GAZA (Reuters) - The alleged spy buried his face in his hands inside a Gaza jail as he admitted passing intelligence to Israel during its battles with armed Palestinian groups.

"My handlers in Israel called me and told me that collaborators in Gaza don't know one another and that each worked alone, so hide and stay as you are," the man told visiting reporters, under the watchful eye of a plainclothed Hamas security officer.

"I should have turned myself in. This is my problem now. Maybe if I had, you wouldn't find me here," he said.

The Islamist Hamas government, which is pledged to Israel's destruction by force of arms, is lauding a recent campaign to root out informants in its midst, which it hopes will deprive Israel of a subtle but effective tool.

The muscular 41-year-old, who did not give his name, missed the deadline to turn himself in and will not receive leniency when his case goes to trial, Hamas says. Fellow prisoners listened to his anguish over his unknown fate through metal windows in the concrete corridor.

The Hamas Interior Ministry says the month-long campaign which ended on April 11 was a policy shift away from harsher tactics against spies accused of passing on vital information, such as the whereabouts of arms' depots or top militants.

These tip-offs are believed to have helped Israel plan its air strikes during the eight-day conflict with Hamas last November, when Israeli jets hit some 1,450 targets, killing more than 170 Palestinians, including many civilians.

The militant group used to broadcast chilling confessions of collaborators and put the worst offenders to death.

In scenes that shocked the world, seven suspected spies were yanked from Hamas custody in Gaza during the November conflict and shot dead in the street. One corpse was dragged by motorbike through Gaza city by pistol-waving men shouting, "God is Great."

But in this latest campaign, publicized through billboards and mosque sermons, Hamas's Internal Security Service (ISS) promised to treat those who surrendered of their own volition gently.

The campaign, Hamas says, was meant to bring wayward citizens back into the fold and counter through persuasion the espionage it says Israel gains through manipulation.

"We've made a media and educational effort to inform the Palestinian public about collaboration...the worst and most dangerous tool the occupation (Israel) uses against our people," said Mohammed Lafi, the deputy ISS chief who led the campaign.

He declined to reveal how many Gazans had stepped forward, saying such information would benefit Israel. In all, Hamas says only "tens" of spies are languishing behind bars.

ISRAEL RECRUITS

Collaboration with Israel is widely reviled by Palestinians, who see spies as traitors to their people.

"Do they feel mercy for the kids who get torn into pieces and to leaders whose bodies are burnt to death? Why should I feel mercy for him?" said Huda Adel, an office secretary, voicing sentiments shared by many Gaza residents.

Locals often refuse to marry their sons or daughters to relatives of convicted or dead collaborators.

"It's horrifying how your life can turn into hell in a blink of an eye," the brother of a jailed alleged spy told Reuters, taking deep drags from his cigarette.

Sitting nervously in a Gaza cafe, the man said many people shunned his brother's family when rumors of his deeds spread.

"Will his daughter marry? Will anyone accept to marry his boy?" the brother worried.

Minister of Interior Fathy Hammad said Hamas's new policy aimed to emphasize that spying was an individual act and offered anonymity to anyone who handed themselves in to avoid the inevitable backlash from their neighbors.

"As a community we should support the family whose household fell to the devil," Hammad told Reuters.

Many confessed spies say they were offered coveted Israeli permits to move in and out of the crowded coastal enclave, which struggles under tight restrictions from neighboring Israel and Egypt. Others were in Israeli custody and agreed to become spies in exchange for commuted sentences.

Rights groups say Israel also tries to force Gazans in need of outside medical treatment to become spies.

Others simply sought cash, feeding information via secret cell phone chips or coded emails.

A senior Israeli official told Reuters the informants were necessary because "Israel faces a very real threat from Gaza, as Hamas regards every Israeli civilian as a legitimate target".

Israel pulled its troops and settlers from the territory in 2005 but has come under regular rocket attack since then. In response, it imposed a stringent blockade on Gaza and has waged two short wars in a stated effort to stop the missiles.

The official called the Hamas government a "Stalinist authoritarian regime" whose measures against suspected spies amounts to "brutal and arbitrary violence against the people of Gaza, using collaboration charges as an excuse".

FEAR AND FAVOUR

Since taking power in 2007, Hamas authorities have executed 14 people, including six convicted spies. Hammad said his ministry reserved the right to execute more spies in future.

