Firefox nears billion milestone

The open-source browser Firefox is expected to pass the billion download mark in the next twenty four hours.

The milestone includes downloads of all versions of the web software since its first release in 2004.

Figures suggest that Firefox now has nearly one third of the browser market worldwide, at 31%.

Microsoft's Internet Explorer still dominates the field with around 60%, whilst Google's Chrome, Apple's Safari and Opera are all less than 5%.

Microsoft is currently in talks with the European competition regulators, which ruled in January that pre-bundling Internet Explorer with the company's Windows operating system hurt competition.

The firm recently made a proposal that would offer European buyers of its new Windows 7 operating system a list of potential browsers when they first install the software.

Regulators in Brussels said they "welcomed" the proposal but have yet to make a decision.

Firefox would be among the browsers on offer.

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Nigerian troops attack Islamist mosque, kill 100

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria – Nigerian security forces shelled then stormed the mosque and compound of an Islamist sect blamed for days of violence across northern Nigeria, killing more than 100 militants in a raging gunbattle.

The bodies of barefoot young men littered the streets of Maiduguri on Thursday morning as the army conducted a house-to-house manhunt on the outskirts of the city for sect members. Police said most of the dead were Islamist fighters.

Sect leader Mohammed Yusuf escaped along with about 300 followers but his deputy was killed in Wednesday night's bombardment, according to Army commander Maj. Gen. Saleh Maina.

An AP reporter watched soldiers, under fire, shoot their way into the mosque in Maiduguri on Wednesday and then rake those holed up inside with gunfire. The reporter later counted about 50 bodies inside the building and another 50 in the courtyard outside.

The militants, armed with homemade hunting rifles, bows and arrows and scimitars, were no match for the government forces.

Another five corpses were just inside a large house near the mosque. Maina pointed to the body of a plump, bearded man and said it the Boko Haram sect's vice chairman, Bukar Shekau.

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Jaipur royal Gayatri Devi passes away

Gayatri Devi, the elegant former princess of Cooch Behar who became the maharani of Jaipur and was once considered among the world's most beautiful women, died in Jaipur on Wednesday, an official said. She was 90.

She was admitted to the Santokba Durlabhji Memorial Hospital (SDMH) in Jaipur on July 17.

"She developed gastric problems in London and was admitted to a hospital there. She expressed her desire to return and was flown in an air ambulance to Jaipur. She was in SDMH since then," an administrative officer of SDMH said.

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Spotify sets its sights on iPhone

The Swedish music streaming service Spotify is planning to launch its first mobile application within weeks.

The company has submitted the application to Apple's iTunes App Store for its approval.

If given clearance, Spotify's service will then be available for users to download onto iPhones.

Spotify has been called an "iTunes killer" because of its ease of use and its comprehensive, free library of millions of songs.

It is also looked on as a possible saviour for the music industry, in its bid to offer alternatives to piracy.

The application is designed to search for new music and will allow users to temporarily store playlists to their phone for use when there is no connection.

It will also allow users to stream playlists.

Spotify has said the application will be free, but will require a premium subscription to use.

The premium service, which currently costs £9.99 a month allows uses to use Spotify on their computers without adverts.

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Solar eclipse: Cloudy skies spoil the show

Cloudy skies in large parts of northern and western India Wednesday marred a clear view of the century's longest total solar eclipse but the celestial spectacle was clearly visible over Varanasi.

Tens of thousands of people across the country rose early to see the eclipse that was to begin at the earliest at 5:29 a.m. and end at 7:41 a.m. in India.


It was to have been cleary visible in places like Surat, Indore, Bhopal, Varanasi, Patna, Taregna near Patna, Daman, Darjeeling, Dibrugarh, Gangtok, Gaya, Itanagar, Ujjain and Vadodra.

A partial eclipse was to have been visible in many other towns and cities.

A total eclipse occurred when the moon passes between the sun and the earth, completely obscuring the sun. During the eclipse, totality is visible only from a narrow track on the surface of the earth.

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Yahoo's front page makeover

Yahoo has unveiled sweeping changes to its front page aimed at shoring up its position as the main portal to the web.

Consumers in the US are the first to benefit from a new, customisable format which lets them link to third parties like Google and Twitter.

The new style will be introduced to parts of Europe and India later this week and Asia later in the year.

"We want to be at the centre of people's lives online," said Yahoo's consumer experiences head Tapan Bhat.

