There are no secrets online. That emotional e-mail you sent to your ex, the illness you searched for in a fit of hypochondria, those hours spent watching kitten videos (you can take that as a euphemism if the kitten fits) — can all be gathered to create a defining profile of you. Your information can then be stored, analyzed, indexed and sold as a commodity to data brokers who in turn might sell it to advertisers, employers, health insurers or credit rating agencies. And while it’s probably impossible to cloak your online activities fully, you can take steps to do the technological equivalent of throwing on a pair of boxers and a T-shirt. Some of these measures are quite easy and many are free. Of ... Continue reading →

YOU thought you scored a great deal when you found that $200 rate for your $300-a-night hotel. But then you compared notes with other guests and learned that some paid even less. It happens to even the best bargain hunters — whether it is a hotel deal or airfare — and it’s not a good feeling. Now a growing number of travel sites are offering to track the price after you reserve and to refund you the difference. While at least one, Yapta.com, has long alerted travelers to price drops even after a ticket has been purchased, travelers still had to do the follow-up work, including calling the airline to request the refund. The newer sites do much of that for you. Among them are ... Continue reading →

Wow, no one saw this coming. The University of Florida announced this past week that it was dropping its computer science department, which will allow it to save about $1.7 million. The school is eliminating all funding for teaching assistants in computer science, cutting the graduate and research programs entirely, and moving the tattered remnants into other departments. Let’s get this straight: in the midst of a technology revolution, with a shortage of engineers and computer scientists, UF decides to cut computer science completely? Math and computer science are hard. Why bother? Students at UF have already organized protests, and have created a website dedicated to saving the CS department. Several distinguished computer scientists have written to the president of UF to express their concerns, ... Continue reading →

Porsche A.G., whose headquarters are in Zuffenhausen, near Stuttgart, Germany, announced the death in a statement. No cause was given. Mr. Porsche, who was known as F. A. and also by the childhood nickname Butzi, was the scion of a family whose roots are entwined with the history of German automaking. Before founding the company that still bears his name, Mr. Porsche’s grandfather, Ferdinand, worked as an engineer and designer for, among other companies, Daimler-Benz, the makers of Mercedes. And during the early years of the Porsche company in the 1930s, Ferdinand and his son, known as Ferry, created the prototype of the Volkswagen at the direction of Adolf Hitler. F. A. Porsche joined the family business in 1958, working in the technical design department ... Continue reading →

Anjum Naveed/Associated Press Police officers at a house in Islamabad, Pakistan, where family members of Osama bin Laden are thought to be held. ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Osama bin Laden spent nine years on the run in Pakistan after the Sept. 11 attacks, during which time he moved among five safe houses and fathered four children, at least two of whom were born in a government hospital, his youngest wife has told Pakistani investigators. The testimony of Amal Ahmad Abdul Fateh, Bin Laden’s 30-year-old wife, offers the most detailed account yet of life on the run for the Bin Laden family in the years preceding the American commando raid in May 2011 that killed the leader of Al Qaeda at the age of 54. Her account ... Continue reading →

KABUL, Afghanistan — Prospects for an orderly withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan suffered two blows on Thursday as President Hamid Karzai demanded that the United States confine troops to major bases by next year, and the Taliban announced that they were suspending peace talks with the Americans. Getting talks started with the Taliban has been a major goal of the United States and its NATO allies for the past two years, and only in recent months was there concrete evidence of progress. And the declaration by President Karzai, if carried out, would greatly accelerate the pace of transition from NATO to Afghan control, which previously was envisioned to be complete by 2014. Moving most troops to major bases would greatly reduce their role on ... Continue reading →

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve on Tuesday offered a slightly more upbeat account of the American economy, but added that it expected to continue its campaign to encourage growth for the foreseeable future. The Fed cited the improving job market and increased spending by households and businesses as reasons for increased optimism, but the statement from its policy-making committee, which met Tuesday, remained dour in its overall tone. “The committee expects moderate economic growth over coming quarters and consequently anticipates that the unemployment rate will decline gradually,” said the statement from the Federal Open Market Committee. The statement acknowledged that rising oil prices would increase inflation, but it described that effect as temporary and predicted that the pace of increase in prices and wages would ... Continue reading →

Anzala Khilji Abdul Samad, whose 11 family members were killed by a United States staff sergeant, spoke with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Sunday. More Photos » PANJWAI, Afghanistan — Displaced by the war, Abdul Samad finally moved his large family back home to this volatile district of southern Afghanistan last year. He feared the Taliban, but his new house was nestled near an American military base, where he considered himself safe. But when Mr. Samad, 60, walked into his mud-walled dwelling here on Sunday morning and found 11 of his relatives sprawled in all directions, shot in the head, stabbed and burned, he learned the culprit was not a Taliban insurgent. The suspected gunman was a 38-year-old United States staff sergeant who had slipped ... Continue reading →

The World Trade Organization’s appellate body affirmed on Monday that Boeing received at least $5 billion in improper subsidies from the United States government to develop its 787 Dreamliner and other jet models, giving it an unfair advantage over its European rival, Airbus. European and American officials said the ruling generally upheld findings that the trade organization released last March. The decision was the latest step in a long-running battle over subsidies for airplane sales that might be settled eventually only through transatlantic negotiations. Both the European Union and the United States claimed victories in the latest ruling. European leaders said on Monday that they were delighted that the appeals judges confirmed that the United States had improperly subsidized Boeing’s aircraft development, while American officials ... Continue reading →

Allauddin Khan/Associated Press United States Army and Afghan soldiers stood guard at a military base in the Panjwai district of Kandahar Province on Sunday. WASHINGTON — The outrage from the back-to-back episodes of the Koran burning and the killing on Sunday of at least 16 Afghan civilians imperils what the Obama administration once saw as an orderly plan for 2012: to speed the training of Afghan forces so that they can take the lead in combat missions, all while drawing the Taliban into negotiations to end more than a decade of constant war. President Obama and his aides had once hoped that by now they would have cemented the narrative that the Taliban were a spent force being pounded into peace negotiations and recognizing that ... Continue reading →