Google case over online abuse to begin in High Court

The case of a UK businessman who wants Google to stop malicious web postings about him appearing in its search results is set to begin. Daniel Hegglin says he has been wrongly called a murderer, a paedophile and a Ku Klux Klan sympathiser during a malicious online campaign against him. He wants Google to block the anonymous posts from its search engine results. Google asked him to provide a list of web links to be removed, but High Court judges will rule if it should do more. Mr Hegglin, who currently lives in Hong Kong but previously lived and worked in London, first became aware of the online abuse in 2011. 'Enormous consequences' He claims there are more than 3,600 websites containing abusive and untrue material about him, and says listing all the posts for Google to remove would be expensive, time consuming, and ineffective. He says that although Google is not the originator of the abusive campaign, its search engines have allowed the abuse to become more widespread. He is seeking a legal order to force Google to take steps to prevent the abusive posts being processed in searches in England and Wales. line Analysis BBC legal affairs correspondent, Clive Coleman This case is not a so called right to be forgotten case - a case where Google is being asked to remove old but accurate reports of some behaviour which Daniel Hegglin finds embarrassing. It is about arguably something much more important - the circulation and publication of highly abusive and false material accessible at the click of a mouse in the online world. It goes to the heart of what is a very modern nightmare - the fact that anyone can post malicious material anonymously online, which can have a devastating effect on the life of the victim. line The case, to be heard at London's High Court, has been described by lawyers as a test case with potentially "enormous consequences". It takes place against the backdrop of the Court of Justice of the European Union's decision on the controversial "right to be forgotten" rule - but is unconnected to that ruling. The right to be forgotten ruling - made in May - allows outdated online links to be erased from search results as the request of the article's subject.

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Obama immigration plan gives micro wage boost

Want to get paid more? The White House claims President Obama's immigration plan will raise wages for immigrants and American-born alike. But the amount seems less than eye-popping ... $170 a year by 2024. Wages are a very sensitive topic in the U.S. these days. That's because Americans haven't had a real raise in years. Average hourly earnings aren't keeping up with inflation, and U.S. median income has fallen back to 1995 levels. Related: Here's why the middle class feels squeezed The administration is touting the economic benefits of the president's controversial executive action that would legally permit up to 5 million undocumented immigrants to stay in the United States temporarily. The move will increase productivity, expand the workforce and reduce the deficit, the White House's economic advisers say. And it will have no impact on employment of U.S. citizens and legal immigrants. Economic experts on both sides of the political spectrum generally shrugged, agreeing that the action will not hurt Americans workers and may help certain folks a little bit. "The larger point is that it's not negative. This is not harmful to native-born workers," said Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal group. When it comes to wages, the move will boost annual earnings mainly because it will make it easier for high-skilled immigrants to work in the U.S. They will start companies and innovate, raising wages for all skilled workers, said Stan Veuger, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative-leaning group. As a result, American-born college grads will increase by about $300 a year by 2024, according to the White House. Those with a high school degree will get a roughly $110 boost. Combined, it will raise wages by $130 (because there are fewer college grads). Related: High-skilled immigration fixes are just a band-aid On the flip side, allowing low-skilled workers to remain in the country will translate into a $40 average wage gain for native-born workers, the administration says. Undocumented immigrants, however, would see an even bigger benefit. Their earnings would likely rise by about 8.5% since they could work legally and find jobs that match their skills, according to the left-leaning Center for American Progress.

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Berkeley students protest UC tuition hike

