T-Mobile UK and Orange in joint venture

Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom on Tuesday said they wanted to merge their British mobile-phone units T-Mobile UK and Orange UK to create a market leader better able to compete with two remaining big rivals. The two companies said they had started exclusive negotiations about putting their assets into a 50-50 joint venture by the end of October.

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Geithner vs. the Regulators: A Time for Swearing

The expletive-laden rant Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner unleashed during a closed meeting with regulators on Friday, July 31, has players in Washington and on Wall Street wondering one thing: What got the usually mild-mannered Geithner so incensed? Establishing a new regulatory framework for the financial markets is not the kind of politically charged, life-or-death issue that should drive a normally discreet Cabinet member to go on a blue streak in front of dozens of officials. But Geithner and the Obama Administration have more at stake in getting reform pushed through Congress by the end of the year than it may seem.

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Why toilet paper belongs to America

Since the dawn of time, people have found nifty ways to clean up after the bathroom act. The most common solution was simply to grab what was at hand: coconuts, shells, snow, moss, hay, leaves, grass, corncobs, sheep’s wool — and, later, thanks to the printing press — newspapers, magazines, and pages of books. The ancient Greeks used clay and stone; the Romans, sponges and salt water.

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