News : Japan's iPhone school

A Japanese university is bringing iPhones to the classroom, tracking attendance and aiming to enhance the classroom experience.

Dan Sloan reports.

News : Google Trike explores Britain

The new Google Trike will be adding more images of national tourist treasures in Street View, in efforts to put Britain's famous landmarks on the map.

Maryam Behmard reports.

News : Microsoft revamps search engine, dubbed "Bing"

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp is revamping its search engine to counter the dominance of Google Inc in the web search and related advertising business.

The world's largest software company, which is still in talks with Yahoo Inc over a potential partnership, has long been determined to play a major role in the lucrative web search market after watching upstart Google take a stranglehold.

Microsoft, which has been testing the search engine internally under the name Kumo for several months, plans to introduce the new service, re-christened "Bing," over the next few days, with a full launch next Wednesday.

Advertising Age reported earlier this week that Microsoft was planning a $80 million to $100 million ad campaign to promote Bing. Microsoft declined comment on the report.

The Redmond, Washington-based firm has lots of ground to make up. Last month Google took 64.2 percent of U.S. Internet searches -- up half a percentage point from the month before -- handling 9.5 billion out of a total of 14.8 billion searches.

Yahoo was a distant second with 20.4 percent of searches and Microsoft third with 8.2 percent, both down slightly from the month before, according to data firm comScore.

Both Google and Yahoo have recently introduced new features in their search engines to attract users, making Microsoft's task even harder.

(Reporting by Bill Rigby; Editing by Derek Caney)

News : Yahoo CEO says talking to Microsoft "little bit"

CARLSBAD, California (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc CEO Carol Bartz said any deal to spin off or combine its Internet search assets will require a partner with "boatloads of money," and her company is talking "a little bit" with Microsoft Corp about a potential partnership.

Speaking at the All Things Digital conference on Wednesday, Bartz said the company's array of popular Web products, including Yahoo mail and its home page, remain the key assets that will return Yahoo to growth.

Since taking the CEO job, Bartz has moved swiftly to revamp the company, cutting jobs, shuttering certain products and reorganizing the management structure.

Bartz said the company would like to hold on and even increase its roughly 20 percent share of the U.S. Internet search market, but it was not necessary for Yahoo's success.

"We are positioned as a place where people come to be informed; not just informed through a search, but informed through great content, with great editorial and great integration and a very local feel," Bartz said at the conference taking place north of San Diego.

Yahoo is the No.2 player in the search market, behind Google Inc, which had a roughly 64 percent share of the U.S. search market in April, according to comScore.

Bartz, 60, took the reins at Yahoo in January, replacing co-founder Jerry Yang in the wake of Yahoo's rejection of a $47.5 billion acquisition bid from software giant Microsoft.

Yahoo and Microsoft have recently talked about various partnerships, possibly with Microsoft managing Yahoo's search advertising business and Yahoo handling display ads across Microsoft's websites, according to a source familiar with the situation.

Asked if the talks between Yahoo and Microsoft about an Internet search deal continue, Bartz replied "a little bit."

Bartz said any deal combining its search efforts with another company would have to meet a specific set of criteria for Yahoo.

"There's two parties in all this. The other party has to have a boatload of money and the right technology, and give us the right data and so forth. It's that simple," said Bartz.

Microsoft, the No.3 player in the U.S. Internet search market, is expected to provide details about improvements to its search engine at the conference on Thursday when CEO Steve Ballmer takes the stage.

Yahoo earned $118 million in the first quarter, while its sales declined 13 percent year-over-year to $1.58 billion.

Given the challenging economic conditions, Bartz said she believes the company is performing strongly.

Bartz said on Wednesday that the new organizational structure, which she said makes the management and reporting hierarchies more clear within the company, will help Yahoo infuse its products with personalization and social media features.

Yahoo is adding social networking features such as status updates to its various properties. Last week, CEO Ari Blalogh said the company was also interested in acquiring outside companies to bolster its social efforts.

Yahoo is facing increased competition from social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. On Tuesday, Facebook, which has 200 million active users, announced it had received $200 million in funding from a Russian Internet investment firm.

Bartz said the company's core online properties can provide an Internet experience for Web surfers that Facebook cannot match, by providing a one-stop shop for people to read the news, check their stock portfolio and take care of other online tasks.

And she stressed Yahoo's various online products remain some of the most popular on the Web.

Yahoo has a 76 percent reach among U.S. Internet users, said Bartz.

(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Andre Grenon)

News : News Corp hopes for broader ad deal with Google

CARLSBAD, California (Reuters) - News Corp hopes to sell Google Inc access to a greater swathe of its media properties, its executives said, as an advertising deal between the two companies comes up for renewal.

Senior executives at News Corp and its MySpace online service said at the All Things Digital conference on Wednesday that the company was working with Google to try and make their existing advertising deal better for both parties.

"When it comes time to negotiate, one of the things that can be helpful is looking at it from the overall News Corp perspective," News Corp Chief Digital Officer Jonathan Miller said.

The current deal allows Google to run its Internet search ads on MySpace's widely trafficked social media Web site, but is set to expire in about a year and a half, said MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta, who appeared onstage alongside Miller.

According to recent media reports, Google is seeking to renegotiate the deal at a significant discount to the current terms, which popular IT blog Tech Crunch pegged at $300 million a year.

