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The United States Postal Service has banned all international shipments of electronics with lithium batteries effective May 16. The cost for families to send gadgets via private parcel service to enlisted loved ones in some countries could almost quadruple. Starting on May 16, new United States Postal Service (USPS) regulations will prohibit iPads, Kindles, smartphones, and other electronics with lithium batteries from being mailed to overseas troops or foreign customers.

By Henning Gloystein LONDON (Reuters) - Wild Well Control, a company that helped tackle the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and Kuwait's raging oil fires, have joined efforts to avert disaster at a leaking gas platform off Scotland, rig operator Total said. Firefighters and engineers from the Houston-based company are experts at disasters such as oil rig explosions and have been dubbed "Hellfighters" by Hollywood. The firm was hired along with Britain's Oil Spill Response, Total said this week, after a gas leak began last Sunday aboard its Elgin platform some 240 km (150 miles) off the east coast of Scotland

At age 27, Danny Meyer abandoned plans to go to law school and decided to open Union Square Cafe in New York City--a decision about which New York City's food lovers are eternally grateful. In the 25 years since, Meyer has opened 28 restaurants and--incredibly, given the cutthroat nature of the New York restaurant scene, where restaurants open and close more frequently than subway doors--he has only shut one down. Meyer's Union Square Cafe, Eleven Madison Park, and Gramercy Tavern consistently appear on most major New York top restaurant lists.

LivingSocial has acquired popular pan-Arab coupon site GoNabit for an undisclosed sum, which is good news for local startups and quite bad news for Groupon's struggling Middle East operations. LivingSocial announced the acquisition of pan-Arab deals site GoNabit for an undisclosed sum today

A new Harvard University study details how American and Canadian companies provided Internet filtering and monitoring software to the Iranian government, Mubarak's Egypt and other repressive states. It's still going on