Newser Story Index from December, 2007
Welcome to the Newser Story Index. Here you find stories written by Newser writers and editors, assembled with supporting photos and videos from the files of the news story.
Judge Declares Mistrial in Sears Tower Plot Case
Associated Press
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Dec 13, 2007 5:12 PM CST
(Newser) -
A jury acquitted one suspect today and was deadlocked over the six others in the "Liberty City Seven" case, in which prosecutors had accused the Miami men of swearing allegiance to al Qaeda and plotting to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago. The case was a centerpiece in the Bush Administration's campaign against homegrown terrorism, the...
Baseball Commish: ‘I Will Act’
MLB.com
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Dec 13, 2007 5:00 PM CST
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Baseball commissioner Bud Selig called the Mitchell Report a “call to action” today, and said he'd execute every recommendation the former senator made in his bombshell appraisal of steroid use. As to punishment for current players named in the report, Selig said Mitchell was right to defer to him—and his decisions would be made on...
Lufthansa Buys $300M Stake in JetBlue
Wall Street Journal
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Dec 13, 2007 4:59 PM CST
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Lufthansa will purchase a 19% stake in lagging JetBlue Airways for about $300 million, a move that reflects the industry-wide consolidation underway in recent months. The sale price of $7.27 a share is a 16% premium on yesterday's closing price of $6.25. The announcement immediately bounced JetBlue shares up 13% to $7.06, the Wall Street Journal...
IQ Measures Not Just Brains, But Also Culture
New Yorker
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Dec 13, 2007 4:55 PM CST
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The average global IQ is rising three points per decade not because humans are getting smarter, but because culture is getting more challenging—and the measure isn’t just a test of our smarts genes. The quotient effectively tests “the quality of the world [a] person lives in,” the New Yorker ’s Malcolm Gladwell writes,...
Microsoft Faces New Suit on Competition
Reuters
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Dec 13, 2007 4:43 PM CST
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An independent Norwegian software company is taking on Microsoft in an antitrust complaint filed today with the European Commission. Opera charges the industry behemoth with monopolizing the market by packaging Windows with the Internet Explorer browser, Reuters reports. The moves comes three months after Microsoft had to pay a huge fine in a similar...
Knut Mania Triggers Rift at Zoo
Times (UK)
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Dec 13, 2007 4:30 PM CST
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A savvy marketing campaign that turned cuddly Knut into the world's most famous polar bear has driven a wedge between his human handlers. The Berlin Zoo's finance director, the man who made Knut the poster bear for global warming and turned a tidy profit for the zoo in the process, has left on not-so-amicable terms after the zoo's director complained...
Directors Hope to Call 'Cut!' on Strike
Associated Press
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Dec 13, 2007 4:15 PM CST
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Hollywood directors will likely begin contract negotiations with studios in early January, a move that will put added pressure on writers to resolve their strike, the AP reports. The directors' guild had held off for two months in deference to the writers, but the latest collapse of talks has changed things. "We can no longer abdicate our responsibility...
Markets Rally After Early Swoon
Wall Street Journal
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Dec 13, 2007 3:43 PM CST
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Thanks to two pieces of unexpectedly good news today, the markets erased early losses, the Dow climbing 44.06 to 13,517.96 after dipping to almost 13,350 this morning. Retail sales in November increased 1.2%, twice what watchers had estimated. And wholesale prices had their biggest one-month jump since 1973, a 3.2% rise nearly doubling estimates, the...
China, India Are Rich in 'Crystal Gas'
Der Spiegel
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Dec 13, 2007 3:41 PM CST
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The discovery of a massive store of frozen methane on the seabed off the coast of China may help the world's fastest growing nation keep up with its accelerating energy needs. Methane hydrate, also known as crystal gas, is frozen and yet flammable, and it could mean a breakthrough for India, South Korea and Taiwan—all of which have booming...
Cordial Dems Focus on Economy
CNN
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Dec 13, 2007 3:30 PM CST
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The Democratic presidential hopefuls focused on the economy and the need for change today in the last of the Iowa debates, CNN reports. The debate remained relatively cordial, with the candidates agreeing on the need to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans and big corporations. "We are not going to be able to dig ourselves out" of Bush's...
