Algerian Prime Minister Says at Least 37 Foreigners Dead in Siege

Anis Belghoul/Associated PressAlgerian Army vehicles on Sunday near a remote town in southeastern Algeria where hostages were taken in a four-day ordeal. ALGIERS — In his first official tally of the deadly scope of Algerian hostage crisis, Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal said Monday that the known death toll among the foreign captives had risen steeply from 23 to 37, and that five additional foreigners...

Read More..

An Appointment With Kim Dotcom

Paul Spain is the host of the weekly NZ Tech Podcast, one of New Zealand’s leading locally produced podcasts and often appears on TV and video as a commentator on consumer and business technology topics.AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND — It’s been said that Kim Dotcom is a villain. Many, particularly those in the film industry and law enforcement, believe it. To others, he is a hero standing up for the rights...

Read More..

Harbaugh brothers take 49ers, Ravens to Super Bowl

This Super Bowl will be filled with firsts — and one significant last.The Harbaughs, San Francisco's Jim and Baltimore's John, will be the first pair of brothers to coach against each other in the NFL title game.Quarterbacks Colin Kaepernick of the 49ers and Joe Flacco of the Ravens each will be playing in his first Super Bowl — where success is the ultimate measure of elite QBs.It'll be Baltimore's...

Read More..

Recipes for Health: Lentil, Celery and Tomato Minestrone

Andrew Scrivani for The New York TimesIf you did a lot of cooking over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays you may have some celery hearts lingering in your refrigerator. You needed a few branches for a stew, a stock, or a soup, so you bought a whole bunch, and here it is weeks later and the rest of the celery is wilting in the produce drawer. This doesn’t have to happen if you think of...

Read More..

DealBook: In Euro Zone, Signs of Progress and Fears of Complacency

PARIS – This may be the year that Europe stops being the ticking time bomb of the global economy.Ireland is on track to leave international bailout limbo by summer. Talk of Greece leaving the euro is off the table. And financial speculators have generally stopped betting the euro zone will blow up.But even as the sense of emergency fades, Europe is potentially facing a starker problem.For three years,...

Read More..

IHT Rendezvous: China's 'Lamborghini' Coefficient: Who's Getting Richer and Who Poorer?

BEIJING — Search the word Gini, or “jini,” for Gini coefficient, the well-known measure of income inequality, on China’s biggest microblogging site and the first result today was for Lamborghini, the Italian luxury sports car (in Chinese, the two words share a similar sound in the last part of the car’s name.)That is very ironic because the Gini coefficient measures income inequality and the Lamborghini,...

Read More..

Google says Wall Street estimates need adjusting

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Google Inc issued a rare advisory to Wall Street on Friday that analyst estimates for its fourth quarter financial results are flawed.The world’s No.1 search engine, which reports its quarterly results on Tuesday, said most analysts have not adjusted their estimates to reflect the pending $ 2.35 billion sale of the Motorola Home business.The business must be presented separately...

Read More..

Djokovic holds off Wawrinka; Sharapova advances

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Novak Djokovic held off a valiant Swiss player for a 5-hour, five-set victory Sunday night, extending his winning streak to 18 matches at the Australian Open and then ripping off his shirt to celebrate.The big surprise: It was a fourth-round match against Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland, not a final against Roger Federer.Djokovic edged the 15th-seeded Wawrinka 1-6, 7-5,...

Read More..

Well: Holly the Cat's Incredible Journey

Nobody knows how it happened: an indoor housecat who got lost on a family excursion managing, after two months and about 200 miles, to return to her hometown.Even scientists are baffled by how Holly, a 4-year-old tortoiseshell who in early November became separated from Jacob and Bonnie Richter at an R.V. rally in Daytona Beach, Fla., appeared on New Year’s Eve — staggering, weak and emaciated — in...

Read More..

N.T.S.B. Rules Out a Cause for Battery Fire on 787 Dreamliner

Federal investigations said Sunday that they had ruled out excessive voltage as the cause of a battery fire on a Boeing 787 in Boston this month, widening the mystery into what led to the grounding of the world’s most technologically advanced jet after a second battery-related problem last week. With investigators focused on the plane’s lithium-ion batteries, the National Transportation Safety...

Read More..