SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Charles Barkley was arrested on suspicion of drinking and driving early Wednesday morning.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israel rejected international pressure for a two-day cease-fire with Hamas and sent warplanes Wednesday to demolish smuggling tunnels that are the lifeline of Gaza’s Islamic rulers.

LOS ANGELES – “SpongeBob SquarePants” may be getting squeezed off of Time Warner Cable.

Media giant Viacom Inc. said its Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central and 16 other channels will go dark for 13 million subscribers at 12:01 a.m. Thursday if a new carriage fee deal with Time Warner Cable is not agreed upon by then.

The impasse would mean “SpongeBob” and other popular shows like Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show” and Stephen Colbert’s “The Colbert Report” will be cut off, said spokesman Alex Dudley, a vice president at Time Warner Cable. The nation’s second-largest cable operator primarily serves customers in New York state, the Carolinas, Ohio, Southern California and Texas.

Viacom has asked for fee increases of between 22 percent and 36 percent per channel, an amount that could increase customers’ cable bills, Dudley said. Viacom spokeswoman Kelly McAndrew said the requested increase was in the very low double-digit percentage range.

“The issue is that they have asked for an exorbitant increase in their carriage fees and their network ratings are sagging,” Dudley said. “Basically we’re trying to hold the line for our customer.”

Viacom said the increases would cost an extra 23 cents a month per subscriber — which works out to $35.9 million more in total. It said that Americans spend a fifth of their TV time watching Viacom shows but its fees make up less than 2.5 percent of the Time Warner cable bill.

“We make this request because Time Warner Cable has so greatly undervalued our channels for so long,” it said.

“Ultimately, however, if Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, MTV and the rest of our programming is discontinued — over less than a penny per day — we believe viewers will see this behavior by their cable company as outrageous,” it said.

Negotiations are continuing at the highest level, Dudley said.

Viacom accused Time Warner Cable of not negotiating.

“It is our sincere hope that they will come to the table and negotiate a deal,” said McAndrew. The network operator also intends to tell viewers about the dispute in TV ads in 11 major markets.

Part of the disagreement is that most of the popular shows are rerun on Web sites where Viacom collects advertising revenue that it does not share with Time Warner, Dudley said.

“We don’t think that’s fair,” he said. “They’re trying to have their cake and eat it too online, where anybody can get it for free.”

Viacom has staked much of its revenue-growth prospects on its ability to extract higher carriage rates out of its cable and satellite affiliates despite an ad slowdown and weak ratings.

In the third quarter, media network revenue, which accounts for about two-thirds of the total, grew 6 percent to $2.1 billion, despite global ad revenue falling 2 percent, largely because of double-digit percentage growth in affiliate fees and the success of its “Rock Band” video game.

Viacom shares rose 69 cents, or 3.7 percent, to close at $19.26 on Tuesday, while Time Warner Cable shares added $1.56, or 7.7 percent, to $21.76.

The channels that would be affected are: Comedy Central, CMT: Pure Country, Logo, Palladia, MTV, MTV 2, MTV Hits, MTV Jams, MTV Tr3s, Nickelodeon, Noggin, Nick 2, Nicktoons, Spike, The N, TV Land, VH1, VH1 Classic, and VH1 Soul.

Pop-up alerts on “The Colbert Report” and “The Daily Show” Web sites Wednesday morning informed fans that Time Warner Cable customers will lose Comedy Central shows soon and urged them to call the cable company and protest the change.

www.grooveshark.com

Not long ago i came accross grooveshark and it became my number one source for listening to music. Unfortunatly the grooveshark music player was not compatible with the ps3 before. Today after couple of weeks i checked again and the site is now updated and is compatible with the ps3’s web browser.

Hit the link below to enjoy the widest range of music for free!

kotaku.com

Attention, Wal-Mart shoppers: the mega retailer is currently doing massive reductions on women’s self-esteem, moving the Wii Fit advertising kiosks from the electronics department to women’s clothing. A diabolical tactic!

Yes, that’s a full length body mirror adjacent to the Wii Fit kiosk, a deviously placed hint that’s not so subtly telling Wal-Mart shoppers “Hey, time to put the Oreo Double Stufs down and get some Wii Fit yoga done, chubs.”

We don’t know how far or wide the appeal from Wii Fit to chunky women has been deployed, as reader Zach is our source for the conspicuously placed display. But we hope they erect some near our local mall food court — right next to the Cheesecake Factory seems appropriate.