"That's an important deal for us, but it certainly isn't a majority of our revenue," Van Natta said.

News Corps owns a wide range of media properties in television, print and on the Internet. MySpace is the world's No. 2 social network, behind Facebook.

(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Richard Chang)

News : Driverless cars on the horizon

Driverless cars -- using technology similar to that used for cruise missiles, but more advanced -- are showing firsthand what public transportation could look like in the near future, through the European Union's vehicle program CyberCar.

The emphasis is on navigation, programming and communication which can make anything with an engine and wheels move safely down a desired route.

The cars are automatic but a manual overdrive is also possible by entering a special code into the system. The cars can also be navigated from a mobile phone.

The current CyberCar prototypes, on show at the recent Future Mobility Solutions Conference in Helsinki, look like golf carts and have no suspension but under the hood hides high-tech lasers and Global Positioning System (GPS) units.

The car follows a path programmed by the GPS using a touchscreen and laser is used to avoid crashes. There are some similarities with the technology involved in constructing cruise missiles although the companies developing the cars have had no access to military technology.

The touch-screen operated computer system is responsible for the requested journey, while an automated voice is giving information to the passengers.

Driverless CyberCars are already in operation at London's Heathrow airport, but it will take several years before the cars will be seen driving around towns.

But the current economical downturn could speed-up projects like this as in the long run they offer lower costs and an environmental friendly solution to urban transport problems.

Vantaa, just outside the Finnish capital Helsinki, is currently building up a new eco-friendly district for 30,000 people. The plan is to implement the latest technology wherever possible and the CyberCar idea fits perfectly.

Cities and companies willing to participate in the EU CyberCar program need to finance a certain amount of the total costs.

Gilbert Koskela who is the CyberCar project manager in Vantaa City said that apart from the environmental benefits, the driver-less car would make the streets safer as there would be less human factors involved.

(SOUNDBITE)(English) RESEARCHER LAURENT BOURAOUI:

Nes : Russian rocket to double space station crew

By Dmitry Solovyov

KOROLYOV, Russia (Reuters) - A Russian spacecraft blasted off on Wednesday on a mission that will double the permanent crew of the International Space Station (ISS) to six for the first time.

Expedition 20 will also be the first when all five international partner space agencies -- NASA of the United States, Russia's Roskosmos, Japan's JAXA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) -- are represented on board the ISS.

Belgian Frank de Winne, Canadian Robert Thirsk and Russian Roman Romanenko lifted off from the Russian-owned Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan as planned, an official at Mission Control outside Moscow said.

The Soyuz TMA-15 spacecraft reached its targeted orbit of about 200-242 km (120-150 miles) above the earth, the official announced to applause.

"Our only problem today was the weather in Baikonur. It's a bit too hot," head of space programs for the Russian segment of ISS, Vladimir Solovyov, told reporters.

"We are now facing pretty energetic work - two spacewalks, receiving a (U.S. Space) Shuttle, a cargo spaceship, then another Shuttle and Japanese cargo."

De Winne will be the first European commander of the space outpost which is worth more than $100 billion.

The Soyuz TMA-15 spaceship is scheduled to dock with the ISS on Friday. The incoming crew will join Russian Gennady Padalka, U.S. astronaut Michael Barratt and Japan's Koichi Wakata.

The expanded crew will test the latest, fully computerized Russian space suits in space and will also use new equipment, including a system that recycles urine into drinking water.

Solovyov said the work undertaken will include technical and scientific experiments as well as medical tests. The crew will also study the sun and the universe.

Russia has borne the brunt of sending crews and cargo to the ISS since the U.S. Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated on re-entry in 2003, killing its crew of seven.

This year Russia will double the number of its space launches from Baikonur to four in light of the increase in the permanent ISS crew to six.

"They will have a wonderful crew on board now," he said.

Space officials say that in the future as many as 13 people could be on the station at one time.

(Reporting by Dmitry Solovyov; editing by Robert Woodward)

News : Apple iTunes may hit more markets with French moves

By Foo Yun Chee

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Apple's iTunes online music store may reach more customers throughout Europe after the body tasked with collecting artist royalties in France agreed to allow counterparts elsewhere to license its catalog.

SACEM, which collects royalties for about 128,000 artists, said it would be willing to drop territorial restrictions and allow national counterparts to license its repertoire, European antitrust regulators said on Tuesday.

If pan-Europe licensing becomes a reality, Apple, which controls slightly more than half of global digital music sales through iTunes, may look at broadening access to the system, European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes added.

"If iTunes was readily able to license rights on a multi-territorial basis from publishers and collecting societies, it would consider making its content available to all European consumers, including those in EU countries where iTunes is currently not available," she said in a statement.

Apple currently does not allow European users to buy from iTunes online stores outside their country of residence.

Acknowledging the difficulties faced by online stores, the executive European Commission said music licensing practices and the current copyright framework limited what consumers could buy on the Internet.

"We have received complaints from Polish consumers that they can't buy music from iTunes," Commission spokesman Jonathan Todd said.

The Commission, tasked with ensuring that companies do not distort competition in the 27-country European Union, last July gave 24 European collecting societies 90 days to end their national monopolies or face daily fines.

"It is definitely a good step in the right direction of pan-European licensing," said Craig Pouncey at law firm Herbert Smith.

