Orange in talks with buyers of fiber assets to get Jazztel deal approved

By Leila Abboud and Gwénaëlle Barzic PARIS (Reuters) – Orange has begun talks with several potential buyers for parts of Jazztel's fiber network, which it has agreed to sell to get regulatory approval for the takeover of the Spanish broadband company. Nicolas Laederich, an executive who handles regulatory affairs and competition issues for the French telecoms group, said the divestment would be paired with a promise to rent out capacity on the company's fixed network to whoever buys the fiber assets

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Texas gunman had happy childhood in Pakistan but struggled in U.S.

By Katharine Houreld ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Nadir Soofi, a gunman shot dead after opening fire at a Texas exhibit of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad, was a popular schoolboy in Pakistan but struggled to adjust to the United States after moving there as a teen, friends said on Tuesday. Soofi’s story appeared to trace a familiar arc for some Western Islamists – disappointment, alienation, and a search for belonging that ended with the embrace of militancy. Friends in Pakistan, who studied with Soofi at the elite International School of Islamabad, were stunned to discover that police had identified him as was one of the attackers.

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China says Indian prime minister to visit next week

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit China next week, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday, his first trip to India's northern neighbor since being elected last year. Modi will be in China from May 14-16, the ministry said in a brief statement. China and India have growing commercial links and deep historical ties, but their recent history has been overshadowed by suspicion and the two have yet to sort out a festering border dispute.

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SurveyMonkey CEO, husband of Facebook’s Sandberg, dies

SurveyMonkey CEO and husband of Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, Dave Goldberg, died unexpectedly on Friday night, his brother wrote in a Facebook post on Saturday. “It’s with incredible shock and sadness that I’m letting our friends and family know that my amazing brother, Dave Goldberg, beloved husband of Sheryl Sandberg, father of two wonderful children, and son of Paula Goldberg, passed away suddenly last night,” Robert Goldberg wrote.

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U.S. telecom groups, AT&T seek to block new Internet rules

By Alina Selyukh WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. telecom industry groups, alongside AT&T Inc and CenturyLink Inc, called for regulators to block parts of new rules for Internet service providers on Friday, citing “crushing” compliance costs and threats to investment.

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LinkedIn follows Twitter, shocks social media investors

Shares of LinkedIn Corp, operator of the most popular social network for professionals, fell 20 percent in early trading on Friday, wiping out more than $6 billion of market value, after the company slashed its full-year forecast. LinkedIn reported on Thursday its slowest quarterly revenue growth since it went public four years ago. The surprisingly weak results followed Twitter Inc's on Tuesday.

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Music streaming service Grooveshark shuts down to settle infringement

Online music streaming service Grooveshark, admitting “very serious mistakes,” shut down its operations as part of a settlement with major record labels, joining the ranks of several now-defunct peers sued over copyright infringement. In a message posted to its website on Thursday, Grooveshark said that “despite (the) best of intentions, we made very serious mistakes

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Quake-hit Nepalis need information, not just food and water

By Nita Bhalla NEW DELHI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – There is probably no other place in the world right now where information – from the fate of your family members to where to get food and water – is more desperately needed than in the Nepal, devastated by a powerful earthquake six days ago. The 7.8 magnitude quake brought down thousands of buildings in the densely-populated Kathmandu Valley, which includes the capital, severely damaged telecommunications, tore apart roads and snapped bridges.

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No meetings at tourist hotspots, China reminds officials

China’s top graft buster took the unusual step on Friday of plastering its website with pictures of 21 top Chinese tourist sites where officials are banned from holding meetings, a reminder of its crackdown on extravagance and corruption. As the country marked the Labour Day holiday, the party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection’s normally quite staid website posted pictures of the 21 no-go zones under the caption: “Though these sites are good, just don’t meet there!” The sites include the Badaling sector of the Great Wall outside of Beijing, the old summer residence of the Qing emperors at Chengde and the beach resort of Sanya, which China likes to style its answer to Hawaii or Bali.

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