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The vernal equinox, first day of spring 2015 on Friday was celebrated by Google with a stop-motion animation doodle in the US.

The doodle displayed flowers coming into bloom and a bee collecting pollen from a daffodil. The term 'equinox' is derived from the Latin for equal ('aequus') and night ('nox').

The vernal equinox is the time of year when day and night are of equal duration. It marks the in-between point of the year's shortest and longest days.

Equinox acts more like a label in order to separate the point of Earth's revolution around the sun in which there is more daylight than darkness. Sping equinox happens on March 19, 20 or 21 every year, which marks the first day of spring for those in the Northern Hemisphere.

A 49 year-old woman was found guilty by an Alabama jury Friday for capital murder. Joyce Garrard could face death penalty or life sentence without bail for death of her 9-year-old granddaughter Savannah Hardin.

According to authorities, Garrard forced Savannah to run and carry wood for hours as punishment for a lie about candy. The grandchild collapsed and died after three days in a hospital. Although the defense denied that the woman meant no harm to her grandchild, the claim was rejected by the jurors.

However, Garrard had testified that she would 'die' before hurting her grandchild. She said that she only made the girl to pick up sticks in her yard as punishment on the day of her collapse.

Oregon's crime victim notification system faced a major technical glitch, which led to many false notices on Friday evening. The false notices were about the release of inmates and one of them was of a notorious killer.

At 5.30 pm on Friday, the notifications started coming from the Oregon VINE Service (Victim Information Notification Everyday).

Corrections spokeswoman Betty Bernt said that inmate Ward Weaver III was the subject of wrong alert. He was held in the case of aggravated murder in 2004, but he remains locked up. The spokeswoman affirmed that there were around 8,000 erroneous notifications that inmates were being released.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday has declared that the genetically engineered non-browning apples and bruise-resistant potatoes are as safe and nutritious as their conventional counterparts.

Recently, the Department of Agriculture has approved the apples and potatoes for commercial planting. This department looks mainly at whether the crops would pose a threat to other plants and the FDA review looks at food safety.

The specialty of the so-called Arctic apples, which are developed by British Columbia-based Okanagan Specialty Fruits, is that they don't turn brown when sliced or bruised, which could result into less wastage of fruit and would make sliced apples more appealing.

Tiffany & Co's quarterly sales dropped for the first time in five years. There are further expectations that the sale of the American luxury jeweler might decline further.

It is said that a strong dollar keeps away the tourists from its flagship New York jewelry store but also reduces the value of sales overseas.

As per the available data, sales outside the United States account for roughly half of Tiffany's total revenue, while sales among tourists in the past have accounted for a quarter of US sales.

It has been known that Tiffany has been battling with the effects of a strong solar for months, the drop in sale in the fourth-quarter anyhow surprised analysts. Analysts were expecting an increase in Tiffany's sales in the fourth quarter.

Mercedes wants to offer people an experience wherein they can imagine sitting comfortably in a luxurious automobile, with ample space, having face to face conversation with leg room to spare, checking email or completing up that work project, while the car they are taking to meeting is cruising along with no driver at the wheels.

This is the experience that Mercedes wants to offer with its F 015 Luxury in Motion, a computer-driven autonomous vehicle. According to experts, driving will no longer be needed in car transportation. It is going to be the place to socialize, relax, work and do anything and everything, excluding to pay attention to the road and other drivers, safety lights and speed zones.