Sounding a note of caution, he said the eventual outcome would depend on whether the companies concerned could deliver what they said they were willing to do and also on subsequent consultations over online distribution of music.

The Commission said interested parties would have until June 30 to comment on the licensing issue.

The Commission's investigation into the collecting societies last year followed complaints from media group RTL and British online music provider Music Choice.

The Commission said record company EMI was ready to entrust rights managers to offer its repertoire for the European economic area.

(Editing by David Holmes and Simon Jessop)

News : Facebook has $200 million investment from Russian firm

By Anupreeta Das

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Russian Internet investment firm has invested $200 million in Facebook, giving the social networking company a cash buffer during the recession and pegging its value at $10 billion.

Digital Sky Technologies, which has invested in leading Russian web properties like Mail.ru and Vkontakte.ru, will take a nearly 2 percent stake in Facebook in exchange for preferred stock, the two companies said on Tuesday.

The new valuation is $5 billion lower than when Microsoft Corp invested $240 million in Facebook, in return for a 1.6 percent stake, in 2007.

Asked about the lower valuation, Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said Microsoft invested when "we were right at the absolute peak of the market."

The Microsoft deal was more of a "strategic partnership" where the two companies partnered on advertising and search, whereas Digital Sky made a "straight financial investment," Zuckerberg said on a conference call.

Given this context and the current economic conditions, "we think of this as a fair and good valuation," he said.

HAVE MONEY? WE'LL TAKE IT

Facebook did not need to raise additional funds, but welcomed Digital Sky's investment as a "cash buffer" that will help it grow comfortably, Zuckerberg said.

Other potential investors too have come calling, he added, and Facebook has held discussions with several groups interested in putting money into the company.

Digital Sky won because its founders Yuri Milner and Gregory Finger have strong experience running Internet properties in Eastern Europe and Russia, and "a deep, advanced understanding" of social networking technology, Zuckerberg said.

"Ultimately (it was) this deal and my comfort with Yuri and the team," said Zuckerberg, 25, who founded Facebook in a Harvard University dorm room five years ago.

Since then, the social networking site, where people can create personal pages, post pictures and exchange messages with their friends online, has seen explosive growth.

Facebook now has more than 200 million active members, double the number it had just last August. About 70 percent of its members are outside the United States.

Critics of Facebook, which makes most of its money through advertising, say the company has not yet figured out a sustainable revenue model.

But the company has said it is on track to increase revenue by 70 percent year-over-year, and to become cash-flow positive by 2010.

Digital Sky's Yuri Milner, who attended Wharton Business School and was CEO of Russian web portal mail.ru, said his firm hopes to bring its expertise in making money off other Web properties to Facebook.

It was "a very simple exercise of applying what we've learnt in other parts of the world to Facebook," he said, adding that he was comfortable with the $10 billion valuation.

Digital Sky also plans to buy at least $100 million of Facebook common stock from existing stockholders to provide liquidity for current and former employees with vested shares of Facebook stock.

Founded in 2005, Digital Sky has raised and invested more than $1 billion in over 30 companies, according to the firm's website.

The new investment will also give Facebook the flexibility to pursue strategic options, although the company has not been very acquisitive so far.

Last week, Zuckerberg told the Reuters Global Technology Summit he hopes to eventually take his company public but added he is in no rush to do so.

(Reporting by Anupreeta Das; Additional reporting by Alexei Oreskovic in San Francisco; Editing by Derek Caney, Gerald E. McCormick, Gary Hill)

News : Microsoft to launch new Zune later this year

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp plans to launch a new version of its Zune portable media player later this year in the United States, incorporating high-definition video, touch screen technology and Wi-Fi connection.

Microsoft said on Tuesday the new Zune, its answer to Apple Inc's popular iPod digital music player, will also come with an Internet browser and a built-in HD radio receiver that offers higher-quality sound than traditional radio.

It did not give a price or a specific date except to say it was due in the fall.

The company added new features to Zune's music service last year, enabling users to download music wirelessly and buy songs they hear on the device's built-in FM radio.

(Reporting by Ritsuko Ando; Editing by Anshuman Daga)

News : Five-million-year old sloth fossil found in Peru

LIMA (Reuters) - The nearly intact fossil of an ancient sloth that lived 5 million years ago has been unearthed in Peru, a find about 4 million years older than similar ones discovered in the Americas, researchers said.

The sloth was found beneath the cement floor of a house in the Andean region of Espinar in southern Peru when workers were installing a water system. Parts of a giant armadillo that has also been dated to 5 million years ago were also found nearby.

The sloth, about 10 feet long, was an herbivore and lived during the Mio-Pliocene era, said paleontologist Rodolfo Salas of Peru's Natural History Museum and one of the scientists on the dig sponsored by the French government.

"This skeleton of the sloth is especially important as it is the first complete skeleton of its kind that is 5 million years old in the Americas," he told Reuters. "Previously, discoveries have been made of partial skeletons of similar animals, but from the Pleistocene era, meaning from the last million years."

The sloth was found at 13,000 feet above sea level.

Salas said the sloth was relatively small compared with other animals of its type and would help researchers better understand evolution of mammals in the Andes.

Peru's dry climate has helped preserve thousands of fossils from the Pacific coast to the Andes highlands, making it a favorite of fossil hunters.

(Reporting by Carlos Valdez; Writing by Terry Wade; Editing by Peter Cooney)

News : Twitter eyes foray into TV

By Nellie Andreeva

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - How's this for a tweet? Twitter is coming to a television near you.

