Israeli Shells Kill 40 At Gaza U.N. School
Israeli mortar shells killed as many as 40 Palestinians, among them women and children, outside a U.N. school in Gaza on Tuesday where they were taking refuge from 11 days of fierce fighting. The Israeli military contended that Hamas fighters had fired mortars from the school compound, and U.N. officials called for an independent inquiry into the incident.
Venture Investors Struggle To Sell Their Start-Ups
In 2008, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists had difficulty cashing out of start-ups, underscoring just how much the financial crisis has pummeled the technology sector.
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Tribune Co., the newspaper and television chain that publishes The Los Angeles Times and The Chicago Tribune, filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday.
Car Dealers, Hoping for a Bailout, Brace for Closings
As Denny Fitzpatrick, a Chevrolet-Hummer dealer near Oakland, Calif., has watched the top Detroit auto executives plead for money from Congress, he has been rooting for them — but with no great conviction.
Pakistan Raids Militant Camp Impliciated in Mumbai Attacks
After mounting pressure from the United States and India, Pakistani authorities raided a camp run by the militant group suspected of carrying out the Mumbai attacks, Pakistani and U.S. officials said Monday.
Plea by Blackwater Guard Helps U.S. Indict Five Others
In the first public airing of an investigation that remains a source of international outrage, the Justice Department on Monday unsealed its case against five private security guards, built largely around the chilling testimony of a sixth guard about the 2007 shootings that left 17 unsuspecting Iraqi civilians dead at a busy Baghdad traffic circle.
Riots Continue in Greece Over Police Killing of Teen
Violence by youths angry over the killing of a teenager by the police raged across Greece for a third day on Monday as thousands of police officers failed to contain some of the worst rioting in recent years.
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Microsoft offered Monday to abide by a European privacy panel’s request that it reduce the length of time it kept records of Web searches if its rivals, Yahoo and Google, did the same.
Five Charged in 9/11 Attacks Seek to Plead Guilty
The five Guantanamo detainees charged with coordinating the Sept. 11 attacks told a military judge on Monday that they wanted to confess in full, a move that seemed to challenge the government to put them to death and injected new complications in the Bush administration’s military commission system here.
Standard Deviation Forecast: High
As you’re recovering from Monday morning’s low of 14°F (normal low: 30°F), take comfort in the fact that Wednesday’s high temperature is forecasted to approach 60°F (normal high: 43°F). Often the media quotes the climatological average highs and lows as part of their statistics, but an often overlooked piece of information is the standard deviation, especially in mid-latitude climates like Boston. You may have noticed that the variation in temperature during the winter season is quite high. For example, in January of this year, the lowest temperature for the month was 7°F, and just five days later, the high temperature was 67°F! Yet during the summer, the temperature stays within a narrower range. This difference between the season has to do with the temperature gradient that exists between the equator and the poles. During the winter, the gradient is the strongest in a tight band that weaves across the U.S. Depending on the north-south position of that band near Boston, we may see very cold weather (if it is south of us), or very warm weather (if it is north of us).
Putin Questioned as Russian Economy Falters
Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin spent much of his annual question-and-answer televised exchange on Thursday seeking to reassure Russians that the effects of the global economic crisis on the country would be minimal. He also denied increased speculation that he might seek an early return to the presidency.
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Canada’s parliamentary opposition reacted with outrage on Thursday after Prime Minister Stephen Harper shut down the legislature until Jan. 26, seeking to forestall a no-confidence vote that he was sure to lose and, possibly, provoking a constitutional crisis.
New Economic Bailout Plans May Focus on Homeowners
After pouring vast amounts of money into financial institutions of almost every type, and having little to show for it, the Bush administration and the Federal Reserve are suddenly taking a new look at ordinary homeowners.
In Mumbai, More Evidence Links Terrorists to Pakistan
Fresh evidence unearthed Thursday by investigators in India indicated that the Mumbai attacks were stage-managed from at least two Pakistani cities by top leaders of the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.
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To get elected in Alaska to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat sometimes requires not acting like one. Talk up drilling for oil in wildlife refuges. Talk up gun rights. Insist that those liberals who control Congress will never push you around.
Ordering Up a Sunny Day
Every now and then a story about a novel invention that modifies the weather becomes an attention grabbing flash in the pan with the popular media. Wouldn’t it be great if you could order up sunny days every weekend and have it rain only at night? Florida homeowners would love nothing more than to set up a huge fan along the coast to blow hurricanes out to sea. Most attention in the arena of weather modification has been to prevent severe weather events, make it rain by seeding clouds, and reverse the effects of global climate change. Unfortunately, despite the rosy promises any method holds, there are often problems with feasibility, cost, scaling, reproducibility, and just plain lack of thought. For now, we mere mortals just have to deal with the weather or move to San Diego.
Obama Moves Fast to Fill Top Administration Posts
The call summoning him was somewhat cryptic. Only after Gen. James L. Jones showed up in a hotel suite for a one-on-one meeting with Barack Obama did it become clear what was going on.
Presidential Race Still Alive In Georgia Runoff for Senate Seat
So upset was Patricia Mock with Barack Obama’s election that she drove two hours to this middle Georgia town on Monday to rally against the president-elect.
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For the Big Three automakers to win over Washington lawmakers in their bid for federal aid, they will have to address a key question in the business plans they present Congress with on Tuesday.
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Anti-government protests that began in August and intensified last week with the takeover of the capital’s two airports have plunged Thailand into its worst national crisis in at least a decade, and might severely damage the country’s economy.