'Fuel May Become Cheaper Than Bottled Water'

Oil prices have gone down by 30% since early December, with Brent crude briefly falling to below $30 a barrel on Wednesday to a new near 12-year low.

Some analysts are predicting it could tumble even further, with Standard Chartered bank warning a figure of $10 a barrel is possible.

This could lead to UK motorists paying just 86p per litre for fuel, as long as the pound does not continue to weaken against the dollar, according to the RAC.

The glut of oil being pumped out by the US and other producers, combined with slowing world demand from the likes of China, has weighed heavily on the price of oil and other commodities.

The worldwide slump puts more money in consumers' pockets.

But it has badly damaged oil companies such as BP - which is a mainstay of many UK pension funds - as well as a wider spectrum of firms that supply parts and services to the industry.

Some supermarkets cut petrol last month to under £1 per litre for the first time since 2009 - excluding promotions - while there were similar moves for diesel last week.

Average prices across the country are 102.5p per litre for petrol and 103.2p per litre for diesel.

RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams said: "Breaking through the pound a litre price point for both petrol and diesel was clearly a welcome landmark, but it looks as though there is more to come.

"In fact we may get to a bizarre time when a litre of fuel is cheaper than a litre of some bottled waters."

The motoring organisation claimed that diesel should have already been cut even more given current oil prices.

"Retailers still need to pass on more wholesale price savings on diesel to motorists at the pump, as the wholesale price is still 3p a litre cheaper than that of petrol," Mr Williams said.

Google’s Self-Driving Cars Still Need Human Help

Google’s fleet of self-driving carshave now traveled millions of miles, while some version of autonomous vehicles are expected to go on sale in the next few years. Before that happens, though, they’ll have to get better at navigating traffic without the need for human intervention. 

The search giant has issued a report to California regulators showing how often its autonomous driving software malfunctioned while on the state’s public roads between September 2014 and November 2015. During that period, Google’s self-driving cars reported 341 safety-related “disengagements,” or instances when a human driver sitting in the vehicle needed to take control. 

The vast majority of these disengagements had to do with technical glitches. Google reported that hardware issues like a broken wire, or software problems like an inaccurate GPS, led the self-driving car to disengage 272 times during the period. The test drivers who sit in the cars were alerted to these disengagements by audio and visual signals and claimed control of the vehicle in 0.84 seconds on average.

There were also 69 instances when a human driver preemptively took control of a self-driving car in order to ensure the vehicle’s safety. Thirteen of those incidents would have resulted in collisions if the self-driving software was left to act by itself, according to Google. In the other cases, the car performed an incorrect action, like running a traffic light, but wasn’t in danger of a crash. 

Google uses a simulator to recreate the driving conditions after the fact to determine whether its cars would have crashed without driver intervention. 

While the new data illustrate that Google’s cars aren’t perfect, the number of disengagements has been steadily decreasing over time. Disengagements caused by technical glitches or failures fell from one per 785 miles in the fourth quarter of 2014 to one per 5,318 miles a year later. 

Overall, Google has clocked more than 420,000 miles on California public roads. The vast majority of Google’s incidents occurred on city streets in the Mountain View area, near the company’s headquarters. The company is focusing on learning to navigate city streets because the number of obstacles in an urban environment (traffic lights, pedestrians, cyclists) is significantly higher than the number encountered on a freeway. 

Other automakers such as Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen and Nissan also reported disengagements on their self-driving vehicles, but they’ve driven significantly fewer miles than Google’s cars.

Jakarta attacks: Explosions and gunfire rock capital

At least four people killed in series of explosions in Indonesia's capital, as gunfire rings out of central area.

At least four people have been killed in a series of explosions in central Jakarta, police told Al Jazeera, as gunfire rang out of the capital's downtown area.

Three of the dead were believed to be policemen, police told Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera's Step Vaessen, reporting from Jakarta, said a police post was destroyed in a grenade blast and that a gun battle was ongoing in the downtown area of the capital.

"It is believed that several gunmen are currently hiding in the Jakarta Theatre, a cinema near the affected area. A lot people are believed to be still inside. Police has the building surrounded."

"The attacks have caused a lot of panic and the area has been locked down by police," Vaessen said.

"The police are still investigating so we don't know how and why the attack happened. There were at least six explosions, and so far it looks like the police was the target."

A witness told Al Jazeera that one of the gunman shot a police officer from close range.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, however, police have confirmed to Al Jazeera that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group has made specific threats towards targets in Indonesia recently.

How to Sign Out of Gmail From Multiple Devices in 2 Clicks

If you bounce between various computers for work and personal use, you’ll want to make sure you’re signed out of your Gmail accounts when those devices aren’t in use.

More importantly, if a laptop or mobile device becomes lost or stolen, it’s crucial to know how to disconnect your private accounts from it immediately. Logging out of Gmail from multiple devices is simple and can be done in two quick clicks.

Here’s how it’s done:

1. On a desktop computer, log in to Gmail and scroll down to the bottom of your inbox.
2. You should see tiny print that says “Last account activity.” Click the “Details” button right below it.
3. Press the “sign out all other web sessions” button to remotely log out of Gmail from computers in other locations. You can also view a list of devices that have signed into your Gmail account recently underneath this button.

