PUBLIC MARKS from egoroff with tags are & microsoft

Starting tonight Halo 3, the final chapter of Microsoft s epic video game trilogy, finally goes on sale around the world. By the end of the week, fans in 37 countries will be playing the game Wired magazine recently called a cultural touchstone, a Star Wars for the thumb stick generation. In the United States, more than 10,000 retailers across the country are opening their doors at midnight tonight solely to sell copies of the game and accompanying Xbox 360 consoles and accessories. With nary a pirate, a spider or a wand in sight, day-one sales of the video game are expected to shatter entertainment sales records and top the biggest entertainment launches of all time.

The Word 2007 bugs pegged as security vulnerabilities by an Israeli researcher are nothing of the sort, Microsoft Corp. said Thursday. Instead, the application crashes reported as flaws are actually by design.