News Corporation Looks for Chinese MySpace Partner
Date: 13 November 2006
By Dealbook
Dealbook
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, which is looking for a local partner as it aims to launch its popular MySpace website in China, is in early talks with prominent blog companies Bokee.com and BlogCN.com, industry sources said Sunday.
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News Summary
Date: 13 November 2006
INTERNATIONAL A3-15 Iraqi Cleric, Now on Inside, Losing Grip on His Militia Moktada al-Sadr, the mercurial leader of Iraq's mightiest Shiite militia, and his top lieutenants are firmly part of the Iraqi government, but the more settled he becomes in the establishment, the looser his grip is over his fighters on the streets and those increasingly infiltrating the security forces. A1 China Hospital Ransacked Some 2,000 people ransacked a hospital in China in a dispute over health care practices, a human rights group said. At least 10 people were injured when police broke up the demonstration, according to the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy. A6 Islamists Branch Out in Somalia Islamist forces expanded their reach in Somalia by seizing towns near Galkaayo, in the country's north, which had been relatively peaceful. The Islamists then turned their guns toward Galkaayo and began shelling the outskirts of the city, witnesses said. A3 U.S.-Israel Alliance Faces Tests Officials in Israel have long focused on preventing Iran from gaining nuclear weapons and believe that the American policy of empowering Iranian-backed militias in Iraq has been counterproductive to Israel's interests. A1 Political Upheaval in Lebanon Lebanon is in the middle of a political crisis facing a fundamental realignment of authority. The war between Israel and Hezbollah has accelerated the rise of Lebanon's Shiites, from their onetime status as the nation's unwanted stepchild to the cusp of political dominance. A15 Iranian's Angry Words for U.N. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran described the efforts by United Nations Security Council to impose sanctions on his nation as ''disgraceful.'' He accused the United Nations of applying a double standard for not objecting to development of unconventional weapons by Britain, the United States and Israel. A15 Iraq Leader Plans Cabinet Shift Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki said he was planning a shake-up of his cabinet, apparently to redress his six-month-old government's failure to curb widespread corruption, reduce sectarian violence and improve public services. A8 Ugandan Rebel Meets U.N. Joseph Kony, a Ugandan rebel who is wanted by the International Criminal Court to face charges of crimes against humanity, met with Jan Egeland, the United Nations under secretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief. A3 Polygamy in Tajikistan Men in Tajikistan have begun to practice polygamy openly, taking advantage of a stark imbalance of men and women due to Tajikistan's civil war, which killed as many as 100,000 people in the 1990s, an overwhelming majority of them men. A10 NATIONAL A16-23 Senate Democrats to Urge Troop Reductions in Iraq Leading Senate Democrats vowed to use their new majority to press for troop reductions in Iraq in a matter of months. The move steps up pressure on the administration just as President Bush is to be interviewed by a bipartisan panel examining future strategy for the war. A1 A New Breed for the Senate Jon Tester, the senator-elect from Montana, will most likely be the only member of the Senate who knows how to butcher a cow or grease a combine. He is your grandfather's Democrat: a pro-gun, anti-big-business pragmatist whose life is defined by the patch of prairie dirt that has been in his family since 1916. A1 Although the Democrats won control of Congress, time has not yet run out on the Republican majority. Republican leaders have compiled an ambitious to-do list before turning over control. A21 Power Shifts in the House With Representative Nancy Pelosi as the emergent House speaker and several other members of California's Democratic delegation in line to receive crucial Congressional committee positions, the state's Democrats are about to gain serious influence over public policy in areas including education, the environment and agriculture. A21 Representative John P. Murtha, Democrat of Pennsylvania and a candidate for majority leader, picked up words of praise in a letter from Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, who is expected to be the next House speaker. A21 California May Move Primary California lawmakers from both parties, hoping