Internet auctioneer eBay Inc. began reneging on its promises to Craigslist shortly after taking a minority interest in the online classifieds site, Craigslist founder Craig Newmark testified Thursday.

Newmark said he began having concerns about eBay within months of inking a deal in August 2004 that gave eBay a 28 percent stake in Craigslist. He testified in a lawsuit in which eBay claims he and Craigslist CEO James Buckmaster improperly acted to dilute eBay's minority interest after a falling out in 2007.

EBay executives, including then-CEO Meg Whitman, indicated that they would be happy with holding a minority stake for several years, and that Craigslist would be eBay's exclusive play in the online classifieds market, Newmark said.

Instead, eBay soon began pressing for a bigger stake in Craigslist and acquiring other online classified sites overseas.

"EBay, specifically Meg Whitman, made commitments and broke them," Newmark said.

Newmark said he considered eBay's insistence on acquiring more than 28 percent to be a deal breaker for Craigslist, which also had received overtures from Google Inc. and private equity firm Warburg Pincus. He said talks with eBay had "cratered" before he and Buckmaster were called to a meeting with Whitman in July 2004.

Whitman, who is seeking the GOP gubernatorial nomination in California, assured Craigslist that she was happy with a 28 percent share while the two companies went through a three-year "courtship," Newmark testified. Whitman said the relationship would end amicably if it didn't work, and reiterated that Craigslist was "the" play in classifieds for eBay, according to Newmark.

"We decided that eBay could be trusted, and we proceeded with the deal," he said, adding that eBay executives assured him that they shared Craigslist's community-oriented values.

But Newmark said no one at eBay, which is based in San Jose, Calif., informed him that the company was working to acquire online classified sites in Europe and was developing its own classifieds project, named Kijiji, at the same time it was talking to Craigslist.

He also said no one told him that eBay employees working on other classifieds projects were sharing confidential Craigslist information.

"What would your reaction have been?" defense attorney Anne Foster asked Newmark.

"Deal breaker," Newmark responded.

Newmark defended the poison pill and other corporate measures adopted by San Francisco-based Craigslist in January 2008 in response to eBay's domestic launch of Kijiji in the United States.

"I was certain that they treat all shareholders fairly," he said.

But eBay contends that the measures improperly diluted its stake in Craigslist and resulted in the loss of its Craigslist board seat.

"We feared that people might be nominated to the board who might not have the interest of the (Craigslist) community and the company at heart, so we wanted to make it harder for them to be on the board," Newmark said.

Under cross-examination from eBay attorney Michael Rhodes, Newmark said he did not personally contact any eBay officials in late 2007 to let them know the corporate governance measures were being considered.

Rhodes also noted that while Newmark accused eBay officials of dishonesty, he misled members of Craigslist who asked if he had received any money from the August 2004 deal, or whether Craigslist had sold stock to eBay. In fact, Newmark received $9.5 million, and the deal was structured in a way in which Craigslist sold new stock to eBay, Rhodes said.

"You misled them time and again," he told Newmark.

Newmark replied that he was acting in accordance with an agreement not to disclose details of the transaction.

Testimony was to resume Friday.

There's nothing Super about the Pittsburgh Steelers anymore.

The defending NFL champions lost their fifth straight and had their playoff hopes thrown for a loss by the lowly Cleveland Browns, who ended a 12-game skid against their bitter rival by beating the Steelers 13-6 on Thursday night in subzero wind chills.

Ben Roethlisberger was sacked eight times and lost for the first time in 11 career games against the Browns (2-11), who extended Pittsburgh's longest losing streak in six years and defeated the Steelers (6-7) at home for the first time since 2000.

Pittsburgh is going to need help to make the playoffs, a stunning freefall for a team that hit the season's halfway point at 6-2.

Unexpected losses to Kansas City, Oakland and Cleveland — three of the NFL's worst teams with a combined record of 9-28 — have pushed the Steelers to the brink.

