Diner’s Journal Blog: PepsiCo Will Halt Use of Additive in Gatorade

PepsiCo announced on Friday that it would no longer use an ingredient in Gatorade after consumers complained.The ingredient, brominated vegetable oil, which was used in citrus versions of the sports drink to prevent the flavorings from separating, was the object of a petition started on Change.org by Sarah Kavanagh, a 15-year-old from Hattiesburg, Miss., who became concerned about the ingredient after...

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Religious Groups and Employers Battle Contraception Mandate

Shawn Thew/European Pressphoto AgencyPresident Obama, with his health secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, offering a compromise on the contraception mandate last year. In a flood of lawsuits, Roman Catholics, evangelicals and Mennonites are challenging a provision in the new health care law that requires employers to cover birth control in employee health plans — a high-stakes clash between religious freedom...

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Religious Groups and Employers Battle Contraception Mandate

Shawn Thew/European Pressphoto AgencyPresident Obama, with his health secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, offering a compromise on the contraception mandate last year. In a flood of lawsuits, Roman Catholics, evangelicals and Mennonites are challenging a provision in the new health care law that requires employers to cover birth control in employee health plans — a high-stakes clash between religious freedom...

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Gadgetwise Blog: Is January the Time to Buy Electronics?

At the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in early January, manufacturers tantalized consumers with new electronics soon to hit the shelves. But what does that do to the prices of current models that are being replaced? Is this a golden buying opportunity?Yes and no. Yes for TVs, no for laptops. I’ll explain.Decide.com, which tracks the price of electronics, studied what happened...

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Defense Official Hints That Israel Is Stepping Back From Plans to Unilaterally Attack Iran

JERUSALEM — Israel’s departing defense minister, Ehud Barak, said that the Pentagon had prepared sophisticated blueprints for a surgical operation to set back Iran’s nuclear program should the United States decide to attack, a statement that was a possible indication that Israel has shelved plans of any unilateral strike. Johannes Eisele/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesEhud Barak,...

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DealBook: S.E.C. Pick Is Ex-Prosecutor, in Signal to Wall Street

9:13 p.m. | Updated The White House delivered a strong message to Wall Street on Thursday, taking the unusual step of choosing two former prosecutors as top financial regulators.But translating that message into action will not be easy, given the complexities of the market and Wall Street’s aggressive nature.At a short White House ceremony, President Obama named Mary Jo White, the first female United...

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SciTimes Update: Science News From Around the Web

Matthew Born for The New York TimesAn estimated 15,000 crocodiles, like this one, have escaped from a farm in Limpopo, South Africa. Friday in science, crocodiles on the loose, coffee fraud, a sleepy squirrel wakes up and melting glaciers. Check out these headlines from around the Web. Crocodiles on the Loose: An estimated 15,000 crocodiles have escaped from a farm in Limpopo, South Africa,...

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SciTimes Update: Science News From Around the Web

Matthew Born for The New York TimesAn estimated 15,000 crocodiles, like this one, have escaped from a farm in Limpopo, South Africa. Friday in science, crocodiles on the loose, coffee fraud, a sleepy squirrel wakes up and melting glaciers. Check out these headlines from around the Web. Crocodiles on the Loose: An estimated 15,000 crocodiles have escaped from a farm in Limpopo, South Africa,...

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DealBook: Compuware Rejects Elliott's $2.3 Billion Bid

11:46 a.m. | Updated Compuware said on Friday that its board had rejected a $2.3 billion takeover bid by Elliott Management, arguing that the hedge fund’s offer was too low.Instead, the business software maker said that it was focused on its own corporate turnaround blueprint, including a three-year plan to cut costs and an effort to spin off its Covisint business communication products arm. It also...

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India Ink: Free Expert Advice for Rahul Gandhi

He formally became the vice president of the governing Congress party this week, and is expected to throw his hat into the ring for India’s top job in the 2014 general elections, but Rahul Gandhi, the 42-year-old reticent scion of India’s Gandhi dynasty, remains something of a mystery.He has long given the media a wide berth, choosing to quietly reorganize his party’s youth wing behind the scenes,...

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New Mutations Discovered in Melanomas

In a leap forward in understanding the basic science of one of the most lethal cancers, two groups of researchers have found mutations in most melanomas that are unlike any they have seen before in cancer. The changes are in regions that control genes, not in the genes themselves. The mutations are exactly the type caused by exposure to ultraviolet light, indicating they might be among the first DNA...

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Media Decoder Blog: A Resurgent Netflix Beats Projections, Even Its Own

1:51 p.m. | Updated For all those who have doubted its business acumen, Netflix had a resounding answer on Wednesday: 27.15 million.That’s the number of American homes that were subscribers to the streaming service by the end of 2012, beating the company’s own projections for the fourth quarter after a couple of quarters of underwhelming results.Netflix’s growth spurt in streaming — up by 2.05 million...

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American Mumbai Plotter Sentenced to 35 Years

CHICAGO (AP) — An American drug dealer who had faced life in prison was sentenced instead to 35 years Thursday for helping plan the deadly 2008 attacks on Mumbai, India — a punishment prosecutors said reflected his broad cooperation with U.S. investigators but that a victim's family member called "an appalling dishonor." It was David Coleman Headley's meticulous scouting missions that facilitated...

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DealBook: At Davos, Financial Leaders Debate Reform and Monetary Policy

DAVOS, Switzerland — Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, apologized again for the bank’s recent $6 billion trading loss, this time in front of an audience that included the elite of the financial world. But in keeping with his confident demeanor, it was a diet portion of humble pie.“If you’re a shareholder of mine, I apologize,” Mr. Dimon said at the World Economic Forum annual meeting...

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SciTimes Update : Science News From Around the Web

Wednesday in Science, we’re reading about killer penguins, texting moms, asteroid mining, designing a more pleasurable condom and a maple leaf controversy in Canada. Check out these and other science headlines from around the Web. The Last 925,000 Pounds Are Always the Hardest: Boston’s citywide challenge to lose one million pounds in a year appears to have fallen about 925,000 pounds...

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SciTimes Update : Science News From Around the Web

Wednesday in Science, we’re reading about killer penguins, texting moms, asteroid mining, designing a more pleasurable condom and a maple leaf controversy in Canada. Check out these and other science headlines from around the Web. The Last 925,000 Pounds Are Always the Hardest: Boston’s citywide challenge to lose one million pounds in a year appears to have fallen about 925,000 pounds...

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DealBook: Microsoft May Back Dell Buyout

The effort to take Dell private has gained a prominent, if unusual, backer: Microsoft.The software giant is in talks to help finance a takeover bid for Dell that would exceed $20 billion, a person briefed on the matter said on Tuesday. Microsoft is expected to contribute up to several billion dollars.An investment by Microsoft — if it comes to pass — could be enough to push a leveraged buyout of the...

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