to give the state more say in the nominating process, are considering moving the presidential primary from June to a date nearer the New Hampshire primary in January. A21 KB Home Ousts Chief The longtime chief executive of KB Home, one of the nation's largest home builders, resigned under pressure and agreed to return $13 million in profit from backdated stock options, the company said. A16 Homegrown Identity Theft The year long ordeal of Eric Wagenhauser, whose former wife used their three children's names and Social Security numbers to apply for nine credit cards, is one that is familiar to many identity theft victims: the crime often begins at home. A1 Setback for Seattle Team On Election Day, residents rebuffed their once-beloved Seattle SuperSonics, voting for a ballot measure denying public subsidies for professional sports teams. The team's owners had warned that the team would leave unless the city provided a new arena. A20 More Foreign Students in U.S. The number of new foreign students coming to the United States grew this year, after several years of decline that followed the terrorist attacks of 2001, according to a survey to be released by the Institute of International Education. A20 NEW YORK/REGION B1-7 Frustrated Parents Fault Region's Public Schools Some New Yorkers with the means to do so flee the city when they have children, flocking to the region's top-performing suburban public schools. But a growing number of parents are abandoning schools in highly regarded districts like Scarsdale, N.Y., and Montclair, N.J., leaving them with both high property taxes and tuition bills. A1 Flight 587 Remembered Nearly 1,000 mourners gathered under a foggy sky in Queens to mark the fifth anniversary of the crash of American Airlines Flight 587, and to watch as Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg dedicated a long-awaited memorial to the 265 victims. The Nov. 12, 2001, crash was the second-deadliest aviation disaster in United States history. B1 G.O.P. Uneasy About Future Last week's losses have New York Republican party officials fearing that their shrinking political base will enable Democrats to wrest control of the State Senate in two years and complete their sweep of statewide offices and both houses of the Legislature for the first time since 1934. B1 Neediest Cases B7 ARTS E1-8 Prince in Las Vegas The artist once again known as Prince began an indefinite run of twice-a-week performances at his own hastily built new nightclub in Las Vegas this weekend. The question buzzing through entertainment circles is how long the artist will stick with the regimen of twice-weekly performances in the same spot. E1 OBITUARIES B8 George B. Thomas Jr. A mathematician whose widely read calculus textbook has introduced legions of students to the challenges of functions, he was 92. B8 BUSINESS DAY C1-12 F.T.C. Proposes New Rules The Federal Trade Commission has proposed new rules for multilevel marketing companies such as Amway, and in the process the agency gained an ally in opportunistic short-selling investors. C1 Mogul Plans Bid for Tribune Maurice R. Greenberg is considering making a bid for the Tribune Company. C1 Business Digest C2 EDITORIAL A24-25 Editorials: Don't force an energy bill; hiding from oversight; truth about the trade deficit; the spy who never came through the Berlin Wall. Columns: Bob Herbert, Paul Krugman. Bridge E6 Crossword E6 Metro Diary B2 TV Listings E8 Weather D8
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News Summary
Date: 12 November 2006
INTERNATIONAL 3-20 China Struggles Against AIDS China is confronting an increase in intravenous drug use and an attendant rise in AIDS cases in Xinjiang, a largely Muslim region close to Afghanistan. With an officially estimated 60,000 infections, Xinjiang has one-tenth of China's AIDS cases. 4 Reward for Missing U.S. Soldier The American military announced a $50,000 reward for anyone with information leading to the recovery of an American soldier who was captured outside the heavily protected Green Zone. North of Baghdad, Sunni Arab gunmen pulled over a group of minibuses carrying Shiites, killing 10 and kidnapping dozens, Iraqi television said. 12 U.S. Vetoes Israel Resolution The United States vetoed a Security Council resolution condemning Israel for its military attacks in Gaza and calling for a withdrawal of Israeli forces from the area. 16 Lebanon Talks Break Down Lebanon was thrown into a political crisis when talks broke down over giving the militant faction Hezbollah and its political allies greater control of the government. Almost immediately, cabinet ministers from Hezbollah and the other main Shiite partyresigned. 