Business

Support for one of the earliest popular web browsers, Netscape Navigator, will be discontinued as of today. The browser, now owned by United States internet services company AOL, was once used by 90% of internet users, however the sharp decrease in usage to around 0.06% has lead to all support from AOL being stopped. The decision was said to be due to "AOL's current business focus and the success of the Mozilla Foundation." The move was announced in December, and it was said that all support was to cease on February 1, 2008. This was extend

Wikileaks has claimed in a press release that the Swiss bank, Bank Julius Baer & Trust, has abused the system by involving an administrator of the Wikileaks group on Facebook in the court case which has recently lead to a court injunction causing wikileaks.org DNS entry to be removed. As of this writing, Wikileaks could still be accessed via its IP address at http://88.80.13.160/wiki/wikileaks. The Facebook user who became involved in the court case has responded to this by saying that "I am an officer of a Facebook group, which is essentially

Representatives from the British insurance industry have said that the cost of the earthquake which hit Britain early yesterday could be over 10 million GBP. The Association of British Insurers has said in a statement that the cost for the earthquake is "likely to run into the low tens of millions of pounds." The Senior claims manager at the UK bank Norwich Union has described the damage by saying that at the moment most insurance claims regarding the earthquake describe "minor damage such as tiles off roofs, breakages inside the homes and br

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) have sided with Wikileaks.org and will defend them against a lawsuit which took the site off line in the United States. Wikileaks is a website dedicated to hosting leaked documents that are "anonymous, untraceable, uncensorable." On February 18, 2008, a permanent court injunction issued in the California Northern District Court in San Francisco by judge Jeffrey White, California to Bank Julius Baer (BJB), a Swiss Bank, took the domain name offline. However t

There were 8 games played in the National Hockey League on February 26, 2008, but most of the news of the day comes from many trades happening before the trade deadline. Trades New Jersey traded Cam Janssen to St. Louis for defenseman Bryce Salvador. The Buffalo Sabres traded defenseman Brian Campbell to San Jose for right winger Steve Bernier and a first-round pick in the 2008 entry draft. The Toronto Maple Leafs traded Wade Belak to the Florida Panthers for a fifth-round pick in the 2008 entry draft. Tampa Bay traded forward Brad Richar

Visa, Inc. announced on February 25, 2008 that it would soon go ahead with a much-anticipated initial public offering (IPO) of about half its shares. This would make it the single biggest IPO in United States history, according to the regulatory filing the company made. Visa hopes to raise about US$17-19 billion, emulating its main rival, MasterCard Inc., which successfully put out an IPO in 2006. Shares are expected to range from $37 to $42 each. Visa is banking on a changing global economy which relies less on liquid cash and more on credit.

The country of Sudan has initiated an official boycott of Danish products, after the controversial Muhammad cartoons have been reprinted by a series of newspapers in Denmark and other European countries. Yesterday, President Omar al-Bashir expressed his concerns at a government-backed rally in the nation's capital, requesting that all Muslims in the world take a stand against Denmark by boycotting “businesses, institutions and individuals,” adding that “no Danes shall ever again be able to set foot in Sudan,” however, no Danish emergency worker

The European Commission currently has proposals on the table to extend performers' copyright terms. Described by Professor Martin Kretschmer as the "Beatles Extension Act", the proposed measure would extend copyright from 50 to 95 years after recording. A vast number of classical tracks are at stake; the copyright on recordings from the fifties and early sixties is nearing its expiration date, after which it would normally enter the public domain or become 'public property'. E.U. Commissioner for the Internal Market and Services Charlie McCreev

Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration (TDC) will require makers of the sleeping pill, Zolpidem (marketed as Stilnox in Australia) to provide a warning about its "bizarre" and "potentially dangerous" side effects. The warning follows a decision by the National Drugs and Poisons Schedule Committee (NDPSC) not to reschedule the drug. The NDPSC had considered changing zolpidem from a Schedule 4 drug to a Schedule 8 drug, which would have placed it in the same category as drugs like morphine and made it more difficult for doctors to prescri

The UK Parliament has been discussing the proposed nationalisation of the troubled UK bank Northern Rock. If the bill is passed it will be the first such move by the UK government since the 1970s. The bill was introduced by Yvette Cooper from the UK Labour Party. Philip Hammond (Conservative) responded by saying that the bill should only apply to Northern Rock as if a similar crisis happens again parliament should carry a new bill through parliament. Hammond also said that the House of Commons were not given enough time to discuss the bill. S

Grameen Bank of Bangladesh has made the first loans to U.S. citizens who do not have a bank account. Grameen Bank is experienced in micro-financing in its home country, lending money to poor women that want to start small businesses. Since the start of the mortgage-crisis more people in the U.S. tend to turn to fringe financial institutions bypassing the mainstream bank institutes. "Now is a good time because of ... the subprime crisis and that highlights the issue that the financial system is not perfect," , says the bank's founder and 2006

Troubled U.K. bank Northern Rock is to be nationalised, the first such move since the 1970s. The Treasury made the decision after a long period of uncertainty which began in September 2007 when it was revealed that the bank had approached the Bank of England, as lender of last resort due to problems raising funds in the money markets. The move means that bids from Virgin Group and a proposal for a management buyout have been rejected. In a statement by Alistair Darling, Chancellor of the Exchequer, said that "in current market conditions, we d