponents of the technology have predicted over the years. IBMÂ is out to change all of that. In New York on Tuesday, the company showcased a host of applications -- both prototypes and commercial -- that its research labs and partners have built incorporating voice recognition and speech technologies. While IBM has been doing research for about 10 years in the speech area, speech-enabled applications have come a long way since the company first introduced dictation technologies to the medical industry, Dr. David Nahamoo, chief technology officer of speech technology at IBM Research, said. And IBM's partners, some of whom were on hand at the event in IBM's Manhattan office to show off applications using IBM ViaVoice technology, are a big part of why speech technology is moving forward, he said. "We're working with partners to make a lot of things happen so we can accelerate the delivery of useful products and offerings in the marketplace," Nahamoo said. Another thing IBM did about a year ago to accelerate the company's ability to offer speech-enabled applications that are "truly useful" to the average person was to integrate its speech research into its core software group, said Dan Miller, an analyst with Opus Research in San Francisco. "[This] means they're willing to bring solutions that involve the full line of WebSphere middleware and application servers along into solutions that indeed involve speech," he said. IBM's long-standing tradition of innovation also brings credibility to speech-enabled applications and could inspire more people to use them, Miller added. At Tuesday's event, companies such as Navigation Pioneer Electronics and All Media Guide showed how they are using Embedded ViaVoice speech-recognition technology in commercial applications. For example, Pioneer's AVIC-Z2 new car navigation system provides detailed driving directions that go beyond the usual "turn left at the next street" with the help of Embedded ViaVoice, said Ted Cardenas, product planning manager, Navigation Pioneer Electronics. "It will actually tell you the street name," he said, adding this is safer because the driver does not have to look at the screen to double-check the street name. The AVIC-Z2 system also learns a driver's driving habits, and will only map out directions that avoid certain freeways and streets if a driver tends to do the same thing, Cardenas said. All Media Guide, which provides information about music, musical artists, songs, and albums for Web sites, online music stores, and other entertainment outlets, has teamed with IBM and Avoca Semiconductor to allow users to interact by voice with their personal media collections, said Zac Johnson, product manager for All Media Guide. Avoca's speech-enabled user interface is called the Media Control Platform, within which is IBM Embedded ViaVoice. All Media Guide provides the engine within the platform that lets people use voice capabilities to find artists and songs they want to listen to, he said. For example, a user can tell the system it wants to hear Bruce Springsteen, or "Play The Boss," using his nickname to identify him, Johnson said. The technology can work with a variety of devices on which users store their digital media, such as PCs, iPods, or MP3 players. IBM faces its stiffest competition from Nuance Communications in the speech technology market, but another big software competitor, Microsoft, also is moving into the space, Opus's Miller said. In particular, Microsoft is focused on embedding voice into its Office Communication Server collaboration software, he said. This will provide some interesting competitive offerings down the road as IBM also is doing the same with its Lotus/Sametime collaboration suite, Miller said. "I think those companies are really pushing each other to innovate in that area," he said.


Indian conglomerate Bharti Enterprises is to spend up to $2.5bn to focus on expanding its retail business by 2015.


Princess Diana video airs on US television

A videotape of the late princess Diana talking frankly about her sex life with Prince Charles and suggesting that a lover on her royal staff was "bumped off" was broadcast on US television.


MONTREAL -- Despite a jump of 19 per cent in world air traffic so far this year, airlines are expected to lose as much as $4 billion US in 2004 due to high fuel costs, says the International Air Transport Association.


British interior minister steps down over 'nannygate' scandal

LONDON, Dec 15  - British Home Secretary David Blunkett, one of Prime Minister Tony Blair's closest allies, resigned on Wednesday after admitting his office had fast-tracked a visa application for his ex-lover's Filipina nanny.


EU remedies may not help Microsoft competitors

Legal observers are sceptical of the significance of a ruling by a European court that Microsoft must comply with anti-trust remedies imposed by the European Commission.


Australia's IT News reports the findings of a recent survey in which more than 20 percent of company execs said they were considering or recommending offshore outsourcing. [Outsourcing Blog]


Genmab A/S (CSE: GEN) announced today that HuMax-CD4 for the treatment of Mycosis Fungoides (MF), which constitutes 75% of all Cutaneous T-cell Lymphomas (CTCL), has been designated an orphan drug by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).


Police found the corpse of a man they believe to be a foreigner north of Baghdad on Friday, authorities said.


Web tuning into Microsoft's LiveStation plan

Blog: Although it was announced back in April, the Internet video site, still in limited testing, is getting renewed attention this week.


Oil prices climbed nearly a dollar on Monday, moving above $46 a barrel on escalating sabotage at Iraqi oil facilities and the risk that a U.S. cold spell would strain thin winter fuel supplies.


Devin Harris scored 23 points, Josh Howard added 21 points and 12 rebounds and the Dallas Mavericks withstood a late rally to beat the Charlotte Bobcats 102-95 on Wednesday.


Allied Domecq profits edge up as sales lose fizz

British drinks giant Allied Domecq, maker of Beefeater gin, Courvoiser cognac and Malibu rum, posted a six-percent rise in annual pretax profits as sales of spirits and wines stagnated.


Rockies look to Coors Field effect for inspiration

The Colorado Rockies are hoping the Coors Field effect will help inspire them against the Boston Red Sox this weekend in the 2007 World Series.


Group cites higher toll in Afghan strike

An Afghan human rights group said Friday an estimated 34 civilians were killed in a U.S. airstrike on a southern village this week &#151; far higher than the official toll.


Uncooled vaccines could revolutionise public health

A new science technique inspired by natural processes millions of years old could revolutionise public health care by allowing vaccines to be stored for years without refrigeration, British scientists announced on Tuesday.


Nerves strained as Ryder team race goes to the wire

Despite what you may have heard about the occasionally dodgy veracity of damnable statistics, on this occasion the numbers donât fib.


Kelly: Perennial Winner Southwest In 14.1% Traffic Jump ...

Southwest Airlines (nyse: LUV - news - people ) on Friday said its traffic jumped 14.1% in November. The discount carrier carried 9.6% more passengers during the month than in the year-ago period.


A low P/S ratio can point to undervalued companies.


Worm fears shut down Skype video feature

Skype has been forced to turn off a video-sharing feature in its software because it could be misused to launch a self-copying worm attack against Skype users, security researchers said Tuesday.A bug in the software, which was first reported last Thursday by security researcher Aviv Raff, stems from the way Skype uses an Internet Explorer component to render HTML.Skype's video-sharing feature allows users to share videos hosted on two sites -- Dailymotion.com and Metacafe.com -- while chatting with other Skype users.Last week Raff showed how attackers could exploit the bug to run unauthorized software on a Skype user's PC. But on Tuesday, the security researcher said the flaw was more serious than he'd first thought. It can "be triggered by simply visiting a Web site, or clicking on a link from your instant messaging application," he wrote in a blog posting, "Which basically means that this vulnerability is now wormable."Skype appeared to have pulled the video feature from its client software on Tuesday as a result of the bug. Users who attempted to click on the "videos" button within a chat window were greeted with a message that the feature was unavailable "because of some security concerns.""Our brightest engineers are rattling their wrenches to make things all right and bring the beloved videos back. Soon," the message read. "Sorry about this."Skpe representatives did not return calls seeking comment. Last week, Skype spokesman Villu Arak confirmed that there was a security problem for Skype 3.5 and 3.6 users who visited the Dailymotion.com Web site, but users were still able to share videos using Metacafe.com.On Tuesday, however, Skype pulled the video feature altogether after being informed of the new problem, Raff said.Because Metacafe had a cross-site scripting flaw, a common type of programming error, Raff was able to run JavaScript on Metacafe.com, which could then be used to run unauthorized software on the victim's computer. Attackers could then forward a link to the malicious Web page to all of the Skype contacts in the victim's computer, spreading the infection.For Raff's attack to work, an attacker would have to post a maliciously encoded video file to either of the Metacafe or Dailymotion Web sites. Metacafe said Tuesday that it's "highly unlikely" that this kind of malicious video would make it through the site's content-filtering process.In a statement, the company said it expects Metacafe videos to be available to Skype users as early as Wednesday morning.Raff said that because the attack could lead to a widespread worm outbreak, it would be better for Skype to fix the underlying problem before bringing Metacafe back online.Raff believes that Dailymotion was probably susceptible to this type of attack as well, although he was unable to confirm this after Skype cut off access to the Web site.The problem lies in the fact that Skype uses a Windows Internet Explorer component with inappropriate security settings, researchers say. Instead of processing pages it renders with the more secure "Internet Zone" security setting, Skype uses IE's "Local Zone" security setting, usually reserved for more trustworthy content.Until Skype engineers make some changes to their software, more of these problems will continue to pop up, Raff said.Another security researcher who has been studying the flaw agreed."If they keep their Skype client running in the Local Zone of IE, we will see more of these," said Petko Petkov of GNU Citizen via instant message. "Before killing Metacafe, anyone who owns the server would have been able to own every Skype user on the planet."


Wilkinson back with a bang as England beat Scotland

Jonny Wilkinson marked his return to international rugby union in dramatic style by scoring 27 points, including a try, as England gave new coach Brian Ashton a winning start with a 42-20 victory over Scotland in their Six Nations opener at Twickenham.


Designing intelligent petitions too taxing for Brits

Welsh accent optional, look you Letters Tony Blair has his finger on the button and is preparing to fire. Fortunately, there are no weapons of mass destruction, only emails of mass dissemination, as New Labour preps a reply to the 1.5 million people who don't want road tax priced by the mile:â¦


In Beijing, 15,000 Relocated to Make Room for Olympics

BEIJING, Feb. 19 -- Beijing officials on Tuesday defended their relocation of nearly 15,000 people as part of the massive construction projects that have transformed the capital into a 31-venue showcase for the Olympic Games.


Share prices in Japan and South Korea fall again, a day after global stocks tumbled amid fears of a recession.


Google Inc. appeared set to start trading on Nasdaq on Wednesday, after the Web's No. 1 search engine asked regulators on Monday for final approval to price its closely watched initial public offering.


Space Station Astronaut to Vote From Orbit

The space station's newest astronaut will cast his ballot in the presidential election from 225 miles up, with NASA's help.


Suicide bomber blows up Kabul bus, kills dozens

A Taliban suicide bomber blew up a police bus in the Afghan capital on Sunday, killing around 35 people in one of Kabul's deadliest explosions in recent months amid rising nationwide violence, police said.


Greenpeace wins its legal bid to make the government re-think its plans to build new nuclear power stations.


Ailing evangelist Billy Graham said Monday he and his wife Ruth are deciding together where they will be buried, an announcement apparently sparked by a recent report the family is feuding over the issue.


