TOP NEWS
 |
| The Blackstone Group bought real estate loans backed by properties, including the Mondrian South Beach hotel in Florida. |
By NELSON D. SCHWARTZ
European regulators have ordered banks to raise capital and shrink their balance sheets, leading to the sale of assets to American businesses and financial firms.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/26/business/us-firms-see-europe-woes-as-opportunities.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2
U.S. Prepares for a Curtailed Relationship With Pakistan
By ERIC SCHMITT
With the United States facing the reality that its broad security partnership with Pakistan is over, officials are seeking to salvage a more limited counterterrorism alliance.
 |
| Love on the Spectrum: Jack Robison and Kirsten Lindsmith, two college students living in Greenfield, Mass., discuss how autism affects their lives and relationship. |
By AMY HARMON
For Jack Robison and Kirsten Lindsmith, both of whom fall on the autism spectrum, being in a relationship together has created a unique set of comforts and challenges.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/26/us/navigating-love-and-autism.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2
Video: Love on the Spectrum
QUOTATION OF THE DAY
"It's almost Freudian. When you wear a mask, you're actually able to become who you really are. It becomes kind of like a drug."
DAVE MONTGOMERY, also known as Nihilist, who patrols Salt Lake City in costume with other self-styled superheroes on their mission to fight crime.
Opinion
Campaign Stops
Anti-Entitlement Strategy
By THOMAS B. EDSALL
Mitt Romney is pushing hard against "government dependency." Will his argument set the terms for the 2012 campaign?
WORLD
 |
| Men looked at the wreckage of a car following a bomb blast at Saint Theresa Catholic Church outside Abuja on Sunday |
By ADAM NOSSITER
A series of Christmas Day church bombings, in which 25 people died, appeared to be a coordinated assault by Boko Haram, a radical Islamist sect with suspected training links to Al Qaeda.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/26/world/africa/explosion-rips-through-catholic-church-in-nigeria.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha22
Photographs
Suicide Bomber Strikes Funeral in Afghanistan
By MATTHEW ROSENBERG and JAWAD SUKHANYAR
The attack, which killed a member of Parliament, appeared to be the Taliban's latest strike against Afghans with ties to the government in Kabul.
 |
| Khalil Ibrahim, in 2007. He was the leader of the Justice and Equality Movement, the main rebel group in Darfur. |
Sudan's Government Says Powerful Rebel Leader Is Dead
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN and ISMA'IL KUSHKUSH
The death of Khalil Ibrahim represents an enormous blow to the Justice and Equality Movement, which has played a major role in the rebellion in Darfur.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/26/world/africa/sudanese-rebel-chief-reported-killed-by-army.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha22
• More World News
U.S.
Crusaders Take Page, and Outfits, From Comics
By KIRK JOHNSON
Self-cast crime fighters are on the march, but whether they are making the world safer or just weirder remains an open question.
Video: Salt Lake's Superheroes
Paul Disowns Extremists' Views but Doesn't Disavow the Support
By JIM RUTENBERG and SERGE F. KOVALESKI
The white supremacists, survivalists and anti-Zionists who have rallied behind Ron Paul's candidacy have not exactly been warmly welcomed. But he does not disavow their support.
Times Topic: Paul, Ron
For Joplin, a Love Letter in Ruins
By A. G. SULZBERGER
Officials in the Missouri city where a tornado killed 161 people in May are trying to figure out what to do with a house covered in messages from people who came to help.
Slide Show: A Memorial Still Stands, but Barely
• More U.S. News
POLITICS
Modernizing Attack Ads by Using Old Videos
By JEREMY W. PETERS
The prevalence of in-their-own-words advertising campaigns is helping to make the Republican primary campaign a ferociously negative contest.
A Watchdog for Conservative Ideals
By MARC LACEY
The Goldwater Institute, a libertarian think tank, plays an outsize role in setting the agenda in Arizona and is helping set up similar litigation outfits elsewhere.
The Caucus
Twofold Goal in Iowa for G.O.P. Hopefuls
By MICHAEL D. SHEAR
The window for changing minds is closing fast, and the campaigns must now focus on making sure that their supporters show up at their caucus locations.
