Nearly 50 media outlets and media advocacy groups signed a letter on Thursday asking the U.S. Supreme Court to allow live news coverage inside its walls for the first time during the decision on President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, reports AP via the Huffington Post. Check out The New York Times’ interactive feature on the Supreme Court decision, expected to take place later this month.

Seven judges of Britain's Supreme Court dismissed as "without merit" Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's "last attempt" at appealing against extradition to Sweden over alleged sex crimes, reports the BBC. Extradition proceedings are due to begin after a two-week grace period.

Alibaba Group, a notable e-commerce company in China, has partnered with Microsoft Corp. to create a new search site, a move that could challenge Baidu and Google in the Chinese search market, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Last Saturday, Alibaba Group launched a beta version of a web site called Etao, which is aimed to drive traffic to Alibaba's retail website, Taobao.com.

Search results first show up Taobao listings, including images and product prices, followed by links to related online forums and informational web sites, as well as search results provided by Microsoft's Bing.

Both companies confirmed that Etao is in public, or beta, testing, but refused to do any further comments.

Baidu's dominance in the Chinese search market has increased since Google decided not to cooperate with Beijing's censorship regulations and moved its site to Hong Kong, where the regulations don't apply. Google is still accessible in China, but sometimes interrupted by the government's firewall technology. Baidu and Google did not comment on Etao, WSJ reported.

Microsoft announced that phones running on its new Windows Phone 7 operating system are to be officially unveiled on October 11, The Telegraph reported today. The phones are said to focus on social networking and device integration and were expected to go on sale on October 21.

The Guardian noted that the list of manufacturers includes Asus, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Dell, HTC, LG and Toshiba. The companies are all considered to have a camera, a GPS system, a compass, a proximity sensor that switches off the touch-screen when users make calls, a touch screen and an accelerometer.

According to a company blog post, apps available for Windows Phone 7 include Twitter, Netflix as well as Travelocity, a booking service for flights and hotels.

In the United States, telecommunications providers AT&T as well as T-Mobile would be powering the phones, TechTree said. Meanwhile, in the UK, it would be Vodafone, O2 and also T-Mobile, the Guardian mentioned.

Microsoft's Kin smartphone, announced on Monday, will be available in the Russian market and will be launched through national network provider MTS, Lenta.ru reported today. The operator will only set prices after seeing sales data from Europe and the United States.

Sales of the device in the United States will start as of May (through network operator Verizon Wireless), while Russians will be able to purchase Kin by autumn 2010. Europeans will be able to get the smartphone through Vodafone, which currently has a partnership with MTS, according to RBC Daily.

There are two versions of Kin, One and Two. According to RBK Daily, the device is aimed towards social network users since it permits them to browse, download and share social network content. RBC Daily reported that the Russian edition of Kin will be integrated with social sites Facebook, V Kontakte (Russia's answer to Facebook) and Odnoklassniki.