U.S. Army Captain Michael Kelvington, commander of the Battle company, 1-508 Parachute Infantry battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, bows next to remains of Gulam Dostager, a member of Afghan Local Police who was killed in the blast of an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) during the joint Tor Janda (Black Flag in Pashtu) operation, in Zahri district of Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan May 25, 2012.  REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov  (AFGHANISTAN - Tags: MILITARY CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)

Reuters Photojournalism

Our day's top images, in-depth photo essays and offbeat slices of life. See the best of Reuters photography.  See more | Photo caption 

Members of the U.S. Navy Blue Angels fly over the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan as part of the 25th annual Fleet Week celebration in New York, May 23, 2012.  REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz (UNITED STATES - Tags: MILITARY ANNIVERSARY TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)

Fleet Week

The U.S. Navy takes Manhattan for a week.  Slideshow 

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The SpaceX mission

A privately owned unmanned rocket blasts off on a mission to be the first commercial flight to the International Space Station.  Slideshow 

Viacom to drop Jon Stewart, Colbert Report from Hulu

Comedian Stephen Colbert opens the show at the 52nd annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles January 31, 2010. REUTERS/Mike Blake

Comedian Stephen Colbert opens the show at the 52nd annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles January 31, 2010.

Credit: Reuters/Mike Blake

NEW YORK | Thu Mar 4, 2010 12:48pm EST

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Viacom Inc's Comedy Central is withdrawing its popular comedy shows "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report" from online video service Hulu, a Hulu executive said on Tuesday.

Hulu's senior vice president of content and distribution, Andy Forssell, said the company was unable to secure the rights to the popular shows from Comedy Central beyond March 9.

Hulu, jointly owned by General Electric Co's NBC Universal, News Corp's Fox Entertainment and Walt Disney Co's ABC, said it was continuing to talk to Comedy Central.

Comedy Central had received a percentage of ad sales sold by Hulu, which offers programing to its viewers for free.

The impasse comes amid a series of high-profile disputes over programing fees between broadcast companies and the companies delivering the content.

ABC on Monday threatened to drop its shows from cable service provider Cablevision in a dispute over fees.

Fox and Time Warner Cable Inc had a similar disagreement but reached a deal on January 1, avoiding a blackout after months of negotiations.

(Reporting by Ritsuko Ando; Editing by Neil Fullick)

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