The Hindustan Times carried a small news item the other day that, depending on your perspective, is good news or a sign of the apocalypse. It reported that a Nepali telecommunications firm had just started providing third-generation mobile network service, or 3G, at the summit of Mount Everest, the world’s tallest mountain, to “allow thousands of climbers and trekkers who throng the region every year access to high-speed Internet and video calls using their mobile phones.”

U.S. Embassy Kabul has awarded USD 3.1 million to support NATO's "SILK-Afghanistan" program, which provides high-speed Internet access to more than 9,000 students and teachers at Afghan universities in seven provinces (Baghlan, Faryab, Ghazni, Helmand, Kunduz, Paktia and Parvan).

Indeed, said [ESA Council chairman Giuseppe] Pizza, there is no question of achieving ambitious scientific objectives or opening a significant new chapter in space exploration without a global strategy, including the active participation of every European player.

The US government has launched a major new initiative to link its aid agency USAID to the private and entrepreneurial sectors in a bid to promote technological innovation in the developing world.

The advent and power of connection technologies -- tools that connect people to vast amounts of information and to one another -- will make the twenty-first century all about surprises. Governments will be caught off-guard when large numbers of their citizens, armed with virtually nothing but cell phones, take part in mini-rebellions that challenge their authority.

The Shanghai World Expo, which opened on May 1 and will end on October 31, has broken all records by getting over 64 million visitors as of last Saturday, the 168th day of the expo. Seen as the largest expo ever, it showcases the ideas, culture and technology coming from dozens of companies and about 240 countries.

Russia's dominant Orthodox Church unveiled its own channel on YouTube on Monday to attract young followers to a faith which has grown increasingly powerful since the fall of communism.

For science and technology to contribute to development goals, countries must embrace a 'science culture' — a scientifically enlightened society where research findings can be better and more efficiently used to produce goods and services