The social-networking and micro-blogging service is developing the first TV series that incorporates Twitter into the action of the show.

Created by novelist Amy Ephron, sister of Nora and Delia Ephron, the untitled show will feature ordinary people competing while on the trail of celebrities.

Twitter has partnered on the project with production companies Reveille ("The Office") and Brillstein Entertainment Partners ("Samantha Who?").

(Editing by Dean Goodman)

News : World data's rapid growth

The amount of digital information created in the world grew by more than 486 billion gigabytes in 2008.

Andrew Potter reports.

News : Facebooking the Pope

Just when you thought you had enough Facebook Friends, devout followers of the Vatican can soon add the Pope as a friend.

Maryam Behmard reports.

News : YouTube star who witnessed shooting comes clean

CANBERRA (Reuters) - An Australia woman's account of a late night shooting in Sydney has turned her into an Internet sensation with T-shirts, mugs and a dance remix made in her honor but there's just one problem -- she made it up.

Sydney woman Clare Werbeloff's dramatic account of a shooting, with her "chk chk boom" firing of a gun and imitation of the men involved, made her an overnight hit on video sharing website YouTube, prompting about 500,000 viewings.

The 19-year-old has since received invitations to appear on various TV shows and even the offer of a bikini photo shoot.

But the Australian media were left red-faced when the first task of Werbeloff's newly hired agent Adam Abrams was to admit his client did not actually witness the shooting, and told police that she made the story up for a TV camera on site.

Abrams told Australian media that Werbeloff would not detail her reasons for fabricating the story but denied the video was an advertising setup. Werbeloff had gone into hiding after media camped outside her home.

The 27-year-old victim of the shooting, Sydneysider Justin Kallu, was not amused as he nursed a wounded knee.

"I'm just a bit upset about the fact that I've been shot and that I almost lost my life and there's this girl all over the news getting popular, all because she has no brains," Kallu said in emailed comments to newspapers.

(Reporting by Rob Taylor; Editing by Miral Fahmy)

News : Iranian moderate candidate criticizes Facebook ban

By Parisa Hafezi

TEHRAN (Reuters) - A moderate challenger to hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad condemned the authorities on Monday for blocking access to the Facebook social networking site ahead of the June 12 presidential election.

With the Internet playing a mounting role in political debate, authorities have curbed access to political, human rights and news websites, and blocked Facebook on Saturday.

Former parliament speaker Mehdi Karoubi said websites should be tolerated at "such a sensitive political period."

"It (Facebook) was filtered by the authorities because of moral issues. But filtering Facebook just days before the election was wrong," Karoubi told a news conference.

Reformists say by blocking websites the government wants to force Iranians to rely on the state-run media, which they accuse of giving biased coverage in favor of Ahmadinejad.

Ahmadinejad is in a four-way race against two moderate candidates and former head of the Revolutionary Guards Mohsen Rezaei.

Websites like Facebook have become an important campaign instrument for moderate candidates, particularly former premier Mirhossein Mousavi, who want to mobilize Iranian youth to vote out Ahmadinejad.

One Facebook page campaigning for Mousavi had more than 5,200 members.

Iran's judiciary said last year more than five million websites were being blocked by authorities since they "inflict social, political, economic and moral damage, which is worrying."

More than 150,000 of Iran's population are Facebook members and young voters make up a huge bloc -- which helped former reformist president Mohammad Khatami to win the election in 1997 and 2001. Khatami backs Mousavi's candidacy.

Text messaging also has become an integral part of the campaign and has sparked a formal complaint from hardline backers of Ahmadinejad, who is bearing the brunt of sometimes rude jokes.

"You can not change the driver (the president) of a crashing car (Iran)," read one message. The text messages normally end with a note to send them on to 20 friends.

The official IRNA news agency said Tehran's conservative prosecutor's office would crack down on messages that offended candidates.

The messages are unlikely to penetrate deep into Ahmadinejad's support base among the pious poor.

(Editing by Myra MacDonald)

News : The lithium boom is coming: The new bubble?

By Steve James - Analysis

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New vehicle emission standards will likely be a boon for everything from aluminum to new plastics, but the producers of lithium -- a mineral used in batteries that power new generation vehicles -- could be the big winners.

But while the few public companies that mine lithium will likely see surging revenue, they will also face the pressure that comes with all booms -- making supply meet ever-tightening availability.

Companies that mine lithium should see a long-term boost to their business, analysts said, although there are questions about whether there is enough lithium for all customers.

And some energy experts see the irony in lithium batteries replacing carbon-burning gasoline, since they believe

exploiting lithium could be just as destructive to the environment as pollution.

Lithium is generally mined from rock, but it can also be found in deposits in brine ponds. It comes mostly from one region -- the Andes mountains of Chile, Argentina and Bolivia, with some deposits in China. Chile's SQM is the world's largest producer, along with U.S. specialty chemical companies Rockwood Holdings Inc and FMC Corp.

There are enormous possibilities for profit.

"We are ready and able to expand production," said Tim McKenna, a Rockwood spokesman. "In fact, in the last 18 months, we completed capacity expansion of our Chile operations to keep pace with expected demand from the auto industry."

McKenna said the auto industry is not likely to bring lithium-powered cars to the wider market much before 2011, although the Mercedes S-class is expected to be the first lithium/hybrid car on the market late this year.

