Los Angeles - Microsoft released key details Tuesday of the next generation of software that it hopes will run the world's computers.

The software giant, whose dominance is under threat, said Windows 7 will replace the disappointing Windows Vista in January 2010.

Microsoft said the new operating system was designed to function like a tighter version of Vista, which launched in 2006 but was widely derided as a "system hog" that slowed down computers with features that most users never accessed.

Tokyo - Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average continued to rise in early trading Wednesday, again topping the 8,000 mark.

Hamburg - Bayer Leverkusen moved top of the German Bundesliga Tuesday with a 2-0 victory at Werder Bremen, while Schalke go third with a facile win at SC Karlsruhe.