European Union

Facebook may join other Internet companies in offering location-based services. The social-networking site plans to let its users share their location and see the locations of friends, according to published reports.

Facebook could use the service to provide advertisers with targeted information such as the nearest ATM. The feature is expected to be similar to Foursquare, a location-based social network that enables users to "check in" with one another and meet up.

Facebook may join other Internet companies in offering location-based services. The social-networking site plans to let its users to share their location and see the locations of friends, according to published reports.

Facebook could use the service to provide advertisers with targeted information such as the nearest ATM. The feature is expected to be similar to Foursquare, a location-based social network that enables users to "check in" with one another and meet up.

Rivals of Microsoft's market-leading Web browser have attracted a flurry of interest since the company, fulfilling a regulatory requirement, started making it easier for European users of its Windows operating system to switch.

Ship-breaking in Bangladesh

Ship-breaking in Bangladesh

Micheál Martin, the foreign minister of Ireland, in the New York Times:

Germany's highest court on Tuesday overturned a law that let anti-terror authorities retain data on telephone calls and e-mails, saying it posed a "grave intrusion" to personal privacy rights and must be revised.

The court ruling was the latest to sharply criticize a major initiative by Chancellor Angela Merkel's government and one of the strongest steps yet defending citizen rights from post-Sept. 11 terror-fighting measures.

Microsoft is promoting alternative browsers to millions of Windows users across Europe -- and Opera is poised to pounce on the opportunity. With a brand-new, faster iteration of its open-source browser, Opera is working hard to gain the attention of Europeans looking for an Internet Explorer alternative.

Microsoft used to configure Internet Explorer as the default browser for its Windows operating system, but agreed last October to test-market measures to give European consumers an option to download and install competing browsers like Google's Chrome and Mozilla's Firefox.

Opera Software released a new version of its Internet browser Tuesday that the company claims is the fastest Windows-based platform for surfing the web. Called Opera 10.50, the free browser download now sports a sleek and refined design, together with new social-networking capabilities as well as a private browsing feature that hides all traces of the sites that users visit.

Mobile phone operators must now limit how much they charge customers for using the Internet within the European Union, after new rules went into effect Monday.

Customers have until July 1 to set a maximum monthly cost with their network, and those who do not will by default have a euro50 ($68) limit set.

Networks will send a warning when customers use up 80 percent of their allotment. At the limit, they will be cut off.