Students at U.C. Berkeley protested for a second day Friday against a tuition hike approved this week by the University of California. More than 300 students had occupied Berkeley's Wheeler Hall, according to the university's student-run newspaper, The Daily Californian. Wheeler Hall is the site of many well-known university protests over the years. The student demonstrations started earlier this week with hundreds of students camped out in the hall since Thursday, the school paper said. Students are demanding a repeal of the tuition hike and are calling for a walkout from classes on Monday. Related: College tuition hikes lowest since 1970s In 2015, tuition and fees for all 233,000 students at its 10 universities will go up by $612, for a total of $12,804, according to a plan that was approved Thursday by its governing body. The plan calls for a tuition increase of 5% per year for the next five years. The move is in response to a drop in state funding, which is near the lowest levels in more than 30 years, according to U.C. president Janet Napolitano. California had been struggling to close massive budget shortfalls in the years following the financial crisis and Great Recession and has been cutting back financial support to U.C. schools as a result. Napolitano said the U.C. system receives about $460 million less today than it did before the recession. The tuition hike was backed by seven members of the committee in charge of long-term financial planning for university. Governor Jerry Brown and the student representative on the board, Sadia Saifuddin, voted against it. Brown had proposed forming a separate committee to explore other ways to cut costs, including offering three-year undergraduate degrees and expanding the use of online courses. Related: 10 most expensive colleges Napolitano described the tuition hike as necessary to sustain a high-quality education and will make the system less dependent on fluctuations in state funding. "With this plan we can invest in faculty. This means we can increase course selection, speed time to graduation, and better support graduate education as well as undergraduate education," Napolitano said. "But we cannot continue to do these things without additional revenue." Supporters also point out that the U.C. system has one of the strongest financial aid programs in the country. More than half of its undergraduate students have all of their costs covered.

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China lifts ban on Facebook for select few

Blink and you'll miss it: Facebook is unbanned in China for three days. China is hosting an Internet conference this week in Wuzhen, a sleepy town located about halfway between Shanghai and Hangzhou, the headquarters of e-commerce juggernaut Alibaba (BABA, Tech30). Wuzhen is sometimes called a "Venice of the East" for its network of canals, but during the conference the city carries another distinction: It's the only place in China where users can freely access Facebook (FB, Tech30), Twitter (TWTR, Tech30) and Instagram. The Internet is closely controlled in China. Most Western social media platforms are banned, and Beijing has invested heavily in a firewall that restricts access to thousands of websites it deems controversial. But Chinese officials have reportedly punched a hole in the "Great Firewall" for the inaugural World Internet Conference, allowing more than 1,000 attendees to access parts of the Internet that are off limits to 1.3 billion Chinese. Banned! 7 things you won't find in China The concession underlines the dilemma facing non-Chinese tech firms as they try to reconcile the country's enormous potential with its heavy-handed approach to censorship and market access. Executives from tech firms including Facebook (FB, Tech30), Cisco (CSCO, Tech30) and Qualcomm (QCOM, Tech30), for example, are at the conference. But Facebook is banned inside China, Qualcomm was recently investigated as part of an antitrust probe, and Cisco has been caught in the fallout of the Snowden spy scandal. When questioned by reporters about about their companies' position in China, the executives were not forthcoming. Made by China in America Made by China in America At the conference, Chinese officials presented a vision for the Internet that Western users would find unfamiliar. They emphasized the rule of law, and urged website operators to adhere to regulations. Ren Xianliang, a top official at the Cyberspace Administration of China, stressed that citizens should use the Internet to "spread positive energy." Related: Jack Ma: Being rich is a 'great pain' The conference drew the ire of Amnesty International, which said China's Internet model is one of "extreme control and suppression." "China appears eager to promote its own domestic Internet rules as a model for global regulation," said William Nee, a researcher at the human rights group."This should send a chill down the spine of anyone that values online freedom." Yet China is unlikely to change course. For Beijing, it's a matter of national security, and that means large swaths of the Internet -- especially social media platforms -- will remain out of reach for most Chinese. "I have never used such websites, so I have no information about their accessibility in China, but I assume some may not be accessible," China's top Internet regulator Lu Wei said in advance of the conference. "I can choose who will be a guest in my home."

