European officials lash out at new NSA spying report

European officials lash out at new NSA spying report A top German official accused the United States on Sunday of using "Cold War" methods against its allies, after a German magazine cited secret intelligence documents to claim that U.S. spies bugged European Union offices. Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger was responding to a report by German news weekly Der Spiegel, which claimed that the U.S. National Security Agency eavesdropped...

Read More

Goodbye, Google Reader. Here are 5 alternatives

Goodbye, Google Reader. Here are 5 alternatives On Monday, fans of Google's popular Reader application will bid farewell. Google shuts down Reader on July 1, citing a drop in usage and a shift toward a smaller selection of Google services. If you're a Google Reader user, now's the time to export your subscriptions. Users can do this by going to Settings, Import/Export and follow the steps to export your subscriptions through Google Takeout, which...

Read More

$84M Q1 loss $84M Q1 loss ""BlackBerry sells 6.8 million smartphones; reports"" $84M Q1 loss $84M Q1 loss

BlackBerry sells 6.8 million smartphones; reports $84M Q1 loss Smartphone shipments were below analyst expectations, but BlackBerry CEO asks for patience By Mikael Ricknäs IDG News Service - BlackBerry shipped 6.8 million smartphones and recorded a $84 million loss during the three months to June 1, as it struggles to turn around its fortunes. The first quarter of BlackBerry's fiscal year served as a referendum on how consumers and business users have received the new BlackBerry 10 smartphones. The company's quarterly earnings, released Friday, noted...

Read More

Why Google might want to launch a console

Why Google might want to launch a console By Hayley Tsukayama, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo: These are the big names fighting it out to win over gaming console consumers. But speculation is building that now there is another. Citing unnamed "people familiar with the matter," the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Google is working on a game console. Google declined to comment on the report, which also said the company is working on its own...

Read More

Federal grand jury indicts Texas woman accused of sending ricin letters to Obama, Bloomberg

Federal grand jury indicts Texas woman accused of sending ricin letters to Obama, Bloomberg The Texarkana Gazette, Curt Youngblood, File/Associated Press - File - In this June 7, 2013 file photo, Shannon Richardson is placed into a Titus County Sheriff's car after an initial appearance at the federal building Texarkana, Texas. A federal grand jury has indicted an Richardson, who authorities say sent ricin-laced letters to President Barack Obama...

Read More

Cameron Diaz – Not Sandra Bullock – to Play Miss Hannigan in Annie Remake The new Annie officially has her nemesis.

Cameron Diaz – Not Sandra Bullock – to Play Miss Hannigan in Annie Remake The new Annie officially has her nemesis. Cameron Diaz has signed up to play the cruel orphanage headmistress Miss Hannigan in the upcoming film remake of the musical Annie, Deadline.com reports – the character memorably portrayed by Carol Burnett in the 1982 film. Diaz will play opposite Quvenzhané Wallis, the 9-year-old Oscar nominee who is set for the role of Annie. An...

Read More

Fwd: Cameron Diaz – Not Sandra Bullock – to Play Miss Hannigan in Annie Remake The new Annie officially has her nemesis.

Cameron Diaz – Not Sandra Bullock – to Play Miss Hannigan in Annie Remake The new Annie officially has her nemesis. Cameron Diaz has signed up to play the cruel orphanage headmistress Miss Hannigan in the upcoming film remake of the musical Annie, Deadline.com reports – the character memorably portrayed by Carol Burnett in the 1982 film. Diaz will play opposite Quvenzhané Wallis, the 9-year-old Oscar nominee who is set for the role of Annie. An...

Read More

Cameron Diaz – Not Sandra Bullock – to Play Miss Hannigan in Annie Remake The new Annie officially has her nemesis.

Cameron Diaz – Not Sandra Bullock – to Play Miss Hannigan in Annie Remake The new Annie officially has her nemesis. Cameron Diaz has signed up to play the cruel orphanage headmistress Miss Hannigan in the upcoming film remake of the musical Annie, Deadline.com reports – the character memorably portrayed by Carol Burnett in the 1982 film. Diaz will play opposite Quvenzhané Wallis, the 9-year-old Oscar nominee who is set for the role of Annie. An Oscar winner, Jamie Foxx, will play Daddy Warbucks in the musical, which is originally based on an...

Read More

Alabama House member says only way to achieve civil rights progress in her state is through courts.

Alabama House member says only way to achieve civil rights progress in her state is through courts. MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The first openly gay lawmaker in Alabama history said she plans to challenge the state's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. "The reality is, unfortunately in Alabama, the only way we ever progress any civil rights in this state is through a court decision," said Rep. Patricia Todd, a Democrat from Birmingham, Ala. "This is...

Read More

Congressman, others file suit against state voter ID law

Congressman, others file suit against state voter ID law American-Statesman Staff Led by an African-American congressman from Fort Worth, a group of minority plaintiffs from around the state filed a lawsuit Wednesday in South Texas to block the state's revived voter identification law. Democratic U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey and other plaintiffs — including one Texan with no photo identification — alleged that Texas' controversial voter ID law, one of the strictest in the nation, would discriminate against minorities. The plaintiffs are hoping a federal...

Read More

Supreme Court strikes down key part of Defense of Marriage Act

Supreme Court strikes down key part of Defense of Marriage Act By Robert Barnes The Supreme Court's first rulings on same-sex marriage produced historic gains for gay rights Wednesday: full federal recognition of legally married gay couples and an opening for such unions to resume in the nation's largest sta...