Hamas's political rival, the Palestinian Authority which has partial control over the nearby, occupied West Bank, also comes down heavily on alleged spies. Last week, a member of the Palestinian security forces was condemned to death for being a collaborator, although his sentence will almost certainly be commuted to life in jail.

Human Rights Watch said the amnesty plan was an improvement to Hamas's usual legal practice, which it says often involves incommunicado detention and evidence extracted through torture.

"Steps by Hamas to provide an alternative to the detention and trial of alleged collaborators should be encouraged given the severe problems with its justice system," senior HRW researcher Bill Van Esveld told Reuters.

ISS deputy head Lafi, for the first time disclosing details on its jailing policy on convicted spies, said most of those already in jail whose crimes were not serious would be freed after serving two-thirds of their sentences.

The offer will not spare veteran spies, and those whose work led to the killings in Israeli bombing raids or assassinations of militant leaders, Hamas said.

But with almost one third of Gazans unemployed and 80 percent of households living below the poverty line, local NGOs believe some young Gazans will continue to be drawn to espionage in return for Israeli cash, regardless of Hamas crackdowns.

"The Gaza government should treat some of the reasons why Israel's security forces manage to get through to victims, such as poverty," said Samir Zaqout of the al-Mezan Center for Human Rights, which is based in Gaza's Jabalia refugee camp.

(Additional reporting by Noah Browning; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

The panel concluded its second full day of deliberations on Tuesday without reaching a verdict.

The 32-year-old Arias has been charged with first-degree murder in the June 2008 death of her one-time boyfriend, Travis Alexander, at his suburban Phoenix home. He was shot in the head and stabbed and slashed nearly 30 times. Jurors could also convict her of second-degree murder or manslaughter.

Prosecutors say Arias planned the attack in a jealous rage.

Arias initially denied involvement, then blamed it on two masked intruders. Two years after her arrest, she said she killed Alexander in self-defense.

Testimony in the case began in early January, and Arias spent 18 days on the witness stand beginning in early February.

Spanish chef Ferran Adria, the man behind the late, lamented elBulli restaurant, is bringing an exhibition dedicated to the art and science of his distinctive brand of molecular gastronomy to London.

Diners lucky enough to get reservations at elBulli before it closed two years ago feasted on 50-course tasting menus featuring frozen cocktails, ham tapioca, lobster and lamb's brain salad and many other challenging creations.

Visitors to "elBulli: Ferran Adria and the Art of Food" will see sketches, menus, film, photographs and even plasticine models of food, showing how those memorable menus were created. Just don't expect to eat.

"If you go to the Barcelona football team museum, you don't play football," Adria said unapologetically Thursday as he announced the London show. "If you go to an airplane museum, you don't fly a plane."

The hunger-inducing nature of the exhibition didn't prevent 650,000 people visiting it over the course of a year at Barcelona's Palau Robert.

In London, it will be on display from July 5 to Sept. 29 at Somerset House, a palatial 18th-century edifice beside the River Thames that has been transformed over the last decade from dusty tax office to busy arts and cultural center.

The exhibition is the latest stage in the expanding afterlife of elBulli, which closed its doors in July 2011 after a final meal that included "Clam Meringue," ''Olive Spheres" and "Hot Cold Gin Fizz."

Adria, who started at elBulli in 1984 and became head chef three years later, used the restaurant to explore his fascination with the essence of food and the experience of eating.

In the restaurant's kitchen and a scientific lab in Barcelona, he and his team deconstructed ingredients to what he calls the molecular level, then reconstructed dishes using unexpected re-combinations of the original components, presenting the results in mouthful-sized portions.

"For every 100 dishes we created, one was brilliant," said Adria, a compact, energetic 50-year-old in gray jeans, black jacket and sneakers, who proves incapable of remaining seated as he discusses his work with journalists.

The restaurant, tucked in a cove on the rocky coast of northeast Spain, maintained a three-star Michelin rating for more than a decade and was ranked the world's best place to eat five years running by Restaurant magazine.

It also made Adria part celebrity chef, part twinkling mad scientist one of the food world's most famous figures. He voiced a character in the Spanish version of Pixar's animated film "Ratatouille," and made an appearance in "The Simpsons."

Molecular gastronomy has inspired chefs from Britain's Heston Blumenthal to Chicago's Grant Achatz and Denmark's Rene Redzepi. Some of its signature touches foams, jellies, liquid nitrogen have almost become culinary cliches.

