After 'final assault' in Algeria, details are slow to emerge

CAIRO — It was a bloody ordeal with tick-tock drama and a watching world.The hostages at a natural gas complex in the Sahara...

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Wired Science Space Photo of the Day: Sunset on Mars

On May 19th, 2005, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit captured this stunning view as the Sun sank below the rim of Gusev crater on Mars. This Panoramic Camera (Pancam) mosaic was taken around 6:07 in the evening of the rover's 489th martian day, or sol. Spirit was commanded to stay awake briefly after sending that sol's data to the Mars Odyssey orbiter just before sunset. This small panorama of...

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Keys attends first Sundance as producer, composer

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — It’s a busy week for Alicia Keys.The singer-songwriter is set to perform at three events during Barack Obama‘s presidential inauguration on Monday. She’ll sing the National Anthem at the Super Bowl on Feb. 3. And meanwhile, she popped over to Park City, Utah, to debut her first film as executive producer and composer.The 32-year-old entertainer is attending her first Sundance...

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Op-Ed Contributor: Eat Like a Mennonite

ON the second day of my chemical-detox diet, I was very hungry. I’d been eating like a rabbit, all carrots and greens that I’d gathered, barehanded, from the baskets of the farmer’s market, no gloves or plastic bags allowed. I cooked up some quinoa that I bought packaged in paper from the supermarket sometimes known as Whole Paycheck. I was effectively a vegan because I couldn’t find meat or cheese...

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The Boss: New Leaders Inc. C.E.O. on Giving Children a Chance

I AM the youngest of 10 children in my family, and the only one born in the United States. My father was a municipal judge who fled Haiti during the Duvalier regime. He and my mother settled in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn, but could not initially afford to bring over my four brothers and five sisters, who stayed in Haiti with relatives. Jean S. Desravines is the chief executive...

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Degree of L.A.'s fiscal problems splits mayoral candidates

A virtual unknown straining to make his mark in the race for mayor of Los Angeles offered an alarming assessment of the city's...

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Did <em>Glee</em> Rip Off a Jonathan Coulton Cover of 'Baby Got Back'?

Musician Jonathan Coulton, best known for his geek-friendly tunes like “Code Monkey” and the two (amazing) theme songs for the Portal videogames, got a bit of a surprise this morning when a Twitter follower sent him a video that looked and sounded like a Glee remix of the Sir-Mix-A-Lot song “Baby Got Back.” The problem? It was almost identical to Coulton’s very distinctive cover...

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Karl Rove re-ups With Fox News channel

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Karl Rove’s election-night brouhaha is apparently water under the bridge at Fox News. Rove, the former senior advisor to President George W. Bush, has extended his run as a contributor with Fox, the network’s CEO, Roger Ailes, said Thursday.The new deal will keep Rove on through the 2016 presidential election.Under the extension, Rove will also continue to contribute to...

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Well: A Great Grain Adventure

This week, the Recipes for Health columnist Martha Rose Shulman asks readers to go beyond wild rice and get adventurous with their grains. She offers new recipes with some unusual grains you may not have ever cooked or eaten. Her recipes this week include:Millet: Millet can be used in bird seed and animal feed, but the grain is enjoying a renaissance in the United States right now as a great source...

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Media Decoder: John Geddes, Managing Editor, Is Leaving The New York Times

2:37 p.m. | Updated John M. Geddes, a managing editor at The New York Times for the last decade and one of the top three editors at the newspaper, has decided to leave. In a note to the staff on Friday afternoon, Mr. Geddes, 61, said he was accepting a buyout package and would depart in the next few months after helping the newspaper’s masthead through its transition.His departure comes as the company...

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Algeria raid puts a lawless region in the spotlight

CAIRO — The offensive by Algerian soldiers to free hostages at a natural gas complex has refocused world attention on the dangers...

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Facebook Wants New Breed of Flash Memory for Storing Old Pics

With each passing day, more than 350 million digital photos find their way onto Facebook, joining the more than 240 billion that are already there. Jay Parikh is the man who makes sure all those photos can remain online from now until the end of time, and that’s going pretty well. But he wants a little help. He wants the world to build him a new kind of flash memory ideally suited to storing...

