Techcordance

AOL

Media giant Time Warner announced Thursday morning that it will cast off its AOL division to become a standalone company.
Before that separation can take place, Time Warner will buy the 5 percent of AOL owned by Google so that it will have 100 percent control of AOL. Time Warner expects the transaction with Google to take place in the third quarter and the final AOL spinoff around the end of the year.
As an independent, publicly traded company, AOL will focus on growing its Web brands and services, as well as its advertising business, according to Time Warner.
The separation of AOL from Time Warner will put a final nail in the coffin of one of the emblematic mergers of the dot-com boom and bust. Brimming with the abundant funds and hyper-optimism of the Web’s go-go years, AOL–then known as America Online–acquired Time Warner in January 2001 to create the world’s largest media company. Within a year, however, it was already apparent that the union of new and old media was not as “supercharged” as its backers had promised.

Terrorism

A former member of the Palestine Liberation Organization who converted to Christianity says the recent arrest of four Muslim men suspected in a plot to blow up two New York synagogues illustrates that homegrown terrorism is a growing threat in the United States and elsewhere.
Three of the Muslim men who were apprehended are Americans, and one is a Haitian national. A federal magistrate has ordered the four men to remain in custody. Prosecutor Eric Snyder told the court that the men are extremely violent, pose an extreme danger to the community, and were eager to bring death to Jews.
The suspects, who were under FBI surveillance for more than a year, planted what they thought were bombs in cars parked outside each synagogue. They then intended to shoot down planes with guided surface-to-air missiles, but the missiles and the car bombs — which were provided by an FBI informant — had been deactivated. Police say the suspects all had criminal records and may have converted to Islam while in prison. Authorities say they had no known ties to al-Qaida.