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Job listings give a view into company strategy and the direction of the overall market. Indeed is a job listing service that provides excellent analysis of top job skills. For our purposes, we looked at Indeed’s top 10 listings to give a glimpse into the top 10 developer and engineering skills that employers are looking for going into the new year. HTML5 MongoDB iOS Android Mobile app Puppet Hadoop jQuery PaaS Social Media HTML5 Employers have 183 job postings for Web developers. Microsoft and Amazon have the most jobs posted. HTML5 is still in its infancy but should remain the #1 most popular job for 2012. Employers are weaving in HTML5 as a requirement for both developers and engineers. Web developers, Web designers, front-end developers and software engineers  have the most job postings. Here are the preferred qualifications for a software development engineer to build Web apps for the Kindle Cloud Reader team: Experience building complex software systems

Qatar flexing muscle in changing world By Michael Buchanan BBC News, Doha   Qatar's military joined the Nato-led intervention in Libya, training the rebels On a recent Sunday afternoon, the normally sober, orderly centre of Doha was transformed into a triumphant melee of noise and colour as thousands of people took to the streets to celebrate Qatar's National Day. This year has been something of a coming of age for this small Gulf nation. It strongly backed the rebels in Libya and has led regional criticism of the crackdowns on protesters by Syria's President Bashar al-Assad and Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh. "We have to contribute with whatever we have - politics, money or by supporting military action, whatever it takes to support other nations," said one Qatari reveller. At the state-of-the-art studios of Libya TV in Doha, they know all about support from Qatar. Libya TV i

The hunt for Mokele-mbembe: Congo's Loch Ness Monster By Cordelia Hebblethwaite BBC World Service Explorer Adam Davies explains why he went in search of the Mokele-mbembe (drawing by David Miller, courtesy of Brill publishers) The search for Scotland's Loch Ness Monster is world famous. Far less well-known is the hunt for a similar creature, Mokele-mbembe, which is reputed to live in the remote north of Congo-Brazzaville. But how strong is the evidence? "I checked maps, and the data on the maps was white. It said, 'insufficient data to delineate terrain'. Well that got me!" says Dr Roy Mackal, a retired biologist from the University of Chicago. "It's the end of the world. It gives you a feeling of a surviving prehistoric time." In the 1980s, Dr Mackal led two expedition teams to the vast Likouala swamp and rainforest area of the Congo which is inhabited by pygmies,

UK Government websites may be next pro-Wikileaks focus   The diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks have been the focus of world attention. The UK's national security adviser Sir Peter Ricketts has warned that government websites could become the next target for pro-Wikileaks hackers. He told civil servants that websites used to file tax returns or claim benefits could be the most vulnerable. So far attacks from the Anonymous group of hacktivists have concentrated on firms perceived to be anti-Wikileaks. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been granted bail by a London court. A spokesperson for the Prime Minister told a press briefing that Sir Peter had spoken to permanent secretaries about the security of government websites in the light of pro-Wikileaks attacks. "The priority would be websites that dealt with information that belonged to members of the public such as the DWP [Department for Work and Pensions] and HMRC [Revenues and Customs], he sai

Risks of cyber war 'over-hyped' says OECD study   A huge solar flare could give rise to a global cyber shock, warns the report The vast majority of hi-tech attacks described as acts of cyber war do not deserve the name, says a report. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development study is part of a series considering incidents that could cause global disruption. While pandemics and financial instability could cause problems, cyber attacks are unlikely to, it says. Instead, trouble caused by cyber attacks is likely to be localised and short-lived. However, it warns that governments need to plan for how it could mitigate the effects of both accidental and deliberate events. 'Great confusion' Attempts to quantify the potential damage that hi-tech attacks could cause and develop appropriate responses are not helped by the hyperbolic language used to describe these incidents, said the OECD report. "We don't help ourselve

Train-switching technology 'poses hacking threat' Network Rail says the switch to GSM-R technology will deliver a secure and robust switching system A shift to a mobile communications technology could expose rail networks to hackers, according to a security expert. Prof Stefan Katzenbeisser made the claim at the Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin. The professor said that the systems which switch trains from one line to another could be shut down if encryption keys went astray. He stressed that trains would not be in danger, but there could be delays. Train-switching systems have historically been controlled by proprietary analogue systems. At the end of the last century, more than 35 incompatible systems were used for railway communications across Europe. GSM-R roll-out A group of manufacturers met to address this and decided to switch to a single digital standard to ensure they could source replacement parts and make different companies'

