Brief

For one month every four years, the world turns its attention to 736 men from thirty-two nations, brought together by one passionate pursuit: global soccer domination.

India will have 150 million 3G connections by 2014, according to a new forecast from Wireless Intelligence, a service of trade group GSMA Ltd. Indian authorities just completed a long, convoluted auction process which was marked by delays, thanks to classic bureaucratic snafus. The auction raised about $11 billion, a price tag guaranteed to make the 3G rollouts slow and 3G access expensive.

A television presenter in Cyprus allegedly ordered the murder of her employer after she was dismissed from her job, a court was told. Elena Skordelli, 42, however, stood emotionless in court on Monday and did not plead guilty to charges of paying hitmen to murder Andis Hadjicosts, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SIGMA Television.

Raajneeti (released Friday) is a super-duper hit. The movie is being massively appreciated and will have a definite second weekend run. We have had an average occupancy of close to 95 percent for 26 shows per day and we sold off 4,200 tickets in advance till Sunday," Amit Awasthi, senior manager (programming and operations) of Spice Cinemas, told IANS.

US-based AKG Technologies has launched NyooTV.com, an online video service that offers Indian TV shows, Bollywood movies, music videos and event clips aggregated from various entertainment content providers to the Indian audiences in US and India.

Online travel portal Cleartrip.com has introduced Small World, a travel planning tool that allows users to search flights, hotels, maps, currency, travel destinations, weather updates, photo gallery and time zone details on a single page. According to Cleartrip.com, Small World offers information about unique destinations from 7 continents, 250 countries and 8 lakh cities and towns.

More than 12 years after she died in a car crash in Paris, a leading defence lawyer has alleged that Princess Diana was murdered over her plan to expose UK's arms dealers. She claimed she had an explosive diary in which she was going to expose the people most closely involved in the British arms trade," leading British tabloid the 'Daily Express' quoted Mansfield as saying.

Scientists claim to have discovered the secret behind the strength and longevity of the Great Wall of China -- sticky rice. A team at Zhejiang University in China has found that the delicious "sweet rice" that is a mainstay of modern Asian cuisine was also a key ingredient in the mortar used to build the Great Wall 1,500 years ago.

Surroundings spell soundness of mind and body and India is ranked among the top 6 of the world. Residents of the Netherlands, Canada and Australia are the most satisfied with the areas where they live, according to a survey of 23 countries. India is not far behind. India freezes the 4th spot among Top 6 happiest couontries across the globe.

It may be very usual thing in Dubai where people are crazing behind the fancy number for their luxury cars, but not very much much in India. Rarely we hear news about people paying thousands of rupees for a Number Plate but this time the craze has gone beyond the head of a Chandigarh resident named Narinder Singh Shergill who paid USD 23,000 ( INR 1,000,000 ) for a Number plate - 0001.