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Gay couple Neil Allard and Andrew Wale after they were married.  Photo: REUTERS/Luke MacGregor --> The first same-sex marriages in England and Wales have begun after a change in the law has given gay and lesbian couples the right to marry for the first time in history. The law changed at midnight, with a number of gay couples getting married within seconds in Britain. Ellen Beardmore @E_Beardmore LOVE this pic of Sheffield's first equal marriage at midnight.Congrats Kyle & Richie! @ sheffieldstar #sheffieldissuper  http://t.co/xlvQ5d6PxN 11:23 - 29 March 2014 Retweet Reply Favourite Larry Lamont and Jerry Slater take part in a symbolic same-sex marriage outside the Scottish Parliament.  Credit: REUTERS/Russell Cheyne Scotland passed a similar law in February; the first same-sex marriages are expected there in October. Northern Ireland has no plans to follow suit. Westminster Council @CityWestminster ...

occulus rift Now, logging onto Facebook means looking at photos of a friend’s birthday party. With Facebook’s latest acquisition, it soon might mean joining the party itself. Or at least feeling as if you’re doing so. Imagine you slip on a pair of goggles, fire up Facebook and immediately have the sense you’re stepping into someone’s home. When you turn your head left, you see your friend's living room and a half-dozen people leaning against his couch. Take a few steps forward and you’re staring at champagne glasses in the kitchen, listening to Daft Punk pound over the din of cocktail party chatter. At the end of the night, your skin tingles with pleasure as you enjoy a passionate kiss with your date. Yet back in the real world, there's still no one around you. It may sound futuristic, but Facebook’s new deal signals nothing short of Steven Spielberg-level ambitions. With its acquisition of virtual-reality headset creator Oculus VR, Facebook suggests that it hopes t...

Mark Zuckerberg has described VR as the ‘next major computing platform after mobile’, as Notch pulls support for Minecraft. Virtual reality has an unexpected new champion, as Facebook announces it has bought Oculus VR for $400 million cash and 23.1 million Facebook shares, plus another $300 million in potential bonuses. Not bad for a company that first shot to fame with a Kickstarter campaign for the Oculus Rift headset. The obvious question though is what does Facebook want with what was a start-up company aimed primarily at hardcore PC gamers? ‘Mobile is the platform of today, and now we’re also getting ready for the platforms of tomorrow,’ said Facebook founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. ‘Oculus has the chance to create the most social platform ever, and change the way we work, play and communicate.’ ‘The incredible thing about the technology is that you feel like you’re actually present in another place with other people. People who try it say it’s different from an...

Hundreds of millions of computers running everything from ATMs to the power grid will be vulnerable to hacking next month when Microsoft stops supporting its old Windows XP operating system. Hackers have been holding onto flaws in Windows XP and waiting to exploit them until after the software giant stops issuing security updates on April 8, experts say. Adam Meyers, vice president of intelligence at Crowdstrike, a cybersecurity firm, said it was “fairly dangerous” to continue using the 12-year-old operating system because after the deadline “victims can’t defend themselves.” “I certainly wouldn't run Windows XP after the 8th," Meyers said in an interview. Microsoft announced six years ago it will no longer provide security patches or technical support for the out-of-date software. Yet about  one-third of computers  around the world -- or about 500 million PCs -- still run Windows XP. On Microsoft’s website , a clock ticks down to next month’s Windows deadline an...

Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak announced on Monday that according to new data, flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean. The prime minister said that analysis by a British company has concluded that the last position of flight MH370 was in the southern Indian Ocean. "This is a remote location ... it is therefore with deep sadness and regret that I must inform you that according to this new data, flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean," Razak said. Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 went missing more than two weeks ago after taking off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing with more than 200 passengers on board. French and Chinese airplanes looking for debris of the jet had spotted several objects in the ocean on Monday. More from the Associated Press: KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — A new analysis of satellite data indicates the missing Malaysia Airlines plane crashed into a remote corner of the Indian Ocean, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said Monday. The...

Flickr/glassguy12345 Juniper released its  top 10 tech trends  for 2014 today. And if the research firm is right, our cities are going to get smarter, our money is going digital, and we’ll be printing a lot more products at home. Here’s a quick overview: Cities will get smarter Cities will get increasingly smart as sensors and cloud-enabled apps connect transportation, metering, healthcare, lighting, and environment data, and make it actionable.See what Sensity is doing,  building a billion-node planetary network of sensors — in street lights . Also, see what  IBM is doing in San Francisco  and  Cisco is doing in Lake Nona, Florida Mobile money will continue to grow — as will “mAgri” Mobile money is enabling banking and financing systems in the developing world via mobile wallets, which should continue to grow both there and in developing countries. And as mobile grows in Africa and Asia, so will the provision of data, including...

Children pose in front of a poster of Mandela at the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s Centre of Memory in Houghton, Johannesburg. PHOTO/AFPnewvision A grieving South Africa started preparing Saturday to host a unique gathering of world leaders for Nelson Mandela's funeral, as his family expressed their profound sadness and loss at the anti-apartheid icon's death. Across the country, ordinary South Africans gathered in groups large and small, to both mourn and celebrate the life of the prisoner turned president who transformed their country and became a global symbol of hope and freedom. Presidents, religious leaders and cultural figureheads from all corners of the world are expected for the funeral, which will see a cortege with Mandela's coffin pass through the streets of Pretoria on three consecutive days. The memorials and events will culminate in Mandela's burial on December 1...

The nominees have been named for the 2014 Grammy Awards, and it seems to be a good year for rappers. Jay-Z had the most nominations with 9, while fellow rappers Kendrick Lamar & Macklemore and Rya Lewis have 7 apiece. Pharell and former N-Sync singer Justin Timberlake also have 7 nominations. Nigeria is lonely represennted by Femi Kuti, who grabbed a nomination for Best World Album The Recording Academy announced the nominations Friday during a concert at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles. The 56th Grammy Awards will be held on Jan. 26 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. See Full List Of Nominees Below: Record of the year Get Lucky — Daft Punk & Pharrell Williams Radioactive — Imagine Dragons Royals — Lorde Locked Out Of Heaven — Bruno Mars Blurred Lines — Robin Thicke Featuring T.I. & Pharrell Album of the Year The Blessed Unrest — Sara Bareilles Random Access Memories — Daft Punk Good Kid, M.A.A.D City — Kendrick Lamar The Heist — Mac...