Software giant Microsoft Corp.'s Surface tablet computer will become available in Japan sometime next month, in March, according to a recent Nikkei report.

Citing anonymous sources, the report also says that Microsoft will launch Windows RT-based Surface tablet in the Japanese market. It may be noted here that Windows RT is a cheaper version of Windows 8 operating system.

Announcing its re-entry into the mainstream tablet space, Hewlett-Packard (HP) on Sunday unveiled a new Android-based tablet called the Slate 7.

The Slate 7, which is the computer giant's first tablet release since the botched Touchpad tablet, runs Google's Android 4.1 OS and features a 7-inch screen that offers a resolution of 1024 by 600 pixels. The manufacturer claims that it performs well outdoors as well.

It comes equipped with a 1.6 GHz dual-core processor, 8 gigabytes of storage, a 3-megapixel photo snapper at its back and a VGA camera on its front for video chat.

The euro-zone economy will shrink for the second year in a row in 2013, the European Commission (EC) forecast on Friday.

The Brussels-based EC, the executive arm of the European Union, said that gross domestic product (GDP) in the 17-nation region would shrink by 0.3 per cent this year.

Earlier in November 2012, the commission had projected a growth of 0.1 per cent for the region's economy.

In the new forecast, an estimated of seven euro-area economies are expected to shrink this year, including the Netherlands, Italy, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Slovenia and Cyprus.

The Pentagon on Friday suspended all test flights of its new F-35 fighter jets after discovering a defect in the engine of one of the jets.

The Pentagon office said a crack was discovered in the turbine blade in the engine of a test plane at California's Edwards Air Force Base on Tuesday.

The defected blade was shipped to engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney's Connecticut plant so that the cause of the crack could be caught. Matthew C. Bates, a spokesperson for the engine manufacturer, claimed that none of the other F-35 jets had suffered any cracks.

Moody's Investors Service on Friday slashed the U. K.'s long-held `AAA' credit rating by one notch, citing increasing debt burden and apathetic growth outlook over the coming years.

The global ratings agency lowered the country's domestic as well as foreign-currency bond rating by one notch to AA1 and also changed its outlook to stable.

Defence giant BAE Systems has issued a warning that its profits would continue to remain under pressure due to cuts in defence budgets in the US and the UK.

For the last year, BAE announced pre-tax profits of £1.4 billion, down from £1.5 billion from the previous year. Revenues slipped 7 per cent, from £19.2 billion to £17.8 billion.

Underlying earnings before interest, taxation & amortization (EBITA) slipped from £2.02 billion in 2011 to £1.9 billion in 2012.

The latest generation HTC smartphone, the HTC One, is perhaps the most serious contender to Apple's iPhone and Samsung' Galaxy handsets.

The new HTC One features 4.7-inch, full HD screen, with a resolution of 1,920 by 1,080 pixels that gives it a density of 468 pixels per inch (ppi). Corning's Gorilla Glass protects the display.

Under the hood, it has a quad-core 1.7 Gigahertz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor, and 2GB of RAM.

China has refuted allegations that a Shanghai-based unit of its Army has stolen hundreds of terrabytes of information from U. S. firms.

Computer security firm Mandiant recently accused the Chinese military Unit 61398 of stealing state and industrial sensitive information from 140 U. S. companies.

As expected, the Chinese authorities refuted the allegation, citing lack of any hard legal evidence.

A transparent mobile phone will be launched by the end of 2013, Taiwanese electronics firm Polytron Technologies has promised.

Polytron Technologies, which has already started marketing a transparent multi-touch, showed prototype that uses so-called Switchable Glass technology.

Switchable Glass is actually a conductive OLED that makes use of liquid crystal molecules to show images. When the prototype phone is off, the liquid crystal molecules line up to create a chalky composition, but once the prototype is switched on, they realign to create text, icons and other images.

Lloyds Banking Group CEO Antonio Horta-Osorio came under more pressure to forsake his bonus after the Financial Services Authority (FSA) slapped the lender with a fine of £4.3 million for failing to pay compensation to payment protection insurance (PPI) mis-selling victims in time.

The FSA yesterday fined Lloyds for failing to compensate around 140,000 PPI mis-selling victims promptly. The watchdog said that thousands of those victims who had to wait for several months for compensation should have been compensated within 28 days.

Waitrose is the best supermarket in the UK, while Tesco is the worst, according to a new survey by consumer watchdog Which?

The watchdog polled 11,000 consumers across the country, and found most respondents voting in favor of Waitrose, which received a customer score of 82 per cent.

Waitrose also received five-star ratings for the quality of its fresh products as well as for its customer service.

Renowned auto giant Nissan has announced that it would introduce its all-new version of its Note to the world at the Geneva Motor Show next month.

Nissan's new car, which has been dubbed as the first of a wave of "bold new models," will be manufactured at the company's Sunderland plant in the UK.

Designed by Nissan's Technical centres in the UK and Spain, the car will directly target the likes of Ford's best-selling Fiesta.

Software giant Microsoft has confirmed that it would replace Windows Live Messenger, which was originally called MSN Messenger, with Voice over IP (VoIP) service Skype on 8th of April. In other words, Windows Live Messenger will start to be shut down from 8th of April.

Microsoft said that the process of upgrading from messenger to Skype would consume a few weeks to complete, and that messengers would find themselves unable to use the service.

Sudden teasers from Sony Japan cropped up recently, about a forthcoming online, streamed event which would focus completely on Sony's PlayStation Vita console; and would be held at 3am ET on Monday, February 18.

The information which the page teasing the online, streamed event unfolds is that Sony would be unveiling fresh details about the PlayStation Vita on Monday, February 18th at 5pm Tokyo time. The presenter of the upcoming event would be Hiroshi Kawano, the President of Sony Computer Entertainment Japan.

Norwegian giant Statoil's £4.6 billion project in the Mariner heavy oil field in North Sea is expected is expected to provide a big boost to the UK's economy by generating several hundred new jobs and hundreds of millions of pounds in tax revenues.

The project, which recently received green signal from the UK government, is the country's largest offshore oil project in more than ten years.

According to Energy Secretary Ed Davey, the project in the Mariner heavy oil field east of Shetland was a "vote of confidence" in the UK's oil & gas industry.