Venezuela replaces opposition TV with state network

Venezuela shut down an opposition television channel on Monday and replaced it with one promoting President Hugo Chavez's self-proclaimed socialist revolution in a move widely criticized as a threat to democracy.


The world's largest chip-maker Intel reorganises its corporate structure around five new 'platforms'.


Ambrose: Letâs fix it - Thursday 25, November-2004

West Indies fast bowling legend Curtly Ambrose has called on the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and West Indies Players Association (WIPA) to seek a way to resolve the ongoing saga for the good of the game.


IBM-Lenovo PC manufacturing deal may mean new battle for OEM ...

The landmark PC deal between IBM and the China-based Lenovo Group is expected to lead to a redistribution of OEM desktop- and notebook-PC orders among Taiwan makers, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News (EDN) reported today.


The Highways Agency is being too timid to end traffic congestion, says the public spending watchdog.


Sul Sirente, in Abruzzo, e sulle Alpi Apuane


Scottish livestock hauliers warn of meltdown in rural areas if rules are not eased to help move a backlog of lambs.


Presidente Camera, ci sono le risorse economiche


U.S. stocks are expected to open  little changed on Thursday ahead of the long Christmas weekend,  but a raft of economic data and the latest fall in oil prices  could move the market.


A powerful earthquake in northeastern Indonesia on Tuesday caused panicked residents to flee shaking buildings on islands in the Maluku Sea and briefly triggered a tsunami warning, officials said.


Dow Jones meets investors on alternate bid: source

Dow Jones & Co. , in talks for a takeover by News Corp. , met with supermarket magnate Ron Burkle and Internet entrepreneur Brad Greenspan on Tuesday in an effort to find an alternative offer, a source familiar with the situation said.


French bank Societe Generale said fraud by a single trader had caused it a 4.9 billion euro ($7.1 billion) loss and that it would seek emergency funds as a result, shocking battered markets.


Japan ruling party seeks new leader after PM quits

Japan's ruling party scrambled on Thursday to find a new leader and avoid a policy vacuum after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's shock resignation the previous day, just as parliamentary debate was set to begin.


Unemployment is to go back over a million in 2007, figures in Gordon Brown's pre-Budget report reveal.


Low-cost carrier AirTran Airways could start a shuttle service from Boston to New York and Washington if one of the troubled airlines offering the hourly service folds, a top executive said yesterday.


Eagles wear bull's-eye as they target Florida St.

It is different now. The critics have been muted and the recognition Boston College felt it deserved is now coming at the Eagles in waves.


One man aims to bring Sudan's nights back to life

Decades after an Islamic revolution, an old-school cat returns to the capital, Khartoum, to start a jazz club.


Sudanese gov't says ready to withdraw troops from Darfur

Bugged by pressure both from the African Union (AU) and the international community, the Sudanese government has announced its readiness to withdraw its troops fromthe troubled Darfur region.


Deadlocked Spector jury resumes deliberations

The jury in the Phil Spector trial resumed deliberations on Thursday following a two-day hiatus but left for the day without reaching a verdict on murder charges against the rock producer.


I socialisti francesi: deplorevole il non rispetto della legge

Forza Italia accusa: ha tenuto bordone all'ex terrorista. Intanto Castelli ribadisce il no al mandato di cattura europeo. ROMA - Ancora nessuna traccia di Cesare Battisti. In compenso la fuga dell'ex terrorista


Prince Charles warned Thursday that historic sites like the Tower of London have been "vandalized" by high-rise construction that threatens to ruin the character of the capital.


ADV: Compare Credit Cards - 0% APR and More

Compare credit cards with 0% APR on purchases and/or balance transfers. Also, compare cards that give cash back, other rewards and more. Choose from multiple offers for good or bad credit.


Syria tells US senator it values dialogue

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said that Damascus values dialogue with Washington in a meeting with visiting US Senator Arlen Specter on Saturday, official media reported.


Moments after Texas beat Texas A&M, Longhorns coach Mack Brown was busying lobbying for an at-large bid to the Bowl Championship Series. No. 6 Texas (10-1, 7-1 Big 12) guaranteed at least another week of arguing over just who belongs in the BCS, beating Texas A&M 26-13 Friday.


At least 6 US soldiers killed in Fallujah blast

At least six US marines were killed in a blast in Iraq's flashpoint city of Fallujah, a US military source said Monday. The blast took place at about 10:00 am (0600GMT) in al


Ernesto Still Racing Toward Florida, But Hurricane Unlikely

Heavy rains are drenching South Florida as residents prepare for Tropical Storm Ernesto; however, no hurricane is predicted


RIL approves share buyback at Rs 570 per share; Anil abstains

Mumbai, Dec 27 (UNI) The Reliance Industries Limited Board of Directors at its meeting today, with RIL Vice Chairman and Managing Director Anil Ambani abstaining from voting, approved the proposal of buyback of the company's fully paid up equity shares of


President Bush accepted an invitation to speak Saturday to about 200 House Democrats — the same bunch that in November wrestled control of the chamber away from Republicans for the first time in a dozen years.


TV Networks Vie for Top Spot in Ratings Race

The race for ratings among the four  top U.S. television networks has turned into a tooth and claw  battle, with NBC at risk of losing the top spot as ABC makes a  surprise comeback, according to media experts.


Vietnam's former deputy trade minister goes on trial, charged with accepting kickbacks from textile firms.


PepsiCo Profit Up, Cuts Jobs, Shares Rise

PepsiCo Inc. PEP.N, the world's No.  2 soft drink company, on Thursday said quarterly profit rose  due to tax benefits and strong performances from its key  Frito-Lay snack and North American beverage units.


Sybase upgrades PowerBuilder, plots RFID move

At its annual user conference in Orlando, Sybase Inc. released a new version of its application development tool, outlined plans for an upgrade to its database software and planned to preview a system for tracking RFID data.


Roma, 12:41 - CALCIO, SERIE B: ARBITRI 5/A GIORNATA

Queste le terne arbitrali designate a dirigere le partite della quinta giornata del campionato itali...


Is Online Retailing a Victim of Its Own Success?

Shares of online retailers rose nearly 80 percent last year, among the best performances in the entire stock market.


French police arrest Rwandan wanted for genocide

French police have arrested a former officer in the Rwandan army, Marcel Bivugabagabo, accused of taking part in the 1994 genocide, an association of legal plaintiffs said Wednesday.


Looking tired and defeated, the British hostage Kenneth Bigley pleaded for his life on videotape yesterday, two days after a shadowy Iraqi militant group kidnapped him and two Americans in Baghdad.


When Hospitals Kept Children From Parents

From the 1960s onward, advances in hospital architecture have radically changed accommodations for family members.


Shrink! Buybacks of 5 Undervalued Stocks

These companies are buying back their shares. Should you join them?


At Celebrity Trials, the Spotlight Is Sharp but Shifting

While other celebrity trials attract attention, Robert Blake, the B-list actor who is accused of killing his wife, has had his trial relegated to relative obscurity.


Q4bis Selects Corning Data Services to Resell Its Business Intelligence Software; Groundbreaking BI Ease-of-Use and Integration Significantly Bolsters Corning Data Services, Leading Provider of JD Edwards Enterprise Solutions

Q4bis, producers of an innovative and feature-packed business intelligence (BI) software solution, has selected New York-based Corning Data Services, Inc. (CDS), a leading supplier of ERP and SCM business applications, services and products, as an authorized business partner.


US commander of operations north of Baghdad says Iraqi forces are unable hold areas taken from insurgents.


A day after matching the course record with a 61, Purdy struggled through stifling, 97-degree heat to a 69 that left him at 10-under-par 130, one stroke behind leader Dean Wilson midway through the Texas Open.


Juergen Klinsmann withdrew yesterday from consideration as coach of the United States soccer team after several months of talks failed to lead to an agreement.


The Easyjet founder teams up with UK download service Wippit to enter the online music market.


Verdict Brings Relief In Peterson's Hometown

_ In the city where Laci Peterson and her husband once planned to raise a family, residents cheered, clapped and honked their car horns as they got word of Scott Peterson's murder conviction Friday.


Syria not returning enough Iraqi assets, US treasury official says

WASHINGTON -- Syrian officials have begun returning Iraqi assets that Saddam Hussein kept in a Syrian bank, but not enough to satisfy the United States, a Treasury Department official said.


Black Trial Is Set for Jury After 31/2 Months

CHICAGO, June 26 -- The fraud trial of fallen media mogul Conrad Black and other former officials of Hollinger International moved close to going to a jury Tuesday as the defense concluded a week of closing arguments and the lead prosecutor pressed one last time for guilty verdicts.


Facing no opposition to his nomination, veteran federal prosecutor Kenneth Wainstein is waiting only for the Senate to confirm him as head of the Justice Department's new anti-terrorism division.


Bilancio dell'anno fatto dal comandante Tpc Ugo Zottin


A glitch in the way cells clear damaged  proteins could be the trigger for the symptoms of Parkinson's  disease, researchers said in a finding that could lead to new  treatments for the incurable condition.


Microsoft faces heavy opposition in the quest to gain approval for its document format. In Monkey Bites.


Politics: 8 December 2004, Wednesday. A month after Bulgaria's troops left the southern Iraqi city Karbala there is no one to take care of security and the order in the city, local people told Bulgarian Trud ...


iPod contract maker sues journalists for defamation

(InfoWorld) - The contract manufacturer of the iPod music player has filed lawsuits against two Chinese journalists who wrote articles aboutÂ working conditions at factoriesÂ where iPods are made, according to Chinese press reports. Hongfujin Precision Industry Co. is suing the journalists from the Shanghai-based China Business News for defamation, according to the English-language Web site of the official People's Daily newspaper. Hongfujin, which is a subsidiary of Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry's Foxconn Technology Group, is seeking 30 million renminbi ($3.77 million) in damages, People's Daily reported. The journalists are accused of defaming Hongfujin during their coverage of Apple Computer's investigation into working conditions at factories that make its iPod Nano music player. The conditions were first covered in June in a report by the British "Mail on Sunday" newspaper, which accused Apple and its contractor of exploiting workers at the factory in southern China. Chinese media, including Chinese Business News, also picked up and investigated the claims. Earlier this month, Apple released the results of its internal investigation, saying itÂ found few violationsÂ at the iPod Nano manufacturing facility. The Shenzhen Intermediate Court, which accepted the case, froze the assets of the two reporters, Weng Bao and Wang You. On Tuesday, journalist rights group Reporters Without Borders published an open letter to Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs, calling on Jobs and Apple to pressure Foxconn to drop the suit. Representatives from Foxconn did not respond to requests for comment at the time of publication. Â


Tim Purpura isn't wasting any time getting down to business. Less than 24 hours after taking over as Houston's general manager, Purpura met with free-agent second baseman Jeff Kent and interim manager Phil Garner.