David Bowie Secretly Cremated - Report

The singer told his loved ones he wanted to "go without any fuss" and did not want a funeral or public memorial, the Daily Mirror said.

Fans of the star are continuing to gather at his home in the city following his death at the weekend.

The 69-year-old passed away on Sunday after an 18-month battle with cancer.

A source quoted by the Mirror said: "In many respects you don’t need a memorial or service to remember David by ... you have his music instead.

"He would have wanted to just disappear with no fuss, no big show, no fan-fare. This would totally be his style.

"His last album Blackstar was very much his goodbye to fans instead."

Bowie released his 25th album, called Blackstar, on Friday 8 January, to coincide with his 69th birthday, and it remains top of the album charts.

The album contains seven songs, including one called Lazarus which starts with the lyrics: "Look up here, I'm in heaven, I've got scars that can't be seen, I've got drama, can't be stolen, everybody knows me now."

Bowie's friend and producer Tony Visconti said the record was "his parting gift" to the world.

Portrait photographer Annie Leibovitz said Bowie "curated his death" with the album and his US musical Lazarus.

She said: "From what I understand, these last 18 months he really curated his death, and the play Lazarus and the album - I just think that's an extraordinary thing he did as an artist, to understand he was dying and put all of himself into that look."

Bowie will be honoured in a tribute at next month's Brit awards, and a memorial concert will be held at New York's Carnegie Hall on 31 March.

Met Police To Double Armed Officers On Patrol

Scotland Yard is set to announce there will be an extra 600 armed officers for the capital to help double the number of police carrying weapons on the streets on any given day.

The force announced last year that more firearms officers would be recruited in the wake of the gun and bomb atrocities in Paris.

An armed officer during a training exercise in London

In the months since, senior officers have been drawing up plans on the quickest, most effective way of ensuring more firearms officers are available to respond to any attack in London.

That process is now at an end and the Metropolitan Police Commissioner will make what he described as a "significant" announcement on Thursday morning.

In an interview with LBC Radio, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said: "We are determined to increase the number of firearms officers. In fact I believe over the next 24 hours I'll be able to make a significant announcement about that."

There are currently around 2,000 firearms officers in the Metropolitan Police and the number of armed patrols was increased after the murders in France.

The latest move by the Met has been given a "cautious welcome" by shadow home secretary Andy Burnham.

He told Sky News: "It sounds like good news but we do have to ask where the money is coming from.

"If it's taken out of neighbourhood policing so we see police officers come off the beat, or if it's money that isn't then available to other big cities around the country, then that wouldn't be right."

Armed officers from the Met and several other forces have been holding regular training exercises at an undisclosed location in central London in preparation for the possibility of a mass firearms attack here.

In recent years, police tactics have evolved to counter the changing nature of the terrorist threat.

Instead of trying to negotiate with any potential terrorist hostage takers, armed officers are now instructed to "push forward and confront the threat head-on".

The change in tactic is a response to the knowledge that terrorists from groups like Islamic State (IS) only ever use negotiations as a stalling tactic to allow them to kill as many innocent people as possible.

Last month, senior Scotland Yard officers publicly acknowledged for the first time that anyone injured in such a terrorist attack might have to wait for some time before they receive medical attention.

For the police it is an understandably sensitive topic, but their priority is to neutralise any threat to ensure other members of the public are not killed or injured and to help ensure the scene is as secure as possible for other members of the emergency services to be able to safely treat the injured.

Sir Bernard revealed he meets armed officers every two weeks in a bid to maintain morale, after he raised concerns that those who bear firearms should have greater protection in the wake of a fatal shooting in the capital.

It follows the death of Jermaine Baker, 28,during a police operation to stop an alleged prison break in north London in December.

Sir Bernard said: "I've actually met a very large number of our firearms officers after the incident in Haringey to see how they felt, what their complaints might be and I've got a task-force running now.

"I'm seeing a group of them every two weeks with things that I've put in place to encourage more officers to feel that they've got confidence that I'm supporting them, and in turn the public are supporting them."

Prime Minister David Cameron is considering legal changes to make it more difficult to prosecute police marksmen who shoot terrorists.

Google creates virtual reality arm, names key exec to run it

Alphabet Inc's Google has created a virtual reality (VR) computing division and said Clay Bavor, the executive running its product management team, will run the new arm.

A spokesman for Google, Joshua Cruz, confirmed Bavor's new role on the team, but declined to provide any further details.

According to Bavor's Twitter profile, he is the vice president of Virtual Reality at Google.

As vice president of product management, Bavor oversaw some of Google's key apps, including Gmail, Google Drive and Google Docs, his LinkedIn profile showed.

Technology news website Re/code first reported Bavor's appointment on Tuesday and said his earlier role will now be taken over by Senior Vice President Diane Greene. 

Google has been flirting with virtual reality but never quite fully dived into it until now. In May last year, the company announced a partnership with action-camera maker GoPro to enable 360 degree view in virtual reality, using a new technology that Google had developed.

The company said in November its video-sharing site YouTube supported virtual reality video. Viewers could view VR video using a cellphone and Google Cardboard viewer. 

Oculus, the virtual reality company Facebook bought in 2014, has started accepting pre-orders for its much-awaited virtual reality headset, Rift, which will ship in Q1.