SOA Software Inc., formerly Digital Evolution, on Monday said it has acquired ThoughtDigital LLC, adding messaging software that's focused on Oracle Corp.'s business applications.
In addition, the acquisition gives Santa Monica, Calif.-based, SOA a stronger presence in the eastern United States, company officials said. ThoughtDigital is headquartered in New York.

Financial details were not disclosed.

SOA sells software for web services management and security. Web services is a set of standards, based on extensible markup language, for linking applications across a network that uses the Internet protocol as a transport mechanism. SOA also provides a registry, or look-up service, for applications that are exposed through web services.

ThoughtDigital software provides event-based messaging. The software, in general, pushes information to other applications in an enterprise when a business event occurs, such as a change in an account balance or a customer places a new order. All the events and actions are tracked through a separate data store.

Under the agreement, BlackBerry devices in the "coming months" will ship with the full-color, graphical Yahoo Messenger client. The deal builds on Sunnyvale, Calif.-based, Yahoo's strategy of extending its core desktop services to mobile devices.

The Yahoo! Messenger service on the BlackBerry platform will allow consumers to see who in their buddy lists are online, send and receive instant messages, have multiple conversations at once and participate in online conferences.

BlackBerry users today can access Yahoo's search, news and sports services through the Yahoo Mobile Internet portal.

Credits: http://informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=159402900

Brian Nichols’ constitutional rights were the first thing in the judge’s mind as Nichols’ second trial on rape charges was set to begin. That was what triggered a hideous series of incidents in Atlanta in which four people, including that judge, were killed.

The judge wanted to make sure that jurors were not prejudiced against Nichols by seeing him handcuffed, shackled or in orange prisoner garb. So the 33-year-old former football player walked down a corridor toward the courtroom with only a 51-year-old, 5-4, 130-pound female guard between him and freedom.

It was no surprise thatNichols was able to disarm his female guard, either shoot her or strike her on the head with her own weapon, then rush into the courtroom where he shot and killed the judge and his court reporter. Also killed moments later was a deputy sheriff who tried to stop Nichols as he rushed outside, and later during the 24 hours he was at large, a federal officer was shot and killed and his gun and vehicle taken.

That Nichols finally surrendered to police without further loss of life or injury is a fortuitous circumstance indeed. But the fact remains that Atlanta police, sheriff’s officers, and state and federal officers had to play “catch-up” for a full day because someone in charge of security at the Fulton County courthouse dropped the ball with a resounding thud.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of anti-Syrian protesters flooded central Beirut on Monday in what witnesses said was Lebanon's biggest demonstration since former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri's killing exactly a month ago.

Flag-waving crowds from across Lebanon packed the capital's Martyrs' Square, near Hariri's grave, and swamped nearby areas to demand an international inquiry into his death, the sacking of Syrian-backed security chiefs and a total Syrian pullout.

In contrast to previous anti-Syrian protests since a bomb blast killed Hariri on Feb. 14, many Sunni Muslims joined Druze and Christians in taking to the streets. Hariri was a Sunni.

"We demand to know who killed Rafik al-Hariri," said Mustapha Mrad, a Sunni demonstrator carrying a Lebanese flag with a Hariri badge pinned to his jacket.

Organizers said a million people had joined the protest. No independent estimate was available, but witnesses said the rally looked even bigger than last week's pro-Syrian demonstration organized by Hizbollah and attended by hundreds of thousands.

Men, woman and children formed a vast sea of red and white -- the opposition colors -- as they thronged the square and streets all around. They stood in hushed silence for two minutes to commemorate Hariri, a billionaire philanthropist.

They heard their leaders heaping blame on Syria and its allies for the assassination and demanding a Syrian pullout.

"You want the truth? It's clear... the world and Lebanon know them (the killers) well, know them one by one, name by name, rank by rank," said Marwan Hamadeh, a Druze opposition MP who escaped an assassination attempt in October.

Syria has denied any involvement in Hariri's killing.

Credits: http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=7894868

NEW YORK International Business Machines said Monday that it was buying Ascential Software, which makes software that helps business manage data, for $1.1 billion.

Ascential is a data integration company. For instance, IBM said that retailers use Ascential's software to gather, standardize and structure sales information from multiple sources, such as the Internet, catalogs and stores, and make rapid inventory and pricing adjustments in response to changing market demands.

Revenue at Ascential, a publicly held company based in Westboro, Massachusetts, rose 46 percent to $271.9 million in 2004. The company has 3,000 customers, it said in its latest annual report.

The purchase price of $18.50 a share is a 17.8 percent premium over Ascential's closing price of $15.70 on Friday on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Ascential shares surged $2.61, or 16.6 percent, to $18.31 in afternoon trading Monday on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

The purchase, if approved by shareholder and regulators, would be IBM's largest since its 2003 acquisition of Rational Software for $2.1 billion. Software accounts for 16 percent of Armonk, New York-based IBM's sales. In the past year, the company has bought companies such as SRD, which makes identity-detection software, and Venetica, whose software accesses documents and pictures stored in varied formats.

"This is a good buy for IBM," said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer at Solaris Asset Management. "Business intelligence software is one of the fastest-growing areas of technology."

Credits: http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/03/14/business/ibm.html

ISFAHAN, Iran Trading the banks of Vienna's Blue Danube for the muddy waters of the Zayandeh Rood river of Isfahan, OPEC is meeting in Iran for the first time since the Islamic revolution toppled the monarchy and brought in the rule of the clerics.

The gathering in Iran is a testimony to a consensus that has shaped a rare unity among the Gulf oil producers in the cartel over the past five years. This rapprochement helped set in motion the group's most successful period since its creation in 1960.

Meeting here for the first time in 34 years, oil ministers from Gulf monarchies like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait - once bitter opponents of Iran's radical regime - will be rubbing shoulders with representatives from Nigeria or Libya, Indonesia and Algeria. In the absence of a government, Iraq is sending a senior adviser from its Oil Ministry.

The Isfahan meeting also comes at a time of acute diplomatic tension with the United States over Iran's nuclear program. The potential for a confrontation over Tehran's alleged

Credits: http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/03/14/business/opec.html