• More Political News
BUSINESS
Cee Lo Strikes Gold, Without a Gold Album
By BEN SISARIO
Cee Lo Green, an entertainer devoted to the Liberace and Elton John school of showmanship, will earn about $20 million this year, and only a fraction of that is from his music.
Interactive Feature: For Cee Lo Green, a Busy Year
A Year of Disappointment at the Movie Box Office
By BROOKS BARNES
In the final days of 2011, ticket sales in North America are running about $500 million behind last year, prompting studios to wonder what went wrong.
In Beck's Shadow, Rise of 'The Five'
By BRIAN STELTER
"The Five," a panel of five co-hosts who argue about the day's top stories, seemed to be a quick fix for Fox News after Glenn Beck's departure last June, but the show has found its footing.
• More Business News
TECHNOLOGY
 |
| Noah Kravitz's former employer, Phonedog.com, is claiming ownership of the Twitter account he started at the company and is suing for damages. |
A Dispute Over Who Owns a Twitter Account Goes to Court
By JOHN BIGGS
A lawsuit filed this summer could answer the growing question of whether a company can claim ownership of an employee's social media account.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/26/technology/lawsuit-may-determine-who-owns-a-twitter-account.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha26
Hackers Breach the Web Site of Stratfor Global Intelligence
By NICOLE PERLROTH
In a sinister Christmas message, the Anonymous hacking collective penetrated the site of Stratfor and began sending donations from people in its database to diverse charities.
For Start-Ups That Aim at Giants, Sorting the Data Cloud Is the Next Big Thing
By MALIA WOLLAN
The amount of data being generated globally increases by 40 percent a year, creating new opportunities for a multitude of software start-ups.
• More Technology News
SPORTS
2011 Scrapbook
Memories From the Year in Sports
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Every day this week, reporters and editors for The Times will recall the people, teams and moments that made the past year memorable.
Knicks 106, Celtics 104
For One Day, the First, the Knicks Have Just Enough
By HOWARD BECK
Carmelo Anthony scored 37 points as the Knicks defeated the Celtics in the N.B.A.'s belated return after a long, strange off-season.
Knicks Photo Replay: Dec. 25
Shumpert Provides Boost, Then Exits With Injury
Bulls 88, Lakers 87
Collapse by Lakers Gives Win to Bulls
By MARK HEISLER
The Lakers blew a 6-point lead in the final minute against the Bulls, falling in the N.B.A. season opener and marking the 10th loss in their string of 14 annual Christmas games.
• More Sports News »
ARTS
 |
| Matthew G. Kirschenbaum, a professor of English, asks, “Who was the first novelist to use a word processor?” |
The Muses of Insert, Delete and Execute
By JENNIFER SCHUESSLER
Scholars are trying to recover the literary history of word processing, one casual deletion and trashed document at a time, starting with writers like Stephen King and Frank Herbert.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/26/books/a-literary-history-of-word-processing.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha28
Books of The Times
'Whore of Akron' and 'When the Garden Was Eden'
By HENRY ABBOTT
Harvey Araton writes about the 1970s New York Knicks with reverence in "When the Garden Was Eden," but Scott Raab is comically bloody minded in "The Whore of Akron," a hate letter to LeBron James.
Carpetbagger Blog
Martin Sheen, Family (Filmmaking) Man
By MELENA RYZIK
Martin Sheen, who stars in "The Way," talks about making a film with his family, changes in the Academy and making "Apocalypse Now."
• More Arts News »
NEW YORK / REGION
Woman's Daughters and Parents Killed in Connecticut Fire
 |
| The home of Madonna Badger, overlooking Long Island Sound, was destroyed in a predawn fire on Sunday. Her daughters were all under age 10. |
By MATT FLEGENHEIMER and LIZ ROBBINS
The three children and the parents of an advertising executive were killed when a predawn fire tore through a Victorian house in a neighborhood overlooking Long Island Sound.
 |
| A photograph taken from the Web site gigmasters.com showing the five victims from Sunday's fire. |
"---Mr. Johnson, 71, spent his last day working at his dream job: as Santa Claus on the ninth floor of the Saks Fifth Avenue flagship store in Manhattan, the family member said. He was known for his real long, white beard.---".
