SAN FRANCISCO Google's $12.5 billion acquisition of cellphone maker Motorola Mobility have won approvals from U.S. and European antitrust regulators, moving Google a major step closer to completing the biggest deal in its 13-year history.

NEW YORK Apple's stock broke above $500 for the first time Monday. It was the latest step in a rally that began more than two weeks ago, when the company reported staggering sales and profits for the holiday quarter.

TEHRAN, Iran A senior Iranian military official said Monday that Tehran's nuclear and other industrial facilities suffer periodic cyber attacks, but that the country has the technology to protect itself from the threat, an official news agency reported.

TEHRAN, Iran Many Iranian web users say their access to foreign email services such as Gmail, Yahoo mail and Hotmail appears to have been restored after a four day outage.

BAGHDAD Iraq's capital is embracing Valentine's Day this year with a huge public display of affection in what its residents say is the nation's most amorous celebration of the holiday ever.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia Malaysia's government on Monday defended its decision to deport a young Saudi journalist who may face persecution at home for allegedly insulting the Prophet Muhammad on Twitter.

WASHINGTON Piece by piece, in backpacks and carry-on bags, American aid contractor Alan Gross made sure laptops, smartphones, hard drives and networking equipment were secreted into Cuba. The most sensitive item, according to official trip reports, was the last one: a specialized mobile phone chip that experts say is often used by the Pentagon and the CIA to make satellite signals virtually impossible to track.

BEIJING Authorities have seized Apple iPads from retailers in a city in northern China due to a dispute with a domestic company that says it owns the iPad name, an official said Monday. The Chinese company said it is asking for similar action in more than 20 other cities.

NEW YORK Mike Trang likes to use his iPhone 4 as a GPS device, helping him get around in his job. Now and then, his younger cousins get ahold of it, and play some YouTube videos and games.

SAN FRANCISCO Netflix pressed the rewind button on its fourth-quarter earnings after settling allegations that the video subscription service violated a consumer-privacy law.

NEW YORK Within just over a week, Netflix and Hulu are both debuting their first stabs at original scripted programming.

SAO PAULO A request for an injunction to stop Twitter users from alerting drivers to police roadblocks, radar traps and drunk-driving checkpoints could make Brazil the first country to take Twitter up on its plan to censor content at governments' requests.

Power on the go is something we all need since it's difficult to keep most of our portable electronic gadgets running from dawn to dusk.

In game six of the 2004 American League Championship Series, Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling beat the New York Yankees despite playing on an injured ankle - one that bled so badly that Schilling's victory became known as the "bloody sock" game. It's the stuff of baseball legend.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. Intel Corp. is paying $6.5 million as part of a deal to terminate an antitrust lawsuit filed against the chip-maker by the New York attorney general's office.

WASHINGTON FBI background interviews of some people who knew Apple co-founder Steve Jobs reveal a man driven by power and alienating some of the people who worked with him.

SAN FRANCISCO LinkedIn provided further evidence of online networking's popularity and moneymaking potential with a fourth-quarter performance that got a glowing review on Wall Street.

NEW YORK A news report says Apple plans to unveil a new iPad early next month.

PITTSBURGH Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra officials insist it's not "American Idol" meets Mozart.

NEW YORK Groupon had a lot to prove with its first earnings report as a public company. The nearly 14 percent slide in its stock Thursday suggests investors were not impressed.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. Picture it: Save for a few disposable point-and-shoots, Kodak is exiting the camera business.

NEW YORK Oracle Corp. is escalating its rivalry with German business-software maker SAP AG with a $1.9 billion purchase of Taleo Corp., a company that helps businesses hire and manage their employees.

HONG KONG Lenovo Group Ltd., the world's second biggest personal computer maker, said Thursday that quarterly profit grew by more than half but warned hard drive costs would remain high amid a global shortage.

LOS ANGELES A federal grand jury has indicted a Romanian citizen on charges he hacked into 25 climate-research computers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

NEW YORK Facebook's top executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, are eligible for twice-a-year bonuses of up to 45 percent of their base salaries and other earnings, according to a Wednesday regulatory filing.

SAN FRANCISCO A consumer watchdog group is suing the Federal Trade Commission in an attempt to prevent Google from making sweeping changes to its privacy policies next month.