"To lose five straight coming off a Super Bowl from last year is embarrassing," wide receiver Hines Ward said. "There's nothing fun about losing games, especially five in a row. We're better than that. We should play better than that. With three games left, you're going to see who really wants to go out here and play for the pride of this organization and this city and who doesn't want to be around here."

Chris Jennings, who began the season on Cleveland's practice squad, scored on a 10-yard run and Phil Dawson kicked a pair of 29-yard field goals for the Browns, who snapped a seven-game losing streak, a 10-game slide at home and beat the Steelers for just the second time in 20 games.

Roethlisberger tried to rally the Steelers, but his fourth-down pass to Santonio Holmes with less than two minutes left was knocked down by linebacker David Bowens.

When Holmes was tackled on a punt return and the final second ticked off the scoreboard's clock, frozen Browns fans, who were nearly outnumbered by Terrible Towel-waving Pittsburgh fans, danced in the aisles. Several Cleveland players sprinted down field and jumped into the Dawg Pound section to celebrate.

"It means everything," Browns do-it-all wide receiver Josh Cribbs said. "There are a lot of Steelers fans around the city so I hope people go to work and kick those Steelers fans."

The Steelers, whose defense lost some of its spirit and much of its toughness when Pro Bowl safety Troy Polamalu went down with a knee injury, left the field stunned.

"Hurtful," Holmes said. "I never thought I'd be losing five games in a row. I know those guys will continue to fight these last three games. Hopefully, we can get back in the lab this summer, regroup and start all over."

The win was just the second for Cleveland's embattled first-year coach Eric Mangini, who certainly helped his job security by beating Pittsburgh, something no Browns coach had done since Chris Palmer nine years ago.

Cribbs rushed for 87 yards out of the wildcat formation, had 104 return yards and caught one pass for 9 yards. He picked up a big first down on a 14-yard run in the fourth quarter when the Browns were trying to milk the clock.

Afterward, Cribbs soaked in his biggest win since turning pro. He knew the Steelers' 2 1/2-hour bus trip to Pennsylvania would not be pleasant.

"They're going to hear that bus' engine all the way back," Cribbs said. "That's a lonely ride. I've ridden that ride for five years now. It's time for them to hear that engine all the way home while they look at the stat sheet."

Needing a touchdown to tie, the Steelers got the ball back with 6:16 left at their own 21. Roethlisberger, who has broken Cleveland's hearts before, began working his team down field with short passes. But he was sacked at midfield in the final two minutes and had his final pass batted away.

Brady Quinn, making his first career start against Pittsburgh, completed just one pass in the second half and finished 6 of 19 for 90 yards.

Roethlisberger went 18 of 32 for 201 yards. He had trouble throwing in the swirling winds that consistently blew over 20 mph and the Steelers were never able to establish their running game against the Browns' defense, which came in ranked 32nd overall.

Cleveland's defense dominated the first half, sacking Roethlisberger five times and pressuring him on nearly every snap.

Jennings' 10-yard scamper around right end — the first TD scored by a Cleveland running back in more than a year — put the Browns up 13-0 late in the second quarter. With their defense stuffing the Steelers and the temperature dropping, the Browns' lead seemed insurmountable.

But the Steelers drove 58 yards in 41 seconds and got a 27-yard field goal from Jeff Reed as time expired to close to 13-3 at halftime.

Reed's second field goal with 8 seconds left in the third brought the Steelers within a touchdown.

But Pittsburgh was unable to put together a scoring drive in the fourth, and now the Steelers find themselves in more trouble than they could have imagined.

This is certainly not what Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin had in mind when he promised his team would "unleash hell" in December.

"We've found new and different ways to not rise up at critical moments and we're losing football games because of it," Tomlin said. "This one happened in all three phases."

