» US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice lashed out at former US President Jimmy Carter today for his efforts at negotiating an Arab-Israeli peace settlement, saying "the United States is not going to deal with Hamas and we certainly told president Carter that we did not think meeting with Hamas was going to help the Palestinians." Although Carter maintains that Hamas and Syria are open to peace with Israel, the leader of the former who is in exile in the latter has said that Hamas will "accept a state on the (1967) line with Jerusalem as capital, real sovereignty and full right of return for refugees but without recognizing Israel." RELATED: "Obama criticized the decision by Carter, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, to hold meetings with the group as a 'bad idea'." [04.22.2008 06:00 pm]

» "The saga of Comcast's throttling of BitTorrent file-sharing traffic--and intense interest from the Federal Communications Commission, including a hearing at Stanford University last week--has appended the topic onto at least some politicians' to-do list." BACKGROUND: Having irked many with their crackdown on BitTorrent users, Comcast actually paid people to fill the audience at a previous net neutrality discussion held at Harvard Law School. Last week in Palo Alto none of the major telecommunications companies even bothered showing up. RELATED: Video of the FCC hearing. AND: Even Justine Bateman has something to say about web neutrality. [04.22.2008 05:00 pm]

» Ghostly Swim is the name of a new compilation album put together by the fine folks and friendly faces at Ghostly International in conjunction with the [Adult Swim] network. The collection features 19 tracks from regular Ghostly crew members like Matthew Dear and Dabrye, along with a couple of new signings and "favorite friends of the label" like School Of Seven Bells, Milosh, and Dark Party. According to a press release issued today, "along with the new music, BoyCatBird (Ghostly's mascots) make their animated debut in the awesome 'City Suckers' video by Daniel Garcia/Superfi." The compilation is free and available for download now. [04.22.2008 04:00 pm]

» !K7 Records have announced that the next installment in their DJ-Kicks series will be delivered courtesy of dubstep producer Burial, who landed at #8 on the LAS 2007 Year-End Music Report - in a tie with Dälek - with his album Untrue. As the label's press release puts it - and quite accurately for once - "the South London producer is notoriously shy of press and public performances yet his last two albums on the Hyperdub label have established him as one of the global leaders in this exploding scene on word-of-mouth alone." The DJ Kicks collection will be released on June 23rd. [04.22.2008 03:00 pm]

» The US military says it killed five militants late yesterday in Baghdad's Sadr City, where "the Iraqi government's program to restore basic services like electricity, sewage and trash collection is lagging, jeopardizing the effort to win over the area's wary residents." RELATED: The BBC is reporting that today special forces units from the US and UK have been conducting counter-insurgency operations in Basra against Shia militiamen. [04.22.2008 02:00 pm]

» "Realtors in many US states say lenders are demanding excessively high prices before allowing distressed borrowers to offload their homes in 'short sales', making the housing crisis worse." Sales of existing homes were down 2-percent in March. The median home price in the US is now $200,700 - which, depending on where you live, can buy a little or a lot. [04.22.2008 01:30 pm]

» All political eyes are on Pennsylvania today where first-time voters are riveted by the primary and both Clinton and Obama are campaigning until the polls close. RELATED: All three candidates have been making a media sweep - Obama hits up "The Daily Show," Clinton visits "Countdown with Keith Olbermann," and McCain makes an appearance on... the wrestling program "Monday Night RAW." [04.22.2008 01:00 pm]

» "I can't see the hybrid category totally chilling out," says an industry analyst of the steady increase in hybrid sales despite an overall sales decline of 3-percent in the US auto industry. [04.22.2008 10:00 am]