In a fight against "Denglish," language advocacy groups in Germany are fighting the growing incursion of English terms into the German language. The use of English for tech terms like "texting" and "email" is widespread in languages around the world and while national language associations fight to create equivalents in the native tongue, the general public tends to prefer English terms. Read this article to learn about efforts to reduce the use of Anglicisms by German companies and by the public.

According to Eurostat, the population of the European Union crossed the half-billion threshold in 2009. The estimated population of the EU on January 1, 2010 was 501.1 million, according to the Luxembourg-based statistical office of the European Union. The EU's increase in overall population in its 27 member-countries is due to an increase in births and immigration.

The United Nations General Assembly asked the International Court of Justice to investigate the legality of Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence. The court ruled on Thursday, in a vote of 10 for and 4 against, supporting Kosovo's declaration independence on February 17, 2008 by a wide margin. The court's decision is not binding but is an advisory decision for the United Nations General Assembly. Serbia, the country from which Kosovo seceded, was disappointed in the decision by the court. Seventy countries recognize the independence of Kosovo, including the United States, United Kingdom, and many EU member states. This decision by the court in The Hague may serve as a precedent for separatist movements around the world. CNN has a story and video.

The Indian government has selected a new symbol for the rupee from among more than 3000 entries. The winning entry looks like a stylized letter "R" with two horizontal lines running through the top. It could take years for the symbol to gain widespread use. The new rupee symbol will be brought before the Unicode Consortium to create a standard computerized code for the symbol so that it can be used online and elsewhere. The creation of the euro and its symbol -  €  - in 1999 was the last major new world currency symbol created.