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Europe to vote on Google breakup proposal

Google controls 90% of all Web searches in Europe, giving it unequaled power it doesn't enjoy in the United States. On Thursday, members of Europe's parliament will vote on a resolution that will propose ways to shrink Google's influence in Europe. "It's a monopoly. It's killing our technology businesses," said Ramon Tremosa, a member of parliament who's authoring the draft measure. The draft resolution demands an end to "Google's illegal and discriminatory treatment." Related: Google lets you pay to avoid ads The proposal cites a frequent complaint: that Google search results are ranked based on what's best for Google as a business, not the user. It also calls for a drastic move "to restore competition in the online marketplace." Among the ideas: Ripping apart Google's ranking algorithm and rotating results instead to boost competitors. Another idea is to force a breakup of Google's European operations. But even if the vote passes on Thursday, it'll only be a recommendation. Final authority lies with another branch of the government: the European Commission. Google has long been fighting antitrust issues in Europe. Regulators there have criticized the way Google displays searches, ranking its own services higher than others. They've also taken issue with the company's consolidated power in the online advertising business, as well as how Google scrapes content from the Internet to post it on its own search results. Google is also dealing with Europe's new "right to be forgotten" rule, which lets Europeans tell search engines to take them off search results that are outdated or inappropriate. All it takes is filling out a form. There have also been European Union concerns about Google's privacy policy, along with complaints that Google controls the mobile market with its Android smartphone software.

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Suicide bomber kills 45 at Afghanistan volleyball game

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- At least 45 people were killed and 60 others wounded Sunday when a suicide bomber attacked a crowd watching a volleyball match in the Yahyakhil district of Afghanistan's southeastern Paktika province, according to a spokesman for the provincial governor. In 2010, a suicide car bomb exploded in the middle of a group of men playing volleyball, a popular sport in the region, in northwest Pakistan. That attack left 30 people dead and 52 wounded. Sunday's attack comes the same day the nation's parliament agreed to allow U.S. and NATO forces to remain in Afghanistan after 2014. It's unusual for an attack in Afghanistan to kill so many people. Only a few comparable incidents come up in the University of Maryland's Global Terrorism Database, which tracks acts of terror from 1970 to 2013. In October 2012, a suicide bomber dressed in a police uniform attacked a mosque in the city of Maymana in Faryab province, according to the database. At least 42 people, including 19 members of the Afghan security forces, were killed and another 50 people injured in that blast. No group claimed responsibility for the incident, but sources attributed it to the Taliban. In April 2013, nine attackers dressed as soldiers killed 53 people at a courthouse complex where several Taliban members were standing trial in the city of Farah. At least one suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle at the entrance to the complex, while the other attackers entered other buildings and began shooting and throwing grenades. About 93 additional people were wounded. All of the attackers died, Global Terrorism Database reports.

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Regin, new computer spying bug, discovered by Symantec

A leading computer security company says it has discovered one of the most sophisticated pieces of malicious software ever seen. Symantec says the bug, named Regin, was probably created by a government and has been used for six years against a range of targets around the world. Once installed on a computer, it can do things like capture screenshots, steal passwords or recover deleted files. Experts say computers in Russia, Saudi Arabia and Ireland have been hit most. It has been used to spy on government organisations, businesses and private individuals, they say. Researchers say the sophistication of the software indicates that it is a cyber-espionage tool developed by a nation state. They also said it likely took months, if not years, to develop and its creators have gone to great lengths to cover its tracks. Sian John, a security strategist at Symantec, said: "It looks like it comes from a Western organisation. It's the level of skill and expertise, the length of time over which it was developed." Symantec has drawn parallels with Stuxnet, a computer worm thought to have been developed by the US and Israel to target Iran's nuclear program. That was designed to damage equipment, whereas Regin's purpose appears to be to collect information.

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Peru investigates deaths of 500 sea lions on north coast

Peru is investigating the deaths of some 500 sea lions found on a beach on its northern coastline. The local governor has accused fishermen of poisoning the mammals, which usually come close to the shore looking for food. But Peruvian environmental police are looking into other possible causes for the deaths, including disease and the accidental ingestion of plastic. The rotting corpses were found on Anconcillo beach in the Ancash region. Agents said the bodies were of young as well as old animals, the official Andina news agency reported. They were considered a health hazard and quickly removed from the beach, which lies some 400km (250 miles) north of the capital, Lima. Earlier this month, a similar incident happened further north, in the Piura region, where the bodies of nearly 200 sea lions, dolphins, turtles and pelicans washed ashore. Officials are still investigating the causes of those deaths. Dolphin carcass in Peru on 6 April 2012 Hundreds of dolphins were washed up in north Peru two years ago In 2012, hundreds of dolphins were found dead along a stretch of Peruvian coastline. Environmental group Orca blamed the deaths on the noise and pressure waves caused by explosions it linked to oil exploration in the area.

