A late Friday-released UN report said that, by the year 2020, the BRICS countries - Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa - will be more than the aggregate GDP of the US, Canada and other European countries.

The findings of a study carried out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to survey the cellphone and texting habits of motorists, have revealed that even though the use of mobile phones while driving has been banned by many US jurisdictions, over two-thirds of the US motorists still follow the practice.

Google's popular Internet-based Maps app may be banned in Germany; with a regional court in Munich likely to uphold Microsoft's patent-infringement claim against Google's Motorola Mobility subsidiary.

On Friday, the lower house of the German parliament passed a watered-down copyright bill, which marks a notable victory for Google in Europe because it implies that the Internet search giant will not have to pay fees for displaying links to news articles.