Rockwood, through its German subsidiary, Chemetall, produces lithium from brine lakes at Santiago Salar de Atacama in Chile and from a mine in Silver Peak, Nevada.

Chemetall has a 50 percent share of the global market for lithium and 30 percent for lithium carbonate, which is used for battery manufacture. It produced 27,000 tons of lithium last year and is increasing production to about 33,000 tons next year and 40,000 tons by 2015. Current global demand is 16,000 tons per year, or 84,000 tons of lithium carbonate.

WASHINGTON WEIGHS IN

This week, the Obama administration announced new vehicle emission standards that come into effect by 2016 and the rules are seen as favoring hybrid and electric vehicles.

Analyst David Begleiter, of Deutsche Bank North America, said lithium for use in all kinds of batteries -- auto, laptop and other consumer products -- accounted for about one-third of Rockwood's $3.4 billion revenue last year.

"There is no question (new emission regulations) will be very beneficial for Rockwood, although it depends on what happens with EHV (Electric Hybrid Vehicle) production increases and lithium carbonate pricing. But they all suggest material benefits for Rockwood."

Begleiter said Rockwood and SQM have some of the world's best lithium reserves.

"I don't believe there is a problem with supply," he said, although ramping up production might be slow because it takes up to 18 months for water to evaporate in brine ponds allowing the lithium to form.

Michael Harrison, an analyst at First Analysis Securities, said lithium would be a long-term driver for Rockwood.

"There is no question the long-term trend is toward lithium-based batteries, but it depends on what kind of demand there is," he said. "It is clear to me that regulatory moves on fuel efficiency are going to help make electric cars a reality."

Harrison said current hybrids and electric cars mostly have nickel-based batteries, but he expects to see more cars with lithium batteries by 2011-2012.

THE ANTI-LITHIUM CAMP

Not all analysts were uniformly cheery about the outlook for lithium or its major producers.

Analyst Ben Johnson of Morningstar voiced skepticism about new cars giving lithium producers a boost.

"It's a clear positive on the supply side as a small handful of players control lithium resources," he said.

"Lithium is not abundant by any means and future resources will be more difficult to exploit. On the demand side, key sources of demand like consumer electronics have been very weak recently, but longer-term, cyclical headwinds will fade or normalize.

"I am not jumping into the pool party that lithium is the be-all and end-all of transport fuel for the future. It's too early to say," Johnson added.

William Tahil, research director of Meridian International Research, an independent consultancy specializing in renewable energy, is not convinced lithium is the answer.

"Lithium Ion batteries are rapidly becoming the technology of choice for the next generation of electric vehicles," he noted in a research paper titled "The Trouble with Lithium."

To achieve the required cuts in oil consumption, a significant percentage of the world's automobile fleet of 1 billion vehicles will be electrified in the next decade, he said. Ultimately, all production, currently 60 million vehicles per year, will have to be replaced with electrified vehicles.

"There are insufficient economically recoverable lithium resources available to sustain electrified vehicle manufacture in the volumes required, based solely on LiIon batteries.

"Depletion rates would exceed current oil depletion rates and switch dependency from one diminishing resource to another. Concentration of supply would create new geopolitical tensions, not reduce them," Tahil wrote.

(Reporting by Steve James; editing by Patrick Fitzgibbons and Andre Grenon)

News : Farrah's emotional night

The latest celebrity news including the premiere of "Farrah's Story," the demo of a shanty home of a "Slumdog Millionaire" child star and Lindsay finally finds work.

Bob Mezan reports.

News : Atlantis makes contact with Hubble

Shuttle Atlantis has captured the Hubble Space Telescope and will begin repairs.

Karina Huber reports.

News : U.S. video game sales down 17 percent in April

By Gabriel Madway

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - U.S. sales of video games fell 17 percent in April to $1.03 billion, research group NPD said on Thursday, the second steep monthly decline in a row.

Game software sales fell 23 percent to $510.7 million in April, while hardware sales dropped 8 percent to $391.6 million. Sales of accessories declined 15 percent.

Hudson Square Research analyst Daniel Ernst said while the economy had some impact on the month's sales, the more important factor was a tough comparison from a year ago.

"The big driver in games is content, so last year you had two of the biggest games of the year launch in April, and that was not the case this year," he said, referring to "Grand Theft Auto 4" and "Mario Kart."

Nintendo's (7974.OS) Wii was the top-selling game console again in April, although sales fell more than 50 percent from a year ago to 340,000 units, NPD said.

Microsoft Corp's (MSFT.O) Xbox was No. 2 with 175,000 units sold, down 7 percent. Sony Corp's (6758.T) PlayStation 2 (PS2) was in third place, followed by the PlayStation 3. Sony cut the price of the PS2 by 23 percent to $99.99 at the end of March.

Ernst said Nintendo's shares may be hurt by the NPD numbers, but said he still thinks the Wii brand is strong. Last week, Japan-based Nintendo reported a 42 percent fall in quarterly operating profit and forecast a bigger-than-expected profit decline this year.

Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime said in an interview he expects sales of the Wii to pick up as the company roles high-profile software titles later this month and in July.

"The pacing of our business will be different in 2009 versus 2008 .... Really for us this is all pacing versus any indication that the consumer is somehow changing their minds or their trends."

