Amazon is to bow out of DVD rentals and throw its weight behind Lovefilm, the leading European specialist,. Amazon is to transfer its subscribers and inject some cash to Lovefilm in exchange for a stake believed to be about 30 per cent of the company and valued at about £60 million (E80m) to £70 million.

Simon Calver, chief executive of Lovefilm, said the arrival of Amazon as the single biggest shareholder did not mean an end to plans for an eventual initial public offering or buy-out of the business. "This puts those options more firmly on the table than before," he said. Lovefilm, which hired Goldman Sachs in December 2006 to explore its strategic options, is backed by Arts Alliance Media, Index Ventures, Balderton Capital and DFJ Esprit.

Amazon will offer Lovefilm’s rental service via its own websites in the UK and Germany and provide marketing support.

2008 GBC Awards for Business Excellence

GBC welcomes entries from companies demonstrating a firm commitment to combating HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria through results-oriented programs. The awards will be presented at a high-level gala attended by member companies, government leaders and international NGO dignitaries in June, 2008. Previous galas have featured remarks by: European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Sir Elton John, Mrs. Graça Machel and global activists Bono and Angelina Jolie.

Awards will be granted in the eight categories listed below. Submissions demonstrating measurable impact will receive particular consideration.

The gluten-free phenomenon

Just when bread was starting to make a comeback after the low-carb craze, it has been hit with the gluten-free frenzy.

Hoards of people are giving up gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley and rye. Yet the growing numbers of gluten avoiders are not only people with celiac disease--which was once dismissed as a rare condition but is now estimated to affect 1 out of every 100 Americans.

Gluten has become the dietary villain du jour, the new "carb," if you will.

OBEDIENCE

The strange thing about Williams was that nobody had ever seen him. The faculty guidebook showed a gray box labeled NOT PICTURED; group photos in the Winchester yearbooks only showed Williams’s hand or arm, even though the captions advertised his presence. The college’s website gave a brief curriculum vitae but no photographic evidence. By that Monday afternoon, the first day of classes for the fall term at Winchester University, the search for Williams had, for some of his students, become almost compulsive. It was as if Williams were hiding himself from them, as if he were teasing them somehow. It had become a tradition at Winchester for students to find a picture of their professors before classes began; in this way, it was commonly believed, they could allay some of the anxiety when the man or woman strode into the room.

Welcome to the fabulous consumer electronics show

Best Buy Inc.'s chief executive says he is "very nervous" about being able to supply customers with the millions of digital TV converter boxes needed ahead of the shutdown of most analog TV transmissions in 13 months.

Prayers, Potatoes, and a Twister

"Tornadoes touched down near Dallas," the report said. Hearing this made me grateful to live in the western tip of the state, where the Franklin Mountains act as a buffer against such storms. Then a memory crept in from the back of my mind. I remembered the commotion that brought me outside one day, where I found Abuelita [grandmother] praying and watching a twister twirling in the distance. Abuelita's black hair was touched with silver, plaited in a long braid and wrapped into a bun. Her skin, the color of cinnamon, was wrinkled with time, and her brown eyes were intensely focused on the twister in the sky.

I was more interested in Abuelita's behavior than the funnel-shaped cloud in the distance. At eight, I was already accustomed to her ways. "Jesús, María y José!" she'd say at the clap of thunder and "Jesús mil veces!" when lightning followed.

After the borders came down

A tiny boy in a green shirt whirls around, his hand above his head before we are shown a shot of a tank blowing up, the soldiers' bodies thrown in the air. Chuckles of approval.

The couple and their six children, aged between six and 19, have applied for asylum in Poland and now live in a state-run centre for people waiting for their cases to be heard.