House Passes Ban on CIA Waterboarding
Reuters
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Dec 13, 2007 3:20 PM CST
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The House of Representatives today approved a bill that would forbid the CIA from using harsh interrogation methods, including waterboarding, Reuters reports. The measure follows revelations that the agency destroyed tapes showing al Qaeda suspects subjected to simulated drowning. But the bill still has to pass the Senate, and has already incurred...
House Page Program Under Fire Again
Associated Press
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Dec 13, 2007 3:07 PM CST
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House leaders called for an independent investigation yesterday into “allegations” related to teenage pages after two Republican resignations from the House Page Board. The Republicans faulted House Clerk Lorraine Miller, a page program administrator, for not “immediately” alerting them to misbehavior. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite,...
First Face Transplant Patient Smiles—Slightly
Los Angeles Times
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Dec 13, 2007 3:00 PM CST
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Isabelle Dinoire can smile a little, her doctors reported yesterday, a big accomplishment for the world’s first face transplant recipient. Her case shows that the controversial surgery can work—but it also highlighted the risks involved. Dinoire has dealt with two tissue-rejection episodes, two kidney failures, anemia and high blood pressure...
Why IT Isn't Buying the iPhone
Fortune Magazine
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Dec 13, 2007 2:55 PM CST
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Your company's IT department isn't just being snotty when it refuses to support iPhones. Fortune runs down 10 ways Apple's new baby is problematic for business: Your infrastructure has to be configured to get business email and calendars It won't support third-party apps You can't encrypt data or otherwise secure it IT can't...
England Courts Fabio Capello for Head Coach
Times (UK)
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Dec 13, 2007 2:41 PM CST
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The British Football Association may finally have found its head coach, as CEO Brian Barwick zeros in on Real Madrid's Fabio Capello. Pending likely approval from Capello's lawyers, Barwick will formally propose Capello to the FA board today. If appointed, Capello would coach England in the 2010 World Cup, with an option to stay until the 2012 European...
Rock Hall of Fame Taps Madonna
Associated Press
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Dec 13, 2007 2:29 PM CST
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Madonna will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next year, the Associated Press reports. The shape-shifting pop star will formally enter the Hall at the annual ceremony on March 10 in New York, along with fellow inductees John Mellencamp, Leonard Cohen, the Ventures and the Dave Clark Five.
UK Probe Finds 6K Illegals in Security Jobs
BBC
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Dec 13, 2007 2:07 PM CST
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UK Home Secretary Jacqui Smith came under fire today after an investigation revealed that as many as 11,000 illegal immigrants are employed in or have been cleared for security jobs, including one man who guarded the PM's car. Of those workers, 6,653 were found to have no permission to work in the UK, while another 4,447 had yet to prove their immigration...
Mitchell Report Delivers Bonds, Clemens, Tejada
ESPN
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Dec 13, 2007 1:55 PM CST
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George Mitchell’s long-awaited report on steroids in baseball dropped today, and it blamed both players and management for what it said could be the sport's biggest challenge since the 1919 Black Sox scandal. Every club had a player involved; Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Miguel Tejada were among inclusions. The ex-senator's report found some...
Dow Chemical Sells 50% of Plastics Biz to Kuwait for $9.5B
Bloomberg
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Dec 13, 2007 1:48 PM CST
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Kuwait’s national oil company agreed to buy a 50% stake in Dow Chemical’s plastics divisions for $9.5 billion, marking the biggest overseas investment by a Kuwaiti firm, Bloomberg reports. CEO Andrew Liveris said Dow would benefit from cheap access to raw materials and liquid assets received from the deal, which Liveris said Dow planned...
Label to Die for: 'Danger— Avoid Death'
Associated Press
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Dec 13, 2007 1:35 PM CST
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Turns out creators of the bizarrely macabre warning posted on a tractor—"Danger: Avoid Death"—didn't make such a grave mistake after all. The warning was so peculiar that it won the 11th annual Wacky Warning Label Contest, an event run by a lawsuit abuse group. Second place went to the warning on an iron-on decal that :...
