EU and U.S. make deal in WTO Internet gambling dispute
The deal is the result of a case that claims U.S. online gambling legislation violate international laws.

EU to press Google on DoubleClick deal
While U.S. officials said they would look at the deal's economic impact, EU officials said they would focus on privacy.

Sports groups clash with media over pictures
As news organizations scramble to champion their rights to cover games and publish photographs, a coalition of 37 sports is seeking to protect its intellectual property rights in a fast- changing digital world.

Faster chips are leaving programmers in their dust
Newer computer chips with multiple processors require dauntingly complex software and programmers are having a hard time keeping up.

South Korean election rallies have given way to Internet campaigning
Rivals in the presidential election now hunt voters by satellite, blogs and mobile phones in a population where almost all adults carry a phone and have easy access to high-speed Internet.

Facebook, the place people go to meet other Scrabble players
Scrabulous, a Scrabble-like application which lets Facebook members play one another online, has been experiencing booming popularity.
- On Facebook, scholars link up with data

Travel guidebooks expand online presence
Outpaced by Web sites with user-generated content and recommendations, travel publications like Lonely P***t and Rough Guides are extending their brands to catch up.

Ringtone market comes to the end of its crescendo
Ringtone companies like Jamba and Musiwave are refocusing their businesses.

Portugal seeks new image as 'West Coast of Europe'
For the Portuguese, being brushed off, overlooked or misunderstood by larger European countries is an all-too-common occurrence. Now they are trying to do something about it.

Mickey Mouse to chase the Energizer Bunny
Walt Disney's cartoon icons, led by the main mascot himself, will beat the drum for Rayovac batteries as part of a wide-ranging deal between Spectrum Brands.

Too few Wiis means lost sales for Nintendo
The Kyoto-based company is giving up $1 billion or more by not meeting demand for its wildly popular video game console for the second consecutive holiday season.

Briefing: Text messages revenue to grow 16% in 2008
The number of mobile text messages is forecast to rise about 20 percent in major markets next year, the researcher Gartner said Monday.

The number of mobile text messages is forecast to rise about 20 percent in major markets next year and generate 16 percent more revenue globally over all as the service gains popularity in North America, Gartner, a research firm, said Monday.

Phone users will send 2.3 trillion mobile messages next year, up from 1.9 trillion in 2007, Gartner said. Sales from short message services will rise to $60.2 billion in 2008 from $52 billion this year.

"Although mobile messaging traffic volumes will continue to show strong growth in many markets, operator margins on messaging services have become progressively thinner as a result of competition and market saturation," Gartner said.

EUROPEAN UNION antitrust regulators approved AT&T's acquisition of information technology services from International Business Machines. IBM will outsource the delivery and management of much of its global telecommunications services to AT&T.

SWISSCOM, the largest Swiss phone company, was ordered to trim fees it charges two rivals for access to its network retroactively by as much as 20 percent. Verizon Communications and Colt Telecom's Swiss units may demand refunds of excess payments levied by Swisscom from 2004 to 2006, U.S. regulators said.

Mobile TeleSystems, the largest Russian mobile phone company, said it had acquired a BashCell, a mobile phone operator in the country's oil-rich province of Bashkortostan, as it seeks to increase its share in the domestic market.

NBC said that its two late-night stars, Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien, would return to the air on Jan. 2 even if the strike against networks and studios by entertainment writers is not resolved by then.

The Associated Press said it would sell its French language service to a group led by a former Agence France-Presse executive with the financial backing of the French investment group Bolloré. The AP said late Friday that it wanted to focus its business in France on producing text in English, as well as on pictures and television.