NOTES: Ward played despite a hamstring injury and caught four passes for 21 yards. ... Holmes, the MVP in Pittsburgh's Super Bowl win over Arizona, surpassed 1,000 receiving yards for the first time in four seasons. ... Browns DE Robaire Smith injured his hip in the first half but returned. ... Jennings previously played for Montreal in the Canadian Football League. ... Cleveland's offensive line went sleeveless in the bone-chilling weather.

With a Nobel Peace Prize in hand, President Barack Obama is returning to the grind of governing, refocusing on his top domestic priority as the Senate moves toward a pivotal moment on legislation to remake the nation's health care system.

Obama was returning to Washington Friday from Norway after becoming the first chief executive to collect the storied award so early in his tenure. He blitzed through his Nobel itinerary to get back with a huge agenda hanging in the balance, including health care and another European trip next week for a climate summit.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is working privately to secure support among Senate Democrats for a tentative deal to expand the government' role in health care. The potential breakthrough in the long health care debate was reached last weekend, and Democrats are driving for a final vote before Christmas. The House already has passed its bill.

Obama's goal — to expand coverage to those without it, improve it for those who do and rein in the crushing costs of health care — remains at the core of his political efforts. Congress has spent months trying to get out a bill that satisfies its own blocs and Obama.

The focus on health care, however, will be brief. Obama will be returning to Europe next Friday — to Copenhagen this time — to join scores of leaders from across the globe in final negotiations on a pact to aimed at stemming emissions blamed for global warming.

Senators supporting climate legislation offered a revised proposal Thursday that calls for a 17 percent reduction in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, similar to the reductions Obama has said he will call for at the Copenhagen talks. Press secretary Robert Gibbs hailed the measure as "a significant step in the effort to pass comprehensive energy reform."

The bill also includes incentives for building nuclear power plants, and it would open the way for possible expanded oil and gas drilling off the nation's coastlines. Both are seen as key to attracting Republican support needed to win Senate approval of the climate bill.

In accepting the peace prize, Obama spelled out a doctrine of justifiable war and the steps needed for a "just and lasting peace."

The hawkish message was an inevitable nod to the controversy defining his selection: an American president, lauded for peace just as he escalates the long, costly war in Afghanistan. He accepted the peace prize just nine days after ordering 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan.

"I face the world as it is, and cannot stand idle in the face of threats to the American people," Obama told his audience in Oslo's soaring City Hall. "For make no mistake: Evil does exist in the world."

And yet for all the talk of might — as Obama put it, the tools of war have a role in preserving peace — he also stressed the need to avoid conflict.

He called for alternatives to killing, like sanctions with true bite. He defined peace as civil rights, free speech and economic opportunity, not just the absence of conflict. And he pushed himself away from George W. Bush, defending diplomacy that engages even enemies.

Obama was chosen for the award more for his aspirations and approach than his accomplishments thus far. The Nobel committee honored him for changing the tenor of international politics and pursuing goals that the winner himself says will take a world effort, like nuclear disarmament and reversing global warming.

At a dinner in his honor Thursday night, Obama paid tribute to his mother, who died before his election to the presidency.

"To the extent I am deserving of this esteemed prize, either now or in the future, it will be largely because of her and the largeness of her heart," Obama said.

A loophole in the Senate health care bill would let insurers place annual dollar limits on medical care for people struggling with costly illnesses such as cancer, prompting a rebuke from patient advocates.

The legislation that originally passed the Senate health committee last summer would have banned such limits, but a tweak to that provision weakened it in the bill now moving toward a Senate vote.

As currently written, the Senate Democratic health care bill would permit insurance companies to place annual limits on the dollar value of medical care, as long as those limits are not "unreasonable." The bill does not define what level of limits would be allowable, delegating that task to administration officials.

The provision is included in far-reaching legislation that would carry out President Barack Obama's plan to revamp the health care system, expanding coverage to millions now uninsured and trying to slow budget-busting cost increases. A tentative deal among Senate Democrats to back away from creating a new government program to compete with private insurers appears to have overcome a major obstacle to the bill's passage.