Scientists in the US say they have created a genetically-engineered carrot that provides extra calcium.


CBC SPORTS ONLINE - The Toronto Raptors will face yet another Western team that has manhandled them over the years. Fresh off a 108-92 drubbing at the hands of the Sacramento Kings, the Raptors head to Utah


Exit Polls Indicate Opposition Figure Is Ahead in Ukraine

Viktor Yushchenko, a Western-leaning opposition candidate, was leading Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych in Ukraine's extraordinarily tense presidential runoff Sunday


Agency Plans To Kill Wolf ; Official: Trapping 'Not An Option'

By Copyright  2007 Albuquerque Journal BY RENE ROMO Journal Southern Bureau  LAS CRUCES -- The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans to kill an endangered Mexican gray wolf that is the subject of a Feb. 5 removal order because trapping the animal is too difficult.


The video of a disheveled, unshaven Glenn Beck talking about a hemorrhoid operation gone wrong feels like one of those late-night, partying-with-your-friends pictures posted Â to your eternal regret Â on Facebook the next day.


After a year-and-a-half legal battle, Texas Instruments has won the right to continue using Qualcomm's patented cell-phone technology without paying royalties.


A White House spokesman says President Bush will announce Friday significant reforms to the US intelligence apparatus. The spokesman says those reforms will include temporarily boosting the powers of the director of the Central Intelligence Agency.


There was nothing much to choose between the top four of world silver medallist Helm, Canada's double Commonwealth champion Despatie and 2000 Olympic gold and silver medallists Tian and Hu after Saturday's semi-final round.


Graf Wins Court Case Over Saucy Radio Quiz

Tennis great Steffi Graf has sued a  German radio station that aired a sketch supposedly of her and  husband Andre Agassi in the throes of love-making.


Nokia joins Secure Digital industry group

Nokia on Tuesday said it has joined an industry group working on technical and specification standards for Secure Digital memory card applications.


APEC set for world trade, climate change talks

President George W. Bush hopes to spur momentum for a world trade pact and a global target on climate change at this week's APEC summit in Sydney, but host Australia has warned not to expect binding greenhouse targets.


Applebee's exploring options, including sale

Restaurant chain Applebee's  International Inc.  said on Tuesday it is exploring  strategic alternatives, including a possible sale of the  company, sending its shares up as much as 12.8 percent.


Parma, 16:49 - CALCIO, PARMA: INFORTUNATI GASBARRONI E FERRONETTI

Partita contro la Roma a rischio per Gasbarroni e Ferronetti. La lista degli infortunati si allunga ...


Johnson Matthey led the gainers in London on Thursday amid reports that the platinum specialist could be a target for a US chemical group.


Here's a way to test your Web savvy: Have you  searched for the word Bebo?


At least 13 people have been killed in a series of explosions in Gaza City, Palestinian sources say.


Serena Williams marched into the third  round of the U.S. Open on Wednesday, beating fellow American  Lindsay Lee-Waters 6-4, 6-3.


Treasuries Mount Rally Despite Inflation

U.S. Treasury prices rallied on  Wednesday as inflation excluding food and energy, one of the  Federal Reserve's preferred price measures, proved less  dramatic than bond bulls had feared.


Alcatel Sues Microsoft Over Digital Video Technology

Company says software maker has infringed seven patents, does not say which products use the technology.


Many Mass. hospitals will pay for errors

About half of Massachusetts hospitals say they have adopted policies to waive charges for serious medical errors such as wrong-site surgery and harmful medication mistakes, and others say they plan to, amid growing resistance from government and health insurers to paying for poor outcomes.


Liu: Hot Frogs and the N. Korea Nuke Deal

For those of us living in China, the North Korea nuke deal has special significance.


Risks of aspirin outweigh cancer benefit for most

The risks of aspirin, including  stomach bleeding, outweigh its potential benefits in preventing  colon cancer in people who have just an average risk of cancer,  a U.S. expert panel advised on Monday.


U.S. boosting security at airports: White House

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine  - More local police and federal security officers will be stationed at U.S. airports amid heightened vigilance following an explosion at a Glasgow airport and car bombs found in London, the White House said on Saturday.


Gunmen attacked two Shiite homes in western Baghdad, killing 10 people, police said Sunday, while seven others died in clashes elsewhere in the capital.


ABC's 'Housewives' Overshadows 'Survivor' Finale

ABC's "Desperate Housewives" returned Sunday after taking a break last week to beat CBS' "Survivor" primetime finale.


Barbara Lehman has lived in this central New Jersey community for 30 years, but her time here is nearing an end.


Milano, 19:58 - CALCIO, MILAN: NESTA FORSE IN PANCHINA CON L'ATALANTA

Il Milan ha ripreso la preparazione in vista della sfida con l'Atalanta. Nesta e Serginho hanno svol...


Sony shareholders shouldn't be pleased about another PlayStation 3 delay.


ETA Seals Off Madrid with 5 Bombs, 2 Police Hurt

The Basque separatist group ETA set off  five bombs at petrol stations around Madrid on Friday, putting  a stranglehold on the city at the start of a long holiday  weekend.


Changes Proposed to Ensure Juror Privacy

Prospective jurors could keep more personal information private and challenge overly intrusive questioning by lawyers under a proposed overhaul of the way jurors are selected and serve.


Fast-food giant Yum Brands said that its second-quarter profit rose by 12 percent, amid ongoing growth in its international business that offset an essentially flat U.S. performance.


North Korea plans nuclear test, U.S. calls it threat

North Korea said on Tuesday it would conduct its first nuclear test, and Washington warned it would respond to such an "unacceptable threat" to world peace.


No. 1 automaker trying to stem losses from unit; most cuts due in Germany next year. RUESSELSHEIM, Germany  - General Motors will cut up to 12,000 jobs over the next two years to reduce annual costs


For one more night, the Carolina Hurricanes got the chance to celebrate the franchise's first Stanley Cup title.


Airport security screeners will begin more thorough pat-downs of some passengers later this month in an effort to prevent terrorists from sneaking aboard commercial aircraft with explosives under their clothing.


The U.N. Security Council met in   closed session on Wednesday to consider a response to a barrage   of North Korean missile tests.


Bonino, Italia rischia multa da 700mila euro al giorno


Apple Cuts iPhone Price and Revamps iPods

Steven P. Jobs, the chief executive, called the moves a âtotal refreshâ of the iPod.


Bush's Proposed  Health-Care Cuts Get Mixed Reviews

Depending on whom you ask, the budget that President Bush proposed  last week will save or sink Medicare and Medicaid, two popular programs that, along with Social Security, threaten to swamp the federal budget as the baby-boom generation retires.


Polanski Urges UK Lords to Let Him Sue Via Video

Lawyers for film director Roman Polanski urged England's highest court on Wednesday to allow him to sue for libel via video link in order to avoid the risk of being extradited to the United States for child sex offences.


Supermarket d'Italia come e dove risparmi?

Ricerca Altroconsumo: differenze fino a 1500 euro all'anno a famiglia a seconda del negozio scelto. La vostra esperienza


Gooch fills in for injured Quarles again

ST. LOUIS -- Tampa Bay Buccaneers middle linebacker Shelton Quarles was a no-go in Monday night's game against the St. Louis Rams because of a strained quadriceps.


As speculation swirls about how next year's PGA Tour playoff series will be set up, Deutsche Bank CEO Seth Waugh is able to shrug and breathe easy.


Boyd to close Stardust casino in Las Vegas

Casino operator Boyd Gaming Corp.   on Tuesday said it planned to close its Stardust Resort  and Casino in Las Vegas on November 1 to make way for its  planned $4 billion Echelon Place project.


VATICANO - "Dio: Pace o dominio" in onda martedÃ¬ 3 luglio, su RAIUNO alle 23.30. Quarta puntata "Dio: gli eserciti diÂ". Religioni: amore e pace, odio e violenza. Eserciti del bene e del male. Ma anche eserciti di criminali che in nome di Dio sfruttano, sottomettono, donne e bambini. CittÃ  del Vaticano (Agenzia Fides) - In nome di Dio si ama e si fa del bene, si dialoga con chi Ã¨ diverso da noi, si cercano strade di convivenza e di Pace. Allo stesso tempo c'Ã¨ chi interpreta a suo modo l'appartenenza religiosa, trovando nel propri...


Yemenis head to polls in presidential election

Yemenis voted on Wednesday in elections   that long-serving President Ali Abdullah Saleh is expected to   win despite a challenge from a former minister.


Conditions are worsening for refugees in Darfur, UN agencies have said, as the Sudanese government and rebels struggle to make headway in talks aiming to ease the conflict in the Darfur region.


Oil prices steadied on Friday after an  eight percent rout driven by a surprise interest rate hike in  China that raised doubts about demand from the world's second  largest energy user.


Kareena to shoot another item number on March 12

Kareena Kapoor is on an item-number spree! Yeh Mera Dil in the movie Don created waves throughout.


Goosen wins big; remainder of World Match Play suspended

Surrey, England (Sports Network) - Retief Goosen posted a record-setting win over Jeff Maggert on Thursday at the HSBC World Match Play Championship.


Saturdayâs 49-7 loss to No. 10 California evoked memories of an era that Beavers fans would like to forget - a 28-year span of futility from 1971-98 when OSU failed to have a winning season.


Anti-secession legislation proposes reunification through use of ...

The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress adopts draft anti-secession legislation. Congress is scheduled to discuss it in March.


Monza, 17:41 - F1, FERRARI; MASSA: CORRERE CON SCHUMI E' UN PIACERE

Il pilota brasiliano della Ferrari Felipe Massa commenta il possibile ritro dalle corse del suo comp...


Singh Seals Playoff Win at Whistling Straits

KOHLER, Wisconsin  - Fiji's Vijay Singh held his  composure to win the 86th U.S. PGA Championship in a three-way  playoff on Sunday, clinching the third major title of his  career.


Gerdemann decries doping after stage win

Linus Gerdemann hadn't even finished celebrating his first Tour de France stage victory before sounding a loud drumbeat from the winner's circle: Races can and should be won clean.


Serena, MKS stress requirements management

InfoWorld - Serena Software and MKS are improving requirements management in their application life cycle wares, with Serena touting its Web interface and MKS emphasizing collaboration.


MOSCOW - A Russian man whom police stopped for allegedly driving drunk tried to swallow his keys then bit an officer as the officer tried to retrieve them, a Russian news agency reported Tuesday.


