Royal phone scandal highlights new media risks

CANBERRA (Reuters) – Back in 2007, as investigations were gathering strength into the UK phone hacking scandal involving journalists working under the umbrella of the Murdoch media empire, a comedy show based around prank telephone calls made a low-key debut in Britain.‘Fonejacker’ proved such a hit with the British public that the next year the program, in which a masked caller bamboozles hapless...

Read More..

Patriots rout Texans 42-14 in key AFC matchup

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — Tom Brady can't stop smiling these days. Or winning.Five days after becoming a father for a third time — something that brings the biggest grin of all to his face — Brady threw four touchdown passes, leading the Patriots to a 42-14 rout of the Houston Texans.If the game was a measuring stick in the AFC, New England and its star quarterback aced the test with a seventh consecutive...

Read More..

Concussion Liability Issues Could Stretch Beyond N.F.L.

Paul Kitagaki Jr./The Sacramento Bee, via Associated PressInsurers could raise premiums with a higher risk of lawsuits for concussions, like the one 49ers quarterback Alex Smith sustained a month ago. As the N.F.L. confronts a raft of lawsuits brought by thousands of former players who accuse the league of hiding information about the dangers of concussions, a less visible battle that may have a more...

Read More..

DealBook: HSBC to Pay $1.92 Billion Fine to Settle Charges Over Laundering

2:07 a.m. | Updated State and federal authorities decided against indicting HSBC in a money-laundering case over concerns that criminal charges could jeopardize one of the world’s largest banks and ultimately destabilize the global financial system.Instead, authorities on Tuesday announced a record $1.92 billion settlement with HSBC. The bank, which is based in Britain, faces accusations that it...

Read More..

India Ink: A Conversation With: Human Rights Activist Binayak Sen

Binayak Sen, 62, is no ordinary doctor. Few doctors, after all, spend three decades working in a region threatened by what Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called the “single biggest internal security challenge ever faced” by the country. And that was before Dr. Sen was jailed on charges of “waging a war against the state,” which prompted a group of Nobel laureates to petition for his release.Dr. Sen...

Read More..

RIM offers biggest clients incentives to adopt BB10

TORONTO (Reuters) – Research In Motion Ltd on Thursday outlined a program of incentives to encourage its biggest customers to run its soon-to-launch line of BlackBerry 10 devices, seeking to persuade corporations and government users to stick with its secure smartphones.RIM is betting that the devices, to be launched on January 30, will revive its fortunes. That will depend to a large extent on the...

Read More..

New tragedy rocks NFL's regularly scheduled world

The games go on.For the second straight weekend, tragedy rocked the regularly scheduled world of the NFL. It left families, friends, teammates and coaching staffs grieving over yet another senseless loss of life. It also left the league facing questions not only about efforts to safeguard players on the field but whether it's doing enough to help them stay out of harm's way once they step outside...

Read More..

Interest Groups Push to Fill Margins of Health Coverage

The chiropractors were out in force, lobbying for months to get their services included in every state’s package of essential health benefits that will be guaranteed under the new health care law. “We’ve been in constant contact with our state chapters, just telling them, ‘Look, you’ve got to get in the room,’ ” said John Falardeau, senior vice president of government relations at the...

Read More..

John Silva, Maker of ‘Telecopter’ Camera, Dies at 92

Helicopter news footage is common today. But until myriad problems in sending live pictures from a moving aircraft were solved, television broadcasters could not show an eagle’s-eye view of a forest fire, or contemplate aerial coverage of, say, a famous man fleeing the police in a white Ford Bronco. John Silva made that now-familiar vantage possible in 1958, when he converted a small helicopter...

Read More..

Somber Chávez to Have Surgery and Names Successor

Marcelo Garcia/Miraflores Press Office, via Associated PressPresident Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, center, announced Saturday in a speech that his cancer had returned. Diosdado Cabello, president of the National Assembly, left, and Vice President Nicolás Maduro appeared with him. ORURO, Bolivia — President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela announced Saturday in Caracas that he would have to undergo another...

Read More..