BBC NEWS | Technology | Virtual telescope opens night sky

The tool contains "terabytes" of data from observatories

Twirling galaxies, exotic nebulae and exploding stars are now just a mouse click away for amateur astronomers.

Microsoft has launched WorldWide Telescope, a free tool that stitches together images from some of the best ground- and space-based telescopes.

Collections include pictures from the Hubble and Spitzer telescopes, as well as the Chandra X-Ray Observatory.

The web-based tool also allows users to pan and zoom around the planets, and trace their locations in the night sky.

"Users can see the X-ray view of the sky, zoom into bright radiation clouds, and then cross-fade into the visible light view and discover the cloud remnants of a supernova explosion from a thousand years ago," explained Roy Gould, a researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

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BBC NEWS | South Asia | Curfew imposed after India blasts

No group has admitted planting the bombs

A curfew has been imposed in the old city in Jaipur in western India after a series of bomb blasts killed at least 80 and left nearly 200 wounded.

The bombs went off near historic monuments in the crowded old city on Tuesday evening.

The head of state police said it was a terrorist attack. The police has detained some people for questioning.

Jaipur, in Rajasthan, is a popular tourist destination about 260km (160 miles) from the Indian capital, Delhi.

No group has admitted planting bombs in Jaipur. It is not yet clear what the motive for attacking the city might be.

Most people in Jaipur are Hindus but the city has a large Muslim minority. Correspondents say it has no history of religious violence.

There have been sporadic bomb attacks around India in recent years. The police have had little success in bringing prosecutions.

The curfew began at 0900 (0300 GMT) on Wednesday and is expected to last till the evening.

The BBC's Sanjoy Majumder in Jaipur says that the old city is completely deserted apart from journalists and policemen moving around.

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Google begins blurring faces in Street View | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

Google Street View now blurs some faces in Manhattan.

(Credit: Google)

BURLINGAME, Calif.--Google has begun testing face-blurring technology for its Street View service, responding to privacy concerns from the search giant's all-seeing digital camera eye.

The technology uses a computer algorithm to scour Google's image database for faces, then blurs them, said John Hanke, director of Google Earth and Google Maps, in an interview at the Where 2.0 conference here.

Google has begun testing the technology in Manhattan, the company announced on its LatLong blog. Ultimately, though, Hanke expects it to be used more broadly.

Dealing with privacy--both legal requirements and social norms--is hard but necessary, Hanke said.

"It's a legitimate issue," he said. He likened the issues some have with Street View to the ones that took place when Google introduced aerial views to Google Maps. It took time for the public, regulators, and Google to get comfortable with the feature, but, "It needs that debate. We see that and try to let it play out."

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MySpace wins $234 million antispam judgment | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

The social-networking site MySpace has won a $234 million antispam judgment, according to the Associated Press.

On the losing side of the award--believed to be the largest ever under the 2003 Can-Spam Act--were defendants Walter Rines and Sanford Wallace, the so-called spam king. MySpace won the case against Wallace after he failed numerous times to turn over documents or even to show up for court.

"MySpace has zero tolerance for those who attempt to act illegally on our site," MySpace Chief Security Officer Hemanshu Nigam told the AP. "We remain committed to punishing those who violate the law and try to harm our members."

In March of last year, MySpace filed suit against Wallace alleging he launched a phishing scam to fraudulently access MySpace profiles. Wallace was also accused of spamming thousands of MySpace users with unwanted advertisements and luring them to his Web sites.

MySpace said Wallace and Rines sent 735,925 messages to MySpace members. Under Can-Spam, each violation entitles MySpace to $100 in damages, tripled when conducted "willfully and knowingly," according to the report.

He has been sued by the Federal Trade Commission and companies such as AOL and Concentric Network Corp. In May 2006, Wallace and his company Smartbot.net were ordered by a federal court to turn over $4,089,500.

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Clinton crushes Obama in W.Va.

Even with her presidential hopes fading, Senator Hillary Clinton won a landslide victory in the West Virginia Democratic primary yesterday, renewing doubts about Senator Barack Obama's prospects in states with large concentrations of white, ...

WRAPUP 1-Clinton vows to keep her uphill bid alive Reuters
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BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Search for China quake survivors

Thousands of people are still trapped beneath ruined buildings

A massive search and rescue operation is under way in south-western China after one of the most powerful earthquakes in decades.

Troops have arrived in Wenchuan county at the epicentre, which was largely cut off by the quake - but heavy rain is hampering rescue operations.

Elsewhere in Sichuan province, frantic efforts are being made to reach thousands of people under the rubble.

The death toll is now more than 12,000, officials say, and looks set to rise.

Eyewitness: 'Constant aftershocks' Chaotic yet organised rescue effort In pictures: Rescue effort

In one city, Mianyang, near the epicentre, more than 18,000 people are said to be buried under the rubble and 3,629 have been confirmed dead, state news agency Xinhua reports.

In the nearby town of Mianzhu, at least 4,800 people are trapped under the rubble and massive landslides have buried roads to outlying villages, Xinhua says.

Premier Wen Jiabao was quick to reach the scene and urged rescuers to clear roads into the worst-hit areas as fast as possible.

"As long as there is even a little hope, we will redouble our efforts 100 times and will never relax our efforts," he told crying locals through a loudhailer in the badly hit Dujiangyan city, south-east of the epicentre.

The health ministry has made an urgent appeal for people to give blood to help the injured.

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