April's NPD data marked the second straight month in which video game sales fell 17 percent. The sector was thought by analysts to be relatively resilient in the economic downturn.

"While the continued difficult economic environment is a factor to consider, our monthly consumer spending indicator study still shows that video games is the category that consumers tell us they're least likely to cut their spending on in coming months," NPD analyst Anita Frazier said in a statement.

Fils-Aime said people are still willing to spend money on video games, pointing to the performance of its new DSi handheld console as proof.

The DSi, which was released in the United States on April 5, sold roughly 800,000 units in the month, far outpacing Sony's PSP handheld. The DS franchise as a whole sold more than a million units in the month, NPD said.

Nintendo also had the top-four best-selling software titles in the month, lead by "Wii Fit," which sold 471,000 units. "Pokemon Platinum" for the DS was No. 2, followed by "Mario Kart" and "Wii Play."

(Reporting by Gabriel Madway; Editing by Richard Chang)

News : Astronauts install high-tech camera on Hubble

By Chris Baltimore

HOUSTON (Reuters) - A pair of spacewalking astronauts on Thursday outfitted the Hubble Space Telescope with a new camera that will allow astronomers to turn their gaze closer to the birth of the universe.

Clad in bulky pressurized spacesuits, five-time shuttle flier John Grunsfeld, 50, and rookie partner Andrew Feustel, 43, floated outside the shuttle Atlantis for a spacewalk that lasted over 7 hours.

The 11-day mission is the U.S. space agency's last chance to service the telescope - which has vastly expanded scientists' knowledge of the universe - before NASA ends the shuttle program in 2010. It is NASA's fifth and final servicing call to Hubble, which was put into space in 1990.

NASA hopes the improvements will keep Hubble operational until at least 2014 so it can work in tandem with its projected replacement, the James Webb Space Telescope.

Tethered to the shuttle's robotic arm, Feustel struggled with a bolt on the old camera for more than an hour, finally using a wrench and old-fashioned elbow grease to pry it loose.

"It's been in there for 16 years -- and it didn't want to come out," Grunsfeld said.

Installing the new wide field camera was among NASA's highest priorities, and will allow Hubble to capture images of objects formed as early as 500 million years after the birth of the universe.

Grunsfeld and Feustel also replaced a key computer that processes and formats information collected by Hubble's science instruments but which shut down last September.

The astronauts will perform five spacewalks to repair the bus-sized observatory and install new instruments that will allow Hubble to send back upgraded versions of its spectacular images of distant galaxies and cosmic anomalies.

Astronomers could see the first of the images from Hubble's upgraded capacity in September.

The new camera replaces a 1990s-era digital camera with an upgraded imager that is sensitive to infrared and ultraviolet light in addition to the wavelengths the human eye can detect.

The infrared detectors are particularly important for imaging very distant objects, whose light comes to Earth shifted into longer, redder wavelengths.

Taking a long, deep look for the most distant objects detectable tops Hubble's to-do list once the observatory is back in service. The oldest targets Hubble has seen date back to 700 million years after the Big Bang, the explosion that created the universe about 13.7 billion years ago.

(Additional reporting by Irene Klotz, editing by Alan Elsner)

News : Hackers launch phishing attack on Facebook users

By Jim Finkle

BOSTON (Reuters) - Hackers launched an attack on Facebook's 200 million users on Thursday, successfully gathering passwords from some of them in the latest campaign to prey on members of the popular social networking site.

Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt said on Thursday that the site was in the process of cleaning up damage from the attack.

He said that Facebook was blocking compromised accounts.

Schnitt declined to say how many accounts had been compromised.

The hackers got passwords through what is known as a phishing attack, breaking into accounts of some Facebook members, then sending e-mails to friends and urging them to click on links to fake websites.

Those sites were designed to look like the Facebook home page. The victims were directed to log back in to the site, but actually logged into the one controlled by the hackers, unwittingly giving away their passwords.

The purpose of such attacks is generally identify theft and to spread spam.

The fake domains include www.151.im, www.121.im and www.123.im. Facebook has deleted all references to those domains.

Schnitt said that Facebook's security team believes the hackers intended to collect a large number of credentials, then use those accounts at a later time to send spam hawking fake pharmaceuticals and other goods to Facebook members.

The site fought off a similar attack two weeks ago, he said.

Privately held Facebook and rival social network MySpace, which is owned by News Corp, require senders of messages within the network to be members and hide user data from people who do not have accounts. Because of that, users tend to be far less suspicious of messages they receive.

Hackers used a phishing attack last year to spread a malicious virus known as Koobface (a reference to Facebook). It was downloaded onto Facebook members' PCs when they clicked on a link sent to them in an email that looked like it had been sent by a friend on Facebook.

(Reporting by Jim Finkle; Editing by Toni Reinhold)

News : Briton gets "best job in the world"

British charity fundraiser Ben Southall wins the "best job in world" as the new caretaker of an Australian tropical island .

Puja Bharwani reports.

News : RIM chief bids for NHL's Coyotes

By Alexei Oreskovic and Phil Wahba

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Jim Balsillie, the co-chief executive of Canadian smartphone maker Research in Motion, is trying to import a professional hockey team to Canada for the third time in a move that looks likely to put him on a collision course with the National Hockey League.

