News

Taliban militiamen have beheaded Afghan journalist Ajmal Naqshbandi who had been held capitive since March 4, news reports have said. The death of Naqshbandi came on a day of heavy violence in Afghanistan that also saw the deaths of seven North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) soldiers in roadside bombings in the south. A government official confirmed Naqshbandi’s slaying hours after a...

Eleven years ago, two entrepreneurs founded About.com around a big idea. The online reference guide would offer advice on every topic under the sun, from how to treat a common cold to how to grow an organic garden. Today, The New York Times Co. Web site is a rich repository of content contributed by 600 experts who post 3,000 new articles a week. But it hasn't cracked the top 10 of most-visited...

Punitive judicial sanctions are threatening Morocco’s independent press. Over the last two years, Moroccan courts have levied stiff criminal penalties and civil damages against independent news publications, effectively banishing two of the country’s most outspoken journalists from their profession. In January 2007, a Moroccan court handed down three-year suspended prison sentences to Driss Ksikes...

The fourth anniversary of the still unexplained killing of three journalists by US troops in Baghdad was marked Sunday by a preceding week of shocking attacks on journalists in Iraq. Four journalists were killed during the week. Thursday last saw the brutal murder of Khamaail Mohsin, a mother of three and journalist with Radio Free Iraq, the US-funded Radio station in Arabic, and the bombing of...

Network morning shows and cable news fuelled the frenzied coverage of Playmate and heiress Anna Nicole Smith's death and the hysteria that followed leading to her burial, a study by a leading media watchdog group has found. Cable news programmes devoted 22 per cent of their airtime to the Smith story from February 8 to March 2, double the amount given to the second-biggest story, the presidential...

The Christian Science Monitor has launched a new long-term initiative to focus greater coverage on the causes and effects of global warming and its impact on climate change. This coverage, in response to the growing public interest in global warming, will appear both in the Monitor's daily newspaper and online at http://www.csmonitor.com/globalwarming/. As part of its global warming coverage, the...

Agence France-Presse and Google Inc have settled a copyright lawsuit, clearing the way for Google to post snippets of the French news agency’s news and photos online, the two companies said on Friday. The two companies, in a joint statement, said the accord allows the Internet giant to post AFP content on Google News and other services. Terms of the pact have not been disclosed. Agence France...

Reporters Without Borders today called for the federal authorities to be fully involved in the investigation into yesterday’s murder of Amado Ramírez, the correspondent of the privately-owned TV station Televisa, in Acapulco, in the southern state of Guerrero, in a wave of killings that has left 14 dead in the past 24 hours. “Ramírez’s death must be taken seriously by the authorities,” the press...

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Friday ruled out any more deals with the Taliban to free foreigners or Afghans kidnapped by the insurgents. He told a news conference at his fortified palace in Kabul that he came under pressure from Rome to approve the release of five rebels last month in return for the freedom of a kidnapped Italian journalist. Since that deal, the Taliban have...

Reporters Without Borders voiced concern today about a statement by the deputy minister of energy, water and communications, Datuk Shaziman Abu Mansor, on 4 April that, in order to prevent the spread of “negative or malicious content,” bloggers will soon have to register with the government. While claiming they do not intend to censor bloggers, they have warned that bloggers are not above the law...