President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt Said to Prepare Martial Law Decree

Tara Todras-Whitehill for The New York TimesEgyptian protesters stood next to a destroyed barricade near the presidential palace in Cairo on Saturday. More Photos »CAIRO — Struggling to quell street protests and political violence, President Mohamed Morsi is moving to impose a version of martial law by calling on the armed forces to keep order and authorizing soldiers to arrest civilians, Egyptian...

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Google launches Snapseed photo editor on Android, makes iOS version free

After acquiring the makers of Snapseed in September, Google (GOOG) on Thursday released the popular photo application for Android smartphones and tablets. Google also updated the iOS version of the app to add Google+ integration and some new filters, and it cut the price of the original app from $ 4.99 to free. Snapseed is a simple yet powerful photo editor from Nik Software that allows users to enhance...

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Cowboy charged after player dies in auto accident

IRVING, Texas (AP) — Dallas Cowboys practice-squad linebacker Jerry Brown was killed in a one-car accident Saturday and teammate Josh Brent was charged with intoxication manslaughter.Irving police spokesman John Argumaniz said the accident happened about 2:20 a.m. Saturday in the Dallas suburb. Brent was speeding when the vehicle hit a curb and flipped at least once, Argumaniz said.Argumaniz says...

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The Lede Blog: Hospital Nurse in Radio Hoax With Kate Middleton Is Found Dead

Video of a statement on Friday from the London hospital where Kate Middleton was treated this week.A nurse at a London hospital, who took a prank call from two Australian radio disc jockeys pretending to be Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles to get details on Kate Middleton’s medical condition, was found dead on Friday, the hospital said.John Lofthouse, the chief executive of the King Edward VII...

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MLB average salary up 3.8 percent to $3.2 million

NEW YORK (AP) — Baseball's average salary increased 3.8 percent this year to a record $3.2 million.According to final figures released Friday by the Major League Baseball Players Association, the rise was the steepest since 2007. The boost was helped by an increase in the minimum salary from $414,000 to $480,000.The New York Yankees had the highest average for the 14th consecutive season at $6.88...

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U. S. and Russia to Meet on Syrian Conflict

DUBLIN — A new round of diplomacy on the conflict in Syria will begin on Thursday afternoon when Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations special envoy, hosts an unusual three-way meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov. The session, which is being held on the margins of a meeting on European security, comes amid reports of heightened...

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Apple and Samsung return to court to battle over $1 billion verdict

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Bryant eclipses 30,000, Lakers beat Hornets 103-87

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Kobe Bryant grinned and uttered the word "irony" as he considered the fact that the team that drafted him nearly 17 years ago was his opponent on the night he eclipsed a scoring milestone to join an exclusive club of NBA greats.It's easy to forget that it was the Hornets who drafted and then traded Bryant away back in 1996.In the years since, the Hornets have changed cities, from...

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Well: Running in Reverse

This column appears in the Dec. 9 issue of The New York Times Magazine.Backward running, also known as reverse or retro running, is not as celebrated as barefoot running and will never be mistaken for the natural way to run. But a small body of science suggests that backward running enables people to avoid or recover from common injuries, burn extra calories, sharpen balance and, not least, mix up...

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Steven A. Cohen Is Absent at Art Basel Miami Beach

Katie Orlinsky for The New York TimesArt Basel's V.I.P. opening at the Miami Beach Convention Center on Wednesday, seen through Olafur Eliasson's work, "Your Shared Planet." MIAMI BEACH — The opening of Art Basel Miami Beach, under way here this week, looked like the start of the most glamorous doorbuster sale in history, with hundreds of V.I.P.’s streaming into the convention center wearing high-end...

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Serbian Ambassador to NATO Is Said to Commit Suicide

PARIS — The Serbian ambassador to NATO, Branislav Milinkovic, jumped to his death from a multistory parking garage on Tuesday afternoon at the Brussels airport, diplomats said Wednesday. ReutersBranislav Milinkovic, Serbia's ambassador to NATO, sits at the alliance headquarters in Brussels Dec. 14, 2006. Mr. Milinkovic, 52, a respected diplomat, lawyer...

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Facebook’s Instagram cuts support for key Twitter integration

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Facebook Inc’s recently acquired photo-sharing service, Instagram, removed a key element of its integration with Twitter, signaling a deepening rift between two of the Web’s dominant social media companies.Instagram’s Chief Executive Kevin Systrom said Wednesday his company turned off support for Twitter “cards” in order to drive Twitter users to Instagram’s own website....

