News Snippets

>> A study of Twitter has found that 40 per cent of the messages sent via it are "pointless babble." Carried out by US market research firm Pear Analytics, the study aimed to produce a snapshot of what people do with the social networking system. Almost as prevalent as the babble were "conversational" tweets--surrogate instant messaging. The study found that only 8 per cent of messages had news of interest.

>> Marcos Ruiz, a reporter for Caracas daily Ultimas Noticias, was punched and beaten with clubs by at least four assailants, on August 13. The slain journalist was handing out leaflets in favour of press freedom when he was attacked, allegedly by supporters of Venez-uela's leftist President Hugo Chavez. The attack left 12 of Ruiz's colleagues badly injured.