News Briefs

Amazon can’t give free shipping

Amazon, a popular online book retailer, recently began offering free shipping for its customers in France. Unfortunately, French law forbids booksellers from giving discounts of more than five percent off the listed price. This caused a bookseller’s union to sue the online retailer and subsequently win in court. Now Amazon must stop giving free shipping or face a 1,000 Euro fine for every day they continue to give the offer. The company has decided to pay the fine and ignore the court order. Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s CEO, has begun attempting to gain support of the French public for the company’s free shipping. After 30 days of paying the fine, the French court has the option of raising the fine to comply.



Spider-Man and MJ are no more

Marvel comics has decided to break up the famous comic book couple as a way of shaking things up. The initial response to the split from many fans was, “How could you do this?” However, many fans are now happy with the result because Spider-Man is more free to do what he wants. The break up is exciting a lot of fans and attracting new ones according to a comic book store owner in Los Angeles. When Stan Lee, who isn’t involved with the story, was asked what his thoughts were on the idea, he said that it is “a very creative idea.” The writers of the book now have several new paths to pursue for Spider-Man, which may include getting the couple back together.



Colbert painting appears in Smithsonian

Steven Colbert, the host of a popular news spoof show on Comedy Central, has recently had a portrait of himself hung in the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington. The picture is currently hung between two bathrooms near the “America’s Presidents” exhibit. The portrait features Colbert standing in front of a fireplace with a similar portrait of himself posing in front of the same fireplace with a third picture of himself. Colbert bragged that his picture is “hanging in the hall of presidents, just a few yards from the father of our country-exactly where I believe it belongs.” The museum wants to stress that the portrait is not coming into the collection, and it will not be a permanent addition to the gallery.