But a government report by the Maritime Institute (Imarpe) ruled out oil exploration, or infection by a virus or bacteria, as triggers for the deaths of the dolphins. The report said natural causes were to blame.

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Kenya bus attack: Military 'kills 100 Shabab militants'

The Kenyan military has killed more than 100 al-Shabab militants linked to a deadly attack on a bus, Kenya's deputy president says. William Ruto said the armed forces had carried out two operations in Somalia, destroying equipment and a camp from which the bus attack was planned. However, al-Shabab refuted this, and said that its fighters were safe. In Saturday's attack, gunmen pulled non-Muslims passengers from a bus in northern Kenya, killing 28 of them. Al-Shabab has carried out a series of attacks in Kenya since 2011, the year that Kenya sent troops into Somalia to help battle the Islamist group. Mr Ruto gave details of the military operation after attending a Sunday service at a church in Nyahururu. Kenyan security forces at the scene of the bus attack near the town of Mandera in northern Kenya - 22 November 2014 The driver of the bus tried to accelerate away from the militants, but the vehicle got stuck in wet mud

"I can assure you that those behind the attack did not even take their supper," he was quoted as saying by the Standard newspaper. "They were killed by our officers who we sent out immediately after the attack. They did not find time to celebrate their heinous crime." He said security officials were in "full control" and urged other leaders to co-operate with the government rather than criticise it. Kenya's ministry of defence said in a statement that a total of 115 al-Shabab militants had been killed over the weekend, as ground troops and fighter jets attacked militants near the Kenyan-Somali border, and two al-Shabab camps in Somalia. In a statement, al-Shabab called the government's words "absurd" and said that its fighters "didn't face any attack whatsoever". In Saturday's bus attack in Mandera county, close to the Somali border, witnesses described how passengers were asked to recite passages from the Koran and those who failed were made to lie on the ground before being shot in the head. Map

Afterwards, at least one local official said that pleas for extra security in the area had gone unanswered. On Sunday, Mandera Governor Ali Roba called on the government to "reshuffle" its entire security team in the region, saying that officers did not follow up on cases and that a state of insecurity was considered normal. "Many suspects who are apprehended are released from cells under unknown circumstances, even when there is evidence of their involvement in crime," Mr Roba told Kenya's Daily Nation. Somalia-based al-Shabab said it had carried out Saturday's attack in retaliation for a government crackdown on mosques in the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa that were allegedly used by extremists. Security forces seized weapons during the raids. Mr Ruto said such police operations would not stop. "We will not allow our praying places to be used as armoury," he said. "This operation is going to happen no matter what." He also called on Muslim religious leaders to help ensure that mosques were not taken over by extremists.

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Harvard Researchers Build $10 Robot That Can Teach Kids to Code

Mike Rubenstein wants to put robots in the classroom.

