Free Republic

VATICAN CITY - It took just minutes for the Vatican to alert the world's media of Pope John Paul's death -- using text messages and email so the 2000-year-old Church could meet the new demands of real-time news. Just a quarter of an hour after the Pope was pronounced dead on Saturday, the Vatican sent journalists an SMS message alerting them to a pending statement. Television networks across the globe were already on standby a minute later when the email communique was beamed to a sea of state-of-the-art handheld computers, purchased by journalists at the suggestion of the Vatican. "The...

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea (news - web sites)'s third-largest credit card issuer fired a quarter of its workforce via mobile phone text messages on Friday, after negotiations with striking unionized workers broke down. KEB Credit Service Co sacked 161 employees, a spokeswoman for the company's parent bank said. "The layoff date is February 28," the message said, according to a member of the union. "We will receive applications for voluntary retirement package until February 28." The firm said it had no method for contacting striking staff other than using the short message service (SMS). Unionized workers, who make up...