India Ink: Newswallah: Bharat Edition

Jammu and Kashmir: In the legislative council elections held this week for four seats under the quota for panchayats, or village councils — the first such polls in 38 years — the governing coalition of National Conference and Indian National Congress won, Kashmir Live reported. The voters comprised 33,540 elected village council members and heads from the Jammu region and Kashmir Valley, according...

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Economix Blog: Uwe E. Reinhardt: How Medicare Is Misrepresented

Uwe E. Reinhardt is an economics professor at Princeton. He has some financial interests in the health care field.A common phrase in the current debate over the so-called fiscal cliff is “Medicare needs to be restructured.” The term serves as code for policies unlikely to be appealing to voters, a term that can mean everything and, thus, nothing.The question is what problem restructuring is to solve...

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McAfee Antivirus Software Pioneer Arrested in Guatemala City

MEXICO CITY — The antivirus software pioneer John McAfee was arrested in Guatemala City on Wednesday after he slipped over the border from his home in Belize where police want to question him in their investigation of the murder of his neighbor. Jorge Dan Lopez/ReutersJohn McAfee spoke during an interview in Guatemala City on Wednesday. The interior minister,...

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The New Old Age Blog: How the 'Death With Dignity' Law Failed in Massachusetts

On election night, Jim Carberry and others who had worked to put a “Death With Dignity” law on the Massachusetts ballot gathered in the back room of a Waltham restaurant and watched their effort go down to narrow defeat.“We were disheartened,” Mr. Carberry recalled. “For a lot of us, it was personal.”His wife Margie, diagnosed with a rare brain tumor in 1995, had sought aggressive treatment for years...

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The New Old Age Blog: How the 'Death With Dignity' Law Failed in Massachusetts

On election night, Jim Carberry and others who had worked to put a “Death With Dignity” law on the Massachusetts ballot gathered in the back room of a Waltham restaurant and watched their effort go down to narrow defeat.“We were disheartened,” Mr. Carberry recalled. “For a lot of us, it was personal.”His wife Margie, diagnosed with a rare brain tumor in 1995, had sought aggressive treatment for years...

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Gadgetwise Blog: Tip of the Week: Bookmarks on the Home Screen

Google’s Android operating system and Apple’s iOS software both include a Web browser that lets you save bookmarks. For sites you visit frequently, however, it is often faster to get to your favorite page with the mobile equivalent of a desktop shortcut — an icon on the phone’s home screen — instead of fiddling around with the browser’s bookmark menu.To save a bookmark as a home screen icon on an...

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British News Media Agree to More Powerful Regulator

LONDON — The editors of Britain’s principal national newspapers met Wednesday under pressure from Prime Minister David Cameron and agreed to the establishment of an independent newspaper regulator with far greater powers than those available to the existing watchdog. But the editors, meeting over breakfast at a London restaurant, steered a careful course, embracing most but not all of the...

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DealBook: HSBC Sells Stake in Chinese Insurer for $9.4 Billion

HONG KONG – HSBC Holdings, one of the biggest banks in Europe, said on Wednesday that it would sell its entire stake in a leading Chinese insurer to a Thai conglomerate for 72.7 billion Hong Kong dollars ($9.4 billion).HSBC said it would sell its 15.6 percent stake in Ping An Insurance, based in Shenzhen, China, to the Charoen Pokphand Group, controlled by the Thai billionaire Dhanin Chearavanont,...

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The New Old Age Blog: For the Old, Less Sense of Whom to Trust

There’s a reason so many older people fall for financial scams, new research suggests. They don’t respond as readily to visual cues that suggest a person might be untrustworthy, and their brains don’t send out as many warning signals that ignite a danger ahead gut response.The research, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the first to show that older adults’...

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The New Old Age Blog: For the Old, Less Sense of Whom to Trust

There’s a reason so many older people fall for financial scams, new research suggests. They don’t respond as readily to visual cues that suggest a person might be untrustworthy, and their brains don’t send out as many warning signals that ignite a danger ahead gut response.The research, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the first to show that older adults’...

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Law Students in Austria Challenge Facebook Privacy Policy

BERLIN — An Austrian student group said Tuesday that it planned to challenge Facebook’s privacy policies in Irish court, alleging that the social networking giant had failed, despite repeated requests and formal complaints made by its members, to adapt to the restrictions of European data protection law. Herwig Prammer/ReutersMax Schrems, a student at the University of Vienna, said Facebook’s...