Actually, scratch that. A quick flashback to my last Wal-Mart shopping experience makes me think the clientele here are probably a good crowd to target.

planetxbox360.com

Yesterday Major Nelson informed Xbox 360 owners that a demo of From Software’s sword-thrashing action-game, Ninja Blade, had been released onto the Xbox Live Marketplace in Japan; find out how to download it right now. Use the below instructions to create a Japanese Xbox Live silver account and log into it, the Ninja Blade demo will be the first choice on the main XBLM screen, I have put a couple hours into the demo and it is actually quite good, although it needs some major polishing. From what I have heard the demo will not be region locked and is OK to download no matter where on the world you live. Let us know if you are successful and what you think of the demo by heading over to our forums by clicking here.
Creating your own Japanese Xbox Live Silver Account:

Head on over to Microsoft’s passport Web site (if you’re logged in to a current account, make sure to sign out). Sign up for a new, free Hotmail account.
When asked, remember to answer that you’re from Japan — don’t worry, you dirty liar, we won’t judge you.
The next part, which would be the “trickiest,” is entering some additional information about where you are from. You’ll have to enter bogus information. The following should work fine (the phone number is for a Domino’s Pizza near Akebonobashi Station in Tokyo):
Postal code: 150-2345
Province: Tokyo-to
Phone Number: 098-974-0604

Once you’ve activated your new Hotmai account, it’s time to head on over to your Xbox 360. Switch profiles if necessary (the X button) and create a new profile, and a new Xbox Live account.
You’ll next have to sign in with your new Japanese passport. Keep the number for Domino’s Pizza Akebonobashi handy, because you’re going to need to enter it again. Also, you might get hungry.
Create a gamertag and the first screen once you sign in will have the Ninja Blade demo as the very first selection, click it and then select “Download Ninja Blade Demo” … that’s it!

According to a Bloomberg Financial report released over the last few days. It appears that Sony to compete will in fact lower the PlayStation 3 huge price tag in all markets sometime next year. Also suggested was to reduce some of manufacture/production of the PS3 to facilitate this price cut.

The Bloomberg reports as well as the Sony End of Q4 public financial statements state that Sony has been taking a big hit every PS3 sold, costs to manufacture a PS3 last year was said to be as high as $690.63 USD. (Some of the reasons for the high manufacturing cost were listed as Blue-Ray drive, large capacity hard-drive and PS2 backwards compatibility issues, as well as Dual-Shock 3 controller integration). The reports say just to compete with the Wii and Xbox 360, the retail price had to drop right from the get go. The price tag ranging from $399.99 to $499.99 USD to pick up a single PS3 depending on what market you are in.

Woe is Wii.

A Portsmouth, N.H., couple yesterday blamed each other for their black and blue Christmas when they got into a violent fight – and arrested – after an argument over a gift of the popular Nintendo video game.

“This was the worst Christmas ever,” Randi Young, 24, said a day after she and her boyfriend, Heath Blom, 26, were both cuffed and carted off by cops on misdemeanor charges of “domestic-related” simple assault.

Police were called to South Street home where the couple lived with Blom’s grandparents at 1:55 p.m. Christmas day. Officers arrested the pair upon observing bruises on each of them.

Portsmouth police said tempers flared because the boyfriend was smarting over not getting the present he wished for. “Heath Blom wanted a remote-controlled airplane for Christmas, and not the Wii,” said Sgt. Kuffer Kaltenborn.

Blom, a flooring contractor, said the cops got it wrong, and that he had asked his grandparents to get him the $1,000 airplane for his birthday next April. “You can’t fly an RC plane in the snow,” he said.

But he admitted disparaging the Wii game to his grandma and angering his girlfriend, who accused him of being an ingrate.

Blom, still nursing a shiner from the fight, said she called him names “for not liking the Wii.”

“He said he hated it. It hurt her feelings,” remarked Young, who said her boyfriend “told his grandparents that he changed his mind” about waiting until his birthday and wanted them to buy him the pricey plane for Christmas. “When he didn’t get the plane, he got really upset. He acted like a 10-year-old kid,” she said.

One fight led to another and soon Young was packing her bags. Blom said he got angry when his girlfriend hid the Wii game. “I thought she was walking off with it.”

“He dragged me down two flights of stairs, by the hair,” Young said.

But Blom said, “I stood in the doorway trying to block her. She punched me in the eye. She punched me three times. I said ‘That’s it.’ And I pulled her hair.”

Ricky Young Sr., 52, said Blom and his daughter, who he said was left with a “knot on her head” and a swollen nose, “fight like little kids. . . But to fight on Christmas, of all days. That’s crazy.”