Working with two other researchers at Harvard University, Rubenstein recently created what they call AERobot, a bot that can help teach programming and artificial intelligence to middle school kids and high schoolers. That may seem like a rather expensive luxury for most schools, but it’s not. It costs just $10.70. The hope is that it can help push more kids into STEM, studies involving science, technology, engineering, and math. The tool is part of a widespread effort to teach programming and other computer skills to more children, at earlier stages. It’s called the code literacy movement, and it includes everything from new and simpler programming languages to children’s books that teach coding concepts. Rubenstein’s project grew out of the 2014 AFRON Challenge, held back in January, which called for researchers to design low-cost robotic systems for education in the developing world. Part of Harvard’s Self-Organizing Systems Research Group, Rubstein has long studied swarm robotics, which aims to create herds of tiny robots that can behave as whole, and he ended up adapting one of his swarm systems in order to build AERobot. It’s a single machine—not a swarm bot—but it’s built from many of the same inexpensive materials. He and his colleagues assembled most of the electronics with a pick-and-place machine—a machine that automatically builds printed circuit boards—and in order to further cut costs, they used vibration motors for locomotion and left out a chassis. The device doesn’t include its own programming interface or charger. It gets both from a desktop or laptop computer, plugging into the USB port. “There are no extra frills,” Rubenstein says. On the software side, Rubenstein modified a programming language called minibloqs, a highly graphical means of programming machines. “You don’t really need to type code. You drag pictures,” he explains. “Say I wanted an LED on the robot to turn green. I would just drag over an image of an LED, and pick the green color.” The language, he says, is a bit like Scratch, the programming language for kids developed at MIT. The bot can move forwards and backwards on flat surfaces, turn in place, detect light, follow lines and edges, and identify distances using reflected infrared light. And the idea is that kids will learn but programming the bot to do such things. Rubenstein and his team provide a fifteen-lesson curriculum that walks students through the sensors and the actuators, the programming flow and logic, and how to create specific robot behavior. At the 2014 AFRON Challenge, AERobot won the top honor in the software category, and it took second place in the hardware and curriculum categories. The team has since tested it with about 100 sixth- to eighth- graders at a STEM-focused summer camp called i2Camp, and they plan to do further tests this coming summer. Rubenstein says that for the bot’s next iteration, the group is focusing on improving the curriculum and the software, eliminating steps in the installation process and ensuring AERobot is so simple that kids can learn how to use the thing on their own—without a teacher.

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Israel’s Commercial Jets Will Soon Be Firing Lasers

Israel is finally ready to combat shoulder-launched missiles and they’re going to do it with lasers. Israel’s Ministry of Defense announced Wednesday that SkyShield, developed by Israeli defense contractor Elbit Systems, had successfully completed testing and is certified for commercial use to combat the threat of man-portable surface-to-air missile systems (MANPADS) by combining advanced laser detection and disruption technologies. C-MUSIC, the commercial version of SkyShield, integrates laser technology with a thermal camera to deflect incoming threats by jamming. After detecting incoming missiles with an infrared sensor, it fires a laser that disrupts the missile’s navigation system, taking it off course and detonating the missile a safe distance from the aircraft. Image: Elbit Systems

Image: Elbit Systems “SkyShield has been validated under the most complex and sophisticated testing conditions ever conducted in Israel and is now ready to protect Israeli airlines,” said Israel Air Force Brig. Gen. Eitan Eshel, director of research and development at Israel’s Defense Ministry. The technological advancement is a direct response to the 2002 attempt by terrorists in Mombasa, Kenya in which two surface-to-air missiles were fired at an Israeli charter plane shortly after takeoff. The missiles missed their target and its more than 250 passengers, but the event prompted then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to call for an urgent defense response. Although the project was supposed to be expedited, it was delayed for several years because of infighting among competing defense firms and government agencies over which one would foot the bill. Once the contract was awarded to Elbit Systems, completion of the project took about three years. The system will first be implemented on all El Al airliners, but Elbit says it has contracts with several other countries around the world.

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Marion Barry: Ex-Washington DC mayor dies at 78

Former Washington DC Mayor Marion Barry, who won re-election after a drug arrest, has died at the age of 78. A Democrat, Mr Barry served three terms from 1979 to 1991 before his personal life overshadowed his politics. He was arrested in an FBI sting operation and tried on drug charges in 1990, but was only convicted on a single count of possession. He remained popular with many poorer African American voters, and served a final term as mayor from 1995 to 1999. Mr Barry died overnight at a hospital in Washington, DC Council spokeswoman LaToya Foster said. The cause of death was not disclosed, but he had kidney problems stemming from diabetes and high blood pressure. His 1990 arrest - which came during his third term - came after he was videotaped by the FBI smoking crack in a Washington hotel room with a female friend. During the subsequent trial jurors remained deadlocked on most counts. His conviction for drug possession led to a six-month prison sentence. The son of a sharecropper, born in Mississippi in 1936, Mr Barry was active in the civil rights movements in Washington in the 1960s, and was first elected to the city council in 1974. He went on to dominate Washington's politics for a quarter-century and was sometimes dubbed "Mayor for Life". Confirming his death, the Washington Post described his personal and public life as "fraught with high drama and irony". "He came to Washington as a champion of the downtrodden and the dispossessed and rose to the pinnacle of power and prestige," the newspaper wrote.