Officials of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network said they were taken by surprise when the earlier ban on annual coverage limits was undercut, adding that they have not been able to get a satisfactory explanation.

"We don't know who put it in, or why it was put in," said Stephen Finan, a policy expert with the cancer society's advocacy affiliate.

Democratic officials of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee would not comment publicly but said the bill contains numerous provisions that will benefit patients with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses, not to mention improvements in preventive care.

Advocates for patients say they're concerned the language will stay in the bill all the way to Obama's desk.

"The primary purpose of insurance is to protect people against catastrophic loss," Finan said. "If you put a limit on benefits, by definition it's going to affect people who are dealing with catastrophic loss." The cost of cancer treatment can exceed $100,000 a year.

Under the health care bills in Congress, the major expansion of health insurance coverage won't take place until three to four years after enactment. Democrats have touted a series of consumer protections as immediate benefits Americans will secure through the legislation. Both the Senate and House bills, for example, ban lifetime limits on the dollar value of coverage.

But Finan said the change in the Senate bill essentially invalidates the legislation's ban on lifetime limits.

"If you can have annual limits, saying there's no lifetime limits becomes meaningless," he said. A patient battling aggressive disease in its later stages could conceivably exhaust insurance benefits in the course of a year.

It's unclear how widespread such coverage limits are in the current insurance marketplace. Large employers have moved away from coverage limits, but insurers have wide discretion in designing plans for small businesses and individual customers.

In the House bill, neither annual nor lifetime limits would be allowable under an essential benefits package intended to provide comprehensive benefits.

Air travel over the holidays will fall 2.5 percent from last year, a trade group for the nation's major carriers predicted Thursday.

The Air Transport Association of America said it expects 41 million passengers to fly on U.S. airlines over a 21-day period from Dec. 17 through Jan. 6.

The busiest travel days are expected to be the Sunday, Monday and Tuesday after Christmas — Dec. 26-28 — the group said.

James C. May, president of the transport group, said the lighter traffic over the holidays would continue a trend that has been seen throughout 2009, as the weak economy has cut into demand for travel.

But with most airlines operating fewer flights, planes will be more full on many days, he said.

Airlines have been losing money this year as traffic has declined — especially lucrative business travel — during the economic slowdown. Airlines have raised fees and tacked on surcharges for flights on the most popular travel days to make up the difference.

This week, officials with the nation's three largest airlines — Delta, American and United — said they are seeing some improvement in demand. Delta said it's selling more corporate tickets; American said demand is improving for leisure and premium travel, and United said it was seeing signs of recovery.

For holiday travelers, the airline trade group recommended that they check the status of their flight before heading to the airport and get there early. Gifts should be unwrapped in case they need to be inspected by the federal security officials, the group said.

A consortium led by European oil giant Shell has won the rights to develop Iraq's giant Majnoon oil field, an almost 13 billion barrel behemoth that is the largest on offer in the country's second international oil auction.

Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said Friday that Shell and Malaysia's state-run oil company, Petronas, beat out another consortium grouping France's Total SA and China National Petroleum Corp.

Majnoon is one of 15 fields on offer.

The deal marks a solid start to Iraq's second international oil licensing round.

Iraqi officials see the auction as key to the country's postwar reconstruction efforts.

The first auction held last summer saw only a deal struck on only one of eight fields on offer.

In a massive security breach, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) inadvertently posted online its airport screening procedures manual, including some of the most closely guarded secrets regarding special rules for diplomats and CIA and law enforcement officers.
Share
Document mistakenly posted online reveals agency's top screening secrets.

The most sensitive parts of the 93-page Standard Operating Procedures manual were apparently redacted in a way that computer savvy individuals easily overcame.

The document shows sample CIA, Congressional and law enforcement credentials which experts say would make it easy for terrorists to duplicate.

The improperly redacted areas indicate that only 20 percent of checked bags are to be hand searched for explosives and reveal in detail the limitations of x-ray screening machines.