During his annual start-of-the-year news conference on January 23, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that "many people assume that Russia has such a firm position on Kosovo and warns that [its declaration of independence] will set a precedent just because it [secretly wants this] to happen in order to begin recognizing" other regions declaring independence near Russia. But he insisted that "the Russian leadership has never said that after Kosovo we will immediately recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia."

"Russia now is using the politics of sticks and carrots toward Georgia.

Apple iPhone Event

This is Jason Snell reporting live from the Town Hall theater on the Apple campus in Cupertino. The room is filling up with members of the media and analyst communities, music is playing (Mike Doughty's “27 Jennifers," if you must know), and we've been told to silence our cell phones under penalty of death, or at least very stern looks from Apple PR representatives.

US mobile browser usage: iPhone 71 percent of market share.

UIL realignment results in a tough 5A and a 3A baseball powerhouse

Calallen, Alice, Flour Bluff, Tuloso-Midway and Kingsville will put some miles on their buses as they travel between 100-150 miles to test their collective mettle against three Laredo teams that have been added into their district fray.

Teens, tweens find new friend

FORT COLLINS — Lauren Myracle is 38 going on 15, and fluent in the instant-message lingua franca of the tweens and teens who've made her the literary equivalent of a rock star.

Her novel "ttyl" — e-shorthand for "talk to you later" — was written in the form of instant messages, composed at the Fort Collins Starbucks that's become Myracle's de facto office.

Along with companion volumes "ttfn" ("ta-ta for now") and "L8r, g8r" ("Later, gator"), that book launched a white-hot career arc that's still curving up, trailing Myracle, who seems a little stunned, like a child with a runaway kite.

"It's so silly!" she says happily.

Wide-eyed, with sassy short hair, Myracle punctuates her sentences with exclamation points in print and aloud, waving pink-glitter fingernails for extra emphasis.

IIS 6.0 Mature at Last

WHEN I FIRST TAUGHT Windows NT 4.0 courses, Internet Information Server (IIS) 2.0 was included in the base operating system. It was a big improvement over IIS 1.0, and I still remember the fun I had showing students how easy it was to set up a Web server. That was about six years ago, when Web servers running on NT were an exception. Since then, things have changed considerably. IIS has improved in performance, increased in functionality and grown in the number of deployments because of the changes. Netcraft reports that IIS has between 24 percent and 35 percent of the market, depending on how its measured. I expect the increased security and performance of IIS 6.0 to bump up those numbers a great deal. So lets look at IIS 6.0 and what it brings to the table.

In putting together this article, I sat down with several of my former IIS students over lunch and showed them the new Process Model for IIS 6.0.

Climate change is a challenge, say Scots

Gordon also leaves computers, stereos, televisions and video game machines on for hours when not using them. Instead of putting on a jumper, he turns up the heating in his room. Family holidays involve flights to France and Egypt.• EARLY ADULTHOOD: Buys a seven-year-old old Ford Escort as a student, flies to Thailand on holidays. On getting a job, he upgrades to a VW Golf GTI, goes to a large out-of-town shopping centre, buying food from all over the world, and takes holidays in Spain.• FAMILY MAN: Buys a Volvo V70 estate car, food bill and miles rise as children are born. Holidays are in the United States. Children leave home, reducing emissions, but Gordon buys a Mercedes Benz S500 and now holidays in Peru. He consumes 33kg of food from around the world a week, resulting in 4,370kg of greenhouse gases a year from transport costs.• RETIREMENT: Buys a Jaguar XJ8, takes annual holiday in New Zealand.• DEATH: Chooses a brushed steel coffin and elaborate concrete catacomb.Lifetime emissions of greenhouse gases: 1251 tonnesAWARE AMY• CHILDHOOD: Wears washable nappies, saving 12kg of greenhouse gas emissions a year, compared with disposables.

Two murders and two life sentences won't alter one convict's ...

Nothing says "I love you" like fork-tongued thrash metal. That's why, just in time for V-Day, we bring you the romantic saga of Dallas-based Damageplan, the new noise gods on the block formed by guitarist Dimebag Darrell and drummer Vinnie Paul, formerly of Pantera. With Pat Lachman on vocals, Bob Zilla on bass and, we figure, Lucifer on cow bell, Damageplan has recorded New Found Power, a full-length that came out February 10 on Elektra. It's filled with valentines such as "Soul Bleed" and "Fuck You," which features the sly seduction: "Fuck this, all of this/Bitch and moan and piss." Awwww. I think we can agree that New Found Power is the perfect Valentine's Day gift, especially if your lover prefers switchblades to Cupid's little arrows. After all, what's a dozen roses when you could give her "Blunt Force Trauma" (track 12)? Gosh, honey, you shouldn't have.

Clinton campaign starts 5-point attack on Obama

Surely a man of any integrity would not participate in such a spectacle. Obama is either out-of-the-loop, shallower than we dare imagine, or far sinister than he lets on. Is this our concern? No. Our concern as voters, is our vote. With our vote lies our own responsibility towards this nation, and its citizens.

Installing Apache 2.2 on Windows Vista SP1 - More Open Source Love ...

Microsoft has a rather ambiguous relationship with open source. On one hand the Redmond company is avidly competing with members of the OSS community that have adopted the open source business model, throwing its entire weight behind its own proprietary software strategy. And on the other, Microsoft is increasingly forced by its own customers to provide an interoperability bridge between its products and open source solutions. So far, the Redmond company has responded by offering increased support for heterogeneous .

Pakistan blocks YouTube for 'blasphemous' content: officials

An inter-ministerial committee has decided to block YouTube because it contained "blasphemous content, videos and documents," a government official told AFP.