On Friday, over 240 domestic and foreign firms are taking part in an international eco-friendly technology expo opened in eastern China.

The three-day event takes place in Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu province.

From in.finance.yahoo.com:

The three-day event in Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu province, will also see a series of symposiums on metal and air pollution, solid waste disposal and development of the eco-friendly technology industry, Xinhuanet.com reported.

China has pledged to invest three trillion yuan ($470 billion) in environment-friendly technologies during its 12th five-year plan period (2011-2015).

The sector is believed to maintain an annual growth rate of 15 to 20 percent during the plan period, while its total output value is expected to reach 4.9 trillion yuan.

Tags: air pollution, technology expo, waste disposal

The final gadget unveiled during Apple co-founder Steve Jobs‘ lifetime, the iPhone 4S, hit store shelves in India on Friday with a starting price of 44,500 rupees.

Indian mobile operators do not subsidize cost of phones unlike their western peers.

From in.finance.yahoo.com:

Airtel and Aircel are selling the 16 GB model for 44,500 rupees, with the 32 GB version priced at 50,900 rupees and the 64 GB model available for 57,500 rupees.

Media reports last week said Indian fans were unhappy that the smartphone will be more expensive in India than anywhere else in the world.

Both mobile operators, which started selling the iPhone 4S from midnight on Friday, are offering discounted data plans.

The final gadget unveiled during lifetime of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs is more expensive that the iPad 2 in India.

Tags: Apple, iPad 2, iPhone 4S, mobile operators, smartphone, Steve Jobs

On November, Google paid tribute to Polish sci-fi author Stanislaw Lem with an interesting new doodle.

Lem is best known for his 1961 novel Solaris that has been made into a film three times, including Steven Soderbergh’s 2002 version starring George Clooney.

From in.news.yahoo.com:

Google came up with its first doodle in 1998 when it’s creators Larry Page and Sergey Brin added a Burning Man from the famous festival in Nevada when they attended the event.

Back then the firm was so small that it was designed to show that the two were not in the office to answer the phone.

The design team of Google has come up with more than 300 doodles for its US website and another 700 worldwide.

Tags: George Clooney, Google, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Solaris, Stanislaw Lem

As the debt crisis shows alarming signs of spinning out of control, the European Union has warned that the 17-country eurozone could slip back into recession next year.

The European Commission, economic watchdog of the European Union, said its central forecast is that the eurozone will grow by only a paltry 0.5 percent in 2012.

From news.yahoo.com:

The sharp cut in the forecast comes as the eurozone’s debt crisis has spread alarmingly to Italy, the single currency bloc’s third-largest economy. The interest rate on Italy’s ten-year bonds has reached the same levels that forced Greece, Portugal and Ireland to request multibillion euro bailouts.

Speculation that Premier Silvio Berlusconi will officially resign within days and be replaced by leading economist and former Commissioner Mario Monti has helped calm the market mood somewhat Thursday.

Greece, meanwhile, remains in political chaos as party leaders have failed for several days to appoint an interim governments, putting the country in serious danger of defaulting on its massive debts before the end of the year.

“This forecast is in fact the last wake-up call,” the EU’s Monetary Affairs Olli Rehn warned. “Growth has stalled in Europe, and there is a risk of a new recession.”

Mario Monti, the former European Commissioner, emerged as favorite to replace Silvio Berlusconi and form a new government to stave off a run on Italian bonds that is endangering the entire euro zone.

A highly respected international figure, Monti, has been pushed by markets for weeks as the most suitable figure for leading a national unity government that will urgently push through painful austerity measures.

From news.yahoo.com:

In a key development on Thursday, Berlusconi’s ruling PDL party softened its insistence on early elections as the way out of a deep political crisis and said it was considering the option of a Monti-led government.

President Giorgio Napolitano appointed Monti a senator for life on Wednesday, in a move widely seen as a sign he would ask the academic to try to form a broad-based government as soon as Berlusconi goes within the next few days.

With Italy’s borrowing costs now clearly deep in the danger zone, support for a national unity government appeared to be gaining support among members of the PDL with Foreign Minister Franco Frattini indicating cautious support.

“The PDL can’t just follow the cry for elections from the hard core in support of going to the polls. There’s a national interest, which comes before anything,” he said in an interview with the Corriere della Sera daily.

Tags: austerity measures, borrowing costs, euro zone, political crisis

Twitter has changed the way celebrities handle their promotions and some of the popular Twitter celebrities include Rapper Snoop Dogg, Actress Tori Spelling, and reality TV star Khloe Kardashian.

“Want to know how Old Navy makes your butt look scary good? Ask a Kardashian,” the reality TV star Kardashian tweeted, on the social media website.

From news.yahoo.com:

These celebs aren’t just writing about family cars and fashion choices for the heck of it. Stars can get paid big bucks — sometimes $10,000 or more per post — to pontificate about clothes, cars and movies in the 140 characters or less allowed per tweet.

Twitter, which in its five-year existence has reshaped how people shop, vote and start revolutions, is now changing the business of celebrity endorsements. Just as Match.com and eHarmony pair up singles for dates, a growing number of startup firms are hooking up companies with stars who get paid to praise products to their thousands — sometimes millions — of Twitter followers.

“I’m looking to hire a (hash)winning INTERN with (hash)TigerBlood,” tweeted Charlie Sheen, who had just recently signed up for Twitter and now has more than 5 million followers.

Tags: Charlie Sheen, Khloe Kardashian, Snoop Dogg, social media website, Tori Spelling, Twitter, Twitter celebrities