With Christmas Morning, the Rare Serenity of Long Ago
By ROBERT D. McFADDEN
Fifth Avenue and Times Square were nearly silent; it was time for Scrooge and sleigh bells and the peace of long ago.
Slide Show: Christmas Morning
Alliance Formed Secretly to Win Deal for Campus
By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA
Top officials from Cornell and its partner found much to agree on as they built a proposal for a graduate school on Roosevelt Island that overwhelmed the competition.
• More New York / Region News
MEDIA & ADVERTISING
The Media Equation
New Rules for the Ways We Watch
By DAVID CARR
The inertia that has kept consumers from bolting from traditional content providers is beginning to erode.
TimesCast
2011: The Year in Media
Media Decoder
On Internet TV, Silicon Valley Displays Its Whimsical Side
By BROOKS BARNES
Jesse Draper, host of "The Valley Girl Show," a freewheeling interview program, says her goal is to build a brand by "portraying serious business people as fun."
Media Decoder
Afghanistan Low on News Agenda
By BRIAN STELTER
A report by the Project for Excellence in Journalism counted an increase in international news over all, owing largely to the war in Libya and the protests in the Middle East and Africa.
"--- The 10-year-old war in Afghanistan remained just a blip on the American news media’s radar in 2011.
 |
| Lara Logan interviewing Capt. John Hintz in Afghanistan. |
Lara Logan interviewing Capt. John Hintz in Afghanistan.Of all the news content in newspapers and on the Web, television and radio this year, Afghanistan accounted for about 2 percent of coverage, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism, an arm of the Pew Research Center.
Six other subjects were given more sustained attention than the war there. In descending order, they were the economy in the United States; the unrest in the Middle East; the 2012 presidential election; the earthquake, tsunami and ensuing nuclear disaster in Japan; the killing of Osama bin Laden; and the shooting in Tucson in which six were killed and Representative Gabrielle Giffords, Democrat of Arizona, was critically injured.
The figures come from the project’s weekly monitoring of 52 major papers, news Web sites, TV networks and stations, and radio stations. The project uses that sample to show what is atop the national news agenda, and what is not.---"
• More Media & Advertising News
EDITORIALS
Editorial
Fairness for Home Care Aides
Workers in this fast-growing occupation need to be protected by labor laws.
Editorial
Expanding Internet Domains
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers needs better safeguards before it allows an explosion of new online addresses.
Editorial
A Living Wage, Long Overdue
A new bill would require developers who profit from public subsidies to pay a minimum wage of $10 an hour, lifting thousands of New Yorkers above the poverty line.
• More Opinion »
OP-ED
Op-Ed Columnist
Putin's Children
By BILL KELLER
How many generations does it take to grow a democracy?
Columnist Page
Blog
Op-Ed Columnist
Springtime for Toxics
By PAUL KRUGMAN
The E.P.A. just did a very good thing in releasing new rules on mercury and air toxics for power plants. And, of course, Republicans are furious. "--- As far as I can tell, even opponents of environmental regulation admit that mercury is nasty stuff. It’s a potent neurotoxicant: the expression “mad as a hatter” emerged in the 19th century because hat makers of the time treated fur with mercury compounds, and often suffered nerve and mental damage as a result.
Hat makers no longer use mercury (and who wears hats these days?), but a lot of mercury gets into the atmosphere from old coal-burning power plants that lack modern pollution controls. From there it gets into the water, where... >> http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/26/opinion/krugman-springtime-for-toxics.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212
Columnist Page
Blog
Op-Ed Contributor
Hunting Deer With My Flintlock
By SEAMUS McGRAW
For me, and I suspect for many others like me, the art of hunting is profound. It's about taking responsibility.
• More Opinion »
ON THIS DAY
 |
| Winston Churchill (from the net) |
On Dec. 26, 1941, Winston Churchill became the first British prime minister to address a joint meeting of the United States Congress.
