TOKYO (Reuters) - For many Japanese children, a cell phone is a social lifeline they can't imagine being without. For high school student Makoto, it became an instrument of mental torture that nearly drove him to suicide.
BEIJING (Reuters) - China's muzzled press and burgeoning Internet have given citizen reporters an audience and an opportunity -- however fleeting -- to spread news quicker than government censors can control it.
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc faces a federal patent infringement lawsuit by Northeastern University over technology used in its core Web search system, according to legal papers filed last week.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The first Michelin guide ratings for restaurants in Los Angeles and Las Vegas were accidentally posted on its Web site, forcing the guide to announce the honors before an anticipated Monday launch.
HELSINKI (Reuters) - Police in Finland have detained a 16-year-old boy who posted a video called "Maaninka massacre" on the YouTube Web site, days after eight people were killed by a student who had posted a similar video on the Internet.
LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - Bill Maher crossed with "Meet the Press" for the hip-hop culture -- that's the potent formula behind "SpitFire," a new talk show hosted by rap pioneer Kool Mo Dee.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - EMI Group companies sued online music industry executive Michael Robertson for copyright infringement on Friday, some seven years after his former company paid recording firms more than $100 million to settle a similar case.
LONDON (Reuters) - A food-linked word game put on the Internet a month ago has proved a runaway success and has already generated enough rice to feed 50,000 people, the United Nations World Food Programme said on Friday.
FRANKFURT/LONDON (Reuters) - Apple fans queued through the night in Germany and Britain to be among the first in Europe to buy an iPhone, the must-have gadget that is set to shake up the mobile industry.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sprint Nextel Corp, the No. 3 U.S. mobile service, said on Friday it had ended its WiMax partnership with Clearwire Corp and was reviewing its plans for the next-generation wireless technology.