Balsillie made a $212.5 million offer to buy the National Hockey League's Phoenix Coyotes on Tuesday, following the team's unexpected bankruptcy filing, which was announced by the team's owner.

The offer is conditional on the team relocating to Southern Ontario, according to a statement by Balsillie.

But the NHL appeared to be taken by surprise by the Coyotes filing, and has moved to block its owner from acting on behalf of the team.

"We have just become aware of today's Bankruptcy Court filing purportedly made on behalf of the Phoenix Coyotes. We are investigating the circumstances surrounding the petition, including the propriety of its filing," said National Hockey League Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly in a statement posted on the league's web site.

The league has suspended the Coyotes' owner, Jerry Moyes, barring him from having any authority over the club or acting on its behalf.

Balsillie's offer consists of $80 million to investment fund SOF Investments, $35 million to the NHL, and $97.5 million to unsecured creditors.

Balsillie also agreed to post "debtor-in-possession" bankruptcy financing of $17 million. DIP funding allows a bankrupt company to continue operating while it reorganizes.

In the statement, Balsillie said the current team ownership asked he "table" an offer to buy the Coyotes, and that significant discussions resulted in an offer that is in the best interests of the franchise, the National Hockey League, and Canadian hockey fans.

Balsillie is co-CEO of Waterloo, Ontario-based Research in Motion Limited, which makes the popular BlackBerry smartphone, a rival to the Apple Inc iPhone.

The Phoenix Coyotes filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in federal bankruptcy court in Arizona on Tuesday, according to a separate statement from the team's owner Dewey Ranch Hockey.

The bankruptcy filing included a proposed sale of the franchise to Balsillie's PSE Sports & Entertainment, the team said.

The deal is subject to approval by the bankruptcy court, which is expected to hold a hearing within several days to establish a sales procedure that could attract higher bids, according to a statement by Coyotes Hockey.

Overbids must exceed the Balsillie bid by $5 million and be fully funded at closing without a financial contingency, according to the deal's terms.

"The process assures that the identities of the new owner and the team's location will be known by June 30, thus enabling the NHL to include the team in its 2009-10 schedule," the Coyotes' statement said.

Last year, Balsillie failed in a bid to buy the struggling Nashville Predators and move them to Hamilton, Ontario, a city of about 500,000 between Toronto and Buffalo, N.Y., which would have put it in direct market competition for viewers with those cities' teams, the Maple Leafs and the Sabres.

Previously, Balsillie tried to acquire the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Another city that has been mentioned in some reports as a candidate is RIM's hometown of Waterloo, about 70 miles west of Toronto.

The Coyotes finished third to last in the NHL's Western division in the 2008-2009 season with 79 points.

Hockey legend, Wayne Gretzky, who became the Coyotes' coach in 2005, is the highest scorer in NHL history and part owner of the Coyotes.

A spokesman for Balsillie declined to say which Canadian city Balsillie had in mind as the potential new home for the Coyotes.

"Mr. Balsillie feels that Southern Ontario has a great hockey tradition and is an underserved market. They are hockey mad people," said spokesman Bill Walker.

(Editing by Bernard Orr and Anshuman Daga)

News : FTC looks at Google-Apple board ties

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has launched an inquiry into whether the ties between the boards of Apple Inc and Google Inc violate antitrust laws, the New York Times reported on Monday.

The FTC has already notified the companies of the inquiry the report said, citing people briefed on the matter.

Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt and former Genentech CEO Arthur Levinson are directors of both companies. Under federal antitrust law, a person is not allowed to sit on the board of two companies if it decreases competition between them.

Both Apple and Google declined to comment.

The two companies compete directly or indirectly in a number of areas, the most obvious being the fast-growing smartphone market.

Apple's iPhone has been a huge hit for the company and is key to its future growth prospects. Google's Android operating system is used on T-Mobile's G1 smartphone.

In addition, the companies are both major rivals of software giant Microsoft Corp.

Separately, the U.S. Justice Department is also making inquiries about a class action settlement that Google reached giving it the right to digitize and sell entire libraries, according to experts on digitization.

Last week, U.S. President Barack Obama appointed Schmidt to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, a 20-member group that will help formulate policy on areas where understanding of science and technology is important.

(Reporting by Gabriel Madway and Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Richard Chang)

News : Officials, Craigslist meet to discuss illegal ads

By Edith Honan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lawyers for Craigslist met with several state lawyers Tuesday to discuss blocking the social networking site's "erotic services" ads, which have been linked to recent high-profile murders.

The meeting, held in New York, included the attorneys general for Connecticut, Illinois and Missouri.

State officials have called for changes to the 14-year-old online bazaar that generates more than 20 billion page views per month in 50 countries with a staff of just 28 people.

The popular networking site, where users post ads for jobs, used furniture and dating, has come under fire following the murder last month of a 26-year-old masseuse who advertised services on Craigslist in Boston.

Philip Markoff, a 23-year-old Boston University medical student, has been charged with murdering the masseuse. Markoff, who has been dubbed the "Craigslist killer," was also charged with assaulting and robbing a woman in Rhode Island.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who attended the meeting, called on Craigslist to shut down its "erotic services" section, which she said includes prostitution ads, and to improve its ability to track illegal content.

"The erotic services section of Craigslist is nothing more than an Internet brothel," Madigan told Reuters. "Hopefully they will recognize the problem, and they claim to."

