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Macmillan Says Amazon Removes All Macmillan E-Books Amazon.com Inc. stopped selling print and e-book titles published by Macmillan in a battle over e-book pricing, according to a statement issued by Macmillan late Saturday. The move follows last week's launch of Apple Inc.'s iPad device, which is expected to shake up the publishing industry by competing directly with Amazon's Kindle e-reader and by enabling publishers to set their own retail prices on their books. Macmillan Chief Executive John Sargent said he visited Amazon on Thursday in Seattle to discuss "new terms of sales for e-books" and that by the time he returned to New York, he had been informed that Macmillan's e-books would only be for sale on Amazon.com "through third parties," according to the statement, which appeared as an advertisement on publishing-industry Web site PublishersMarketplace.com. An Amazon spokesman didn't respond immediately to a request for comment regar...

January 31, 2010 China Leading Global Race to Make Clean Energy By KEITH BRADSHER TIANJIN, China — China vaulted past competitors in Denmark, Germany, Spain and the United States last year to become the world’s largest maker of wind turbines, and is poised to expand even further this year. China has also leapfrogged the West in the last two years to emerge as the world’s largest manufacturer of solar panels. And the country is pushing equally hard to build nuclear reactors and the most efficient types of coal power plants. These efforts to dominate renewable energy technologies raise the prospect that the West may someday trade its dependence on oil from the Mideast for a reliance on solar panels, wind turbines and other gear manufactured in China. “Most of the energy equipment will carry a brass plate, ‘Made in China,’ ” said K. K. Chan, the chief executive of Nature Elements Capital, a private equity fund in Beijing that focuses on renewable energy. President Obama, in...

Anything but blue Roger Federer won 116 points to Andy Murray's 100, surviving a tight challenge in the third-set tiebreak to win the championship. His 13-11 edge in the third set was the longest tiebreak ever to end an Australian Open men's final. from msnbc.com

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ARGENTINA: Newsweek Argentina (dated 02.03.10) COVER STORY: Julio Cobos: Do the Vice President's "Peronist" Tendencies Help or Hurt His Presidential Ambitions?       RUSSIA: Newsweek Russky (dated 02.06.10) COVER STORY: Prisoner of the Caucasus: Alexander Kholponin, New Head of the North Caucasus Federal District               TURKEY: Newsweek Türkiye (dated 02.03.10) COVER STORY: Beware: Toxins at Your Fingertips                 POLAND: Newsweek Polska (dated 02.06.10) COVER STORY: Celebrities and Charity MIDDLE EAST: Newsweek in Arabic (dated 02.02.10) COVER STORY: Obama and the Inspiration Gap: The Trailblazer's Lost ALSO FEATURED: Iran: the Case for Regime Change       KOREA: Newsweek Korea (dated 02.03.10) COVER STORY: Davos 2010: Economics Are Having an Identity Crisis JAPAN: Newsweek Nihon-Ban (dated 02.03.10) COVER STOR...

An Unquiet Nation Audio ecologist Gordon Hempton talks about America's vanishing quiet spaces, and how our lives can be helped by listening to the silence. By Julia Baird Newsweek Web Exclusive Jan 28, 2010 "There are no words that can tell the hidden spirit of the wilderness, that can reveal its mystery, its melancholy, and its charm." —Theodore Roosevelt, 1910 "The day will come when man will have to fight noise as inexorably as cholera and the plague." —Nobel Prize–winning bacteriologist Robert Koch, 1905 Silence is something you assume you will always be able to find if you need it. All you have to do is drive far enough in the right direction, trek through quiet fields or woods, or dive into the sea's belly. For true silence is not noiselessness. As audio ecologist Gordon Hempton defines it, silence is "the complete absence of all audible mechanical vibrations, leaving only the sounds of nature at her most natural. Silence is ...

http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/category/davos-2010

January 30, 2010 Gates Foundation to Double Spending on Vaccines By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr. Endorsing vaccines as the world’s most cost-effective public health measure, Bill and Melinda Gates said Friday that their foundation would more than double its spending on them over the next decade, to at least $10 billion. The change could save the lives of as many as eight million children by 2020, Mr. Gates calculated. He said he hoped his gift would inspire other charities and donor nations to do the same. “Vaccines are a real success story,” Mr. Gates said in an interview before the announcement, which he made at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “The cost is tiny, and yet it saves more lives than any other component of a health care system.” Julian Lob-Levyt, the executive secretary of the GAVI Alliance, a partnership among drug companies, health agencies and charities bringing vaccines to poor countries, said he “hugely welcomed” the announcement. “If other donors...

Andrew Ross Sorkin is The New York Times’s chief mergers and acquisitions reporter and a columnist. Mr. Sorkin is also the editor of DealBook (nytimes.com/dealbook), an online daily financial report he started in 2001. In addition, Sorkin is an assistant editor of business and finance news, helping guide and shape the paper’s coverage. Too Big to Fail: How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System — and Themselves is Sorkin’s first book. Sorkin, who has appeared on NBC’s “Today” show and on “Charlie Rose” on PBS, is a frequent guest host of CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” He won a Gerald Loeb Award, one of the highest honors in business journalism, in 2004 for breaking news. He also won a Society of American Business Editors and Writers Award for breaking news in 2005 and again in 2006. In 2007, the World Economic Forum named him a Young Global Leader. In 2008 and 2009, Vanity Fair named him to its “Next Establishment” list. He was also named to the Directorship 100, a ...