National League Roundup: Pirates Defeat Cubs, Sending Chicago to 4th Loss in Past 5

Tom Gorzelanny allowed one run in seven effective innings and Jack Wilson homered and drove in three runs as the host Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Chicago Cubs, 6-1, last night. It was the Cubsâ fourth loss in five games.


Turbina da 100 kw installata in pieno centro di Bruxelles


Gates Foundation to Give $306 Million to Assist Poor Farmers

The grants aim to provide the rural poor with better seeds, healthier soil and access to new markets for their crops.


BlackBerry Makerâs Profit More Than Doubles

Third-quarter profit for Research in Motion more than doubled on strong demand for its BlackBerry smart phones and related services by consumers and businesses.


Listini dei prezzi tornano a salire su record petrolio


Singapore Airlines Flight Diverted After Bomb Threat

A Singapore Airlines Ltd. flight to New York from Frankfurt landed safely in Manchester, England after a bomb threat, police and airport officials said.


Jailed 17 Years, Long Island Man Wins a Second Trial

A state appeals court overturned the conviction of Martin H. Tankleff, who was imprisoned for the grisly murders of his parents in 1988.


Alex Rodriguez made another throwing error and the Chicago White Sox took advantage of two key mistakes, beating the New York Yankees 5-4 Thursday night and winning two of three from the AL East leaders.


The Treasuryâs schedule of financing this week included todayâs regular weekly auction of new three- and six-month bills and an auction of four-week bills tomorrow.


CBC SPORTS ONLINE - It?s been 86 years since the Boston Red Sox last won the World Series, but they still have a long way to go to vanquish the so-called 'Curse of the Bambino.


FCC rejects free Wi-Fi startup's spectrum plans

Regulators conclude it's not in the "public interest" to give one company an exclusive, 15-year license and plan to ask for public comment on how the fallow band should be used.


DALIAN, China -- The Fang Yonggang inspirational message went out loud and clear from the Communist Party Working Committee in Dalian's crowded Renminlu neighborhood.


The University Business School announced a donation yesterday of $100 million from alum and real estate mogul Stephen Ross. The donation is nearly three times the


Crucial solid-state drive passes vibrator test

Shake it, baby CES on Video Vigorously shake a hard drive and you'll kill it. Lexar Crucial reckons that's just not a problem with Flash-based solid-state drives, and it set out to prove it...â¦


Attempts to fight spam by identifying e-mails have hit problems over Microsoft's involvement in the process. The Internet Engineering Task Force, an international standards body, has rejected Microsoft's contribution to the so-called Sender ID proposal.


Singapore's PM Lee to make introductory visits to Indonesia ...

SINGAPORE : Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong will make a two-day visit to Indonesia starting on Monday. He will also head to Thailand on Thursday for a two-day visit.


Chicago, 22:59 - PUGILATO, MONDIALI AIBA: RUSSO IN FINALE, PICARDI BRONZO

Clemente Russo si è qualificato per la finale della categoria 91 kg ai Mondiali Aiba di boxe...


A TAM Airline passenger plane burst into flames after it skidded across a major road at rush hour and struck a building while trying to land Tuesday, witnesses said. The Sao Paulo fire department said at least 200 people, including some on the ground, were dead at the scene.


(InfoWorld) - An operation that allegedly installed illegal spyware on computers will give more than US$2 million to settle a U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) complaint. The FTC has obtained a settlement order against Enternet Media Inc., Conspy & Co. Inc., Lida Rohbani, Nima Hakimi and Baback Hakimi, all based in California, the agency announced Wednesday. The defendants distributed software called Search Miracle, Miracle Search, EM Toolbar, EliteBar and Elite Toolbar, the FTC said. In an order issued by Judge Christine Snyder of the U.S District Court for Central California, the defendants are prohibited from interfering with computer use, such as distributing software code that tracks Internet activity, changes browser settings and inserts new advertising toolbars onto browsers. The defendants also are permanently prohibited from making misleading representations regarding the performance, features, and cost, of any software, including misrepresenting that the code is an Internet browser upgrade or other computer security software, music, song, lyric or cell phone ring tone. The Web sites of the defendants and their affiliates caused installation boxes to pop up on consumersâ computer screens, the FTC said in its complaint. In one variation of the scheme, the boxes offered a variety of freeware, including music files, cell phone ring tones, photographs, wallpaper and song lyrics. In another, the boxes warned that consumersâ Internet browsers were defective, and offered free browser upgrades or security patches. Users who downloaded the supposed freeware or security upgrades did not receive what they were promised, Instead, their computers were infected with spyware that interfered with their computers and was difficult to uninstall, the FTC said. The defendants' software tracked Internet activity, changed home-page settings and inserted a large frame onto browser windows that displayed advertisements, the FTC said. At the FTCâs request, the court froze the operationâs assets last fall and ordered it shut down. The settlement requires the defendants to give up just over $2 million of their spyware-related profits and includes a suspended judgment of $8.5 million. The FTC brought the case with assistance from Microsoft Corp., Webroot Software Inc. and Google Inc., the agency said.


World champion Michael Schumacher failed to score a goal at Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu (Spain) soccer stadium - recently evacuated after a bomb scare - on Tuesday night.


Microsoft posts rise in profit, lifts outlook

Microsoft  reported a rise in  quarterly profit on Thursday, boosted by strong sales of its  Windows operating system, and the company raised its full-year  profit outlook, sending its shares up 4 percent.


Fred Funk won one for the old guys Sunday. Playing with an achy back befitting his senior status, the 50-year-old Funk won the Mayakoba Golf Classic on the second hole of a playoff with Jose Coceres to became only the second man to win a PGA Tour event after winning on the Champions Tour.


New York Judge Jails 'Dangerous' Tiger Owner

A New York tiger owner was jailed on  Thursday for keeping his wild feline in his Harlem apartment by  a judge who said he was too dangerous to be on the street.


Four hour run for experimental tech Costa Rica-based scientists from the Ad Astra Rocket Company have run a Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR) engine continuously for over four hours, thereby setting a new record for the tech.â¦


Not quite the Oscar, but Scarlett Johansson still was all smiles Thursday about being crowned the Harvard Hasty Pudding woman of the year. And happy to participate in the rambunctious roasting that goes along with the honor.


Spain's new king delivers a dream result

SEVILLE: Carlos Moya's career has been a rollercoaster journey of ups and downs, but converting the winning point for Spain to land the Davis Cup yesterday represented a high point about which he had long dreamed -- and obsessed.


Japanese government says interest rate rise 'appropriate'

The Bank of Japan made an "appropriate" decision to raise interest rates Wednesday for the first time since last July, the top government spokesman said.


Musharraf's Peace Plea Gets Cool Reception

India gave a cool response Tuesday to fresh proposals by Pakistan's president to end a decades-old dispute over Kashmir, saying it expected


Four ethnic Russians are on trial in Estonia charged with fomenting unrest during a war memorial dispute.


Palestinian-Israeli deaths drop in 2007: report

The number of people killed in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict dropped sharply in 2007, but human rights abuses in the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank increased, an Israeli human rights watchdog said on Monday.


Biz (Off)Beat: Don't Tell the Boss About This

By Matt Kempner, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution  Dec. 10--Your co-worker in the next cubicle may not be working on the  Harris proposal. There's a good chance he's shopping instead.   The latest studies say Americans are doing more shopping online, and  often they do it at work.


UN reaches agreement on Ivory Coast sanctions

UN Security Council members have reached broad agreement on a resolution that would give Ivory Coast's Government and rebels until December 1 to implement a peace deal or face sanctions.


Uefa blames Liverpool fans for the ticketing problems before Wednesday's Champions League final in Athens.


Milano, 17:35 - CALCIO, MILAN; GALLIANI: SPERO SEMIFINALE TRA ITALIANE

L'amministratore delegato del Milan Adriano Galliani, a margine dell'assemblea di Lega, ha commentat...


Iran prepared to negotiate on nuclear issue: Annan

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told U.N.   Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Sunday that Iran wanted to find   a negotiated solution to its nuclear dispute with the West but   would not freeze uranium enrichment before talks.


YouTube biker questioned A man has been accused of driving his motorcycle through a built-up area at over 100 miles per hour, filming the ride and posting the footage on the internet. Jeremy Parrott, 37, of Somerset, was questioned by police after they saw the video on YouTube.â¦


Mexican mariachi singer and actor Antonio Aguilar, who recorded more than 150 albums and began his acting career during Mexico's "Golden Era" of cinema, has died in Mexico City. He was 88.


Eighteen months after it began, the bitter and bizarre takeover battle is over. The new challenge: Make this $10.3 billion deal work.


Bits : Rabbit-Ear Users Donât Know the End (of Analog TV) Is Near

Half the people in a recent survey donât know that analog over-the-air television will be cut off in 2009.


Backstory: Kids' soccer - the parent trap

The fall tradition needs an overhaul, starting with that whole 'kicking the ball' thing.


Creators of private spaceship announce plans for second launch ...

The creators of a private rocket plane will go ahead with plans for another launch next week in a quest to claim a multimillion-dollar prize, despite a harrowing flight in which the spacecraft rolled dramatically while hurtling toward


Bucarest, 17:45 - CALCIO, ROMANIA; PITURCA: POSSIAMO FARE GRANDI COSE

Victor Piturca, ct della Romania avversaria dell'Italia agli Europei, è sicuro delle potenzia...


Successful Business Owners Do What They Do Best and Outsource the Rest

By Anonymous  Technology is often the "X" factor in helping small- and mid- sized businesses (SMBs) level the playing field and compete with bigger, more global companies.


Lawmakers tout new bill rebuking Bush's Iraq strategy

US lawmakers on both sides of the US Senate drummed up support for a compromise bill slamming a hike in US forces in Iraq, saying it was the best chance of forcing President George W. Bush to drop his unpopular plan.


Newest discoveries puts known number of satellites at 33

A camera aboard the Cassini spacecraft flying in orbit around Saturn has discovered two of the tiniest moons in the solar system -- one barely 2 miles in diameter and the other only a half-mile larger, astronomers reported Monday.


Adjustable Desks Help Productivity, Muscle Pain

Working at electrically adjustable desks that enable people to stand for a while at a computer appears to reduce muscle pain and boost productivity, new research shows.


Non e' chiaro il ruolo del terzo uomo fermato


Cagliari, 18:33 - CALCIO, CAGLIARI; SUAZO: DA TEMPO NON GIOCAVAMO COSI' BENE

David Suazo fa i complimenti al Cagliari per la bella vittoria ottenuta contro l'Atalanta. "Era da m...


Montreal Expos to Relocate to Washington -Reports

Major League Baseball is set to  announce on Wednesday that the Montreal Expos will relocate to  Washington next year, local media reported, citing city and  baseball officials.


