Facebook’s homepage at an Internet cafe in New Delhi. A year ago, Orkut was the dominant social site in India, but Facebook has caught up.  Read Article    

  Iran suicide bombing kills Revolutionary Guard commanders Tehran blames US and Britain after at least 29 people die in suicide bomb attack in Sistan-Baluchistan provinceRobert Tait guardian.co.uk, Sunday 18 October 2009 10.03 BST Revolutionary Guards shout slogans on the anniversary of 1979 Islamic Revolution Photograph: Raheb Homavandi/ReutersIran's military suffered a heavy blow today when a suicide bomber killed at least 29 people in the country's volatile south-east, including several Revolutionary Guard commanders.The victims included the guards' commander, General Noor Ali Shooshtari, thought to be the most senior member killed in recent years.Local media said at least 28 had been wounded in the bombing at a conference hall in Sarbaz in Sistan-Baluchistan, Iran's poorest province, as Revolutionary Guard commanders met local tribal elders.Conflicting reports said an undetermined number of commanders had died. Initial accounts put the number at six, but Hosein Ali Shahriari, MP for Zahedan, the provincial capital, told the semi-official news agency ILNA, that at least 20 commanders had died.Rajab Ali Mohammadzadeh, chief commander of Sistan-Baluchistan province, was also killed.It was Iran's highest military death toll since the end of the 1980-1988 Iraq war, the conservative website Tabnak said.Officials immediately blamed Britain and the US as rescue workers sifted through wreckage searching for survivors. "Surely foreign elements, particularly those linked to the global arrogance [regime code for America and Britain], were involved in this attack," a guards statement read out on state TV said.Suspicion also centred on Jundullah, a militant Sunni group that has claimed responsibility for previous bombings.Official reports were confused. The official news agency, IRNA, reported that an attacker with explosives blew himself up. The English-language state satellite channel, Press TV, said there were two simultaneous explosions: one at the meeting and another targeting…

  "The most crucial thing is their mind: Are they dedicated? The worst thing you want to see is some sort of complacency.”  Read Article   

Mel Melcon / Los Angeles TimesUNMANNED: The Predator, built by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems of San Diego, is an unmanned drone aircraft. It's 27 feet long, has a 49-foot wingspan and can hover above a target for hours. Higher-tech Predators targeting Pakistan Email PictureMel Melcon / Los Angeles TimesUNMANNED: The Predator, built by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems of San Diego, is an unmanned drone aircraft. It's 27 feet long, has a 49-foot wingspan and can hover above a target for hours.  The U.S. drone aircraft involved in strikes against Taliban and Al Qaeda militants across the border have enhanced tracking ability. By Greg Miller and Julian E. Barnes, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
September 12, 2008 WASHINGTON -- As part of an escalating offensive against extremist targets in Pakistan, the United States is deploying Predator aircraft equipped with sophisticated new surveillance systems that were instrumental in crippling the insurgency in Iraq, according to U.S. military and intelligence officials.

The use of the specially equipped drones comes amid a fundamental shift in U.S. strategy in the area. After years of deferring to Pakistani authorities, the Bush administration is turning toward unilateral American military operations -- a gambit that could increase pressure on Islamic militants but risks alienating a country that has been a key counter-terrorism ally.

 Under Weight of Its Mistakes, Newspaper Industry Staggers
The list of two-newspaper towns got shorter on Friday, the last day for Denver's 150-year-old Rocky Mountain News. (By John Moore -- Getty Images) By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 1, 2009; A04Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper recalls getting "a feeling in the pit of my stomach" when he learned that the Rocky Mountain News was shutting down."Even when they were uncovering corruption in the city, even when they were embarrassing us or causing us discomfort, they were making the city better," he says. "It's a huge loss."The grim echoes of the nearly 150-year-old paper's demise Friday could be heard in newsrooms and communities across the country. Although the Denver Post will still cover Hickenlooper's region, some cities -- most notably San Francisco -- are facing the prospect of life without a major newspaper. Others, from Philadelphia to Chicago to Minneapolis, have watched their papers slide into bankruptcy, while still others are being served by dailies with newsrooms that have shriveled by half.Why a once-profitable industry suddenly seems as outmoded as America's automakers is a tale that involves arrogance, mistakes, eroding trust and the rise of a digital world in which newspapers feel compelled to give away their content."Most of the wounds are self-inflicted," says Phil Bronstein, editor at large of the San Francisco Chronicle, which Hearst Corp. has threatened to close unless major cost savings are achieved or a buyer is found. Rather than engage the audience, he says, "the public was seen as kind of messy and icky and not something you needed to get involved with."As the newsroom staff has shrunk from 575 when Bronstein took over as editor in 2000 to 275 now, "it's objectively true that there's less in the paper," he says.…