"Everybody agrees that there is a before and an after in gastronomy, thanks to Ferran," said Ignasi Genoves, general director of Palau Robert.

Adria, however, says elBulli's legacy isn't a style of food, but an ethos of authenticity, experimentation and risk.

"People believe the legacy of elBulli is a type of cooking, but it's not," he said through a Spanish interpreter. "The important thing is the philosophy we are transmitting to all the people who worked with us."

Hundreds of people have passed through elBulli's kitchens, then marched out into the food world. Adria noted with pride that the four top chefs on Restaurant magazine's influential top 50 ranking this year are elBulli alumni.

The restaurant may be closed, but Adria says elBulli's work is just beginning.

In 2011 he and business partner Juli Soler announced plans to transform the site into a gastronomic think-tank and research institute called elBulliFoundation.

Due to open in 2015, it's an ever-evolving concept. Adria's attempt to explain it Thursday involved much arm-waving and diagram-scrawling, as he described a multipronged structure that will encompass a history of cuisine ranging "from the Big Bang to the Neolithic period" and beyond, taking in the origins of human life.

"If there's no homo sapiens, there's no cooking," he said.

More prosaically, Adria and elBulli have been the subject of a documentary, and a feature film about the restaurant is in the works.

The chef, who ranges the world collaborating with artists and scientists, clearly enjoys the freedom of not having to run a kitchen and worry about his Michelin ranking.

"The restaurant is closed not elBulli," he said.

"We have a bigger impact being closed, because I'm not competing anymore."

___

Online: www.elbulli.com

___

Jill Lawless can be reached at http://Twitter.com/JillLawless

Obama says it's important because "we now live in a very competitive 21st century world."

The president spoke at a forum Saturday in Costa Rica on economic growth and development.

Obama said having the best education and regulatory systems and good coordination among the hemisphere's countries will help the region from falling behind others in the world.

Obama is on the final day of a three-day visit to Latin America.

Fashion houses including PPR's Gucci, Giorgio Armani and Prada are among the top names showing their womenswear 2013-14 autumn-winter collections, taking up the baton from catwalk shows in London.

"I have great hopes for this country after the political and economic debacle of the last months," cashmere goods maker Brunello Cucinelli told Reuters at his showroom.

The colorful crowd of fashion critics and bloggers descending on Milan will mix this year with Italian voters heading to the ballot box on February 24-25 to choose a new government and decide the country's future economic path.

Italy came close to a major debt crisis in November 2011 before Silvio Berlusconi stood down as prime minister and was replaced by technocrat Mario Monti.

"There is a need to clean up politics and give small businesses the incentives to hire people," Maurizio Modica, co-designer at Italy's brand Frankie Morello, told Reuters.

Sales of Italian fashion goods are forecast to drop 3.5 percent to around 58 billion euros ($77 billion) this year, after falling 5.4 percent in 2012, according to preliminary data by textile and fashion body Sistema Moda Italia (SMI).

Gucci, the first big name brand to show, proposed a fetish aesthetic for its sensual collection, with sculpted dresses in materials such as python skin.

Creative head Frida Giannini, who is expecting her first baby in a couple of weeks, was inspired by the idea of a "femme fatale" for her show, which also featured evening gowns with colorful feathers stitched on black lace.

For the morning, Giannini showed sporty jackets embroidered with three-dimensional leaves.

Fashion house Frankie Morello presented a "dark lady" for its youthful collection, which featured black blouses covered with mirror shards and stiff fabrics in geometric patterns.

"I am confident that this edition of the Milan womenswear week will confirm the positive signs of recovery that we saw in January during the menswear shows," Mario Boselli, chairman of Italy's fashion national chamber, said in a statement.

He said he expected orders for the autumn-winter collections would improve as the recession eases in 2013.

Foreign markets will make up the mainstay of the revenue, with exports expected to reach record levels in terms of value, surpassing the previous record in 2000. Non-EU countries such as China will outpace EU members for the first time, SMI said.

"These forecasts are based on a scenario that there will be no fiscal shocks in 2013 and the government to be named after the election will couple fiscal austerity with measures to boost spending in the second half of the year," SMI said.

The fashion week, which ends on Tuesday, will also include shows from Versace, Dolce & Gabbana and Roberto Cavalli.

($1 = 0.7487 euros)

(Editing by Alison Williams)

In the Syrian civil war's latest alleged mass killing, activists said Friday that regime troops and gunmen from nearby Alawite areas beat, stabbed and shot at least 50 people in the Sunni Muslim village of Bayda.

