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SAN JOSE, Calif.—

PayPal suffered periodic breakdowns that crimped Internet sales for more than four hours Monday.

The main outage occurred from 1:30 p.m. EDT through 2:30 p.m. when PayPal was unable to process any transactions worldwide, according to company spokesman Anuj Nayar.

The online payment service continued to experience scattered problems until about 6:10 p.m EDT. A bad piece of hardware caused the trouble, according to PayPal’s blog.

PayPal is looking into whether merchants should be reimbursed for any lost sales during the outage, Nayar said. The payment service is owned by San Jose, Calif.-based eBay Inc., one of the Internet’s main shopping centers.

Full Story At CNN.com

Presley — the daughter of Elvis, the “King of Rock,” and the ex-wife of Jackson, the “King of Pop” — wrote on her MySpace page that she wanted “to say now what I have never said before because I want the truth out there for once.” Her publicist confirmed Presley wrote the blog.

She said her short marriage to Jackson — from May 1994 until January 1996 — “was not ‘a sham’ as is being reported in the press,” but she divorced him because she was “in over my head in trying” to save Jackson “from the inevitable, which is what has just happened.”

Jackson talked with her about his death during “a deep conversation” 14 years ago about “the circumstances of my father’s death.” Video Watch more from Presley on Jackson »

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BASEL, Switzerland – Swiss pharmaceuticals company Novartis AG said Friday it has successfully produced a first batch of swine flu vaccine weeks ahead of expectations.

The vaccine was made in cells, rather than grown in eggs as is usually the case with vaccines, the company said.

The announcement comes a day after the World Health Organization declared swine flu, also known as the H1N1 virus, a pandemic. The move indicates that a global outbreak is under way. WHO says drugmakers will likely have vaccines approved and ready for sale after September.

Full Story At  CBS News

(CBS/AP) North Korea vowed Tuesday to bolster its nuclear deterrent and boycott six-party talks aimed at its denuclearization in protest of a U.N. Security Council statement condemning the country’s recent rocket launch.

North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it “resolutely condemns” the action by the United Nations, which it said “rampantly” infringes upon the country’s sovereignty and “severely debases” the people’s dignity.

Full Story At CNN.com

The Group of Seven finance ministers also urged countries not to close their markets to goods and services from abroad.

“An open system of global trade and investment is indispensable for global prosperity,” they said in a statement at the end of their meeting Saturday.

“Protectionist measures … would only exacerbate the downturn” in the worldwide economy.

The ministers said the global banking crisis had revealed “fundamental weaknesses in the international financial system” and called for urgent reform.

Full Story At CNN.com

NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) — Pirates holding a Saudi-owned oil
supertanker off the coast of Somalia have set the vessel free after
receiving a ransom payment, a piracy monitor in neighboring Kenya and
the U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet said Saturday

“The supertanker VLCC Sirius Star is currently under way to safe waters,” Andrew Mwangura of the Kenya Seafarers Association said in an e-mail.

Mwangura said all 23 crew members of the Sirius Star, the largest ship ever hijacked by pirates, are safe and in good health. They are citizens of Croatia, Great Britain, the Philippines, Poland and Saudi Arabia.

Full Story At CNN.com

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Western governments stepped up efforts to rescue their citizens from Gaza Wednesday as violence swept the area for the 12th day in a row.
The International Committee of the Red Cross was unable to rescue foreigners due to security concerns.

The International Committee of the Red Cross was unable to rescue foreigners due to security concerns.
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More than 100 Western nationals remained trapped Wednesday night inside Gaza, the consulate general of Sweden based in Jerusalem, told CNN.

Among them were 34 Swedes as well as several Norwegian, Canadian, French and Polish nationals, the consulate general said

Full Storly At CNN.com

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The recent carnage in Gaza has left little doubt that within the tortured dynamic of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, both the chicken and the egg have completely and utterly lost their minds.

Regardless of who’s to blame for the origins of the conflict, shame on both Hamas and Israel for their recent violations of international law that have led to a humanitarian inferno in Gaza and southern Israel

Full Story At CNN.com

(CNN) — Australia declined a request from the Bush
administration to resettle detainees held by the United States at
Guantanamo Bay, the Australian Associated Press agency (AAP) reported
Saturday.

Australia’s acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard said each detainee was considered on a “case-by-case basis” and decided that none met her country’s “stringent national security and immigration criteria,” AAP reported.

Australia turned down a similar request from the Bush administration in early 2008 to resettle a small group of detainees. Washington approached Canberra again in early December.

Full Story At CNN.com

GAZA CITY (CNN) — Hamas militants fired dozens of rockets into southern Israel on Monday despite a 10-day Israeli military campaign that reportedly has left more than 500 Palestinians dead.
Senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar

Senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar says rocket attacks on Israel will continue.
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Neither Israel nor the Hamas leaders in Gaza showed any sign of considering a cease-fire in the face of continuing international pressure to do so.

Full Story At Yahoo! News

UNITED NATIONS – The United States has blocked approval of a U.N. Security Council statement calling for an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers, diplomats said.

French U.N. Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert, the council president, said the 15 council members could not agree on a statement in closed discussions held after Israel launched a ground invasion into the Gaza Strip on Saturday. But he said there were “strong convergences” among the members to express concern about the deteriorating situation in Gaza and the need for “an immediate, permanent and fully respected cease-fire.”

Full Story At Yahoo! News

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israeli ground troops and tanks cut swaths through the Gaza Strip early Sunday, bisecting the coastal territory and surrounding its biggest city as the new phase of a devastating offensive against Hamas gained momentum.

Thousands of soldiers in three brigade-size formations pushed into Gaza after nightfall Saturday, beginning a long-awaited ground offensive after a week of intense aerial bombardment. Black smoke billowed over Gaza City at first light and bursts of machine gun fire rang out