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Ebola crisis now 'stable' in Guinea, WHO says

The Ebola outbreak is now "stable" in Guinea, where the latest crisis began, the World Health Organization says. There were still some flare ups in the south-east, but things were improving in other prefectures, WHO co-ordinator Dr Guenael Rodier told the BBC. More than 5,400 people have died in the latest outbreak, with Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia the worst hit. The outbreak can be ended by mid-2015 if the world speeds up its response, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said. But he warned that although the rate of new cases was slowing in parts of West Africa, Mali - where six people have died and a seventh case has been reported - was now of deep concern. Jump media player Media player help Out of media player. Press enter to return or tab to continue. And the head of the UN Ebola mission, Anthony Banbury, said the world was "far away" from beating the virus. There have been more than 15,300 reported cases of Ebola since the outbreak began earlier this year, the WHO says. More than 1,200 people have died of Ebola in Guinea alone.

However, Dr Rodier said that the situation in Guinea was now "relatively stable". "When you look in more detail, you see that it's still quite active in the Guinea forest area [in] the south of the country," Dr Rodier said. However, he added that the situation was "actually improving in a number of prefectures, especially Conakry", where there was a fairly good understanding of how the disease was spreading. The WHO has faced criticism that it was too slow to respond during the start of the crisis. However, Dr Rodier said it was the first time there had been such a serious outbreak in West Africa, adding: "Lessons have been learned." Refused entry Guinea has not been as badly hit by Ebola as neighbouring Sierra Leone and Liberia. Eight months since the outbreak was first declared, some still do not believe Ebola is a real disease, and health teams trying to trace new potential cases are still being refused entry to some villages, says the BBC's Tulip Mazumdar in the capital Conakry. File photo: People look on as a woman reacts after her husband is suspected of dying from the Ebola virus, in the Liberian capital Monrovia, 4 October 2014 The latest Ebola outbreak has killed more than 5,000 people Meanwhile, a group of 30 health workers from the UK's National Health Service have flown to Sierra Leone to help treat Ebola patients. They are also expected to train local staff at treatment centres across the country. Ebola is spread only through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person showing symptoms, such as fever or vomiting. People caring for the sick or handling the bodies of people infected Ebola are therefore especially vulnerable. How Ebola is spread

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Iran nuclear talks: Diplomats push for Vienna deal

Foreign ministers from world powers discussing a nuclear deal with Iran are gathering in Vienna in a bid to reach agreement before Monday's deadline. Russian's Sergey Lavrov is travelling to the Austrian capital, joining his counterparts from the US, UK, China, Germany, France, and Iran. The six nations want Iran to curb its nuclear programme in return for the lifting of United Nations sanctions.

