California based Sun Microsystems yesterday announced that it was shedding 6,000 jobs, in a move that Jonathan Schwartz, CEO of Sun, said was designed to "align Sun's business with global economic realities."

The move will shrink Sun's workforce by 15-18%, according to a press release published by the company.

Sun have also stated that US$ 700 to $800 million dollars per year should be saved by the move, which will cost $500 to $600 million to implement over the next twelve months.

At 8:34 pm Indian time tonight (1504 UTC), India became the fourth group to land its flag on the moon. The unmanned lunar orbiter Chandrayaan-1 ejected its Moon Impact Probe, which hurtled across the surface of the moon at 1.5 kilometres per second (3000 miles per hour), and successfully crash landed near the Moon's south pole. Besides carrying three important scientific instruments, the lunar probe also carried the image of the Indian national flag, painted on all sides.

Chandrayaan-1 (meaning 'moon craft' in Sanskrit) reached its target lunar orbit on Wednesday. The orbiter will remain in a circular orbit 102 kilometres above the Moon's surface for two years. Its instruments will be gradually commissioned over the next few days.

 With this landing, India became both the fourth group to place a flag on the moon and the fifth country to send a spacecraft to the moon. The other countries which have sent spacecraft to the Moon are the United States, the former Soviet Union, Japan, and China, along with the European Space Agency (ESA), a consortium of 17 countries. Although Japan and China currently each have scientific satellites orbiting the moon, they have yet to land their flags on the surface.

 

The Eurozone is now officially in a recession, due to the recently released figures showing that, in the third quarter of 2008, the economy shrunk by 0.2%.

For a recession to be official, the economy must have shrunk for at least two consecutive quarters. This is the case as the Eurozone's economy, which also shrunk by 0.2% in the second quarter of this year.

Howard Archer, the chief European economist for Global Insight commented on these results. "Not only did the third quarter contraction in GDP confirm that the Eurozone is now in recession, but latest data and survey evidence indicate that the fourth quarter is likely to see a sharper fall in GDP as the financial crisis bites harder," he stated.