A ferry service has halted cruises to Canada that promised a scenic adventure and a flu shot. Clipper Navigation had been offering "flu cruises" since October 21, however, Darrell Bryan, executive vice-president


More Chlamydia Screening Urged for Women

THURSDAY, Oct. 7 (HealthDayNews) -- More thorough screening for chlamydia, a sexually transmitted bacterium that is the most commonly reported infectious disease in the United States, would probably reduce the incidence of the disease and be cost-effective as well, researchers say.


Tower Hotel Waterford Excellence Award for November goes to Waterford All-Stars

Waterford's three hurling All-Stars have been further honoured by jointly receiving the Tower Hotel Waterford Excellence Award for November.


EUROPE:  Turkey On a Long and Winding Road

ISTANBUL, Dec 1 (IPS) - Turkey's controversial move towards European  Union membership has drawn strong opposition within several  member states, but a bigger obstacle now emerges by way of a tiny  new member of the club: Cyprus.


Latin American mutual funds have wowed investors lately with stellar returns, but you might want to think twice before committing yourself heavily to the region: Analysts say a heavy concentration in two volatile markets makes them a risky gamble.


Burma Says It Will Free Over 5,000 More Prisoners

RANGOON, Burma, Nov. 25 -- Burma announced Thursday that it would release more than 5,000 prisoners, and a senior official said a top dissident who was democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's closest aide would also be freed before long.


Manchester United legend Denis Law has tipped Wayne Rooney to obliterate his Old Trafford scoring records. Law was the ultimate United marksman and is still widely acclaimed as âThe Kingâ for his amazing goalscoring feats.


(HealthDay News) -- While deafness can be present at birth because of genetic factors or complications of birth itself, other medical and environmental factors can cause deafness after birth.


ROMA (16 dic. 2004) - Nessuna firma, nessuna promulgazione. Ciampi ha rinviato alle Camere la riforma dell'ordinamento giudiziario, duramente contestata da magistratura e opposizione. La riforma, varata in


Il ministro del Tesoro considera una forzatura l'ipotesi avanzata da DamianoScalino e incentivi per chi ritarda. Il premier: serve un accordo forte e in tempi brevi                                            Pensioni, Prodi prova a mediare Ma Padoa-Schioppa non ci sta                                                                                di MARCO MAROZZI


Low fat diets are as good as the Atkins diet when it comes to losing weight over the long term, a study says.


Tutti i protagonisti indagati per lancio sasso A1 del 2005


NAIROBI, Kenya  - Bare-chested warriors danced and  turbaned heads bowed in prayer when Sudan's Islamist government  and southern rebels sealed a comprehensive peace agreement on  Sunday ending Africa's longest-running civil war.


Giants Blast Dodgers to Aid Playoff Hopes

SAN FRANCISCO - Pedro Feliz hit a tiebreaking grand slam with two outs in the eighth inning for his fourth hit of the day, and the Giants helped their playoff chances with a 9-5 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday.    The first-place Dodgers had their NL West lead trimmed to 1 1/2 games over the Giants, who also pulled within a half-game of Chicago in the wild-card race after the Cubs lost 4-3 to the New York Mets in 11 innings...


Dell Inc.  said on Friday  it hired the head of Motorola Inc.'s  mobile phone unit  to oversee a new global consumer division, making him the  second high-profile executive hired since Michael Dell returned  as CEO to the company he founded.


UK troops to stay in Iraq until job done: Blair

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Sunday British troops would stay in Iraq "until the job is done" and pledged to support the country's weak government as it battles sectarian violence and a raging Sunni Arab insurgency.


Q falls out with A Google has decided to close its answers service after four years in operation.â¦


Palm troubles continue with 44 percent profit drop

(InfoWorld) - Palm's troubles continued on Thursday as the company posted a profit of $15.4 million for the fourth quarter, a 44 percent drop from its $27.2 million mark one year earlier, despite strong sales of its Treo smartphone. The company reported revenue of $401.3 million for the quarter ending June 1, down slightly from the $403.1 million it earned in the same quarter in 2006 and also below Wall Street's forecast of $406.6 million, according to analysts polled by Thomson Financial. The results come just weeks after the company faced rumors it would be acquired by rivals MotorolaÂ orÂ Nokia. Instead, Palm raised $325 million of extra money byÂ selling a 25 percent stake of the company Â to private equity investors. Palm is shifting its product portfolio from PDAs to smartphones, which are far more popular and offer a potential for greater profit margin because of their higher price tags. In the past quarter, Palm drew 86 percent of its revenue from smartphone sales, a huge swing for a company that in 1996 drew its entire revenue from the PalmPilot PDA. Palm's smartphone revenue of $344.2 million for the quarter was up 14 percent from the same quarter in 2006. "Our record Treo sell-through reflects strong fundamentals in the core focus areas of our business," said Palm CEO Ed Colligan. "I'm confident that in fiscal year 2008, more and more standard handset customers will demand the capabilities and ease of use of Palm smartphones, which aligns us well for future growth and profitability." Despite Colligan's optimism,Â Palm's smartphone sales did not help its results. Palm earned a profit of $0.15 per share in the fourth quarter, matching analysts' expectation of $0.15 but coming in far below the $0.25 it made a year earlier. Looking into the future, the company predicted revenue between $355 million and $365 million for the coming quarter, the first period of Palm's fiscal 2008. If the company meets the higher end of goal, it would beat its mark of $355.8 million in revenue for the first quarter of 2007. However, Palm may be distracted by change in its boardroom. As a condition of buying a large share of the company, the investment group Elevation Partners insisted on installing a new chairman, former AppleÂ vice president Jon Rubinstein. Palm also raised questions among investors in May when itÂ launched the Foleo, a miniature laptop Â intended to sell as a "smartphone companion." That product quickly faced criticism that its $599 price was too high and that its 10-inch screen was too large. Also on Thursday, Palm reported revenue of $1.56 billion for the full fiscal year 2007, down 1 percent from the $1.58 billion it earned in 2006. Palm earned profit of $56.4 million for the year, far below its $336.2 million profit in 2006, although the 2006 figure included a one-time tax rebate of $219.5 million.


BlackBerry Maker, Samsung, Others Raise Game Vs. iPhone      (Investor's Business Daily)

Investor's Business Daily - Although Apple might well raise the bar in the cell phone market with its iPhone, rival handset makers also are stepping up.


The death toll in the crash of a passenger plane in northern China now stands at 54, with the discovery of one victim on the ground.


Norwegian Woman Bitten by ... a Piranha?

OSLO, Norway - November in Norway is full of hazards. Ice-slicked streets, moose on the roads and fierce cold.


'Muslim extremists working in Britain's police': Daily Mail

Up to eight people believed to have links to Islamist extremists, including Al-Qaeda, are working in Britain's police service, the Daily Mail said Saturday, citing an intelligence service file.


"Meet the Fockers" doesn't miss a single obvious gag but it doesn't reach for many surprise ones either. Considering its cast is about as blue chip as they get, that's too bad.


Ghanaian President John Kufuor will visit Kenya next week in an attempt to break the country's political deadlock and end its explosion of ethnic violence, his foreign minister said on Saturday.


Lebanese Army Pounds Fighters at Refugee Camp

TRIPOLI, Lebanon, June 2 -- The Lebanese army deployed a missile-firing helicopter and soldiers carried out door-to-door searches Saturday in a second day of fighting between the military and a radical Islamic faction based in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon.


TV Reviews | 'Phineas and Ferb'; 'George of the Jungle': Bored Stepbrothers, Intrepid Platypus

Imagine âFamily Guyâ with an espionage subplot and a big dose of magical realism, and you have âPhineas and Ferb,â Disneyâs new animated childrenâs series.


Iraq to be early problem for White House winner

Iraq looms as the first major problem for whoever wins the November 2 US presidential election, with the US-led international coalition appearing increasingly shaky.


US drugs regulators made two trips to Capitol Hill last week to defend themselves before Congress. They are likely to return soon, after their efforts to reassure lawmakers and the public


Australia's Sims Grp: Expects 1Q Earnings Above A$50M -2-

SYDNEY (Dow Jones)--Australian metal recycler Sims Group Ltd. (SMS.AU) on Monday raised its profit outlook by some 23%, saying it expects first quarter earnings to exceed A$50 million.


George Washington Upsets No. 12 Maryland

George Washington's weekend has to rank among the best in school history. The Colonials beat two Top 25 teams in winning the BB&T Classic and have won five straight since a season-opening loss to top-ranked Wake Forest.


Brad Gilbert, the former coach of Andre Agassi, has one of the most tactically astute minds in the game and, having seen his current charge Andy Roddick struggle against Tim Henman in the past, he hatched a plan to take the initiative in their Masters Cup


Gilbert Arenas leads six Wizards in double figures with 34 points as Washington runs past visiting Denver, 120-91, Wednesday.


The Social Democrat/Social Liberal coalition comes in second in parliamentary elections but holds the best hand in talks to form a new government.


Eight weeks' grace on braodband pricing allegations


Pieces of architectural history sit on Milwaukee's south side — a row of four duplexes and two cottages designed by Frank Lloyd Wright more than 90 years ago for low-to-moderate-income families.


The billionaire businessman is said to be 'livid' over comments made by Sir Jackie in the battle to save the British Grand Prix.


Renowned architect Helmut Jahn has designed sleek, one-of-a-kind structures for bankers and office workers, dabbled in sports and entertainment venues and even erected a modern airline terminal. But one of his latest structures is an environmentally friendly structure intent on a larger purpose: housing the poor.


Crude oil prices break records again as  US light crude tops $50 a barrel in Asian trade and Brent stays above $46.


The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades backs Mahmoud Abbas' candidacy to replace Yasser Arafat as Palestinian leader.


Suspected suicide bomber killed in Afghanistan: NATO

Afghan police shot dead a suspected suicide bomber in the southern province of Helmand, a NATO spokesman said on Thursday, amid fears of a surge in violence during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.


HP World Free Alpha upgrades to stem defections


U.S. bans some cell phone imports in Qualcomm case

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK  - A U.S. trade agency banned on Thursday imports of some cell phone models containing Qualcomm Inc.  chips because of patent violations, but the decision immediately drew vows to appeal.


Arafat aides say initial tests have ruled out leukemia as cause of ...

Initial results from a battery of tests on Palestinian President Yasser Arafat found no signs Saturday of leukemia, Palestinian officials said, but blood doctors are still trying to find the cause of the leader's dramatic


McLeish says Novo ban is a tit-for-tat action

ALEX McLeish, the Rangers manager, last night accused the Scottish Football Association of administering "tit-for-tat" punishment after Nacho Novo was given a three-match ban for his part in an incident during the controversial Old Firm match last month.