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Athletes lose medals; Armstrong decision pending

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Eight years after winning Olympic medals in Athens, four track and field athletes from eastern Europe were ordered to hand them back Wednesday because of positive doping tests, while Lance Armstrong can hold onto his bronze medal from the 2000 Sydney Games a little while longer.The International Olympic Committee executive board disqualified four athletes whose 2004 Athens...

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Study Raises Questions on Coating of Aspirin

While aspirin may prevent heart attacks and strokes, a commonly used coating to protect the stomach may obscure the benefits, leading doctors to prescribe more expensive prescription drugs, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal Circulation. The conclusion about coated aspirin was only one finding in the study, whose main goal was to test the hotly disputed idea that aspirin...

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State of the Art: Reviewing All-in-One Luxury PCs From Vizio, H.P. and Apple - State of the Art

Try this simple test at home: What’s the name of Dell’s best-selling PC? Anybody? Anybody? Right. Nobody knows. And nobody cares. Today, it’s all about phones and tablets, baby. Nobody buzzes about the PC anymore. Innovation is dead. Sales are down, right? Actually, there’s one pocket of surging sales and innovation in PC land: the luxury all-in-one computer, of the type made...

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Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany Opens Campaign for a Third Term

BERLIN — Angela Merkel began her campaign for re-election on Tuesday with a display of the down-to-earth pragmatism that has helped make her immensely popular among Germans and well positioned to win a third term as chancellor next year. Wielding two bouquets of bright orange flowers after delegates in her center-right Christian Democratic Union elected her to a seventh term as their party...

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China goes crazy for iPhone 5: Preorders hit 100,000 units in under 24 hours

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Chiefs' LB mentioned other 'girlfriend' to police

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Police say Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher spent some of his final hours sleeping in his car outside the home of another woman whom he described as his "girlfriend."Police spokesman Darin Snapp said Tuesday that the woman's apartment complex was about 10 miles from the home where Belcher shot and killed the mother of his 3-month-old daughter, 22-year-old Kasandra...

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Sign Language Researchers Broaden Science Lexicon

Imagine trying to learn biology without ever using the word “organism.” Or studying to become a botanist when the only way of referring to photosynthesis is to spell the word out, letter by painstaking letter. For deaf students, this game of scientific Password has long been the daily classroom and laboratory experience. Words like “organism” and “photosynthesis” — to say nothing of more...

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DealBook: UBS Described as Near Deal With U.S. and Britain on Rate Rigging

UBS, the Swiss banking giant, is close to reaching settlements with American and British authorities over the manipulation of interest rates, the latest case in a multiyear investigation that has rattled the financial industry and spurred a public outcry for broad reform.UBS is expected to pay more than $450 million to settle claims that some employees reported false rates to increase the bank’s profit,...

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Obama Is Taking Himself and #My2K to Twitter This Afternoon

What a day for Twitter! First the Pope, then the Royal Baby, and now President Obama will come online to answer questions about the fiscal cliff. A @WhiteHouse tweet with the distincitive “-bo” signature, announced not long ago that the big guy himself will be taking questions online, starting at 2:00 p.m. ET.Good to see lots of folks on twitter speaking out on extending middle class tax cuts. I’ll...

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A-Rod needs hip surgery, will miss season's start

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Alex Rodriguez will have surgery on his left hip and will miss the start of the season and possibly the entire first half.Rodriguez has a torn labrum, bone impingement and a cyst, the Yankees said Monday. The third baseman will need to follow a pre-surgery program over the next four-to-six weeks, and the team anticipates he will be sidelined four-to-six months after the operation....

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Software Programs Help Doctors Diagnose, but Can’t Replace Them

SAN FRANCISCO — The man on stage had his audience of 600 mesmerized. Over the course of 45 minutes, the tension grew. Finally, the moment of truth arrived, and the room was silent with anticipation. At last he spoke. “Lymphoma with secondary hemophagocytic syndrome,” he said. The crowd erupted in applause. Professionals in every field revere their superstars, and in medicine the best...

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DealBook: UBS Described as Near Deal With U.S. and Britain on Rate Rigging

UBS, the Swiss banking giant, is close to reaching settlements with American and British authorities over the manipulation of interest rates, the latest case in a multiyear investigation that has rattled the financial industry and spurred a public outcry for broad reform.UBS is expected to pay more than $450 million to settle claims that some employees reported false rates to increase the bank’s profit,...

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