From Statistics Canada (Dec. 6)

The operating profit margin for Canadian newspaper publishers declined for the second consecutive year in 2005, as the growth in operating expenses outpaced the growth in revenue.

Data from the survey of newspaper publishers show that the industry's operating profit margin in 2005 was 13.3%, compared with 14.2% in 2004 and 15.1% in 2003.

Microsoft's Bill Gates once predicted the problem of email spam would be solved by 2006. Ha! Ha! Ha! That's like calling something "raccoon-proof."

From a Dec. 5 AP story on ABC News:

 German authorities have informed NATO-led troops in Afghanistan that two journalists may have been kidnapped in the country's volatile south, NATO's spokesman said Tuesday.

The two journalists, whose identities and media organization were not identified, reportedly went missing in Kandahar province on Monday, said Maj. Luke Knitting, the spokesman for the NATO-led forces in Afghanistan.

"German authorities told us that two journalists may have been kidnapped in southern Afghanistan," Knittig said.

A German foreign ministry spokesman in Berlin, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, confirmed that it has reports of a German citizen possibly missing in Afghanistan since Monday.

He had no information on the other journalist's nationality.

From the BBC:

A Yemeni editor has been fined for reprinting controversial cartoons about the Prophet Muhammad from a Danish newspaper earlier this year.
Muhammad Assadi of the Yemen Observer daily was found guilty of denigrating Islam and fined 0.5m riyals (£1,280).

The cartoons caused Muslim anger around the world. Mr Assadi said he wanted to show Yemenis how insulting they were.

Last month a Yemeni editor was jailed for a year for reprinting the images. Another still faces similar charges.