SANTA MONICA, Calif. Think of the most popular brands in celebrity news, and you'll probably come up with a small list that includes Entertainment Tonight, US Weekly and People.

LONDON Telecoms company BT Group PLC is offering staff a year off work in return for a 75 percent cut in that year's pay.

INDIANAPOLIS The Saturday Evening Post, a centuries-old publication that helped make illustrator Norman Rockwell a household name and showcased some of America's greatest writers, is returning to its roots to show readers the value of a quiet read in an increasingly frenetic digital age.

WASHINGTON The Obama administration is moving cautiously on a new pilot program that would both detect and stop cyber attacks against government computers, while trying to ensure citizen privacy protections.

NEW YORK The Associated Press is digitizing and has begun to release a "treasure trove" of historical film footage from the 1960s and '70s that had been sitting in Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower's former World War II headquarters in London.

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. Prosecutors have added a child endangerment charge against a Long Island, N.Y., mother accused of posting a suggestive Craigslist ad to target a 9-year-old girl.

Anyone who takes underwater photos knows how challenging it is to navigate in the water while holding a camera. Another obstacle can be trying to see through the camera's viewfinder or LCD screen while wearing an underwater mask.

NEW YORK In a big break for online shoppers, Web retailers generally don't have to charge sales taxes in states where they lack a store or some other physical presence.

NEW YORK The government is helping two dozen TV stations that became difficult to receive by antenna when they switched to new frequencies as part of the digital TV transition, the Federal Communications Commission said Thursday.

NEW ORLEANS A technology expert said Wednesday that potentially years' worth of Mayor Ray Nagin's e-mails have been deleted.

BEIJING Several PC makers were including controversial Internet-filtering software with computers shipped in China on Thursday despite a government decision to postpone its plan to make such a step mandatory.

Companies that track consumer behavior online for advertising purposes are vowing to make their practices more transparent and to give people a way to decline being shadowed.

Struggling online video startup Joost, begun with much fanfare in 2007 by the same people behind Skype and Kazaa, is restructuring its business after discovering that it can't survive on advertising to fund its operations.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. Google has quietly dropped a feature that allowed people mentioned in news stories to comment on the articles.

NEW YORK Facebook is overhauling its privacy controls over the next several weeks in an attempt to simplify its users' ability to control who sees the information they share on the site.

The world's largest commercial satellite was launched into space Wednesday, with a mission to provide phone service to cellular "dead zones" in North America.

WATTSBURG, Pa. Vice President Joe Biden outlined a $4.7 billion loan and grant program Wednesday to develop the infrastructure needed to deliver broadband, or high-speed, Internet access to areas that are underserved or without access.

WASHINGTON Metro is relaunching a service that allows riders to know when the next Metrobus will arrive at their stop.

ERIE, Pa. Vice President Joe Biden is scheduled to be in northwestern Pennsylvania to discuss ways federal stimulus funding can be used to expand broadband access to the Internet for rural areas that aren't served by faster connections.

SAN FRANCISCO Sometimes Twitter can make newcomers feel like twits because the online messaging service isn't as simple as it sounds.

NEW YORK If shopping for household essentials like toilet paper and soap isn't your favorite activity, a new Web site might eliminate the task - while saving you cash.

HONOLULU Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle announced that she plans to veto a gas tax increase and an Internet sales tax, which had prompted Amazon.com cut ties with island Web sites.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. With the completion of its purchase of Embarq Corp. Wednesday, CenturyTel Inc. becomes one of the largest traditional telephone companies in the country.

NEW YORK Cassy Hayes and Jasmine Coleman were among the first fans to arrive outside the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles where Michael Jackson was brought and later pronounced dead.

AMSTERDAM The life work of Rembrandt - all 317 known paintings, 285 etchings and more than 100 drawings - go on display next week in full-sized digital reproductions that attempt to recreate the works as they emerged from the artist's studio rather than as they exist today.

WASHINGTON President Barack Obama is dispatching top administration officials and Cabinet members on a "rural tour" this summer to explore ways to strengthen rural America.

