National / International News

The Department of Veterans Affairs doesn't track how many free gun locks it gives out or whether they're even effective. Rather, the devices are viewed as a stalling technique in the event a veteran picks up a gun in a moment of crisis.

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The Dow posted another record high this morning. The surge came on the heels of a new report from the payroll processing company ADP, which showed that private employers added 198,000 jobs in February. Tomorrow, the Labor Department releases its February jobs report.

David Kelly, chief global strategist with JP Morgan Funds, joins Marketplace Morning Report host Jeremy Hobson to share his predictions on what's ahead for the Dow and the labor market.

 

 

There was outrage when T-shirts went on sale with offensive variations of the Keep Calm and Carry On slogan. Is the joke over?

Two men are found guilty of plying teenage girls with drink and drugs in West Yorkshire, before raping them.

A proposal to ban the international trade in polar bear parts is proving hugely divisive at the Cites meeting in Bangkok

A man who beat his heavily pregnant former fiancee to death, causing the death of their unborn child, is jailed for life.

News Corp's education arm unveils a tablet targeted at US schools, reopening the debate about the best way to use technology in the classroom.

With a hand-picked vice president now controlling the purse strings and opponents looking weak, NPR's Juan Forero says the controversial and charismatic leader's policies are likely to survive for at least a while. Chávez died Tuesday.

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The ill-treatment of Palestinian children in Israeli jails is "widespread, systematic and institutionalised", a UN report says.

Remember the MiniDisc? Way better than a cassette. In the 1990s, Sony once hyped its format with ads starring supermodel Claudia Shiffer.

Video of Claudia Schiffer in a bar: Jon Lovitz prank

 

The MiniDisc is a little optical disc in a cartridge the size of a thin pad of Post-it Notes. Sony has announced it is killing off the format this month.

"I think I was actually pretty close to the target, I was about 13 at the time," says Seth Fiegerman, writer for the website Mashable, who bought into the MiniDisc craze as an impressionable youth.  

According to Michael Bierylo, Chair of the Electronics Production and Design Department at the Berklee College of Music, the MiniDisc was engineered to make imperfect copies in an effort to curb music piracy.

But the loss of the format makes life tough for musicians.

"A lot of the things I did in the 90s on a computer, the software that was used to make the production, the companies are no longer in business and modern computers won't run the software," says Bierylo.

Bierylo, who has boxes of old floppy disks from the 90s, says he jokes with his wife that he'd like to mount a exhibit of obsolete formats, like the consumer electronics version of the Island of Misfit Toys.

To hear more about the origin of the MiniDisc, click on the audio player above.

 

Controversial Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez died yesterday, leaving the nation – and the world – to reflect on his legacy. Both critics and supporters of Chavez agree that he has changed the role of the poor in Venezuela. But how will Chavez's passing affect the economies of other countries in Latin America?

Stephen Keppel, economics editor for Univision News, joins Marketplace Morning Report host Jeremy Hobson to discuss Chavez's economic and political legacy abroad.

David Cameron defends the government's opposition to EU plans for a bankers' bonus cap.

The UK's top payday loan companies are given 12 weeks to change their behaviour after a study finds evidence of "widespread irresponsible lending".

Winter storm Saturn, which has already left Chicago digging out from 10 inches, is expected to dump more snow on Maryland and Virginia.

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Using fences to separate lions from humans could help to save them from extinction, a report suggests.

News photos over 24 hours: 6 March

The majority of Dreams beds stores have been bought by Sun European Partners, saving 1,600 jobs a day after the company went into administration.

Counting of Kenyan election results slows down because of problems with electronic systems being used in the polls for the first time.

Bridget Harris tells 5 live how Liberal Democrat chief executive Lord Rennard acted inappropriately towards her.

Two men from Londonderry are refused bail as they appear in court charged in connection with the discovery of four mortar bombs and a pipe bomb in the city.