KZYX&Z

What happens when a company lets customers design and vote on their own products? Some Web-based outfits are finding success by doing just that. And the new business model is really catching on.

In Cuba, one of President Raul Castro's most dramatic recent announcements was that he would allow private farmers access to up to 100 acres of idle government land. The plan is a shift toward private enterprise on the socialist island.

Like two sprinters leaving the rest of the field behind, the United States and China are neck-and-neck in total medals at the Summer Olympics in Beijing. The U.S. and the host country are tied with 79 total medals. But China leads the U.S. in gold medals, 45-26.

The deaths last week of two local service members from Cape Cod has stunned the small town of Mashpee. Within a day of each other, Army Pfc. Paul Conlon was killed in Afghanistan and Marine Corps Pfc. Daniel McGuire was killed in Iraq.

The Taliban have stepped up attacks in Afghanistan. Earlier this week, French soldiers were attacked during a reconnaissance mission. French President Nicolas Sarkozy is in Kabul on Wednesday.