Software giant Microsoft are to offer a free version of their Office 2010 application suite called Starter Edition.
Office Starter 2010 will be upgradable to one of the three full versions of the suite (Office Home & Student 2010, Office Home & Business 2010, or Office Professional 2010), ITWire reports.
The full Office product will be pre-loaded on the PCs. All users will need to do to activate full functionality is purchase a product key card – …

iPhone users can now watch live programmes on the move through an online TV streaming service, the Daily Mail reports.
For the last year TVCatchup.com has allowed UK-based computer users to watch over 30 Freeview channels over the internet. Now to mark its first anniversary the founders have created a Beta application for iPhone users. And the streams will become freely available to all mobile platforms shortly, the company said.
There are currently 11 channels available for testing …

The ghost of a fingerprint in the top left corner of an obscure portrait appears to have confirmed one of the most extraordinary art discoveries – that a painting that was sold for £11,400 at Christie’s is actually a work by Leonardo da Vincy and worth about £100 million, The Times reports.
The 13 x 9in picture, in chalk, pen and ink, appeared at auction at Christie’s, New York, in 1998, catalogued as “German school, …

A lawyer made redundant during the economic downturn has had her benefits suspended – because she earns cents a day from her personal food blog, the Daily Telegraph reports.
The graduate started STL Meal Deals, where she posts local restaurant offers and recommendations, after being laid off from her position at a law firm in New York earlier this year. Like many amateur bloggers hoping to generate a little pocket monry she signed up with Google AdSense, …

Members of the Israeli political parties Jewish Home and National Union will meet next Monday to discuss a possible merger and the “recovery of the religious-Zionist vote”, Arutz 7 reports.
Leaders of both parties made separate announcements to this effect today. Speaking at the Convention of Heads of Religious-Zionist Institutions, Rabbi Professor Daniel Herskovitz called outright for unity between the parties: “There has not been once in the history of the nationalist camp in Israel …

Romania’s Government have fallen in a confidence vote in Parliament, with lawmakers saying it has failed to improve the economy, the AP reports.
Lawmakers voted by 258-176 to oust the centrist minority government of Emil Boc. It is the first time that Parliament in Romania have dimissed a government since communism ended in 1989.
Although the vote ostensibly was aimed at punishing Boc for his economic performance, it came ahead of 22nd November presidential elections where President …

In an unannounced move, US President Barack Obama is dispatching an additional 13,000 US troops to Afghanistan beyond the 21,000 he announced in March, FoxNews reports.
The additional troops are primarily support forces — such as engineers, medical personnel, intelligence experts and military police, bringing the total increase Obama has approved for the war-torn nation to 34,000.
“Obama authorized the whole thing. The only thing you saw announced in a press release was the 21,000,” an unnamed …

British Asylum and Immigration Tribunal ruled today that Dutch Member of Parliament and leader of one of the most popular political parties in the Netherlands, Geert Wilders, should not have been refused entry to Britain earlier this year.
Wilders had been invited to the House of Lords for a screening of his film “Fitna” in February, but was told he would be refused entry on public order grounds. Wilders went ahead with the trip and was turned …

British Brawn GP driver Jenson Button has a solid chance of sealing his first Formula One championship on Sunday in Sao Paolo, if his team mate, Brazilian Rubens Barrichello doesn’t get more than four points above his race score.
Button currently has 85 points and his team mate’s got 71 points. If, for example, Barrichello wins in Sao Paolo and gets 10 points, then Button must finish at least 3rd, in order to get six points. …

A human x-ray machine which produces “naked” images of passengers has been introduced at Manchester airport, ITN reports.
It enables staff to instantly spot any hidden weapons or explosives.
The full body scanner, which is being trialled, will also show up any breast enlargements, false limbs, piercings, and a clear outline of passengers’ private parts.
Bosses admit some travellers might not want to be scanned because of the graphic nature of the images. They can refuse to undergo …

Current Brawn GP pilot and world championship contender Rubens Barrichello will join the Williams team in 2010, according to media reports, he has already signed a contract with the team.
A newspaper in Barrichello’s home city, Sao Paolo, insisted he has “already signed a contract with Williams for the 2010 season with a mutual option to extend for another year”, The Sun reports. The report added Williams will pay the evergreen 37-year-old “some four times more” than …

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton yesterday said it was time to start a dialogue with the terrorist group Taliban.
Speaking during a visit to Belfast, Clinton said there needed to be a change of strategy in Afghanistan, the Mirror reports.
“Not everyone who calls themselves a Taliban is necessarily a threat to the UK or the USA,” Clinton claimed. “There may be a number of people who are considered Taliban because, frankly, they are paid to fight …

Cigarette vending machines could soon disappear from the UK after MPs agreed to ban them, the Daily Mail reports.
The House of Lords will now consider whether there should be an outright ban on the machines, after an amendment to the Health Bill by Labour’s Ian McCartney was passed by the Commons last night.
MPs also voted to bar the display of cigarettes in shops, despite strong opposition to the Government’s proposals from the Tories, who expressed concern …

The union representing Royal Mail workers have said that national postal strikes could begin on Thursday, 22nd October, the BBC reports.
The Communication Workers Union (CWU) called on Royal Mail to agree to a last-ditch deal, but they said that if this failed they would have “no option” but to strike.
Last week, members of the CWU voted by three-to-one to support strike action as part of a dispute about pay, modernisation and working conditions. The action is …

The rate of inflation fell by more than expected in September, declining from 1.6 per cent in August to a five-year low of 1.1 per cent on the back of falling energy prices, The Times reports.
The consumer price index (CPI) measure of inflation is far below the 1.3% expected by economists and is now at the lowest rate since September 2004.
Inflation fell on a steep 7.3% decline in utility bills while food and non-alcoholic beverage …

Users of the Apple operating system Snow Leopard are experiencing massive data losses when logging into their machines under a guest account, the BBC reports.
The problem appears to affect those who had a guest account enabled before upgrading to Snow Leopard.
Users have in some cases lost their entire main profile, including sites, pictures, videos and documents. Indications are that the bug simply treats the principal account like a guest account – meaning that the account profile …