Faces of the year 2011 - the women Some of the women who have made the headlines in 2011, left to right: Gabrielle Giffords, Adele, Eman al-Obeidi, Pippa Middleton (top), Nafissatou Diallo, Li Na, Princess Charlene, Michele Bachmann (middle), President Dilma Rousseff, the Duchess of Alba, Corporal Kelsey de Santis, Sweetie the panda (bottom). The men who made headlines round-up was published on Tuesday. JANUARY US Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was attending one of her regular open-invitation meetings in her native Tucson, Arizona, when a gunman shot her through the head. He killed six and injured 13, including Giffords who was given emergency brain surgery. Her husband, Nasa astronaut Mark Kelly, flew immediately to her bedside. By August she had recovered enough to appear in Congress to vote for the raising of the US debt limit, prompting a standing ovation. In a subsequent TV interview she said her recovery had been "difficult". FEBRUARY Af

Malaria: Eastern DR Congo’s other battle Congolese women demanding life-saving mosquito nets On a muddy back street on the outskirts of Goma, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, more than 100 women are laying siege - with cheerful determination - to the rickety gates of a small clinic where aid workers are handing out free items. It is a familiar scene in a region still rated one of the poorest, and most dangerous, in the world. But instead of the more familiar search for food, shelter or medicine, the women here - many displaced from their homes by years of conflict - are after nets: cheap, simple, insecticide-soaked, life-saving, mosquito bed nets. "Malaria is the main killer here in Congo, especially for pregnant women and children," says Dr Vincker Lushombo, from Save the Children, watching as each woman's details are recorded, and a net handed over with brief instructions. "But in one badly affected area here, we distributed 10

China gets approval for Afghanistan oil exploration bid   China's rapid economic expansion has resulted in a surge in demand for fuel in the country China has gained potential access to millions of barrels of oil after it won approval for oil exploration and extraction in Afghanistan. The country's cabinet approved a deal to allow China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) to develop oil blocks in the Amu Darya Basin. The basin is estimated to hold around 87 million barrels of oil. The deal comes as China is looking to expand its oil resources in wake of a growing domestic demand. "The Afghan cabinet has ordered mines minister Wahidullah Shahrani to sign an oil exploration contract for Amu Darya with China National Petroleum Corporation," Afghanistan president's office said in a statement. 'Taking a punt' “It is about five to ten years before they can get a feel of what is under the ground and start commercially producing

Profits slow at Chinese industrial firms, report says China's biggest companies have funded and built its recent economic boom China's industrial companies are posting slower profit growth, a further sign that the country's economy is losing pace. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, industrial firms saw their net income rise by 24.4% in November, compared with 25.3% in October. The industrial sector has been one of the main drivers of China's expansion. However, over the past year the government has been trying to slow growth to make it more sustainable. Recent figures show that it has been successful in taking some of the steam out of the economy. In the three months to the end of September, gross domestic product increased by 9.1%, down from 9.5% in the previous quarter. China's growth has slowed for three quarters in a row and some forecasts see it dipping below 9% in 2012, which would be the weakest expansion in more than a dec

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Chikni Chameli - The Official Song

Science news highlights of 2011 The year 2011 offered up glimpses of Earth-like planets, hints of the Higgs boson and suggestions of a discovery that could turn modern physics on its head. Headlines were dominated by the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami in Japan, which resulted in the loss of thousands of lives and plunged the country into a nuclear emergency. The BBC News website's science editor Paul Rincon looks back at an eventful year in science and the environment. January - Another Earth?   Kepler has revolutionised the search for distant Earth-like planets   The scientific year kicked off with the American Astronomical Society meeting in a chilly Seattle. Among the most anticipated results were those from Nasa's Kepler space telescope , which had hit its stride after being launched in 2009. At the conference, Dr Natalie Batalha outlined details of Kepler 10b, which was at the time the smallest planet yet discovered outside our Solar System -

Moscow protest: Thousands rally against Vladimir Putin Advertisement Huge crowds packed central Moscow for one of the biggest protests in years Continue reading the main story Related Stories In pictures: Russian rallies Medvedev urges bold Russia reform Putin accepts 'lawful' protests Tens of thousands of people have rallied in central Moscow in a show of anger at alleged electoral fraud. They passed a resolution "not to give a single vote to Vladimir Putin" at next year's presidential election. Protest leader Alexei Navalny told the crowd to loud applause that Russians would no longer tolerate corruption. "I see enough people here to take the Kremlin and [Government House] right now but we are peaceful people and won't do that just yet," he said. Demonstrators say parliamentary elections on 4 December, which were won by Mr Putin's party, were rigged. The government

Irish privacy watchdog calls for Facebook changes   Facebook's founder, Mark Zuckerberg, has said the firm can do better on privacy The Irish data protection commissioner has recommended widespread changes to improve privacy on Facebook. They include making its terms and conditions clearer and offering users greater control over how their data is used on the site. The findings are particularly significant because Facebook Ireland was given responsibility for all non-US and Canadian data in September 2010. Facebook has six months to implement the changes. Commissioner Billy Hawkes will conduct a formal review of its progress in July. Commenting on the report , he said: "This was a challenging engagement both for my office and for Facebook Ireland. The audit has found a positive approach and commitment on the part of FB-I [Facebook Ireland] to respecting the privacy rights of its users." The review was conducted partly in response to complaints abou