Varese, 12:46 - CALCIO, AZZURRI: SEDUTA DEFATICANTE A MILANELLO

Seduta defaticante per l'Italia a Milanello dopo il pari contro la Francia. All'allenamento ha parte...


'No Child' Commission Presents Ambitious Plan

A commission proposed a wide-reaching expansion of the No Child Left Behind law yesterday that would for the first time require schools to ensure that all seniors are proficient in reading and math and hold schools accountable for raising test scores in science by 2014.


Stopping Off in the Gothic South, on the Road to Ruin

In the first feature directed by Shainee Gabel, John Travolta delivers a hammed-up scenery-chewing variation of the brainy good ole boy he played in "Primary Colors."


Middle England battles Strategy Boutiques

Mother tongue menaced by 'product-set deep dives' Readers of the Daily Telegraph have got themselves into a bit of a tizz over alleged abuses our our beloved English language.â¦


The Soyuz spacecraft closed in on the international space station at dangerously high speed Saturday, forcing the U.S.-Russian crew to put on the brakes, abandon autopilot and manually dock the Soviet-era capsule in an unplanned and tricky maneuver.


A list of tech-industry questions that might get answers this year.


Feds Kick Off Digital TV Consumer Campaign

It's one of the biggest technical changes in television since color TV: the digital transition. And because many Americans remain in the dark about it, federal regulators began an education campaign Monday to enlighten them.


Bonds' contract reworked; will stage assault on Aaron's record as ...

Now that Barry Bonds is assured of staying with the San Francisco Giants for two more seasons, he already is looking beyond. His children won't let him think about retirement just yet.


PC World reviewer says latest incarnation of the WebTV device is acceptable as a dial-up Internet device for some, but its broadband networking features will leave savvy users unimpressed.


Air Force Academy Hit By Cheating Scandal

The U.S. Air Force Academy, hit by a cheating scandal and other bad behavior, has asked its cadets to spend the weekend in self-examination.  The school's 4,300 cadets were restricted to campus, the Washington Post said.


Movie, Music Industries Petition Court Over File-Sharing

com. In the latest battle in the file-sharing war, the movie and music industries have petitioned the US Supreme Court to overturn an appellate court decision that gave the green light to software firms to trade copyrighted material.


Lock in the lowest rates of the summer. Get up to 4 free quotes from trusted lenders. Apply now - bad credit OK.


Peter Staudhammer, Who Designed NASA Instruments, Dies at 73

Peter Staudhammer, a wide-ranging aerospace engineer and executive, helped design instruments and engines used by NASA in landings on Mars and the Moon.


After topping off at $92.22 a barrel before the opening bell on bullish trading in the Asian and European markets, oil was at $91.28 in midday trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.


A Scottish firm is looking to attract web surfers with a search engine that reads out results.


Confusion Over Arafat, Palestinians Prepare Burial

Palestinians looked to their leadership  to lift confusion over Yasser Arafat's fate in a French  hospital on Wednesday as preparations gathered pace to bury the  icon of the fight for a state. Arafat, 75, suffered a brain  hemorrhage on Tuesday at the hospital where he was flown from  the West Bank on Oct. 29 and had lain in a coma. Officials  insisted in public that he was alive, though aides said  privately that he was dead.


New game platform apparently can respond to emotions and conscious thoughts to move objects on the screen.


Bologna, 11:43 - BASKET, VIRTUS BOLOGNA: RENATO PASQUALI NUOVO ALLENATORE

Renato Pasquali è il nuovo allenatore della Virtus La Fortezza Bologna. Lo ha annunciato in u...


INSIGHT: Defense Agency intensifies policy pressure

The Japan-US alliance is the overriding factor and voices in the Defense Agency are stronger as a private advisory panel to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi prepares to offer its report later this month.


NAJAF, Iraq - U.S. tanks and troops rolled back into the center of Najaf and battled with Shiite militants Sunday, reigniting violence in the holy city just as delegates in Baghdad opened a conference meant to be a landmark in the country's movement toward democracy...


As John Kerry basked Wednesday in the final applause of his failed campaign, at a packed gathering in Boston that was nothing short of funereal, supporters shivered in the cold outside and wondered what went wrong.


Gay to bid for Olympic triple in Beijing

OSAKA, Japan  - Triple world champion Tyson Gay will try to duplicate his golden feat at next year's Olympics.


Cubans worried about political turmoil expressed relief on Wednesday that ailing leader Fidel Castro was apparently recovering from intestinal surgery that forced him to hand over power to his brother six months ago.


Windows upgrade helps hold down the fort

Are you nervous about viruses, worms, spyware and other threats to your computer? Wish you had the power to appoint an intelligence czar to safeguard your PC?


Golfer Singh Leads 84 Lumber Classic Tournament

World number one ranked golfer Vijay Singh of Fiji has a two-stroke lead heading into the third round of the 84 Lumber Classic tournament in Pennsylvania.


Wall Street Is Now Seen as Being Vulnerable to Economic Downturn

With the biggest firms of Wall Street beginning to sputter, analysts are rethinking their predictions of a gradual cooling of the local economy.


Tokyo - The parents of a 24-year-old Japanese traveller who was kidnapped and beheaded in Iraq said on Sunday they hoped for peace in the insurgency-torn country and apologised for the trouble caused by the crisis.


Brendan Shanahan of the New York Rangers scored in his first game against his former team Detroit before the Red Wings claimed three third-period goals to seal a 4-3 win on Monday.


Billionaires richer, Russia, India rise: Forbes

The world's richest are getting younger and richer with more Russians and Indians cropping up among the 946 people on Forbes magazine's 2007 billionaires list unveiled on Thursday.


Californians Demand Their Seized Marijuana Back

A group of 38 California medical  marijuana patients filed legal motions on Tuesday asking the  government to give them back pot worth nearly a million  dollars.


Lawyers for independent US presidential hopeful Ralph Nader were preparing to make a last-ditch effort to get him on November's ballot in the tossup state of Wisconsin, a spokesman said.


Say what? Corporate leadership hinges on...drinking?

Blog: Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz had something surprising to say about company management.


UNITED NATIONS -- The United States and Britain plan to push for a vote on a UN resolution sending peacekeeping troops to Darfur, despite a new rejection by Sudan yesterday of any deployment of UN troops there.


The expected cost of the 2012 Olympics has risen from Â£2.4bn to at least Â£3.3bn, the culture secretary tells MPs.


Weight loss by diet or exercise benefits heart

NEW YORK  - Shedding excess pounds may restore some of the heart's youth, whether the weight loss comes from eating less or exercising more, the results of a small study suggests.


Free Stuff is Nice; Personal Touch is Better

By Sue Stock, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.  Sep. 10--Through the course of this experiment, I got 90 e-mail messages, 45 letters and a couple of boxes of samples.   Companies that responded in a timely, personal manner made me feel good about the company.


U.S. advertising spending rose a disappointing 4.1 percent last year, hurt by cutbacks by carmakers General Motors Corp.  and DaimlerChrysler  , tracking firm TNS Media Intelligence said on Tuesday.


Paris Hilton parts ways with talent agent

She's been jailed for just a week -- not including a day of house arrest -- and already celebrity heiress Paris Hilton has parted ways with the Hollywood talent agency that represented her for two years.


BEIJING: Iran will never dismantle its nuclear programs but is ready to give assurances that its uranium enrichment activities will not be diverted for weapons technology, a senior Iranian negotiator said on Wednesday.


Alltel Corp. is unveiling a new feature that uses voice-recognition software to allow wireless phone customers to read their voicemail messages as text messages.


US may have found new case of mad cow disease: official

A second case of mad cow diseasemay have occurred in the United States, Agriculture Department officials said Thursday. They said it would need four to seven days before


Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger intimated on Tuesday that he would be signing a contact extension "within days". According to This is London, the Frenchman,said: "I've said many times I am committed to Arsenal


Pexhino, 12:21 - CALCIO, CINA VUOLE I MONDIALI DEL 2014

La Cina vuole candidarsi per i Mondiali di calcio del 2014. Lo ha annunciato il direttore del dipart...


In a swift and alarming deepening of the war in Ivory Coast, air strikes by two government attack jets killed nine French peacekeepers and a US civilian


The failure of six doctors to carry out adequate checks enabled serial killer Dr Harold Shipman to escape detection, the General Medical Council has heard.


APEC summit fizzles to an inconclusive end

SYDNEY - The much anticipated Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Sydney limped to a close yesterday, with a heavily compromised agreement on tackling climate change, few answers on how to push the global trade agenda forward, and a huge security operation that ended up a laughingstock.


Yudhoyono Sworn in As Indonesia President

Retired Gen. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was sworn in as Indonesia's sixth president on Wednesday after winning the country's first-ever direct elections for head of state last month.


By JAKE COYLE If you've been to a concert in recent years, you've seen the outstretched arms bearing digital cameras and cell phones that rise above the crowd like periscopes. Increasingly, the footage from those concertgoers is turning up online.


Aid workers in the region of Darfur are getting a helping hand from advanced satellite mapping technology.


Hostage death raises stakes in Nigerian oil crisis

The death of a British hostage in  Nigeria's oil-producing south in a shootout between kidnappers  and troops raises the stakes for oil workers but is unlikely to  change much for the industry, security experts said on  Thursday.


BEIJING -- China's sizzling economy grew faster in the second quarter despite official efforts to apply the brakes, expanding by 11.9 percent over a year earlier, the government reported Thursday. It said it would take new steps to cool the boom.


New pretexting bill introduced in U.S. Congress

(InfoWorld) - Two U.S. representatives have introduced a law that would give the U.S. Federal Trade Commission the authority to investigate and prosecute imposters who gain access to other people's private telephone records. The bill, introduced Wednesday by Representatives Jay Inslee, a Washington Democrat, and Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, comes in addition to a bill signed into law by President George Bush in January criminalizing the phone records scheme known as pretexting. The new pretexting bill is important because the FTC has more expertise and interest in prosecuting identity theft cases than many local prosecutors, a spokeswoman for Inslee said. Ken Springer, the founder and president of Corporate Resolutions, a private investigations firm, applauded the pretexting legislation. State prosecutors have been targeting similar tactics to get personal bank records for about 10 years, and reputable private investigations firms haven't used pretexting for many years, he said. "You've got to play by the rules," said Springer, a former special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. "It's not a grey area. You can't use it." Although corporate customers may demand that private investigators use all means necessary, Springer tells clients they should consider that the details of their investigations could wind up in the media. "The risk-reward [balance] is something they should consider," he said. After a pretexting scandal at Hewlett-Packard in late 2006, "corporate America got the message," he said. Still, the new pretexting bill can give customers faith that their records are protected, he said. Inslee and Blackburn introduced a similar bill in January 2006, but it didn't come up for a vote on the floor of the House of Representatives. Their Consumer Telephone Records Protection Act would make it illegal for anyone to knowingly obtain confidential phone records by making false or fraudulent statements to a telephone company or to knowingly sell or receive confidential phone records knowing such information was obtained fraudulently. The bill would also require telephone companies to notify customers when their phone records fall into the wrong hands. In January, Bush signed a law making pretexting illegal, punishable with up to 10 years in prison and fines. Fines and prison sentences would increase if the violations involve more than 50 telephone customers. Congress began investigating pretexting in early 2006 after media reports and a complaint from privacy advocacy group the Electronic Privacy Information Center showed that several companies were selling private phone records online for less than $100. Then in September, HP revealed that investigators it hired had used pretexting to try to discover the source of board leaks.Â California prosecutors charged former HP board Chairwoman Patricia Dunn, former HP legal counsel Kevin Hunsaker, and three investigators with feloniesÂ late last year.


