SEATTLE, May 1 (Reuters) – The head of Deutsche Lufthansa
AG’s fleet management said he is not happy with the
weight of Boeing Co’s 747-8 jumbo, but that will not
restrict the use of the airline’s newest aircraft.

“On all our in-service fleet, even those in our fleet 10
years, we are never happy with the weight situation, so we are
always trying to reduce weight in order to save even more fuel,”
said Nico Buchholz, executive vice president of group fleet
management at Lufthansa, speaking at a Boeing plant north of
Seattle.

NEW YORK/SEATTLE (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp is jumping into the fast-growing e-books market by investing $605 million over five years in Barnes & Noble Inc’s Nook e-reader and college business, as it looks to unlock Amazon.com and Apple Inc’s grip on the exploding tablet computer market.

The move comes just six months before the world’s largest software maker is due to launch its new touch-enabled Windows 8 operating system, and the inclusion of a Nook app on Windows tablets should allow them to compete with Apple’s iPad and Amazon’s Kindle Fire.

NEW YORK/SEATTLE (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp is jumping into the fast-growing e-books market by investing $300 million in Barnes & Noble Inc’s Nook e-reader and college business, as it looks to unlock Amazon.com and Apple Inc’s grip on the exploding tablet computer market.

The move comes just six months before the world’s largest software maker is due to launch its new touch-enabled Windows 8 operating system, and the inclusion of a Nook app on Windows tablets should allow them to compete with Apple’s iPad and Amazon’s Kindle Fire.

SEATTLE (Reuters) – The U.S. Army announced a new layer of command at Joint Base Lewis-McChord on Thursday as it looks to strengthen leadership at the Tacoma, Washington-area post which has earned a reputation as one of the most troubled in the U.S. military.

The joint Army-Air Force base, with 43,000 active-duty military personnel and some 14,000 civilian employees, most recently attracted attention as the home base of Robert Bales, the staff sergeant accused of massacring 17 Afghan villagers in March. It was also home for a so-called “kill team,” convicted of wartime atrocities in 2010.

By Bill Rigby

(Reuters) – Microsoft Corp beat Wall Street’s profit forecast as computer sales held up better than expected, lifting its shares 2.5 percent after hours.

The world’s largest software maker reported quarterly profit of $5.11 billion, or 60 cents per share, compared with $5.23 billion, or 61 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter when it posted a one-time tax gain.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – The civilian attorney representing the U.S. soldier accused of murdering 17 Afghan villagers wants to replace the military lawyer assigned to the case after disagreements over how to handle his defense.

“You are fired, sorry, but we have much more experience than you,” Seattle-based John Henry Browne, the outspoken lawyer who has been the public face of the defense of Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, said in an email to military lawyer Major Thomas Hurley.

SEATTLE (Reuters) – The lawyer defending the U.S. soldier accused of murdering 17 Afghan civilians claims U.S. authorities are blocking his ability to investigate the incident.

John Henry Browne, the lawyer for Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, said U.S. forces in Afghanistan have prevented his team from interviewing injured civilians at a hospital in Kandahar, and are allowing other potential witnesses to scatter, making it difficult to track them down.

SEATTLE (Reuters) – An empty Japanese fishing boat drifting off the coast of western Canada could be the first wave of 1.5 million tons of debris heading toward North America from Japan’s tsunami last March.

The wreckage from flattened Japanese coastal towns – including refrigerators, washing machines, televisions, roofs and fishing nets – is heading inexorably east across the Pacific and could arrive sooner than expected, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

SEATTLE, March 26 (Reuters) – An empty Japanese fishing boat
drifting off the coast of western Canada could be the first wave
of 1.5 million tons of debris heading toward North America from
Japan’s tsunami last March.

The wreckage from flattened Japanese coastal towns -
including refrigerators, washing machines, televisions, roofs
and fishing nets – is heading inexorably west across the Pacific
and could arrive sooner than expected, according to the U.S.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

SEATTLE/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – The wife of the U.S. soldier suspected of gunning down 16 Afghan civilians broke her silence on Monday to say she did not know what happened half a world away, but felt for the families of the victims while loving her husband very much.

U.S. authorities say Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, 38, walked out of his camp in Kandahar province just over a week ago to kill the Afghans, including nine children, before turning himself in.