keep for now

With worries growing over computer hacking, data theft and the risk of digital attacks destroying essential systems, western states and their allies are co-operating closer than ever on cyber security.

California lawmakers are already drawing up plans for spending revenue generated from wealth tied to selling shares in Facebook, which took its first step toward its highly anticipated initial public offering on Wednesday.

Germany's OHB AG confirmed it won a 250 million euro ($330 million) contract to build eight satellites for the European Union's Galileo navigation system.

Investors jumped on Facebook's regulatory filings on Wednesday for a glimpse into the company's inner workings ahead of one of the hottest initial public offerings in recent history. But there are also potential downsides.

He may have derided Android devices in real life but in the afterlife Apple Inc founder Steve Jobs is glad he can use one -- or at least that's the story a Jobs look-alike tells in a recent TV commercial for a Taiwanese electronics company's new product.

At least a half-dozen major U.S. companies whose computers have been infiltrated by cyber criminals or international spies have not admitted to the incidents despite new guidance from securities regulators urging such disclosures.

As Facebook hurtles toward one of the largest initial public offerings in U.S. history, its honeymoon with investors may already be over.

Facebook aims to connect all two billion Internet users. So far it has captured 845 million of them. Of the rest, nearly 60 percent live in Asia and hooking them is going to be a daunting challenge.

Amazon.com Inc's shares slid 12 percent in early trade on fears that heavy spending would hurt the retailer's profits even as revenue growth falls short of Wall Street expectations.

A potentially deadlier form of the bird flu virus poses one of the gravest known threats to humans and justifies an unprecedented call to censor the research that produced it, a top U.S. biosecurity official said on Tuesday.

The health impact of last year's Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan appears relatively small thanks partly to prompt evacuations, the chairman of a U.N. scientific body investigating the effects of radiation said on Tuesday.

Russia blamed radiation on Tuesday for a computer glitch that doomed its Mars moon mission, but space industry experts cast doubt on the findings of an investigation into the crash of what was to be Moscow's first deep space mission in two decades.

South Korea's LG Electronics Inc, the world's No.2 TV maker, swung to a profit in the fourth quarter as its latest smartphone model helped its ailing handset unit post a small profit after six consecutive quarterly losses.

Apple Inc has hired Dixons Chief Executive John Browett, who revived the British electronics retailer by emphasizing customer service, to lead the iPad maker's global retail expansion.

Facebook is expected to submit paperwork to regulators on Wednesday morning for a $5 billion initial public offering and has selected Morgan Stanley and four other bookrunners to handle the mega-IPO, sources close to the deal told IFR.

Sony Corp named Vice President Kazuo Hirai as president and CEO, replacing Howard Stringer who will step down from day-to-day management in a long-expected change for a company struggling to regain its driving force in consumer electronics.

A review of Research In Motions' leadership structure by a committee of independent directors has concluded that no future chief executive or other employee can be chairperson of the BlackBerry maker.

Logitech's video conferencing unit LifeSize expects new products and a bigger sales team to boost revenue growth starting this quarter, after it reported only a 6 percent rise for October-to-December.

Samsung Electronics lost a bid to overturn a ruling barring its local unit from selling its Galaxy 10.1 tablets in Germany, handing a symbolic legal victory to Apple Inc in efforts to keep its lead spot in the tablet computer market.

Toshiba Corp., Japan's biggest chip maker, booked a 72 percent fall in quarterly operating profit on Tuesday and slashed its annual profit forecast as a strong yen and the Eurozone debt crisis hit profits.

Philips swung to a fourth-quarter net loss as government cuts ate into its healthcare equipment business and a slowdown in European construction activity and consumer spending hit its lighting operations.

Russia plans to delay the next mission carrying U.S. and Russian astronauts to the International Space Station by several weeks due to problems with the spaceship's descent vehicle, Interfax news agency quoted an industry source as saying Friday.

When severe snowstorms prevented life-sustaining fuel supplies from reaching the frozen Alaskan town of Nome, U.S. officials turned to a Russian company for help.

Bird enthusiasts are reporting rising numbers of snowy owls from the Arctic winging into the lower 48 states this winter in a mass southern migration that a leading owl researcher called "unbelievable."

The last of three patents that tech licensing company Rambus (RMBS.O) used to win infringement lawsuits against Nvidia Corp (NVDA.O), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ.N) and others has been declared invalid, according to legal documents.

Apple Inc has never turned a blind eye to the problems in its supply chain and any suggestion it does not care about the plight of workers is patently false, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said in an email to employees.

Research in Motion's Thorsten Heins plans to waste no time in his new job. The BlackBerry maker's chief executive said he will present the board with his plan for company's future in just a matter of weeks.

Roche Holding AG's rivals Sanofi SA and Novartis AG see no need to match the Swiss drug maker in buying a gene-decoding business like Illumina Inc and reckon they can do partnerships instead.

NASA's planet-hunting Kepler space telescope has found 11 new planetary systems, including one with five planets all orbiting closer to their parent star than Mercury circles the Sun, scientists said on Thursday.