The slayings highlighted in the starkest terms the sectarian overtones of a conflict that has already killed more than 70,000 people. Details of the killings came to light as the Obama administration said it was again weighing whether to arm the rebels.

Syria's 2-year-old crisis has largely broken along sectarian lines: the Sunni majority forms the backbone of the rebellion, while President Bashar Assad's minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, anchors the regime's security services and military officer corps. Other minorities, such as Christians, largely support Assad or stand on the sidelines, worried that the regime's fall would bring about a more Islamist rule.

The killings in Bayda fall against this backdrop. Tucked in the mountains outside the Mediterranean coastal city of Banias, the village is predominantly Sunni but is located in the Alawite ancestral heartland centered in the rugged region along the sea.

Activists say fighting broke out in Bayda early Thursday and that at least six government troops were killed. Syrian forces backed by Alawite gunmen known as shabiha from the surrounding area returned in the afternoon and stormed the village, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The gunmen torched homes and used knives, guns and blunt objects to kill people in the streets, the group said. It added that it has documented the names of at least 50 dead in Bayda, but that dozens of villagers are still missing and the death toll could rise to as high as 100.

Amateur video showed the bodies of at least seven men and boys lying in pools of blood on the pavement in front of a house as women wept around them.

"Don't sleep, don't move," one woman sobbed, leaning over to touch one of the men, who appeared already dead. A woman also is heard wailing, "Where are you, people of the village?"

The video appears genuine and consistent with reporting by The Associated Press from the area.

Syria's state news agency said late Thursday that the army conducted a raid in Bayda, killing several "terrorists" the term it uses for those trying to oust Assad and seizing machine guns, automatic rifles and other weapons.

Syrian troops were still in Bayda on Friday, conducting house-to-house searches, according to the Observatory's director, Rami Abdul-Rahman. He added that phone and Internet service to the village was cut, making it impossible to verify the final death toll or pin down more details on what happened.

The Observatory also reported clashes and government shelling of Sunni areas of Banias on Friday.

If confirmed, the bloodshed in Bayda would be the latest in a series of alleged mass killings in the civil war. Last month, activists said government troops killed more than 100 people as they seized two rebel-held suburbs of Damascus.

The violence in Bayda bears a closer resemblance to two reported mass killings last year in Houla and Qubeir, Sunni villages surrounded by Alawite towns. Some activists said the Houla and Qubeir carnage, which they blame on regime forces and shabiha, was aimed at driving Sunnis from areas near main routes to the coast to ensure Alawite control.

Months of bloodshed have sharpened the divide and unleashed sectarian hatred. The violence has ripped apart communities and brought a bloody end to decades of coexistence. Retaliatory kidnappings and killings have surged.

That raises the prospect of Syria taking the same path as neighboring Iraq, where violence in 2006 and 2007 effectively turned into a kind of sectarian cleansing as Sunnis and Shiites fled the bloodletting by rival militias to the relative safety of their own communities. Lingering animosity has helped fuel renewed violence along those fault lines in recent weeks between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq.

In what amounted to little more than a symbolic protest, rebels in Syria fired rockets at the village of Qardaha, the hometown of Assad's father, the Observatory said. There were no reports of casualties.

The main Western-backed opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, condemned what it called "a large-scale massacre in Bayda," and urged the international community to act to protect Syrian civilians.

"It is time for the world to intervene and put an end to the grievous crimes of the Assad regime," the Cairo-based group said in a statement.

While the U.S. and its European allies have backed the opposition, they have been reluctant to provide those fighting Assad's troops with weapons that could challenge the regime's superior firepower. They fear the arms could end up in the hands of radical Islamic groups, such as the al-Qaida-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra, that in the past year have become the most effective fighting force on the opposition's side.

On Thursday, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Washington is rethinking its opposition to arming the rebels amid growing indications that the Assad regime has used chemical weapons something President Barack Obama has called a "red line."

The U.S. has said intelligence indicates Syria has used the nerve agent sarin on at least two occasions, but Obama has stressed that he needs more definitive proof before making a decision about how to respond and whether to take military action. Damascus denies using chemical arms, and says the opposition is trying to frame it.

Obama said Thursday his administration was proceeding cautiously as it looked at options to ensure that what it does is helpful to the situation rather than making it more deadly or complex.