RAMALLAH, West Bank  - Palestinian President   Mahmoud Abbas will meet President Bush in New York on   Wednesday, Palestinian officials said, acknowledging U.S.   opposition to guidelines set for a unity government with Hamas.


U.S. troops discovered eight more bodies in the restive northern Iraqi city of Mosul, bringing the number of bodies found there since Nov. 10 to more than 150, the U.S. military said Tuesday.


Exclusive: A classified document suggests the Administration is considering a plan to fund political opposition to the Damascus government. Some critics say it would be an unwarranted covert action


Toshiba Projector Sports 'Extreme Short Projection'

The TDP-EX20U digital projector is especially made for small conference rooms.


Use of weapons in Palestinian intifada must stop: Abbas

RAMALLAH - New PLO chairman Mahmud Abbas said the use of weapons in the uprising against Israeli occupation was damaging to the national interest and should stop, in an interview published Tuesday.


Boise State's Petersen gets new contract

Boise State coach Chris Petersen will be a millionaire if he leads the Broncos to another undefeated season. Not bad for someone with just one season as a head coach.


Athletics Win to Hang on to AL West Lead

Mark Redman pitched eight innings of six-hit ball, and the Oakland Athletics used a three-run fifth inning to beat the Baltimore Orioles 3-1 on Monday night.


Romantiche bambine vestite in chiffon e tulle grigio e rosa


Harry Potter author JK Rowling reveals one of her characters, Hogwarts school head Albus Dumbledore, is gay.


Prime Minister Ariel Sharon today pledged to escalate a broad Israeli offensive into the northern Gaza Strip, saying troops will remain in the area until Palestinian rocket attacks are halted.


Red Sox Stay Alive with Epic 14th-Inning Win

David Ortiz drove in three runs,  including the game winner in the bottom of the 14th inning, to  lead Boston to a rallying 5-4 victory over the New York Yankees  which kept the Red Sox's postseason hopes alive Monday.


Rain didn't stop the St. Louis Cardinals from taking a 2-0 lead over the Houston Astros in the NL championship series, but it may hold up the AL series...


Vienna, Austria (Sports Network) - Sixth-seeded Guillermo Canas moved on, but his fellow Argentine, fourth-seeded Juan Ignacio Chela, was among Monday's opening-round losers at the BA-CA Tennis Trophy.


SAN DIEGO ---- After Sunday's loss to the Falcons in Atlanta, the Chargers faced an emergency situation in their thinned-out receiving corps.


Ex-Captive Describes Years With Guerrillas

CARACAS, Venezuela, Jan. 12 -- Clara Rojas, one of two hostages freed Thursday after being held captive for years by Colombian rebels, gave birth to her son nearly four years ago by kitchen-knife Caesarean and has not seen him since he was taken from the jungle at 8 months old.


A strong earthquake with a magnitude of  5.9 jolted northern Japan Monday in the latest aftershock to  hit a region struck by a deadly tremor last month.


ADV: SpyBlocs - Protect Your PC from Spyware

Detect and remove all dangerous spyware and adware from your PC with SpyBlocs 2.0. Protect yourself against identity theft. Free download.


A volley of lawsuits was launched against alleged spammers on Thursday by the four major US Internet service providers. This includes a case brought by AOL against twenty individuals accused of spimming, or


USB 'compact cassette' promises 1980s nostalgia, home taping

Phony Sony, Maxel, TDK etc. Relive music piracy the way it used to be done, back in the days when even Shawn Fanning was a glint in someone's eye*, let alone his original Napster app and the P2P world it spawned. Yes, we're talking cassette tapes and a 21st Century take on this format of yesteryear.â¦


Safer Internet Day is being marked across Europe with events to educate people about net dangers.


Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has said assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto ignored government warnings -- and defended himself against accusations that he had a role in her slaying.


LIBERTY 77, FEVER 71, OVERTIME Liberty Leaves Radio City With Shot ...

he Liberty, knowing it had to win two of the three games left to clinch a spot in the WNBA playoffs, defeated another playoff contender, the Indiana Fever, 77-71, in overtime last night at Radio City Music Hall.


The number of deaths in the United States rose in 2005 after a sharp decline the year earlier, a disappointing reversal that suggests the 2004 numbers were a fluke. Cancer deaths were also up.


Spacewalking astronauts ready power unit for move

Two spacewalking astronauts unbolted a huge solar power truss from the International Space Station on Sunday to get it ready for a move to a new place on the space outpost.


Goletta Verde, mare piÃ¹ pulito. Basilicata top

Il mare italiano porta a casa il migliore risultato degli ultimi 18 anni. La promozione arriva da Goletta Verde che ha stilato una rincuorante classifica sulla condizione delle acque nostrane. La palma del mare piÃ¹ blu spetta alla Basilicata. Il voto?


Dangerous Iraq chemicals found stored at U.N.

The United Nations found vials of a chemical warfare agent, which had been removed from Iraq a decade ago, in a U.N. building near the body's headquarters in New York but officials said on Thursday there was no danger.


SAN DIEGO -- A total of 130 American troops have been punished or charged in cases involving the abuse of prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan, or Guantanamo Bay, the Pentagon said yesterday.


Sondaggio, sindaci e governatori di sinistra i piÃ¹ popolari

Chi Ã¨ il sindaco piÃ¹ amato dagli italiani? E chi tra i presidenti di Provincia e Regione? Ora qualcuno se l'Ã¨ chiesto e si Ã¨ fatto anche un sondaggio. E cosÃ¬ si Ã¨ venuto a sapere che Walter Veltroni


US-led forces say they expect several more days of fighting with the remaining Iraqi insurgents in Falluja.


Verona, 19:26 - CALCIO, UEFA; CHIEVO: SEMIOLI PREOCCUPA PILLON

Il Chievo riprenderà domani la preparazione in vista dell'impegno di giovedÃ¬ in Coppa Uefa co...


Dallas looks like Seattle as rain doesn't stop

Dallas is looking a lot like Seattle these days. Drenching rains pounded the city and north-central Texas again on Wednesday, forcing the precautionary evacuation of thousands of residents from several communities to the west of Fort Worth that were threatened with possible flooding.


Google announced new pricing for its Postini hosted e-mail security and compliance management package on Tuesday in hopes of pushing more customers to consider a move to the SaaS (software-as-a-service) offering.Since adding expanded message filtering, encryption, and archiving tools to Postini's traditional anti-spam services in Oct. 2007 -- and parceling the same features into its Google Apps Premier hosted productivity suite -- the company has been able to convince a significant number of customers to begin working with the SaaS applications, according to Scott Petry, founder and CTO of Postini, which Google acquired for $625 million last July.However, in a move to make the tools more attractive for use in heterogeneous IT environments, and to encourage both enterprise and smaller customers to consider the offering as a viable alternative to traditional on-premise technologies, the company has revamped the product packaging and cut its overall pricing.In addition to pushing pricing for its flagship hosted anti-spam filtering service to $3 per user per year, Google-Postini has moved the price for its hosted virus detection, outbound processing, and content policy management services to $12 per user per year.For its compliance-oriented message data archiving, retention, and e-discovery services, which previously cost $100 per user per year, the firm has drastically cut pricing to $25 per year with the option to extend e-mail archiving at a cost of $10 for every additional 12 months of storage."We've got a healthy number of our existing customers running the newer content management, archiving, and discovery services, but we think that by adjusting pricing, we can get even more people get off their existing infrastructure and get onto managed services offered by Google," Petry said. "We won't be an acquisition that withers and dies; we're focused on expanding our reach and integrating the product line."The combined package of services is meant to compete not only with Postini's traditional rivals, including mail filtering capabilities offered by MessageLabs and Microsoft, but also with security and compliance products marketed by industry stalwarts like Symantec, Petry contends.A customer might have to buy Symantec's standalone anti-spam, anti-virus, messaging security, DLP (data leakage prevention) and policy management technologies to gain the same collection of filtering, archiving, and compliance automation capabilities offered in the Google-Postini SaaS package, according to the executive.By driving down pricing and tying the tools tightly together, Google should be able to convince some large customers to make a shift to SaaS and be able to help smaller companies gain access to tools they may not have been able to afford previously, he said."More than a battle against any of these other guys, this is about getting more companies off of the traditional model of deploying software and appliances to address these problems," Petry said. "We think that time is on our side, and more people than ever are ready to move to thin, in-the-cloud services; we're not trying to get everyone converted overnight, but we have set of technologies to help those who are ready augment their current infrastructure."Google plays up POstini's security benefits As with other security SaaS services, Google-Postini also maintains that its expanding set of message filtering tools can offer customers a unique advantage in terms of protection via the company's ability to see new threats arriving on the networks through its individual users and then leverage intelligence about any emerging threats across its entire client base.In addition to being integrated directly with Google's Apps technologies, Petry also stressed that the company remains dedicated to providing its messaging security services to users of other vendor's e-mail and collaboration infrastructure, including Microsoft's Exchange platform and IBM's Lotus Notes architecture.Some industry watchers may still question the abilities of hosted services providers like Google-Postini to handle complex security tasks such as DLP, but the executive maintains that the SaaS model actually gives his company a major advantage."This is about the democratization of these tools, making them cheaper and allowing more people to use them and protect their investments in existing appliances," he said. "Financial services companies have spent billions trying to do DLP, but now other companies without the same level of internal sophistication or budget can get us for less; we can minimize the amount of hardware necessary for DLP and allow them to use their existing appliances to integrate with us via API."Google-Postini partners said that it may still be early in the game in terms of selling the message filtering, archiving, and discovery tools to enterprises, but they contend that SMB customers should view the pricing move positively.Joe Vaccone, president of Excel Micro -- which resells Google-Postini to other services providers that cater largely to SMBs, said that many customers are both looking for new features to address issues like compliance and to move away from other e-mail filtering vendors who may be getting squeezed from the market."A lot of the older anti-spam vendors are getting clobbered and looking to exit, so I think we might see a lot of companies coming over to Postini because they can get a lot of functionality at a single price point that they may not have been able to obtain before," said Vaccone. "We already see a lot of people looking for new alternatives in this space based on the performance of what they've been using."Vaccone said that Excel Micro's reseller customers are also seeing more of their own clients inquire about Google's Apps platform as licenses to older products, namely Microsoft's Exchange and Office technologies, run out. "We do see some migration to Google Apps going on and believe it will continue," he said.Industry analysts agreed that Google-Postini's revamped pricing and integrated SaaS tools should find favor with SMBs first but said that the work necessary to convince enterprises to buy-in will likely take longer.The Google-Postini marriage carries a lot of credibility in terms of the involved technologies, but large customers will need to be convinced that the company is serious about growing its enterprise footprint, said Rebecca Wettemann, analyst with Nucleus Research."Google-Postini is definitely looking to grow into the enterprise, and spam and e-mail security services like this are ideal for delivery on-demand, but there remains a real challenge for them to gain the trust of enterprises and make them confident that they are a serious player," Wettemann said."The more they can highlight references to existing Postini customers who have moved into the new services, or point to new enterprise customers, the easier it should become," she said. "But they need to show how these innovations they claim deliver value, that it's more than Google throwing cash at some interesting technologies."