Iran says it is not seeking nuclear weapons, but wants atomic energy. It says its nuclear programme is solely designed to provide peaceful, civilian projects. Representatives of the so-called P5+1 group - Britain, China, France, Russia, the US plus Germany - are taking part in the negotiations with Iran. There have been few solid indications of progress so far, but Iranian sources told BBC Persian on Sunday that a "political agreement" could be reached before the deadline. That information came after an Iranian news agency quoted an unnamed member of the Iranian delegation as saying a full deal was "impossible" by Monday. The two sides are closer than they have been for years to resolving the row over Iran's nuclear work, the BBC's Bethany Bell in Vienna reports. However, significant differences remain over the scope of Iran's uranium enrichment programme and the timing of sanctions relief. line Potential deal-breakers Men making uranium hexafluoride gas at the Isfahan uranium conversion facility (March 2005) Uranium enrichment: Western states want to reduce Iran's capacity in order to prevent it acquiring weapons-grade material but Tehran is set on expanding it nearly 20-fold in the coming years Sanctions reduction: Iran wants sanctions lifted immediately but Western states want to stagger their removal to ensure Tehran abides by its commitments Bomb technology: Iran has failed to explain explosives tests and other activity that could be linked to a nuclear weapons programme and has denied international nuclear inspectors access to its Parchin military site line US Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif have held several rounds of talks in recent days in an attempt to break the deadlock. Talks are expected to continue late on Sunday and into Monday, with Mr Kerry joining European allies for a working dinner following a meeting with the Saudi foreign minister. Saudi Arabia is not a party of the P5+1 talks, but is concerned about Iran's influence in the region. Iranian sources told the BBC that Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was also due to arrive in Vienna on Sunday. Rare protest

As the final rounds of talks got under way, the New York Times reported that a key US concern was to prevent Iran from producing a bomb at undetected nuclear locations - referred to as a "sneakout". Meanwhile, in Tehran, officials approved a rare protest by hardliners who criticised government negotiators. The demonstrators accused President Hassan Rouhani of giving in to Western pressure. Students in Tehran held a protest in support from Iran's nuclear programme The P5+1 group and Iran agreed an interim deal, known as the Geneva Accord, last year. Under the agreement, Iran curbed some of its uranium enrichment in return for sanctions relief. However, the two sides failed to reach a lasting deal by July, as initially agreed, and extended the deadline until 24 November. Iran has been resisting efforts to scale back its nuclear programme for nearly a decade. line Nuclear talks timeline January 2012: IAEA confirms Iran is enriching uranium to levels of up to 20%, an important step towards making it weapons-grade June 2013: Reformist-backed cleric Hassan Rouhani wins presidential election, raising hopes for deadlocked nuclear talks November 2013: Iran and world powers reach interim deal to curb programme; deadline for final agreement set for July 2014 January 2014: Some Western sanctions eased as Iran uranium enrichment remains at 5% July 2014: Deadline extended until November 2014 Interim nuclear deal: Key points

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Google launches ad-free net experiment

Google has unveiled a project that offers web users the option to pay to visit sites rather than see adverts. Dubbed Contributor, users can pay a monthly fee of between $1 to $3 for ad-free sites. When those who have paid their subscriptions visit a participating site they will see pixelated patterns replacing the adverts. It has so far signed up a handful of websites, including ScienceDaily and Urban Dictionary, to test the system. Others in the current trial include WikiHow, Mashable and Imgur. Access to the service is currently by invitation only and interested websites can sign up to be on the waiting list. Contributor describes itself as "an experiment in additional ways to fund the web". "Today's internet is mostly funded by advertising. But what if there were a way to directly support the people who create the sites you visit each day?" it asks. A portion of the money goes to Google and a portion to the website. Users log into the service via their Google account - which will trigger the ad-free version of sites. Howard Kingston, co-founder of adludio, a firm which replaces ads with interactive games, thinks current online advertising needs a rebrand. "Advertising, especially online has become a bugbear for many people, but there are new models such as this one, that could change the publisher landscape and how people browse content online," he said. Some websites are already experimenting with paywalls, including the Wall Street Journal and The Times but those sites still show advertising. A service called Readability tried something similar to Contributor but shut down in 2012.

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Snapchat sasa kutumika kutuma fedha

Programu ya ujumbe ya Snapchat sasa itawaruhusu watumiaji wake kutuma pesa kwa marafiki zao. Huduma hiyo mpya kwa jina snapcash inadaiwa kutuma pesa kwa haraka mbali na kuwafurahisha wanaotumia.Huduma ya mtandao wa facebook Watsapp pia inatumia picha ikijiribu kutafuta usalama wa data yake ili kutoa huduma kama hiyo.Ikiwa inapitikana katika mfumo wa Android,ni swala linalofanya kuwa vigumu kusikiliza ujumbe unaotumwa.

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