"There is a destination for everything you are about in just a click or two. Now we are looking at Yahoo holistically, all centred around the user," Mr Bhat told reporters in a conference call.

The key is personalisation and the biggest change involves a bar on the left hand side of the page, called My Favorites. Here, users can customise links to Yahoo and other services they use the most from news to social networks to email to movies.

While there are over 60 of these applications at the moment, consumers can add their own by typing in web addresses.

There are also plans to allow other software developers to design their own, more sophisticated applications that people can add.

"The new homepage is designed to make Yahoo the web's number one destination portal by once again giving people one place to access everything," said Ben Parr, associate editor of social media blog Mashable.com.

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26/11 case: Kasab confesses in court

In a surprise move, main accused Ajmal Amir Kasab confessed to his involvement in the Mumbai attacks. He narrated the entire sequence of events leading to the terror strikes on November 26, 2008.

The lone surviving terrorist of the Mumbai attacks named Lashkar-e-Toiba's Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi as the mastermind behind the attacks. He also named Abu Hamza as one of the Pakistani handlers.

The Mumbai attacks had claimed more than 150 lives and left many injured.

Kasab is believed to be a resident of Faridkot in Pakistan. He is currently lodged in Arthur Road jail in Mumbai.

In his confessional statement, Kasab said he and other terrorists were brought from Karachi, led by Lakhvi and Abu Hamza.

Kasab's defence was taken by surprise at his admission.

Earlier, a magazine report claimed Kasab was taught combat techniques by the Pakistan Marines after being extensively trained by the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) at its various camps.

The magazine quoted Kasab's interrogation report by an intelligence agency.

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Symbian to develop mobile apps

Symbian, the operating system on nearly half the world's smartphones, is to become involved in the development of mobile applications, or apps.

Symbian will be a one-stop location for app developers, standardising and testing software and then making it available to existing app storefronts.

Called Horizon, the approach follows the lead set by other operating system makers such as Microsoft and Apple.

The not-for-profit Symbian Foundation will launch the service in October.

The announcement of Horizon follows Apple's statement on Tuesday that its App Store has seen 1.5 billion app downloads in a year, showing that a significant market exists for a centralised source of application software.

Handset manufacturers, mobile network operators and independent sites have opened their own application stores, but Horizon will aim to provide a centralised, smooth route to market to solidify Symbian's place in an increasingly crowded operating system market.

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850 families moved to safer places in rain-hit Gujarat

Over 850 families in Veraval and Mangrol talukas of Junagadh were shifted to safer and higher places following incessant rains for the past couple of days, district officials said on Thursday.

Relief camps have been set up for the displaced families where food packets and other necessary items were being distributed, they said, adding that water in many parts of Mangrol and Veraval have started receding since Wednesday morning.

"Four hundred families in Veraval taluka were shifted to higher grounds last night following heavy rains. In Mangrol over 480 families have been shifted till today," district officials said.

The Army has been on the stand by since Wednesday in Junagadh district.

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Indian-origin scientists develop talking cars

Talking cars aren't science fiction anymore -- thanks to scientists who have developed a set of algorithms that will allow robotic cars of the future to communicate with each other to help avoid collisions.

An international team, led by Indian-origin scientists Dr Bhibhya Sharma and Dr Utesh Chand of the University of the South Pacific, has developed the mathematical equations which would also instruct robotic cars how to change lanes safely.

According to Dr Sharma, the series of mathematical equations would instruct robotic cars when and how to merge lanes, which could lead to less accidents and ease traffic congestions.

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Govt will end ID card duplication: Nilekani

Nandan M Nilekani, who was appointed as head of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIAI), on Monday said the government would take steps to end ID card duplication leading to fraud and create a network of verification and authentication.


"The UIAI would create a centralised, national database of Indian residents," the former Infosys co-chairman told reporters in bangalore after meeting Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, who felicitated him on his new assignment.

The key issue was to ensure that there were no duplicates, he said.

"The big problem today with identity is that many systems have lot of duplicates which lead to fraud," he said.

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Villagers shun school with HIV students

In a tragic story of how ignorance and stigma continue to haunt HIV patients in the country, villagers of Hasegain in Latur in Maharashtra have refused to allow their children to study with nine HIV positive children - seven boys and two girls.