UKBP via Reuters TV Tony Blair at Iraq inquiry – the key pointsWhat the former prime minister told the Chilcot panel in brief What the former prime minister told the Chilcot panel in brief   • Tony Blair told the inquiry he believed Saddam Hussein was a "monster" before 9/11 but accepted that he would have to make the best of the situation. At his first meeting with George Bush, in February 2001, Blair discussed Iraq. But it was in the context of trying to get a better sanctions regime. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, this view changed dramatically. "I would fairly describe our policy up to September 11 as doing our best ... but with a different calculus of risk assessment ... The crucial thing after September 11 was that the calculus of risk changed." • He said "nothing was decided" when he had a one-to-one dinner with Bush in Crawford, Texas, in April 2002. It it is important for leaders to establish a "close and strong relati...

Feathery flourish A peacock is seen at the Santa Fe Zoo, in Medellin, Colombia, on Jan. 27. from msnbc.com

January 28, 2010 Soros Endorses Obama’s Plan on Banks By JULIA WERDIGIER DAVOS, Switzerland — The billionaire investor George Soros said on Wednesday that he supported President Obama’s proposal to limit the size of banks. But he warned that it was too early to put such a plan in place and that it did not go far enough. Mr. Soros’s comments at the World Economic Forum here clashed with those made earlier in the day by the president of Barclays, Robert E. Diamond Jr., who said that the effects of shrinking banks “on jobs and the economy would be very negative.” “There is no evidence that shrinking banks is the answer,” Mr. Diamond said during a panel discussion. Mr. Obama’s plan is becoming a focus of discussion among conference participants. Among the measures Mr. Obama presented last week was one to prohibit banks that hold deposits from owning or investing in hedge funds or private equity funds. While some banking executives fear that such rules would hamper earnings and li...

Cold moon The setting moon looms above the snow-covered Alp Salaz in Switzerland's Rhine Valley on Nov. 5.

Senate confirms Bernanke for second term 70-30 tally was the closest in history of nominee for Fed chairma from msnbc.com Jose Luis Magana / AP http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/opinion/27friedman.html OP-ED COLUMNIST Adults Only, Please By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN Published: January 26, 2010 Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve found the last few weeks in American politics particularly unnerving. Our economy is still very fragile, yet you would never know that by the way the political class is acting. We’re like a patient that just got out of intensive care and is sitting up in bed for the first time when, suddenly, all the doctors and nurses at bedside start bickering. One of them throws a stethoscope across the room; someone else threatens to unplug all the monitors unless the hospital bills are paid by noon; and all the while the patient is thinking: “Are you people crazy? I am just starting to recover. Do you realize how easily I could relapse? Aren’t there any adults here?” Som...

Pork better for sex than Viagra - Argentine leader A rgentina's president recommended pork as an alternative to Viagra on Wednesday, saying she spent a satisfying weekend with her husband after eating barbecued pork, according to Reuters. "I've just been told something I didn't know; that eating pork improves your sex life ... I'd say it's a lot nicer to eat a bit of grilled pork than take Viagra," President Cristina Fernandez said to leaders of the pig farming industry, according to the report. She said she recently ate pork and "things went very well that weekend, so it could well be true." h t tp://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/data/html_dir/2010/01/28/201001280078.asp

Life's a beach South Beach, also nicknamed "The American Riviera," is well-known for celebrities, chic lifestyles and, of course, beaches. The man-made beach runs along the Atlantic Ocean for miles. from msnbc.com

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Apple unveils $499 iPad, bets on new device class SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc CEO Steve Jobs took the wraps off the highly anticipated "iPad" tablet and pitched it at a surprisingly low price, aiming to bridge the gap between smartphones and laptops. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60Q0BY20100127?type=globalMarketsNews

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Toyota temporarily halts sales of eight models The carmaker took the unprecedented action because the vehicles' gas pedals can get stuck and cause unwanted acceleration. Toyota will also stop making the cars and trucks Monday. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-toyota-sales27-2010jan27,0,5888108,full.story According to press reports, the German automobile company, Volkswagen is likely to take an opportunity which may conquer the automobile field. In the bottom line, TOYOTA company seems to be frustrated by the makeshift way of management. In my personal view, I feel so sorry and sad. Whatever else might be said, TOYOTA is the main company in terms of automobile business. Success comes and gone. I hope TOYOTA will be reformed by this bitter lesson.

t President Barack Obama, his wife, Michelle, and daughters, Sasha and Malia, disembark from Air Force One in Moscow on July 6. President Barack Obama watches two Russian honor guards lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow on July 6. President Barack Obama, his wife, Michelle, and their daughters, Sasha and Malia, walk through the Kremlin after arriving in Moscow. President Barack Obama, center left, speaks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, center right, during a meeting at the Kremlin Catering workers take a photograph of President Barack Obama on a TV screen inside the Kremlin. First lady Michelle Obama meets with Russian first lady Svetlana Medvedeva at the Kremlin. President Barack Obama greets members of the Russian delegation prior to his meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at the Kremlin. Souvenir matryoshka dolls, or Russian nesting dolls, painted with portraits of President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry M...