NEW YORK Cisco, the world's largest maker of computer networking equipment, on Wednesday said that its net income jumped 44 percent in the latest quarter as it continues to put last year's slump behind it.

NEW YORK Social-sharing app Path has come under fire for accessing and uploading users' phone address books without their permission. The information has now been deleted, and Path has apologized.

LOS ANGELES Karaoke lovers typically fall into two categories: Those who enjoy it, and those whose arms have to be twisted to get up and sing in public.

SUNNYVALE, Calif. Technology licensing company Rambus Inc. said Wednesday it has signed a licensing agreement with chip maker Nvidia Corp. to settle a long-running patent dispute.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. Hackers affiliated with the group Anonymous obtained personal information for more than 150 police officers from an old website of the West Virginia Chiefs of Police Association and posted the data online.

NEW YORK Time Warner Inc. got a boost from its movie studio and cable TV networks in the last three months of the year, and the company expects growth to continue in 2012 even with the end of its lucrative Harry Potter franchise.

WASHINGTON For a president who promotes technology at every opportunity, Barack Obama often strikes an awed, self-effacing pose in the presence of technicians, scientists and high tech machinery.

WASHINGTON For a president who promotes technology at every opportunity, Barack Obama often strikes an awed, self-effacing pose in the presence of technicians, scientists and high tech machinery.

LOS ANGELES The Walt Disney Co. said Tuesday that its net income rose 12 percent in the final quarter of 2011, as a slimmer movie slate and upbeat theme park results helped the company top earnings forecasts even while revenue gains were less than expected.

SAN FRANCISCO Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock and three longtime board members are stepping down, submitting to the demands of many frustrated shareholders who blame them for contributing to the follies that have dragged down the Internet company's revenue and stock price.

CAREER OPPORTUNITY: All those apps being made for smartphones, computer tablets and Facebook's online social network are helping the U.S. economy lower its unemployment rate. A study released Tuesday by the technology trade group TechNet estimates apps are responsible for creating about 466,000 U.S. jobs since 2007.

NEW YORK U.S. magazine sales at newsstands and other retailers dropped 10 percent in the second half of 2011, a sign that Americans are still careful about discretionary spending and impulse purchases.

SAN FRANCISCO Business software maker Oracle Corp. has turned down $272 million in court-ordered damages from SAP AG in hopes of leaving a much bigger dent in its rival's pocketbook and reputation during a second trial over allegations of corporate theft.

SAN FRANCISCO Looking for a promising career in a lousy economy? A new study suggests you're apt to find it in apps - the services and tools built to run on smartphones, computer tablets and Facebook's online social network.

BELLEVUE, Wash. Coinstar's fourth-quarter earnings soared past analyst estimates as the company's Redbox kiosks for renting DVDs picked up customers who stopped getting their discs through Netflix's rival service.

A new Internet streaming venture built around Redbox's DVD-rental kiosks adds to a crowded field of online video-viewing services dominated by Netflix.

NEW YORK You thought you found your one true love online, but now you've been dumped by text or defriended on Facebook without a peep of explanation. Hours of bad TV in your bathrobe haven't helped. Your friends are tired of your whining.

WASHINGTON A developing Senate plan that would bolster the government's ability to regulate the computer security of companies that run critical industries is drawing strong opposition from businesses that say it goes too far and security experts who believe it should have even more teeth.

NEW YORK Phone company Verizon Communications Inc. will challenge Netflix and start a video streaming service this year with Redbox and its DVD rental kiosks.

NEW DELHI Google India has removed web pages deemed offensive to Indian political and religious leaders to comply with a court case that has raised censorship fears in the world's largest democracy, media reported Monday.

NEW YORK Facebook's billionaire CEO Mark Zuckerberg calls himself a hacker.

FRANKFURT, Germany Apple Inc. has temporarily blocked Motorola Mobility's attempt to have it withdraw several iPhone and iPad models from its Internet store in Germany, the latest twist in an extended legal duel over patents between the companies.

SAN FRANCISCO Hewlett-Packard Co. ushered in Meg Whitman as its CEO with a $16.5 million compensation package that hinges on the one-time politician's ability to lift the stumbling technology company's stock price during the next two years.

SALT LAKE CITY Saboteurs stole passwords and sensitive information on tipsters while hacking into the websites of several law enforcement agencies worldwide in attacks attributed to the collective known as Anonymous.