Immigration Fervor Could Burn GOP
New Yorker
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Dec 13, 2007 1:19 PM CST
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The GOP contenders embracing anti-immigrant fervor may be sorely miscalculating, Ryan Lizza writes in the New Yorker, in a piece looking at the party's dramatic turn from the Bush strategy of cultivating immigrants in 2000 and 2004. The nativist passions Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani have been fanning appeal to a vocal niche, he notes, but they’ve...
'American Idol' Most-Watched Show of 2007
Broadcasting & Cable
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Dec 13, 2007 1:06 PM CST
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Nielsen released its top-10 ratings for everything from TV to consumer goods this week. Once again, "American Idol" was the most-watched regular show, while the Super Bowl drew the most viewers for a single event. Although "Lost" didn't rank among the top 10 shows during its regular airings, it was the number one time-shifted show—a...
Iraqis United in Mass Wedding
Christian Science Monitor
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Dec 13, 2007 12:53 PM CST
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A Baghdad media magnate, determined to overcome the sectarian conflict tearing apart Iraq, organized a mass wedding for dozens of mixed Baghdad couples, reports the Christian Science Monitor . The newspaper owner scoured the city for 70 couples from different ethnicities or sects, and treated them to a wedding and party with a 65-foot-long cake. Each...
Energy Bill Blocked by 1 Vote
New York Times
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Dec 13, 2007 12:42 PM CST
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Senate Democrats today failed by one vote to advance a broad energy bill that would have increased mileage standards to 35mpg by 2020. The sticking point for Republicans was $21 billion in new taxes, mostly on oil companies, the New York Times reports. The vote to invoke cloture scored 59 votes in favor, one short of the 60 needed to block...
Committee Votes to Hold Rove, Bolten in Contempt
Associated Press
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Dec 13, 2007 12:37 PM CST
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The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to hold Karl Rove and Josh Bolten in contempt today, the AP reports, for ignoring subpoenas on the US attorneys scandal. The White House, however, says the citations will likely die on the Senate floor. “I vote knowing that it’s highly likely to be a meaningless act,” Sen. Arlen Specter said. “In...
Mall Shooter Took Gun While Briefly Alone
Omaha World-Herald
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Dec 13, 2007 12:30 PM CST
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The night before the Omaha mall shootings, Robert Hawkins' mother went Christmas shopping for an hour. In that hour alone in his ex-stepfather's house, reports the Omaha World-Herald, the 19-year-old stole the assault rifle he used to randomly kill eight people the next day. At dinner, Hawkins told his mother that he'd lost his job, but seemed "neutral."
JK Rowling Book Sells for $4M
Reuters
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Dec 13, 2007 12:15 PM CST
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Sotheby’s figured The Tales of Beedle the Bard would fetch about $100,000 at auction—in retrospect, about 40 times too low. The book, a one-of-a-kind piece of the Harry Potter canon hand-written and illustrated by JK Rowling herself, fetched $3.98 million for charity today, Reuters reports. “Christmas has come early for me,”...
DJ Formally Approves Sale to News Corp.
Wall Street Journal
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Dec 13, 2007 11:58 AM CST
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Dow Jones shareholders formally approved the company’s $5.6 billion sale to Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation; the closing is expected later today. The outcome was clear before today’s meeting, but the vote’s margin had been uncertain, as many Bancroft shareholders—whose voting stake was 64.2%—have been cold towards the...
Army Deploys Anthropologists on Front Lines
Time
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Dec 13, 2007 11:53 AM CST
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The US military has been employing anthropologists in Iraq and Afghanistan to help troops work more effectively with locals. The results have been so promising they've just launched a $40 million program to embed social scientists with all 26 combat brigades. But the response back home has been ugly, with academics accusing their colleagues of compromising...
Über-Precise Atomic Clocks Are Half-Past a Revolution
Wired
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Dec 13, 2007 11:38 AM CST
(Newser) -
Forget the Swiss—the world's best clocks sit in a Colorado lab where a team of scientists is shaping them into über-precise gadgets with broad-reaching implications on medicine, navigation, and surveillance. The National Institute of Standards and Technology has built a clock the size of a grain of rice so sensitive that it can detect the...