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Typhoon Said to Have Killed Hundreds in Philippines

Erik De Castro/ReutersResidents transported the body of victim in the southern Philippines on Wednesday. MANILA —Rescue teams were trying to reach isolated villages in the southern Philippines on Wednesday after a powerful out-of-season typhoon tore through the region, leaving more than 270 people dead, officials said. NASATyphoon Bopha moved toward the Philippines on Monday. ...

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Generic Drug Makers Facing Squeeze on Revenue

They call it the patent cliff. Brand-name drug makers have feared it for years. And now the makers of generic drugs fear it, too. This year, more than 40 brand-name drugs — valued at $35 billion in annual sales — lost their patent protection, meaning that generic companies were permitted to make their own lower-priced versions of well-known drugs like Plavix, Lexapro and Seroquel...

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The New Old Age Blog: On the Alert for Fraud

Unlike some forms of elder abuse, financial exploitation leaves no visible scars. It is under-reported and hard to prosecute. Adding to the tangled dynamics, the abuser is frequently a family member, increasing the victim’s humiliation and denial.Better by far to try to prevent financial abuse before it wipes out an older person’s assets and hopes for a secure retirement. Though this has proved easier...

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The New Old Age Blog: On the Alert for Fraud

Unlike some forms of elder abuse, financial exploitation leaves no visible scars. It is under-reported and hard to prosecute. Adding to the tangled dynamics, the abuser is frequently a family member, increasing the victim’s humiliation and denial.Better by far to try to prevent financial abuse before it wipes out an older person’s assets and hopes for a secure retirement. Though this has proved easier...

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Oracle Paying Next Year’s Dividends Now, at Low Tax Rate

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) — Oracle said on Monday that it would pay more than $800 million in next year’s dividends to shareholders later this month, joining a growing number of companies accelerating such payments or declaring special dividends because of the possibility that income tax rates will rise in 2013. Dividend payments are taxed at a preferential rate of 15 percent, but taxes could...

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Syrian Government Beset by Battles and Diplomatic Setbacks

Narciso Contreras/Associated PressA kitchen in a residence in Aleppo, Syria, damaged Sunday in fighting between Free Syrian Army fighters and government forces. BEIRUT, Lebanon — Fierce fighting on the battlefield and setbacks on the diplomatic front increased pressure on the embattled Syrian government on Monday as fresh signs emerged of a worsening battle for control of the capital. A senior...

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DealBook: Delta Air Lines Ponders Stake in Virgin Atlantic Airways

Delta Air Lines is in talks to buy Singapore Airlines’ 49 percent stake in Virgin Atlantic Airways, in an effort to bolster its international operations, particularly flights between New York and London, a person briefed on the matter said on Sunday.Talks are continuing but a deal will not be announced soon, this person said. Singapore Airlines confirmed that it was in discussions about a potential...

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Study Bolsters Link Between Routine Hits to Head and Long-Term Brain Disease

The growing evidence of a link between head trauma and long-term, degenerative brain disease was amplified in an extensive study of athletes, military veterans and others who absorbed repeated hits to the head, according to new findings published in the scientific journal Brain. The study, which included brain samples taken posthumously from 85 people who had histories of repeated mild traumatic...

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Study Bolsters Link Between Routine Hits to Head and Long-Term Brain Disease

The growing evidence of a link between head trauma and long-term, degenerative brain disease was amplified in an extensive study of athletes, military veterans and others who absorbed repeated hits to the head, according to new findings published in the scientific journal Brain. The study, which included brain samples taken posthumously from 85 people who had histories of repeated mild traumatic...

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Gadgetwise Blog: Q&A: Opening a New Page in a Browser Tab

Is there a way to make Internet Explorer open a link in a new browser tab, instead of in a whole new window?Right-clicking the link you want to open on the current page and choosing “Open in New Tab” from the drop-down menu is one way to avoid having a whole new browser window appear. If you want to make the process a little more automatic, though, you can adjust Internet Explorer’s settings.In Internet...

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Young and Educated in France Find Employment Elusive

Colin Delfosse for The New York TimesJustine Forriez, 23, holds a master’s degree in health administration. But after an apprenticeship, she is living on state aid and working at off-the-books jobs. LILLE, France — Justine Forriez wakes up early to go onto the computer to look for a job. She calls university friends and contacts; she goes to the unemployment office every week, though mostly for the...

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