Amazon founder buying Washington Post
LOS ANGELES – Jeff Bezos, the Amazon.com founder who helped bring books into the digital age, is going after another pillar of “old media”: The Washington Post.
Bezos, 49, struck a deal announced Monday to buy the venerable Washington broadsheet and other newspapers for $250 million. It was a startling demonstration of how the Internet has created winners and losers and transformed the media landscape.
Meanwhile The Washington Post, like most newspapers, has been losing readers and advertisers to the Internet while watching its value plummet.
Bezos is buying the newspaper as an individual. Amazon.com Inc. is not involved.
Washington Post Co. chairman and CEO Donald Graham called Bezos a “uniquely good new owner.”
Convicted serial killer executed in Florida
STARKE, Fla. – A man convicted of murdering eight people in Miami-Dade County in the late 1970s was executed Monday night at the Florida State Prison, despite his lawyers’ pleas that he was too mentally ill to be put to death.
John Errol Ferguson, 65, died at 6:17 p.m., after a lethal injection.
The execution came less than two hours after the U.S. Supreme Court denied a final request for a stay.
Before the execution, Ferguson made a brief statement before 25 witnesses, including family members of the victims.
“I just want everyone to know that I am the prince of God and will rise again,” he said calmly.
The entire execution took 16 minutes.
Japan gather to mark Hiroshima anniversary
HIROSHIMA, Japan – Japan is commemorating the 68th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima with pledges to seek to eliminate nuclear weapons.
About 50,000 people gathered Tuesday in Hiroshima’s peace park near the epicenter of the 1945 blast that killed up to 140,000 people. The bombing of Nagasaki three days later killed tens of thousands more, prompting Japan’s surrender.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Japan has the duty to seek to wipe out nuclear weapons.
Associated Press
