Alexander Ryking

If the latest report is accurate, the Menlo Park-based company’s next target could be Opera.

The website Pocket-lint reported early Friday that it’d been told by “one of its trusted sources” that Facebook is interested in Opera for its popular Web browser.

The Opera browser is available on desktop computers, various phones and tablets and even the Nintendo Wii, and the company claims to have more than 200 million users, according to the report…

Adding credibility to the rumor is a report by The Next Web that includes a source close to Opera saying the company has been looking for potential buyers.

The anonymous source said Opera is talking to possible buyers and has instituted a hiring freeze, which The Next Web said “is a surefire sign that something big is about to happen — or at least that Opera wants something big to happen.”

[Tokyo Electric Power Company] said the meltdowns it believes took place at three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant released about 900,000 terabecquerels of radioactive substances into the air during March 2011. The accident, which followed an earthquake and a tsunami, occurred on March 11…

It is difficult to judge the health effects of the larger-than-reported release, since even the latest number is an estimate, and it does not clarify how much exposure people received or continue to receive from contaminated soil and food. Experts have been divided on the health impacts since the disaster because the studies of assessing radiation risks are based mainly on a different type of exposure — the large doses delivered quickly by the atomic bombs in Japan in 1945.

Although people who lived closest to the plant were evacuated, many people remain in areas with significantly higher radiation levels than normal…

The newly released information is likely to add to concerns among many Japanese that they were never told the extent of the accident or the risks it posed.

While a judge Thursday tossed out the rape charge, it remains far from certain if Gibson, 24, will face any consequences.

L.A. prosecutors have said they have no plans to charge her with making false accusations, saying it would be a tough case to prove.

Legal experts noted it could be difficult for the Long Beach school district and its insurer to get the settlement back [because she has few assets]…

The statute of limitations for making a false claim is four years, but experts say it could restart when a previously hidden crime is discovered. In this case, Gibson testified in 2003 during Banks’ preliminary hearing but recanted her accusation last year. “No, he did not rape me,” she told Banks and his private investigator in a recorded conversation.

“The prosecution can say that we only learned last year that the crime of perjury occurred and therefore we are still within the statute of limitations,” Loyola Law professor Stan Goldman said.

The fact that Gibson was a juvenile when she initially made her accusation poses a potential complication, as does the fact that she has since recanted her recantation, but Goldman said the large monetary settlement she received might make charging her a priority to prosecutors trying to ensure the integrity of the criminal justice system.

Mark Zuckerberg and company followed their massive hiccup of an IPO with the release of a new mobile app called Facebook Camera today, allowing users to take photos, color them with corny filters, and share them with friends — more or less the exact same things Instagram does. Instagram, remember, is the shoot/filter/share app Facebook bought for $1 billion last month at Zuckerberg’s personal insistence. This strange, counterintuitive strategy already has the tech world wondering: What were they thinking?

In announcing the (very expensive) Instagram deal, Zuckerberg said Facebook is “committed to building and growing Instagram independently,” and a spokesman told TechCrunch the same thing today, adding, “I anticipate some healthy competition.” But why bother? Yes, Facebook has a bajillion more users than Instagram’s 50 million, but integrating the two, even if it’s not completely, seems far more practical than pitting the bases against one another.

If Facebook bought Instagram only to clear the lane of competition and make room for their own photo app, not only did they pay too much, but they still have some work to do: Early indications are that Instagram’s interface and functionality are preferable…