Former Taliban defense minister arrested

Pakistan has arrested former Taliban defense minister Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, regarded as top figure in the Afghanistan insurgency, a Pakistani intelligence official said Friday.


Firenze, 13:28 - CALCIO, AZZURRI; PASQUAL: NON GIUDICO CHI RIFIUTA

"Sono tranquillo per questa mia nuova convocazione e accetterÃ² qualsiasi decisione di Donadoni circa...


F1 espionage affair heads to British High Court

The British Grand Prix may have ended on Sunday but the Formula One ÃÂÃÂespionage' controversy that overshadowed on-track events at Silverstone has seemingly still got plenty of mileage left in it.


Two Europeans arrested on Afghan security charges: govt

The Afghan government said Tuesday it had arrested two "high-ranking European officials" for posing threats to the national security of the war-torn country.


Arena name changed, after original namesake accused of cheating

COLUMBIA, Mo. The new sports arena at the University of Missouri is no longer going to be called the Paige Sports Arena. Instead, it'll be given the school's own nickname -- and will be known as the Mizzou Arena.


Two gatherings in the nation's capital help point up the difference between theorizing about war--and fighting one.


Patrick Ramsey's struggles have made Joe Gibbs's starting quarterback decision an easy one.


The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is likely to keep production close to a 25-year high to prevent shortages during the US winter, OPEC officials said.


"The train is just a twisted wreck, it's an absolute bloody mess," a rail official told reporters. "The train has ploughed through the dirt like a bulldozer.


Beagle Is First of Breed to Win Westminster Show

Uno became the first beagle to win best in show in the 100 times the Westminster Kennel Club has picked a winner.


The Montgomery County Council voted today to begin buying medications in Canada, joining a handful of local governments and nearly 2 million U.S. consumers in defying federal law.


La compagnia precisa che ci sono stati incontri di routine


Prime Minister Romano Prodi meets with his economics minister and top advisers from the center-right coalition Monday to discuss measures to balance the 2007 budget.


The BBC's Mike Baker looks at Conservative pledges to improve discipline in schools and finds no easy solutions.


Benson Leads Texas to 44-14 Win Over Baylor

AUSTIN, Texas (Sports Network) - Cedric Benson ran for 188  yards and three touchdowns to lead fifth-ranked Texas to a  44-14 win over Baylor in the Big 12 opener for both schools at  Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.


Arafat wages final battle with Israel over burial site

RAMALLAH, West BankâA dying Yasser Arafat is in the midst of a last historic battle with Israel, one he is not even well enough to know he's waging.


CIA Has Run Secret Prison at Guantanamo -- Wash Post

The Central Intelligence Agency has run a secret prison for valuable al Qaeda captives within the Pentagon's detention complex at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, The Washington Post reported on Friday.


Se verra' momento per lotta liberazione, milioni in piazza


Few people remember the main accusations brought against controversial businessman Corneliu Iacovob! Anyway, Iacobov has become famous by defrauding some bonds issued by Bancorex bank.


HYDERABAD: The death toll in the tsunami disaster in Andhra Pradesh rose to 104 and 30 people were still missing even as search operations continued today to trace the missing fishermen and relief measures were on in full swing in the nine coastal


Sen. John Kerry said Wednesday night that President Bush bears responsibility for a misguided war in Iraq, lost jobs at home and mounting millions without health care. The Republican incumbent tagged his rival in campaign debate as a lifelong liberal bent on raising taxes and government spending.


Barrichello hails "best-ever" Ferrari season

Rubens Barrichello claimed on Sunday that Ferrari's 2004 season has been their best-ever after he won his first race of the year at the team's home Italian Grand Prix.


CHICAGO (CBS.MW) - Krispy Kreme blamed the Atkins Diet for much of its skinny second-quarter results Thursday, but peeling back the numbers shows an alarming and dramatic decline in margins across the company in all markets.


Dutch politician threatened in letter pinned with knife to ...

The Dutch government on Friday pledged tough measures against Islamic radicalism after a written threat was found on the murdered body of a celebrity filmmaker.


Software Stocks Bounce After Oracle Ruling

Software stocks rose on Friday on speculation there may be more mergers in the industry after a US judge allowed Oracle Corp. to proceed with its takeover of rival PeopleSoft Inc.


Comment on the German mainstream parties' latest electoral setback in two eastern states provides one of the main topics in today's European dailies. In France, President Jacques Chirac and three new-found allies earn brownie points.


Customers of the Times Square Toys 'R' Us yesterday said the flagship store lacked its normal Christmas bustle, one day after pepper spray forced the evacuation of some 3,000 customers.


Volkswagen sees vehicle sales rise 10% in November year-on-year, boosted by surging demand in Brazil.


China lawmaker wants Forbidden City free of Starbucks

A member of China's parliament has demanded the immediate closure of a Starbucks coffee shop set up inside Beijing's Forbidden City, the Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday.


Yankees ride Wang's complete game to beat White Sox

The New York Yankees beat the slumping Chicago White Sox for the second straight time on Wednesday, riding Chien-Ming Wang's complete game to a comfortable 5-1 victory.


Mauresmo wins first match as world No. 1

Amelie Mauresmo overcame a slow start Thursday to win her first match as the world's top ranked player, beating Patty Schnyder of Switzerland 7-5, 6-4 at the Porsche Grand Prix.


Uganda says it will start deploying its soldiers as part of a peace force in Somalia within the next two weeks.


The steady path of revenue recovery at  news and information provider Reuters Group Plc is expected to  continue in the first quarter with a three-year slide seen  easing more than analysts had forecast.


Recruiting community support officers is to be speeded up, David Blunkett will say in his Labour conference speech.


Pro-Taliban Clerics Killed in Pakistan's Karachi

A leading pro-Taliban Sunni Muslim cleric and an associate were shot dead in southern Pakistan on Saturday, the latest attack in religious violence that has already killed more than 70 people this month.


A 45,75 dollari al barile, in rialzo dello 0,9%


IAC/InterActiveCorp. IACI.O, saying  its growth is being hindered by the perception that it is  strictly a travel company, on Tuesday said it plans to split  itself in two by spinning off online travel service Expedia.com  and related businesses into a company to be called Expedia.


27 vittime nel Caraibi Per ora 'risparmiata' la Florida

Roma, 11 settembre 2004 - Dopo essersi presentato stamattina sulle coste giamaicane con onde giganti e venti a 250 chilometri orari, l'uragano Ivan, che avrebbe dovuto dirigersi verso Kingston, la capitale della Giamaica, ha inaspettatamente deviato la


Nel Vicentino, i bimbi lanciavano palline di carta accese


Blair Undergoes Treatment for Irregular Heartbeat, Sets Off ...

British Prime Minister Tony Blair entered a hospital Friday for a procedure to remedy an irregular heartbeat. He says the treatment is routine and expects to return to work on Monday.


Italian PM Prodi opts for Senate showdown: agency

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said Thursday he would go before the Senate as he struggles against increasing odds to save his centre-left government from collapse, the ANSA news agency reported.


Heavy rains and high winds  pound Jamaica as Hurricane Ivan roars towards the Caribbean island.


Obese woman unaware of pregnancy until near birth

A woman who weighs more than 400  pounds (180 kg) said on Sunday she did not know she was  pregnant until two days before giving birth this week to a  healthy baby boy.


Finance ministers from the G7 countries have gathered in London to discuss the global economy. What are your hopes and fears for the outcome of the meeting?


Critiche a Berlusconi? 'l'opposizione fa il suo lavoro...'


The dirty little secret about this US men's basketball team is that it has played harder than any team in the Olympics and has been superior at doing anything that required plain old-fashioned effort.


Federal court orders trial in Florida e-ballot lawsuit

A federal appeals court on Monday overturned a judge who had thrown out a lawsuit seeking a paper trail for that state's new touchscreen voting machines.


U.S. warns financial firms of Qaeda cyber attack

The U.S. government warned American private financial services on Thursday of an al Qaeda call for a cyber attack against online stock trading and banking Web sites beginning on Friday, a source said.


Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday reiterated his refusal to negotiate with Chechen separatists, warning critics against applying what he called a double standard in the definition of terrorism.


The Dutch retailer Ahold has sold its network of almost 600 Spanish retail stores to the private equity group Permira in an $850 million deal, the two companies said on Sunday.


Bangkok, Sept. 28 (VNA) - The Health Ministry of Thailand on Tuesday confirmed that Pranee Krongkaew, 26, died on September 20 of the H5N1 strain of the avian influenza.


A closer look at the privacy issue It has recently been reported that Attorneys Generals from about a dozen US States, including Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Mississippi, Maryland, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania have demanded that News Corporation's social networking site MySpace voluntarily deliver a list of all sex offenders who have registered for or used the MySpace social networking service.â¦


The House overwhelmingly approved a $146 billion shot in the arm for the nation's ailing economy yesterday, sending a stimulus package to the Senate with a bipartisan appeal not to slow down the bill with significant changes.


In âTotal Denial,â Milena Kanevaâs incisive look at Myanmar, one thing is unmistakable: Its central figure, Ka Hsaw Wa, is the stuff heroes are made of.


The iPod Photo looks and feels exactly like the existing iPod -- except it can display your photos on a bright screen. Should you buy it?