The Syrian crisis started with largely peaceful protests of Assad's rule in March 2011, but shifted into an armed insurgency as opposition supporters took up weapons to fight a harsh regime crackdown on dissent.

The conflict has laid waste to cities and towns, forced more than 1 million Syrians to seek refuge in neighboring countries such as Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, and displaced millions more inside Syria.

Syria's state news agency said mortars fired at the Damascus International Airport struck a kerosene tank and a commercial aircraft, causing significant material damage. It said the airport was functioning normally, although many airlines no longer fly into the Syrian capital because of the conflict.

___

Associated Press writer Barbara Surk contributed to this report.

Haye, who lost his WBA belt in July 2011 to Ukrainian Vladimir Klitschko before beating Dereck Chisora 12 months later, faces Charr who has won all but one of his 24 professional bouts.

His only defeat came against Klitschko's older brother Vitaly last September when the Ukrainian retained his WBC title when the referee stopped the contest in the fourth round after Charr sustained a deep cut above his right eye.

Haye, who wants one of the Klitschko brothers to give him a world title shot, has a professional record of 26 wins and two defeats.

"(Haye) is determined to add another world title to his collection and sees his June 29 opponent as the next step towards doing just that," Haye's promoters said in a statement.

(Reporting by Sonia Oxley; Editing by Mark Meadows)

As always, thank you for broadening my wisdom horizon and giving me examples of solid advice from which both my and my family's life have been enriched. -- LONGTIME FAN IN OHIO

DEAR LONGTIME FAN: It depends upon whether the couple living together are engaged to be married and their level of education. From what I've read, the higher the level of education, the more stable the couple will be. If the question is presented to your daughters, ideally you will have gotten to know the young man, and the relationship will have developed beyond the casual stage.

However, I cannot stress strongly enough the importance of your girls being independent, self-supporting and completing their education before they decide to do this. One of the most common reasons women remain in unhappy marriages/relationships is the fear they can't survive on their own.

DEAR ABBY: My husband and I are hoping you could shed some light on the practice of throwing rice at a wedding. We were not only wondering when and how the practice started, but also do people still throw rice today at weddings? We had heard that guests had stopped doing so to help protect wildlife (especially birds). Have you found this to be true? If so, what do we throw now? -- EMPTY-HANDED IN WISCONSIN

DEAR EMPTY-HANDED: Rice-throwing is an ancient tradition that may date back to ancient Rome and Egypt or even earlier. It was a ritual having to do with fertility -- many grains of rice equating to having many children. In some countries, the couple is pelted with dates, raisins or even eggs, according to Ask Yahoo.

According to Emily Post: "All the traditional materials have their drawbacks: Rice can be dangerous for birds if ingested; birdseed can sprout weeds in unwanted places; rose petals are notoriously slippery; and even bubbles can stain a gown. Instead, you might distribute colored flags or streamers for guests to wave. ... It beats assigning someone the nearly impossible task of trying to recover grains and seeds from grass and flower beds."

It's Abby again: This is why I recommend that instead of tossing anything, you shower the happy couple with good wishes.

DEAR ABBY: My husband and I have three daughters, identical triplets. We, like many parents of multiples, are tired of questions and unsolicited comments from strangers concerning IVF -- which we did not use, hence "identical" -- or anything else triplet-related.

I don't think people realize how rude they are being. I have been asked when did I know, how much did they weigh, what are their full names, etc.

Abby, would you please discuss baby etiquette with the world? I do not feel questions about my children from total strangers are appropriate. They even make me feel unsafe. -- MULTIPLE MOM IN OKLAHOMA

DEAR MULTIPLE MOM: Identical triplets are unusual, and what the questioners are doing is exhibiting natural curiosity. While I agree that asking how your daughters were conceived is inappropriate, a polite way to respond would be to say, "They were conceived with love."

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Write Dear Abby ator P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

Good advice for everyone -- teens to seniors -- is in "The Anger in All of Us and How to Deal With It." To order, send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $7 (U.S. funds) to: Dear Abby, Anger Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. (Shipping and handling are included in the price.)

"The bottom line is that given the change by WADA, we are dropping the case against Mr. Singh," PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said Tuesday.

Finchem said Singh's appeal of the sanctions was almost over when WADA, which had warned about the spray in February, told the tour Friday it no longer considers the use of deer antler spray to be prohibited except for a positive test result.

WADA sent the tour a written statement Tuesday, indicating that the spray is known to contain small amounts of IGF-1.

