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 Facebook Opens Messaging Dollar Store

Facebook announced Thursday that it is testing a system that will let users send prioritized messages to people who aren't among their contacts by paying US$1. The initial test, part of an effort to monetize its user base, involves a small group of people.

Currently, any messages Facebook members send to non-contacts go into a folder labeled "Other."The paid messages in this pilot program will go instead to a user's primary inbox. During this experimental phase, the message routing feature will only be available to individuals within the U.S., and the maximum number of messages that can be routed from the Other folder to the Inbox will be limited to one per week.
Users will still be able to send messages to non-friends, but they will continue to be routed to the Other folder if they're sent unpaid.



Christmas day celebration
Thousands of Christians from the over the world packed Manger Square in Bethlehem Monday to celebrate the birth of Jesus in the ancient West Bank town where he was born.
For their Palestinian hosts, this holiday season was an especially joyous one, with the hardships of the Israeli occupation that so often clouded previous Christmas Eve celebrations eased by the United Nations' recent recognition of an independent state of Palestine.
Pope Benedict XVI leaves at the end of the Christmas night mass in the Saint Peter's Basilica at the Vatican. (Max Rossi/Reuters)Festivities led up to the Midnight Mass at St. Catherine's Church, next to the fourth-century Church of the Nativity, built over the grotto where tradition says Jesus was born.
"From this holy place, I invite politicians and men of good will to work with determination for peace and reconciliation that encompasses Palestine and Israel in the midst of all the suffering in the Middle East," said the top Roman Catholic cleric in the Holy Land, Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal in his annual address. "Please continue to fight for a just cause to achieve peace and security for the people of the Holy Land."
Hundreds of people greeted Twal in Manger Square, outside the Church of Nativity. The mood was festive under sunny skies, with children dressed in holiday finery or in Santa costumes, and marching bands playing in the streets.