Washington, Dec. 17 : The National Rifle Association, which has been slammed with criticism after Friday's deadly shooting rampage at a Connecticut elementary school, has apparently deactivated its Facebook page and also stopped tweeting.

The National Rifle Association touted having 1.7 million `likes' on the social media site the day before the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

According to the New York Daily News, those who liked the NRA''s Facebook page first noticed it was gone on Friday, and the group has continued to stay silent over the weekend.

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Washington, Dec 17 : Software giant Microsoft has negotiated a fresh licensing agreement with the German maker of Android-based devices, EINS.

Europe’s EINS manufactures Android tablets under the Cat brand in Germany.

While the contents of the agreement have not been disclosed, the parties indicate that Microsoft will receive royalties from EINS SE, Enterprise Innovation reports.

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Washington, Dec 17 : Mobile application storefronts have collectively distributed a total of 81 billion smartphone and tablet apps as of end-September 2012, according to a report.

The recent market study from ABI Research showed that out of those, 89 percent were downloaded from native storefronts that come with the device’s operating system.

“The current status quo is based on storefronts that the operating system vendors provide as part of the OS experience, and there is no evidence that this would change in the future,” Enterprise Innovation quoted Aapo Markkanen, ABI Research senior analyst, as saying.

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Washington, Dec 17 : The results of the independent review ordered by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton into the attack on American consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi will be presented to the State Department on Monday.

The State Department is expected to get a report on the incident from the independent Advisory Review Board, according to sources in the State Department.

Congress will receive the report from the board ahead of a classified briefing for members on Wednesday by Thomas Pickering, who led the Advisory Review Board, CNN reports.

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Washington, Dec. 17 : U. S. President Barack Obama has extended his congratulations to Shinzo Abe, a former Japanese prime minister, on his party''s victory in the parliamentary elections, saying he looks forward to "working closely" with the next Japanese government.

"I congratulate Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) President Shinzo Abe on his party''s success in the elections in Japan today," the president said in a statement.

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Washington, Dec. 17 : Adam Lanza, the gunman in the Connecticut school shooting spree was carrying hundreds of rounds of ammunition to kill just about every student in the school, and he might have, if he hadn't shot himself, police has said.

Lanza shot himself in the head just as he heard police drawing near to the classroom where he was killing helpless children, but he had more ammunition at the ready in the form of multiple, high-capacity clips each capable of holding 30 bullets.

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Washington, Dec. 17 : President Barack Obama has told relatives of the 26 people killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting spree that `mass shooting tragedies must end'.

"Newtown, you are not alone," Obama told an emotional audience while speaking at a vigil in memory of the victims.

He struggled to maintain his composure, as he read the first names of each of the 20 children killed in America's worst school shooting. Sky News reports.

"God has called them home. For those of us who remain, let us find the strength to carry on and make our country worthy of their memory," he said.

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Washington, Dec. 17 : Roughly one week before Adam Lanza went on a deadly shooting rampage at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut his mother Nancy Lanza reportedly told a friend that she feared her always-eccentric son was "getting worse."

A drinking buddy of Lanza said that her son had long been troubled and rarely came up in conversation.

"She just looked down at the glass and said, `I don't know. I'm worried I'm losing him,'" the bar pal, who asked not to be named, said.

"She said it was getting worse. She was having trouble reaching him," the pal said.

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Washington, Dec 17 : The Obama administration has drawn up plans for responding to a possible scenario if Syria's weapons of mass destruction fall into the hands of Islamist extremists, rogue generals or other uncontrollable factions, a report has said.

The opposition Free Syrian Army said it did not find any chemical weapons at the first installation.

But the developments have fanned fears that even if Assad does not attack his own people with chemical weapons, he is on the verge of losing control of his formidable arsenal.

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Washington, Dec 17 : Photo-sharing app Instagram's CEO Kevin Systrom had verbally agreed to sell his photo-sharing company to Twitter Inc for 525 dollars million in March, weeks before he accepted a one billion dollars offer from Facebook, it has emerged.

According to a report by the New York Times, Twitter executives had handed Systrom a term sheet outlining the details of the proposed deal.