Read More

Uttarakhand Only 6,000 people left to be rescued

Uttarakhand Only 6,000 people left to be rescued NEW DELHI: After being at their wit's end for a week, rescuing over 84,000 survivors across flood-ravaged Uttarakhand, the authorities finally appeared to be in control of the situation on Monday with none of the 6,000 still stranded in a life-threatening condition. Braving adverse weather as a fresh bout of rains grounded many rescue choppers, the armed and paramilitary forces still managed to evacuate 4,000...

Read More

Uttarakhand Only 6,000 people left to be rescued

Uttarakhand Only 6,000 people left to be rescued NEW DELHI: After being at their wit's end for a week, rescuing over 84,000 survivors across flood-ravaged Uttarakhand, the authorities finally appeared to be in control of the situation on Monday with none of the 6,000 still stranded in a life-threatening condition. Braving adverse weather as a fresh bout of rains grounded many rescue choppers, the armed and paramilitary forces still managed to evacuate 4,000...

Read More

Uttarakhand Only 6,000 people left to be rescued

Uttarakhand Only 6,000 people left to be rescued NEW DELHI: After being at their wit's end for a week, rescuing over 84,000 survivors across flood-ravaged Uttarakhand, the authorities finally appeared to be in control of the situation on Monday with none of the 6,000 still stranded in a life-threatening condition. Braving adverse weather as a fresh bout of rains grounded many rescue choppers, the armed and paramilitary forces still managed to evacuate 4,000...

Read More

Uttarakhand Only 6,000 people left to be rescued

Uttarakhand Only 6,000 people left to be rescued NEW DELHI: After being at their wit's end for a week, rescuing over 84,000 survivors across flood-ravaged Uttarakhand, the authorities finally appeared to be in control of the situation on Monday with none of the 6,000 still stranded in a life-threatening condition. Braving adverse weather as a fresh bout of rains grounded many rescue choppers, the armed and paramilitary forces still managed to evacuate 4,000...

Read More

Uttarakhand Only 6,000 people left to be rescued

Uttarakhand Only 6,000 people left to be rescued NEW DELHI: After being at their wit's end for a week, rescuing over 84,000 survivors across flood-ravaged Uttarakhand, the authorities finally appeared to be in control of the situation on Monday with none of the 6,000 still stranded in a life-threatening condition. Braving adverse weather as a fresh bout of rains grounded many rescue choppers, the armed and paramilitary forces still managed to evacuate 4,000...

Read More

India 8 killed, 12 injured in militant attack ahead of PM’s J&K visit

8 killed, 12 injured in militant attack ahead of PM's J&K visit In an audacious attack on Army on the eve of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's two-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir, militants have killed eight soldiers and left 14 others wounded at Hyderpora, on the Jammu-Srinagar-Muzaffarabad Highway, on Monday. Highly placed authoritative sources told The Hindu that eight soldiers died and eleven others sustained injuries when a group of heavily armed...

Read More

Facebook’s Creepy Data-Grabbing Ways Make It The Borg Of The Digital World

Facebook's Creepy Data-Grabbing Ways Make It The Borg Of The Digital World The latest Facebook data breach – which exposed personal contact information Facebook had harvested on six million of its users – is a reminder that even if you're not handing over all your contact data to Facebook, Facebook is obtaining and triangulating that data anyway. And even if you're not on Facebook yourself, your contact data likely is because the social network is...

Read More

Berlusconi convicted in sex-for-hire case; sentenced to 7 years and barred from office

Berlusconi convicted in sex-for-hire case sentenced to 7 years and barred from office MILAN A Milan court on Monday convicted former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi of paying for sex with an underage prostitute during infamous "bunga bunga" parties at his villa and then using his influence to try to cover it up. Berlusconi, 76, was sentenced to seven years in prison and barred from public office for life - a sentence that could mean the end of his two-decade political career. However, there are two more levels of appeal before the sentence would...

Read More

Microsoft to send Bing to school this year

Microsoft to send Bing to school this year A special version of Bing will be offered to schools later this year -- one that promises no ads, no adult content, and special learning features. Bing may enroll at your local school by the end of the year. Microsoft is developing a special edition of its Bing search engine geared specifically toward students from kindergarten through 12th grade. Known as Bing for Schools, the tailored version will remove all ads from search results, filter out adult content, beef up privacy protection, and add learning...

Read More

Bobby 'Blue' Bland, soul and blues singer, dies at 83

Bobby 'Blue' Bland, soul and blues singer, dies at 83 Bobby "Blue" Bland, the blues and soul singer whose most memorable songs included Further On Up the Road and Turn On Your Love Light, has died. The 83-year-old died on Sunday at home in Memphis, Tennessee, surrounded by his relatives, after complications from an ongoing illness, his son Rodd said. Known as "the Sinatra of the blues", Bland was influenced by Nat King Cole's smooth vocals and...

Read More

Friedman’s Sexual-Abuse Conviction Was Justified, Report Says

Friedman's Sexual-Abuse Conviction Was Justified, Report Says Jesse Friedman, the Great Neck, N.Y., teenager whose role in a sexual abuse case a quarter-century ago was portrayed in the Oscar-nominated documentary "Capturing the Friedmans," and came to symbolize an era of sensational, often-suspect accusations of child molestation, was properly convicted and should not have his status as a sexual predator overturned, according to a three-year review...

Read More

Court calls for tougher scrutiny of affirmative action

Court calls for tougher scrutiny of affirmative action WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court drew new limits on colleges' use of affirmative action on Monday, saying that although racial preferences remain constitutional, they are permissible only if schools can first show that there are "no workable race-neutral alternatives." The 7-1 decision written by Justice Anthony Kennedy is likely to subject schools' affirmative action programs to far tougher scrutiny in the future because schools will be required to show that they have no other way to create...

Read More