Internet

Edward A. Schwartz, 69, of East Mount Airy, a community activist who was elected to Philadelphia City Council and later became an Internet-savvy organizer, died this week at his home, his wife said Thursday. Mr. Schwartz died of a possible heart attack Wednesday night, Nov. 28, or Thursday morning, Nov. 29, said his wife, Jane Shull. He had an untreatable heart ailment. He served as an at-large councilman from 1984 to 1987 and then as director of the city's Office of Housing and Community Development.

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Internet service went down Thursday across Syria and international flights were canceled at the Damascus airport when a road near the facility was closed by heavy fighting in the country's civil war. Activists said President Bashar al-Assad's regime pulled the plug on the Internet, perhaps in preparation for a major offensive. Cellphone service also went out in Damascus and parts of central Syria, they said. The government blamed rebel fighters for the outages. With pressure building against the regime on several fronts and government forces on their heels in the battle for the northern commercial hub of Aleppo, rebels have recently begun pushing back into Damascus after largely being driven out of the capital following a July offensive.

Knockoff football jerseys, fake medicines, counterfeit electronics. U.S. and foreign investigators have seen it all, and they chase the thieves as aggressively as possible - most recently through the Cyber Monday seizure of more than 100 U.S. websites peddling consumer goods that aren't what they claim to be. Since 2010, they've shut down more than 1,600. Online or off, intellectual property theft is a massive worldwide problem that threatens even national defense - count the U.S. Navy among its victims - and public health.

  The websites bore names such as FlyersJerseyShop.com, TiffanyOnlineStore.com, and ErgoBabyShop.com, and pitched merchandise that looked authentic. But customers at those and dozens of similar websites shut down Monday by U.S. and European authorities bought counterfeit and typically shoddy goods, U.S. customs investigators said. For the third straight year, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents marked "Cyber Monday" with a crackdown on Internet sales of counterfeit goods.

In the rush to assign blame for the Christmas shopping frenzy that is taking hold earlier than ever - detractors assailed Target, Toys R Us, and Walmart for planned Thanksgiving openings this year - one must follow the fingertips of American shoppers. Because the bogeyman boils down to this: online, online, online . For decades, retailers made a bundle on Black Friday by packing stores with sale goods, filling Thanksgiving Day newspapers with advertisements, and reveling in revenue as customers rolled in the next day en masse.

DEAR HARRY: I was born in the Philippines. Twelve years ago, I married an American citizen in my country, and we lived together for a short time. We have been separated since 2002. I saw him last in 2007 when he came to see me in Manila. He was suffering from diabetes and very high cholesterol. He came back to the States, and I have not heard from him or about him since then. His last known address got me nowhere. I have no idea who his friends are or where his family lives. Harry, I need to know if he's still alive.

ATLANTIC CITY - New Jersey has cleared the way for casino patrons to gamble on their tablets, smartphones, and other mobile devices. But amid uncertainty about whether Internet gambling will ultimately be approved or banned, the Atlantic City casinos seem to be taking a wait-and-see approach. The state Gaming Enforcement Division issued temporary regulations governing gambling on handheld devices that took effect Monday. The state passed a law this year permitting the use of mobile gambling devices.

LAS VEGAS - Internet gaming, the next frontier for casinos, occupies center stage here this week at the Global Gaming Expo, known as G2E. What form I-gaming will take and how it will be regulated are anyone's guess, but the industry already is creating interactive products that will allow anyone who frequents a casino to enjoy favorite slot machines or table games online, in virtual versions that look identical to those on the casino floor....

FreshDirect.com, the Internet-only grocer that has built a devoted flock of click-and-buy shoppers in the high-rises of New York and across its suburbs, rolled delivery trucks into Philadelphia on Monday to launch its first expansion beyond the Big Apple. Although initially delivering only to households in and around Center City, the company that hawks farm-to-doorstep produce, meticulously selected seafood, and prepared dinners, along with supermarket staples, hopes to expand deeper next year into the Philadelphia region, building upon this area's reputation as a food lovers' haven.

After a slow start, Comcast Corp. says it has enrolled 100,000 poor families nationwide into its discounted Internet program. There are about 1,450 families in Philadelphia participating, triple the number from late last year. Internet Essentials - offering Internet service at a 79 percent discount, or $9.95 a month, to families with school-age children - remains a work in progress, Comcast says. The company is holding news conferences around the nation, and one event is scheduled Friday morning at Constitution High School in Philadelphia.