Microsoft has had to create a new build of Windows XP Professional for computer makers because the six-year-old operating system's continued popularity has nearly exhausted the supply of product activation keys. The new build, dubbed SP2c, includes no fixes or feature changes, but was created simply to address the shrinking pool of product keys. XP Pro SP2c, which has been released to manufacturing, will be made available to OEMs and system builders next month, said Microsoft.

"A Japanese power company admitted on Thursday that it had covered up a 1999 incident in which mishandling of nuclear fuel rods led to an unintended self-sustaining nuclear fission chain reaction for 15 minutes."

"Hokuriku Electric said the mishandling of nuclear fuel rods caused the company's Shiga No. 1 nuclear unit in central Japan to go into a "critical state" for 15 minutes in June 1999. The unit was shut down manually after an automatic shut-down function failed."

"The news... is likely to further dent public confidence in Japan's nuclear power industry, already undermined by safety scandals over the past decade."

"In one of Japan's worst nuclear accidents, two workers were killed in September 1999, when workers at a nuclear facility in Tokaimura, northeast of Tokyo, set off an uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction by using buckets to mix nuclear fuel in a lab."