"Based on this new information, and given WADA's lead role in interpreting the prohibited list, the tour deemed it only fair to no longer treat Mr. Singh's use of deer antler spray as a violation of the tour's anti-doping program," Finchem said, reading from a statement.

The decision ends a three-month saga that had players wondering what would happen to Singh, a 50-year-old Fijian with three major championships who is famous for the endless hours he spends on the practice range.

Singh said in an interview with Sports Illustrated that he paid $9,000 last November for deer antler spray, hologram chips and other products from Sports With Alternatives To Steroids. The spray was said to contain IGF-1, an insulin-like growth hormone that is on the list of banned substances under the tour's anti-doping policy.

The tour said Singh provided a sample of the spray, and tests at a UCLA laboratory confirmed the presence of IGF-1.

Even though Singh never tested positive for the banned substance, the tour's policy says that admitting to use of such a substance is a violation, positive test or not. The tour penalized Singh on Feb. 19 Tuesday of the Match Play Championship, for which Singh was not eligible and Singh appealed a week later.

Deer antler spray was also in the news before the Super Bowl, with a report connecting Baltimore Ravens star Ray Lewis to the product.

The tour contacted WADA to confirm technical points when the agency clarified its position. WADA provided a written statement to the tour Tuesday.

"We're talking about a determination that was made by scientists at WADA that relate to the consumption, through deer antler spray, of a technically violative substance, IGF-1," Finchem said. "But in looking at it, the scientists concluded it resulted in infinitesimal amounts actually being taken into the recipient's body, amounts that couldn't be distinguished even if you had an accurate test with the amount that you might take into your body from milk, etc."

He said a player taking enough IGF-1 to register a positive result is not possible "because a positive reading means that you're surpassing a certain level. There hasn't been any level ever set."

"The fact of the matter here is as some people in the medical community pointed out when this matter came up, and now science at WADA has looked into it and concluded on their own it's just not worth having it on the list in that context," Finchem said. "I don't know of a substance or a transfer mechanism out there that can loan a person to IGF levels that would get the attention of the WADA science people. Clearly, this isn't one. They've made that clear to us."

Finchem said he informed Singh of the decision Tuesday afternoon at Quail Hollow, where Singh is playing in the Wells Fargo Championship. Singh has dropped out of the top 100 in the world and has not won on the PGA Tour since the Deutsche Bank Championship in 2008, just months after the tour began drug testing.

"I don't think you can move ahead with a prosecution on a player given this set of facts," Finchem said. "That's our conclusion. Vijay wasn't assessed this action because he was negligent. He wasn't assessed it because he made a mistake. He was assessed it because he violated the doping code, and the doping code is predicated on a list of substances. And we're now finding from WADA that that substance doesn't trigger a positive test to admission, so we have to respect that."

Finchem declined to say what kind of suspension Singh had faced.

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The problem, , seems to be that The Times may have signed up most of the people willing to pay at least $180 a year (which is currently its lowest priced digital subscriptiob) for the Times journalism they read. 

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That means that while digital subscriptions continues to grow, it's not on track to grow explosively from its current level around 700,000 (which, incidentally, is not too much lower  before the big, bad Internet changed everything).

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The solution to the problem is to expand the universe of potential subscribers, and the new lower-priced tiers in the paywalls are an attempt to do just that. The paper hasn't given exact pricing details, but in its "" note it touted adding a "lower-priced paid product" that will offer a selection of the "most important and interesting stories" from the Times. (So, maybe top news, but not every story the paper publishes.) They will also offer other subscriptions, "also at lower price points," which will just cover certain subjects (the press release mentions, "politics, technology, opinion, the arts and food"). 

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The Times is also creating subscriptions that cost more than its current offerings ("an enhanced tier") but those are more about getting some subset of the current 676,000 to pay more rather than expanding subscribers overall, so that's not where the big growth opportunity lies. The Times will also maintain its free offering of a metered access to set number of stories a month — currently set at ten — according to a spokesperson. 

After two years of easing people into a paywall, The Times has slowly normalized the idea of paying for news. And even outside the Times, digital readers who seek out quality reporting and writing as other outlets look to mimic the success of The Times and The Wall Street Journal.recently announced it would experiment with a paid model, and The New Yorker, which charges for none of its digital content right now, recently emailed out a survey asking readers how they felt about different digital models, both metered and not. So while there is little question that the future of news won't be free, the bigger question is just how many paying readers are out there.