TOKYO When the Sony Walkman went on sale 30 years ago, it was shown off by a skateboarder to illustrate how the portable cassette-tape player delivered music on-the-go - a totally innovative idea back in 1979.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. Specialty glass maker Corning Inc. said Tuesday it is getting a big lift from rising sales of flat-screen televisions, most notably in China.

BUFFALO, N.Y. Internet giant Yahoo Inc. plans to open a data center in western New York.

PITTSBURGH A San Francisco man who allegedly had 1.8 million stolen bank and credit card numbers on computers at his California apartment has pleaded guilty to wire fraud for his role in an online clearinghouse where identity thieves could share stolen information.

AUSTIN, Texas Texas linebacker Sergio Kindle was treated for a concussion after crashing his car into an Austin apartment building last week while he was either sending or receiving a text message, his attorney said Monday.

LOS ANGELES Two weeks before he died, Michael Jackson wrapped up work on an elaborate production dubbed the "Dome Project" that could be the final finished video piece overseen by the King of Pop, The Associated Press has learned.

BEIJING Beijing's retreat on its latest Internet-censorship effort highlights the rise of China's increasingly tech-savvy, vocal public as a factor in the authoritarian government's decisions.

NEW YORK As bad as the technology market fared in the first quarter of this year, the worst may be over, at least in the United States, Forrester Research said in a report Tuesday.

SAN JOSE, Calif. Minutes after any big celebrity dies, Internet swindlers get to work. They pump out specially created spam e-mails and throw up malicious Web sites to infect victims' computers, hoping to capitalize on the sudden high demand for information.

NEW YORK A multinational group of researchers, scientists and engineers are close to winning a $1 million challenge to improve Netflix Inc.'s system of recommending movies that its subscribers might like.

RICHMOND, Va. Some doctors are holding off prescribing painkillers after a hacker accessed more than 35.5 million of Virginia's most sensitive prescription drug records two months ago, a state official told a legislative panel Monday.

NEW YORK David Ebersman, a former executive at biotech firm Genentech, was named Monday as Facebook's chief financial officer.

NEW YORK A multinational group of researchers, scientists and engineers are close to winning a $1 million challenge to improve Netflix Inc.'s system of recommending movies that its subscribers might like.

PHILADELPHIA Comcast Corp. will become the first major cable TV operator to roll out wireless broadband outside of Wi-Fi hotspots as it launches the service in Portland, Ore., on Tuesday, with at least three other cities to follow this year.

SAN DIEGO The San Diego Padres are following the New York Yankees onto the Internet with live local-market video broadcasts.

SEATTLE Apple Inc. co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs is back at his office a few days a week after taking a 5 1/2-month medical leave and getting a new liver.

PHILADELPHIA Cable TV operators won a key legal battle against Hollywood studios and television networks on Monday as the Supreme Court declined to block a new digital video recording system that could make it even easier for viewers to bypass commercials.

TOKYO Toyota Motor Corp. says it has developed a way of steering a wheelchair by just detecting brain waves, without the person having to move a muscle or shout a command.

BRUSSELS No more asking around the office for the right sort of charger. At least that's what European Union and cell phone makers are hoping.

LONDON Inside the studios of BBC Persian television, dozens of journalists have been working around the clock at their computers and telephones, trying to report the news to Iran - or, according to the government in Tehran, stirring up trouble.

LOS ANGELES Hackers have broadcast bogus information about celebrities including Britney Spears and Ellen DeGeneres after breaking into their Twitpic accounts.

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif The Department of Justice wants more information about Oracle Corp.'s planned takeover of computer server maker Sun Microsystems Inc., extending the agency's review of the $7.4 billion deal.

FRESNO, Calif. A former criminal law student has been sentenced to life in a California prison for killing one man and wounding two others in a dispute over a Sony PlayStation console.

NEW YORK Scott Painter makes his living betting on startup companies, having played a role in launching 29 of them over the years. But with the bad economy choking initial public offerings and acquisitions, Painter is now backing an idea that makes it easier for insiders like him to sell shares in their companies even before they go public.