Wikinews Shorts: March 18, 2007

Masked thieves steal 100 kg block of gold
On March 18 at about 12:45 p.m. three men stole a 100 kg block of gold valued at ¥200,000,000 and escaped in a car driven by a fourth man. The gold was taken from the Ohashi Collection Museum in the city of Takayama, Gifu Prefecture, Japan where it had been on exhibit.

Sources

Microsoft to pay companies to use Live Search
In an effort to boost its 6.76% share of the Internet search industry, Microsoft has offered money to companies to get them to switch to its Windows Live search engine. A new program called "Microsoft Service Credits for Web Search" allows companies to get paid for the searches that their employees run using Windows Live Search.

Companies, depending on how many searches their users run, can get paid $2 to $10 a year per computer and an addition $25,000 just for enrolling in the program. Larger companies have the potential to earn $100,000 to $200,000 per year through this program that can be used for anything they need. A browser helper object (BHO) will be used to track searches made through Windows Live Search on individual computers.

Sources

Chemical bomb attack kills eight and sickens hundreds in Iraq
Three different suicide bombers blew up trucks carrying chlorine in Anbar province in Iraq on Saturday, releasing noxious fumes that sickened about 350 civilians. Two Iraqi civilians and six U.S. troops were killed in the attacks.

Sources