AOL to buy Huffington Post for $315m

AOL, the US internet company, is making a big bet on the viability of free online content by agreeing to buy the Huffington Post, the left-leaning web operation started by Arianna Huffington, for $315m.

The deal, which was announced late on Sunday night, is the latest and most significant step AOL has taken to becoming a serious player in advertising-supported internet content.

Carlos Slim Gets Richer as Mines, Mobile Beat Gates, Buffett

Carlos Slim’s Mexican holdings from mining to communications helped him beat Bill Gates and Warren Buffett on the stock market for the second straight year, and gains in 2011 may widen his lead atop the global wealth list.
Slim’s publicly disclosed holdings surged about 37 percent to $70 billion in 2010, with wireless carrier America Movil SAB representing $48.9 billion of that wealth, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The 22 percent jump in Berkshire Hathaway Inc. shares wasn’t enough for Buffett to catch up, and Gates’s Microsoft Corp. fell, hurting his returns even as he spread his investments to other companies.
Mexico will be “the emerging market of 2011,” boosting Slim’s holdings, said Walter Molano, head of research at BCP Securities Inc. in Greenwich, Connecticut. Growth will come from an economic expansion in the U.S., Mexico’s top trading partner, and from investors looking for growth opportunities outside of Brazil, Russia, India and China, he said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-02/billionaire-slim-gets-richer-as-mining-mobile-beat-gates-buffett-returns.html

Death of the Don

The Rizzutos of Montreal seemed cast by Hollywood. For almost a century the Rizzuto family wrote the history of organized crime in Canada and made billions doing it. Vito Rizzuto is the boss — the CEO of Canadian crime known as Montreal's Teflon Don. With his father and son — Nick Sr. and Nick Jr. — Vito built an empire on gambling, drugs and crooked construction contracts on huge public works projects.

With hidden cameras, wiretaps and undercover footage broadcast here for the first time, the fifth estate goes deep inside the Canadian mafia. It's a story of money and the mob that traces the Rizzutos ruthless rise from their beginnings in New York City to murder and mayhem on the streets of Montreal. As the Rizzuto family's control over organized crime dissolves in blood and loss, the fifth estate's Bob McKeown takes an inside look at how it held onto power for so long and what comes next as Vito Rizzuto prepares for release from prison in 2012.

http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/2010-2011/deathofthedon/