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“Dear Abby” advice columnist Pauline Phillips dead at 94

(Reuters) – Pauline Phillips, the “Dear Abby” newspaper columnist who dished out advice to millions of confused, troubled and lovesick readers in America and around the world, has died at the age of 94, her daughter said on Thursday.Phillips, whose twin sister Esther wrote the rival “Ask Ann Landers” column, died in Minneapolis on Wednesday after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease.“I have lost...

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Life, Interrupted: Brotherly Love

Life, InterruptedSuleika Jaouad writes about her experiences as a young adult with cancer.There are a lot of things about having cancer in your 20s that feel absurd. One of those instances was when I found myself calling my brother Adam on Skype while he was studying abroad in Argentina to tell him that I had just been diagnosed with leukemia and that — no pressure — he was my only hope for a cure.Today,...

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Intel 4th-Quarter Earnings Are Sharply Lower

SAN FRANCISCO — Intel has money, smart people and resolve, but it still doesn’t have a quick fix for the deterioration of its largest market — personal computers. The world’s biggest maker of semiconductors, which grew by supplying chips to most of the world’s personal computer makers, is now facing an erosion of that market. According to Gartner, a market analysis firm, PC shipments...

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JPMorgan, Goldman profits rise sharply

NEW YORK — Two major Wall Street banks reported a surge in profits during the last three months of 2012, but analysts cast doubt...

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Judge Tells Apple, Amazon to Try to Settle Their 'Appstore' Beef

The judge presiding over the Apple and Amazon lawsuit over rights to the “appstore” name has told the two companies to sit down and at least try to settle their dispute before trial.San Francisco U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Laporte issued an order Tuesday telling the two sides to talk it out. This doesn’t mean they’ll come to terms before the August 19 trial, but...

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Fox hires Dennis Kucinich as analyst

NEW YORK (AP) — Days before President Barack Obama‘s inauguration for a second term in office, Fox News Channel has signed Dennis Kucinich, one of his former opponents, to be a regular contributor.Kucinich, a presidential candidate in 2004 and 2008 who ended 16 years in Congress two weeks ago, will make his debut as a Fox contributor on Thursday’s edition of “The O’Reilly Factor,” the network said...

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Study Confirms Benefits of Flu Vaccine for Pregnant Women

While everyone is being urged to get the flu vaccine as soon as possible, some pregnant women avoid it in the belief that it may harm their babies. A large new study confirms that they should be much more afraid of the flu than the vaccine. Norwegian researchers studied fetal death among 113,331 women pregnant during the H1N1 flu pandemic of 2009-2010. Some 54,065 women were unvaccinated,...

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F.A.A. Orders Grounding of U.S.-Operated Boeing 787s

Kyodo News, via ReutersAn All Nippon Airways Boeing 787 Dreamliner made an emergency landing at Takamatsu airport in western Japan on Wednesday. The Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday that it was temporarily grounding all Boeing 787s operated by United States carriers after several incidents in recent weeks, including a battery fire, and after an All Nippon Airways flight in Japan was...

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San Diego Zoo, Audubon pair up to help save animals

SAN DIEGO — Two organizations known for their work in saving imperiled species agreed Tuesday to build a breeding center that...

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Syria Dropped Hallucinogen Weapon on Rebels, Secret Cable Says

The Syrian military used an exotic chemical weapon on rebels during an attack in the city of Homs, U.S. officials now believe.The conclusion — first reported by Foreign Policy’s Josh Rogin and laid out in a secret cable from the U.S. consul general in Istanbul — contradicts preliminary estimates made by American officials in the hours after the December 23 strike. But after interviews...

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Singer Jessica Simpson to star in TV comedy

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Pop singer Jessica Simpson is set to star in a television pilot in development for NBC that is loosely based on her life, executive producer Ben Silverman said on Tuesday.The comedy could be Simpson‘s first step back into a major acting role in more than five years.The former teen pop star is best known for her reality TV shows, including MTV’s “Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica,”...

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