Facebook adds suicide alert system

Facebook is unveiling a system that allows users to report friends who they think may be contemplating suicide, according to the BBC.

The feature is being run in conjunction with Samaritans, which says several people had used it during a test phase.

Anyone worried about a friend can fill out a form, detailing their concerns, which is passed to the site's moderators. It follows reports of several cases where Facebook users revealed their intention to commit suicide online.

Nokia's jaw-dropping decision to adopt Windows Phone 7 as its handset operating system was juiced by an equally jaw-dropping payout from Microsoft of over $1 billion, according to a report citing people with knowledge of the deal, notes The Register.

Bloomberg reports that Redmond will ship that $1 billion to Espoo, Finland, in support of Nokia's efforts to “promote and develop” smartphones based on Microsoft's as-yet-unloved mobile operating system in a deal that's set for "over five years".

Bloomberg also notes that Nokia's shares have shed over a quarter of their value since the unveiling of the Windows Phone 7 deal less than one month ago.

Hackers infiltrated French government computers in search of information about France's leadership of the Group of 20 (G20) leading economies, the country's budget minister said yesterday, reveals the Associated Press.

The head of France's network security agency said it was the biggest-ever hacker attack against the government.

France holds the rotating leadership of the G20 this year, and is hosting a series of meetings aimed at improving relations among the world's top economies, including the US and China.

UK's chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne has made a further £50 million available to support fast broadband roll-out to rural areas, states Computing.co.uk.

This is the first tranche of the £530 million that will be made available between now and 2015 to create the “best broadband network in Europe”.

The government's strategy includes setting up a “fibre point” in every community by this time, but very few other details have been divulged so far.