Reuters - Apple Inc said on Tuesday it was dropping copy protection from songs sold on the Internet and debuted its slimmest 17-inch laptop yet, but with no dramatic products or master pitchman Steve Jobs, the company's final Macworld performance disappointed Wall Street.

AFP - British music sales are booming as young fans increasingly buy songs online rather than illegally downloading them, the country's industry body said Wednesday.

AFP - Google and other major Internet sites apologised on Wednesday after the Chinese government accused them of failing to police links on their web pages that could lead to pornographic material.

AFP - China issued long-awaited third-generation mobile phone licences Wednesday, a move that will pour billions of dollars into new networks as consumers buy video- and Internet-enabled handsets.

AP - Apple Inc. is cutting the price of some songs in its market-leading iTunes online store to as little as 69 cents and plans to make every track available without copy protection.

AFP - China now has more than 50 million bloggers as increasing numbers of people seek an outlet for their views, state press reported.

Reuters - Three Chinese Internet operators have apologized for failing to purge "vulgar" content following a government pledge this week to expose and shut down offending websites.

Reuters - Apple Inc has reached a deal with major record labels to sell digital songs without the copy protection software that had prevented fans from sharing music bought from its iTunes store, the maker of the iPod and iPhone said on Tuesday.