12 U.N. Meets Leaders in Myanmar Ibrahim Gambari, the United Nations under secretary general for political affairs, met in Myanmar with both the leader of the military junta and the detained pro-democracy leader. 14 NATIONAL 22-32 Changes Pledged for Congress Members of the newly elected Democratic class of 2006 say they want to avoid the ideological wars that have dominated Congress in recent years, to be pragmatistsand to change the tone in Washington after a bitterly partisan campaign. 1 Support for Watchdog Agency Congressional Democrats say they will press new legislation to restore the power of a federal agency in charge of ferreting out waste and corruption in Iraq and greatly increase its investigative reach. The move would nullify a Republican-backed provision that set a termination date for the agency. 1 Sports, Art and Lawsuits Athletes, sports leagues and universities have become increasingly aggressive in protecting what they say is their intellectual property, and their claims have met with a mixed response from judges and fans. 1 'Sanctuary' Laws Draw Ire With immigration continuing to flare as a national political issue, cities like San Francisco that have policies that forbid the police and city officials to ask people they encounter in the course of an investigation about their immigration status, may soon be the next battlefront. 22 Town Seeks Dry Ground City officials want to move Hamilton, a flood prone Washington town of roughly 300 residents, to higher ground, about 200 acres on a dry hillside. 22 NEW YORK/REGION 35-40 Police Robbery Unit Created The Police Department has created the Central Robbery Section, its first citywide robbery squad in more than a decade. The team shares information from across the city and recently made arrests in a string of drug store robberies in four boroughs. 35 Race's Role in Brooklyn Project Race has become a recurring theme in the public discussion over the Atlantic Yards development project in Brooklyn, but some of the racial rhetoric has inverted the classic development squabble: some lower-income black residents have criticized the project's detractors, saying that the development will bring much-needed jobs to the area. 35 Chess 40 Weather 41
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Why Buybacks Aren’t Always Good News
Date: 12 November 2006
By Gretchen Morgenson
Gretchen Morgenson
Gretchen Morgenson column on downsides associated with share buyback programs in corporate America; notes repurchases, by artificially inflating company earnings per share, can mask business slowdowns; says purchases may destroy shareholder value when they are made to offset stock option grants to corporate executives and may also bolster top executive compensation (M)
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Why Buybacks Aren’t Always Good News
Date: 12 November 2006
By Gretchen Morgenson
Gretchen Morgenson
Inflating the earnings per share, and maybe the boss's bonus, too.
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A Struggle Over Dominance and Definition
Date: 12 November 2006
By Richard Siklos
Richard Siklos
Older media companies ask a juggernaut, "Who goes there?"
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A New Al Jazeera With a Global Focus
Date: 13 November 2006
By Hassan M. Fattah
Hassan
The journalists of Al Jazeera, the Arab news channel that began a decade ago as an upstart, are working to transform it into a conglomerate with global reach.
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A New Al Jazeera With a Global Focus
Date: 13 November 2006
By Hassan M. Fattah
Hassan
Arab news channel Al Jazeera seeks to transform itself into conglomerate with international reach; plans global news branches in Arabic and English; launches Al Jazeera International to cover world outside Arab countries; will continue its focus on willingness to take unpopular views and risk controversy; managing director Nigel Parsons comments; photo (M)
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Portfolio Housecleaning, With the I.R.S. in Mind
Date: 12 November 2006
By Paul J. Lim
Paul Lim
Depending on how well your portfolio is doing, the end of the year may be a time to count your profits or lick your wounds.
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A Struggle Over Dominance and Definition
Date: 12 November 2006
By Richard Siklos
Richard Siklos
Richard Siklos column explores issue of whether Google should be considered friend or foe of big media companies as it ramps up its advertising juggernaut into video, newspapers and radio; drawing (M)
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