Chinese researchers, who make the final sprint toward its market launch, believes that a 1.6-metre tall robot with twinkling eyes will be a boon to the bed-ridden, infirm, lonely, disabled and elderly people.

Li Ruifeng, a member of the project with the Harbin Institute of Technology in this capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province said, "We are working on testing the precision functions and ways to reduce the cost in preparations for an anticipated market launch of the robot in two to three years."

The government of United Kingdom is planning to give sweeping powers to the nation’s police, security forces, and intelligence agencies, to keep the activities of internet users under surveillance. The Gordon Brown government is planning to monitor phone calls, emails, visits to social networking sites and other such websites.

London, Apr 26 : iPods and mobile phones may soon become theftproof, thanks to the unique sounds made by our ears.

Southampton University researchers have discovered that they can identify individuals from the faint sounds made deep inside the human ear. And, therefore, by using this technology they''re developing security devices.

Personal music players could be fitted with antitheft devices that detect "acoustic fingerprints" so they only work when they are being used by the registered owner.

Unterschleissheim, Germany  - Illegally copying music and movies or cracking software code might let you bring home games and movie for free, but experts say this is against the law and poses a possible danger for your computer.

Downloading software that allows illegal copying sometimes means you're also installing viruses onto your computer, reports Trend Micro, an IT security consulting firm based in southern Germany.

Hannover  - Audiobooks often show up under the music menu on iTunes which can be irritating if you find chapters cropping up under a party music playlist.

Now Germany's c't medien - Audio digital magazine has come up with a way around this problem: With a right mouse click on the appropriate library entry Windows users can select the heading "audio book" and the files will be stored under that heading.

Mac users should press the Apple button and "i" and select "audio book" under "options."

Hamburg  - These are exciting times for mobile gamers: an update of the Nintendo's DS mini-console was released in early April as the DSi, with several downloadable titles is already available. Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch are also growing in importance as platforms for mobile gaming. Sony's Playstation Portable, by contrast, is already well established in this field.