Country Life Often Opposite of Healthy
Newsweek
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Dec 13, 2007 11:23 AM CST
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Rural America isn’t all hearty farmland, Newsweek writes: Many country areas are “food deserts,” supplied mainly by convenience stores. With supermarkets distant and healthy food more expensive than junk, impoverished residents often become unhealthy—hungry and fat. “A nutritionist will just say, 'Buy more fruits and...
Swiss in Turmoil as Power Sharing Collapses
Reuters
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Dec 13, 2007 11:09 AM CST
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After 49 years, Switzerland’s cozy form of consensus government collapsed today, when the right-wing People’s Party went into opposition, angered by the ejection of one of its members from the cabinet. “You have forced us to go into opposition, destroyed our treasured system of government and sacrificed your sworn interest in concordance,...
And Now, South Korea Gets a Word From Its Sponsors
Wall Street Journal
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Dec 13, 2007 10:55 AM CST
(Newser) -
South Koreans long accustomed to watching uninterrupted boob tube are about to get a jolt of commercial reality—the Korean broadcasting agency has bowed to years of pressure and will at last legalize ads during TV shows. Laws had forbidden even private channels from commercial interruptions, and ads were screened in blocks after shows, which...
Mbeki Likely to Lose ANC Leadership
Mail & Guardian (South Africa)
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Dec 13, 2007 10:39 AM CST
(Newser) -
With only three days to go until the African National Congress meets to choose a new leader, South African President Thabo Mbeki looks set to lose his position at the top of his party and might be forced to retire before the end of his term. Jacob Zuma, Mbeki's highly controversial rival, has shored up a seemingly unstoppable support—though he...
Genes Make Mouse That Roared
Associated Press
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Dec 13, 2007 10:25 AM CST
(Newser) -
Japanese scientists have modified mouse genes to make rodents unafraid of cats in a dramatic experiment that offers insight into the origins of terror. The breakthrough shows that fear is largely genetically hardwired rather than learned through painful experience, researchers say. Some of the mice, whose nasal cells were altered by genetic engineering,...
Nov. Retail Sales Up 1.2%; Sky May Not Be Falling
Bloomberg
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Dec 13, 2007 10:09 AM CST
(Newser) -
November’s retail sales confounded doomsayers, surging 1.2%, twice the 0.6% analysts predicted, Bloomberg reports. Many had worried that consumer spending would take a hit as gas rose and housing fell, but now it looks like job and income growth could cushion the fall. “The numbers should help put to rest some of the fears of sliding into...
You, Too, Can Donate Online
Washington Post
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Dec 13, 2007 10:07 AM CST
(Newser) -
AOL founder Steve Case’s foundation is launching a major online charity drive today, aimed at using social networks and encouraging small-scale donors to join the ranks of millionaires. The drive consists of a new app, “causes” on Facebook, and a spread in this Sunday’s Parade Magazine . Facebook has 50 million users and Parade...
EU Leaders Sign New Treaty
AFP
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Dec 13, 2007 9:58 AM CST
(Newser) -
Two years after the French and Dutch rejected the European Constitution, leaders of the 27 EU nations are signing the new Treaty of Lisbon today, aimed to strengthen union decision-making. Unlike the previous document, this one does not require nation-by-nation referendums to be ratified. That's caused a tremendous political headache for Gordon Brown,...
Clemens, Pettitte Said to Be Named in Mitchell Report
ESPN
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Dec 13, 2007 9:40 AM CST
(Newser) -
Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte are among the 50 or so baseball players named in George Mitchell's much-anticipated report on steroids in Major League Baseball, ESPN reports. A Yankees strength trainer told investigators, whose report is due today, that the two pitchers were among players he supplied with steroids, a source tells ESPN . "Several"...
Atonement Gets 7 Globe Nods
Associated Press
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Dec 13, 2007 9:34 AM CST
(Newser) -
The WWII-era romance Atonement leads today's Golden Globe nominations with seven, including best drama, best actor, and best actress. Also among the seven drama contenders—there are typically five—are There Will Be Blood , No Country for Old Men , The Great Debaters , American Gangster , Michael Clayton, and Eastern Promises ....