But Systrom later told California state regulators under oath that his company had not received any `formal offers or term sheets' from potential buyers aside from Facebook.

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Washington, Dec 17 : An Islamist faction of Syrian rebels have captured an infantry base in the northern city of Aleppo as they intensify their fight to oust President Bashar Assad's regime.

The base was the second major army installation taken by rebels in a week in Aleppo.

According to CBS News, it is fall is the latest blow to the Assad regime.

A statement by the al-Tawheed Brigade said the rebels `fully liberated' the military facility in Aleppo on Saturday.

It was posted on al-Tawheed''s official website on Sunday and said the Islamist rebel brigade''s commander was killed in the battle.

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Washington, Dec 17 : A group of journalists and press freedom activists have launched an organization to support Julian Assange's whistle blowing website Wikileaks that ran into trouble raising money.

WikiLeaks began publishing leaked diplomatic cables in November 2010, and faced scrutiny and criticism from lawmakers across the globe.

This prompted several companies, including MasterCard, Visa and PayPal, to stop processing donations to the non-profit organization.

WikiLeaks eventually suspended publication due to the `bank blockade.'

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Washington, Dec 17 : A New Jersey-based Atheists group has sparked outrage by spreading message on the Times Square billboard, saying `Jesus is a myth'.

With a picture of Santa Claus above another image of Jesus Christ, the sign, sponsored by American Atheists, urges passersby to `Keep the Merry!' and `Dump the Myth!'.

David Silverman, president of American Atheists said that a private donor paid over 25,000 dollars to have the billboard posted above a nightclub in the crossroads of the world for one month, ending January 10, 2013.

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Washington, Dec 17 : Google is expected to make some make voluntary changes to end nearly two years of US investigation into claims that the Internet search giant intentionally manipulates search results to harm competitors.

According to two sources familiar with the matter Google will make changes, such as limiting use of restaurant and travel reviews from other websites and letting search ad campaigns be easily ported to rival search services.

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Washington, Dec 17 : Adam Lanza, who massacred 26 people at an elementary school in Connecticut, committed suicide as soon as he heard police approaching, indicating that he may have planned an even larger massacre, Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy said Sunday on "This Week" on ABC.

Investigators have not revealed what the possible motive for the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School may have been, but the 20-year-old Lanza may have been looking to kill even more people.

"We surmise that it was during the second classroom episode that he heard responders coming and apparently at that decided to take his own life," Malloy said.

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Washington, Dec 17 : President Barack Obama vowed to use his office to prevent heinous acts like last week's massacre at an elementary school as he met the relatives of those killed trying to make sense of the senseless bloodshed.

Twenty-six people -- 20 of them children, ages 6 and 7 -- were killed Friday morning at Sandy Hook Elementary in New Town, Connecticut, about 60 miles north of New York City, before the shooter fatally shot himself.

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Washington, Dec. 16 : President Barack Obama has decided that he will nominate Senator John Kerry, Democrat Massachusetts, to be the Secretary of State.

The President is expected to make the announcement in the next few days for various reasons.

According to ABC News, the delay is made due to the finalization of the process, other pending Cabinet decisions, and, more immediately, the national reaction to the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

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Washington, Dec. 16 : A former adviser to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign has called for a concerted national conversation on gun control.

Mark DeMoss, the Christian conservative public relations executive, said that the country cannot continue “doing nothing” after the elementary school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, that left dozens dead, including 20 children.

DeMoss told Politico that placing some limits on guns wouldn’t have to conflict with constitutional liberties, as many on the right contend.

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Washington, Dec 16 - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has fainted, sustaining a concussion, a media report said Saturday.

Clinton was dehydrated because of a virus, causing her to faint. She is now at home recovering and is being monitored, Xinhua quoted Fox News as saying.

Clinton has cancelled her scheduled trip to North Africa and the Middle East due to a stomach virus earlier in the week.

She was originally planned to attend a meeting of the Friends of the Syrian People this week in Morocco.

Clinton, 65, has said she does not intend to continue serving as secretary of state in President Barack Obama's second term. (IANS)