The children are from an orphanage for HIV positive children close to the village and were admitted to the school in June. But the issue came up two days ago when parents of other children went to the school authorities and asked them to not allow the HIV positive children into the school.

The school refused to agree with the parents and tried to hold meetings with them to make them understand that HIV is not infectious.

So far, parents have refused to budge and have stopped sending their children to the school.

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Under Ground Lakes

1. Cheddar Gorge is Britain’s biggest canyon and is found within the Cheddar Caves, where the UK’s oldest complete human skeleton was found in 1903. Known as the Cheddar Man, the remains were estimated to be 9,000 years old.



2. Hamilton Pool Preserve, in Austin, Texas, was created quite naturally when the dome of an underground cave collapsed revealing this stunning natural pool. It is now frequented by day-trippers and naturalists. That’s naturalists not naturists, although no doubt someone has tried to go skinny dipping at one point!



3. Hamilton Pool from another perspective. When there’s been heavy rainfall, 45ft waterfalls cascade from the rim of the cavern. It must be pretty spectacular when you’re bathing.



4. Stalagtites adorn the roof of Luray Caverns, Virginia, the still waters throwing a perfect reflection.



5. Legend has it that early cavemen inhabited Wookey Caves in Somerset, England.



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Teen ends life as parents forbid him

Ashar Mendon was all set to study in Australia.



But now, the 18-year-old's dream has died with him.

Ashar, the son of a garment exporter committed suicide by hanging himself in their flat in Colaba on Monday.

The reason: his mother scared by the racial attacks on Indians in Australia forbade him to go.

Just days ago, Ashar had got admission at the Bond university in New South Wales for an undergraduate Information technology course.

The police have not recovered any suicide note and are investigating his mobile records and going through his computer to get an idea of why he took this extreme step.

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Doctor arrested for poisoning twin daughters

A gynaecologist, who allegedly poisoned her twin daughters and attempted suicide a week ago in the city, was arrested following her discharge from hospital, police said on Tuesday.

Rupa Singh (35) allegedly injected her four-year-old twin daughters -- Tanya and Twinkle -- on July one and attempted suicide after a fight with her surgeon husband Rajiv Ranjan (38), over the issue of setting up of a hospital.

The woman, working in Ambedkar Hospital in Rohini, had walked out of their Maurya Enclave residence in northwest Delhi with her two daughters and checked into City Park hotel in Peetampura.

She had injected some poison to her daughters before injecting herself with the same substance. While the girls died, Rupa was admitted to Max Hospital in Peetampura.

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Solar Powered Blue Car Hitting the Streets in 2010

Starting this coming spring, a slick new solar-powered electric vehicle will be hitting the streets of Europe. Italian car designer Pininfarina and French battery manufacturer Bolloré have officially announced that the five door Blue Car hatchback is now ready for production. A fully-electric vehicle with solar panels by 2010?

Previously unveiled at last years Geneva Show, the Blue Car is a fully-electric vehicle that comes equipped with solar panels on the rooftop. The vehicle is 3.65 meters long, 1.6 meters high and 1.72 meters wide, and features a 50kW electric motor that provides an acceleration of 0-60mph in around 6 seconds and a top speed of 80mph.

The solar panels on the vehicle’s roof provides some power to the vehicle’s systems. It comes with regenerative brakes and a Lithium Metal Polymer batteries, and has a range of 155 miles per charge. According to the manufacturer, all the materials in the construction have been sourced to be as environmentally friendly as possible.

Every Tuesday we bring word of new concept vehicles that stand to revolutionize the world. Every once in a while though one of those vehicles just happens to become reality. The Blue Car will be available in 2010, with full scale production of 60,000 units in the years to come.

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Rejected by DU, student commits suicide

Unable to get admission in Delhi University allegedly drove a 17-year-old girl to hang herself at her residence in east Delhi on Tuesday evening.

Prachi Singh Gaur had applied for the BA English course in five DU colleges after her Class XII results were announced. She could not get through any of the two university cut-off lists. Prachi had dreamt of becoming a news anchor and was depressed that her friends got their names in the second cut-off lists on Monday.


Gopal Singh Gaur, Prachi's father, is struggling to come to terms with his daughter's sudden death.

Prachi did not leave behind a suicide note but the family says Prachi was deeply upset with not making it to Delhi University's cut-off list.

Prachi scored 46 per cent in her Class 12 boards but the cut off for the BA pass course in the college she applied to was at least 15 per cent higher.

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