Syrian Rebels Claim to Kill Dozens of Soldiers

SANA, via Associated PressAn image released by Syria’s official news agency showed Damascus residents gathering at the scene of a blast on Monday. BEIRUT, Lebanon — Some of the worst violence in months racked Syria on Monday with residents of southern Damascus fleeing heavy shelling, several smaller towns shattered by air attacks and at least two car bombs erupting. The Local Coordinating...

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Chinese Messaging App Gains Ground Elsewhere

BEIJING — Chinese Internet companies have long struggled to establish their products beyond the country’s borders. In 2007 China’s dominant search engine, Baidu, announced an ambitious plan to break into the Japanese search engine market; as of last year, the company said it had lost more than $108 million trying. WeChat, a mobile messaging application created by Tencent Holdings, China’s...

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The New Old Age Blog: Old, Frail and in Harm's Way

“Check on your elderly neighbors,” the weather forecasters say when a storm is bearing down, advice that’s always struck me as necessary but not sufficient. Community matters, and if what your neighbor needs is a grocery run, some hot soup or a reminder to keep drinking water during a heat wave, you can make an important difference.But if what your neighbor needs is thrice-weekly dialysis but your...

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The New Old Age Blog: Old, Frail and in Harm's Way

“Check on your elderly neighbors,” the weather forecasters say when a storm is bearing down, advice that’s always struck me as necessary but not sufficient. Community matters, and if what your neighbor needs is a grocery run, some hot soup or a reminder to keep drinking water during a heat wave, you can make an important difference.But if what your neighbor needs is thrice-weekly dialysis but your...

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Silicon Valley Objects to Online Privacy Rule Proposals for Children

Washington is pushing Silicon Valley on children’s privacy, and Silicon Valley is pushing back. Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter have all objected to portions of a federal effort to strengthen online privacy protections for children. In addition, media giants like Viacom and Disney, cable operators, marketing associations, technology groups and a trade group representing...

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Benghazi Attack Raises Doubts About U.S. Abilities in Region

Esam Omran Al-Fetori/ReutersThe attack at the American Mission on Sept. 11, seen here, and an annex in Benghazi, Libya, points to a limitation in the capabilities of the American military command responsible for countries swept up in the Arab Spring. WASHINGTON — About three hours after the American diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, came under attack, the Pentagon issued an urgent call for an...

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Massive Open Online Courses Are Multiplying at a Rapid Pace

Clockwise, from top left: an online course in circuits and electronics with an M.I.T. professor (edX); statistics, Stanford (Udacity); machine learning, Stanford (Coursera); organic chemistry, University of Illinois, Urbana (Coursera). IN late September, as workers applied joint compound to new office walls, hoodie-clad colleagues who had just met were working together on deadline. Film editors, code-writing...

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Well: The Mental Fallout of the Hurricane

In the small Connecticut town where I grew up, the tornado of 1979 remains the storm, a freak tornado packing 86-mile-per-hour winds that churned through the streets, killing three people, injuring hundreds and destroying several hundred homes and businesses, including many in my neighborhood.I was 15 at the time, at home alone looking after my 10-year-old sister and 5-year-old brother. For months...

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Well: The Mental Fallout of the Hurricane

In the small Connecticut town where I grew up, the tornado of 1979 remains the storm, a freak tornado packing 86-mile-per-hour winds that churned through the streets, killing three people, injuring hundreds and destroying several hundred homes and businesses, including many in my neighborhood.I was 15 at the time, at home alone looking after my 10-year-old sister and 5-year-old brother. For months...

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Google Casts a Big Shadow on Smaller Web Sites

Annie Tritt for The New York TimesJeffrey G. Katz, the chief executive of Wize Commerce, seen with employees. He says that about 60 percent of the traffic for the company’s Nextag comparison-shopping site comes from Google. In a geeky fire drill, engineers and outside consultants at Nextag scrambled to see if the problem was its own fault. Maybe some inadvertent change had prompted Google’s algorithm...

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