Kasparov Won't Run for Russian Prez
Associated Press
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Dec 13, 2007 9:22 AM CST
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Former chess champ and Russian opposition leader Garry Kasparov won't be running for president this March, but not for lack of trying: Other Russia, his political party, was unable to book a Moscow conference hall due to government pressure on landlords, said his spokeswoman. Today is the last day Russian law permits parties to hold nominating meetings.
Gore Points Finger at US in Bali
New York Times
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Dec 13, 2007 9:03 AM CST
(Newser) -
Al Gore’s latest inconvenient truth: the US is stonewalling the UN climate conference. “My own country, the United States, is principally responsible for obstructing progress here,” the Nobel laureate raged today in Bali. The US, along with Japan and several other nations, refuses to accept a specific emissions-cutting target. The...
As Razr Loses Edge, Motorola Could Cut Itself
Wall Street Journal
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Dec 13, 2007 8:37 AM CST
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In an era of rampant telecom convergence, Motorola may be headed the other way. With its once-popular Razr phone leading a money-losing cellphone business, Carl Icahn, the company’s No. 3 shareholder, thinks slicing up the company would create $20 billion in shareholder wealth. The math works, the Wall Street Journal says, but a breakup would...
Supercomputing Technology Landing in Your Lap(top)
BusinessWeek
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Dec 13, 2007 8:17 AM CST
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Leaps forward in chip design are bringing supercomputing technology to personal computers and corporate data centers , Business Week writes. Hardware makers are coming up with more ways to cram colossal amounts of computing power into small spaces, but software is lagging a bit behind. Microsoft is building a brain trust in a bid to develop new applications.
Northern Rock Boss Quits as Fall Continues
Financial Times (UK)
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Dec 13, 2007 7:54 AM CST
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The CEO of collapsing British bank Northern Rock quit this morning without comment, reports the Financial Times . Adam Applegarth resigned last month but had pledged to stay on as CEO until the end of January to guide the struggling company through its upcoming sale. But investors are troubled by the slow speed of the transaction, with Applegarth...
Flooding Claims 9 in Caribbean
Reuters
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Dec 13, 2007 7:37 AM CST
(Newser) -
Tropical Storm Olga set off flash floods in the Dominican Republic yesterday, killing at least 8 people, reports Reuters. Another man died in a mudslide in nearby Puerto Rico. The storm was downgraded to a tropical depression by the end of the day, and predicted to head between Jamaica and Cuba toward Mexico.
Musharraf Set to Restore Constitution*
Associated Press
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Dec 13, 2007 7:09 AM CST
(Newser) -
Pervez Musharraf is set to lift Pakistan's state of emergency Saturday, but he's not going to take any guff for it—the president will only restore the constitution if it is first amended so he can't be tried for actions during the past 6 weeks of emergency rule. As lawyers held more protests against the former general, Pakistan's AG told the...
Worst Employees of 2007
CNN
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Dec 13, 2007 6:42 AM CST
(Newser) -
They've done all the bad things you can imagine on the clock, and maybe a few you can't—here are some of the worst employees of the year, according to CNN and careerbuilder.com: A high ambulance driver who ran two red lights with a patient—and no siren. A Baltimore elections warehouse employee who made and sold 415 counterfeit...
Iraqis Vow to Take Charge Despite Bombings
New York Times
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Dec 13, 2007 6:05 AM CST
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Iraqi officials confirmed yesterday that they will take over security from exiting British troops in Basra, despite the triple car bomb explosions that claimed as many as 41 lives yesterday in nearby Amara. Local authorities had only recently taken over control of the city from the British military, and multiple Shiite groups have faced off to assert...
India Train Bomb Kills 5
Reuters
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Dec 13, 2007 5:37 AM CST
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At least five passengers were killed early today when a bomb exploded beneath a packed passenger train in trouble-wracked northeast India, AP reports. The bomb tore through the luggage car of the Rajdhani Express traveling to New Delhi from Assam state. A little known militant group claimed responsibility for the attack.