In a statement, Craigslist chief executive Jim Buckmaster said he was optimistic that the issues could be addressed "while preserving the beneficial aspects of Craigslist ... without compromising the quintessentially American values of free speech embodied in our Constitution."

The company, which is partially owned by online auctioneer eBay, has started requiring credit card and phone number verification for certain ads. As a result, the number of "erotic" ads has fallen, according to Craigslist officials and the attorneys general.

But in Chicago, Madigan said, about 400 to 500 ads for prostitution are still posted every day.

"It's got to change, and whether they find a way to do that voluntarily, great. If they don't, I believe you're going to see a whole series of lawsuits against them," she said.

In March, New York reporter George Weber was stabbed to death after meeting his accused killer through a Craigslist personal ad. Michael Anderson of Minnesota was convicted of killing a woman who responded to a babysitting ad placed on the website.

(Editing by Michelle Nichols)

News : "Swinefighter" video game a Web hit

As the world worries about an imminent pandemic, a video game that capitalizes on the lighter side of swine flu is gaining momentum online.

In "Swinefighter", you must save the world - and yourself - from "killer pigs."

And while the point is entertainment, the website also offers recommendations from the U.S. Center of Disease Control on how to avoid contracting the flu.

All natural sound, no reporter narration. Swinefighter courtesy Heyzap.com

News : Bigger Kindle e-reader may not be a newspaper fix

By Alexandria Sage

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc's Kindle electronic reader was supposed to revolutionize publishing by freeing people from having to carry books around. Now the Web retailer may super-size it for newspaper readers.

Amazon plans to launch this week a bigger version of its Kindle, which may also house textbooks, analysts and media report. The New York Times said the new device could be unveiled on Wednesday and its parent would be involved.

But a larger-format e-reader may not be a quick fix for a struggling newspaper business devastated by crumbling ad revenue and declining readership. Nor would it guarantee a big boost to Amazon's bottom line anytime soon, analysts say.

Questions about whether such a device will host ads and how Amazon shares revenue, also pose key concerns, they say.

But a larger-format device could at least ease Amazon's entry into digital text books, which some have said represents the best guarantee of a steady revenue stream.

On Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the upcoming Kindle will be doled out to students at six colleges -- including Princeton -- starting in the fall.

It will also feature a more fully functional Web browser, the Journal cited people briefed on the matter as saying.

Spokesmen for Amazon and the Times declined to comment.

Amazon has credited the Kindle with helping prop up sales and its bottom line -- although it has never disclosed that data nor the device's profitability. The company's shares are up nearly 60 percent this year, far outpacing the Nasdaq.

Amazon and Sony Corp are the only two major manufacturers of e-readers, but a host of companies from Polymer Vision in the Netherlands to Plastic Logic in the United States are working on devices geared to newspapers and other formats in which a larger screen is a benefit.

Pearson Plc's Financial Times and Gannett Co Inc are working with Mountain View, California-based Plastic Logic on a newspaper-oriented reading device expected to launch early next year.

MURDOCH ALSO IN

News Corp Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch said in April his company, which owns The Wall Street Journal, New York Post, Times of London and many other papers, is also investing in a reading device with a larger screen for newspapers.

Analysts wonder if the device may usher in a new model for newspapers struggling to slash costs and stay afloat.

The recently-launched Kindle 2, the updated version of the original Kindle that made its debut in 2007, already allows users to read newspapers and magazines, as well as books and blogs.

"What we're anticipating is that Amazon will release a device with a bigger screen also," said Forrester Research analyst Sarah Rotman Epps. "But just because it has a bigger screen doesn't mean it will be a revolutionary model for newspapers."

"Just because it has a bigger screen does not mean they will primarily be used for newspapers and magazine readers overnight," said Epps, adding that book readers, rather than newspaper fans, drive e-reader sales.

And if the device costs more than the $359 Kindle, consumers might balk at paying more than they would for a netbook, said Sanford Bernstein analyst Jeffrey Lindsay.

"Should I pay $359 or more for it without half the functionality (of a netbook)? It's a real dilemma," he said.

While the Kindle has its fans, others believe the paper- book sized gadget is hard to navigate, Lindsay said.

"Clearly if news is an important mechanism for this ... they're going to want a bigger format," he said. "Probably the 7-inch device is too small for convenient navigation."

But consumers, whose love of hand-held gadgets has spurred the success of the Blackberry from Research in Motion Ltd and Apple Inc's iPod and iPhone, might not know what to do with a device the size of a small newspaper.

"Where would it fit into your bag?" Lindsay asked.

Analysts will look to see how Amazon jump-starts new-media business models for newspapers, which face an uncertain future as the ad revenue that once sustained them drifts online.

"They don't have as much control as they'd like to," Epps said of newspaper and magazine publishers. "Amazon is keeping the majority of the revenue and publishers can't sell ads through the Kindle.

"The only question is whether this larger device will also support an ad model. If it does, then it becomes a more appealing distribution model for publishers."

If it does not, any uptick would be modest, Epps added.

Academia might be a good fit, because it could replace heavy, expensive textbooks, Epps said. If Amazon could align with text book publishers and drop the price of books delivered digitally, it "very quickly justifies the cost of the device," she said.

In February, Scott Devitt, then an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus, told Reuters he considered the text book market "an eye-opening opportunity."

(Additional reporting by Robert MacMillan; Editing by Edwin Chan and Andre Grenon)