ST. PAUL, Minn., 2:17 p.m. Dec. 29 (AP)
A Minnesota agency may not regulate calls through cyberspace as it does calls through traditional phone lines, a federal appeals court ruled.

The Dec. 22 order by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis upholds a lower-court ruling and is a win for fledgling companies like Vonage Holdings Corp. of Edison, N.J., which provides Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP.

NEW YORK, 1:41 p.m. Dec. 27 (AP)
Satellite radio posts subscriber gains: Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. and XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc., the two big players in the emerging satellite radio business, both announced gains in subscribers Monday as 2004 drew to a close.

SAN JOSE, 10:37 a.m. Dec. 24 (AP)
Hackers, spammers and spies want to invade holiday computers: Susan Love's problems began with a smile. The New York City fund-raiser clicked on a happy-face attachment in a friend's e-mail last year. The virus crashed her computer within an hour.

Dec. 27 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Isolation Nation: Despite more convenient alternatives, I often stop on the way home from work at a grocery store that offers computerized, automated self-checkout machines.

WASHINGTON, 3:17 p.m. Dec. 22 (AP)
New system seeks to save crashing airplanes with parachute: Canadian rancher Albert Kolk's small plane banked uncontrollably in darkness over the Monashee mountains, then began spiraling toward earth. "Seat belts!" he barked to his teenage grandson and two young friends. Then he reached for a red lever in the cockpit.

NEW YORK, 1:15 p.m. Dec. 23 (AP)
As more of life gets digitized, questions raised about what happens in death: As more of our personal lives go digital, family members, estate attorneys and online service providers are increasingly grappling with what happens to those information bits when their owners die.

LIVERMORE, Calif., 5:00 a.m. Dec. 22 (REUTERS)
Ultrafast U.S. supercomputer to simulate nuke explosion: Leading nuclear scientists with top security clearances will gather next summer at a screening room east of San Francisco and witness the results of the greatest effort ever in supercomputing.

BRUSSELS, Belgium, 2:06 p.m. Dec. 22 (AP)
Court demands immediate antitrust compliance, which Microsoft restricts to Europe: A European Union court ruled Wednesday that Microsoft Corp. must immediately share some trade secrets with competitors and produce a version of its Windows operating system stripped of a program that plays music and video.

ROCHESTER, N.Y., 1:32 a.m. Dec. 21 (AP)
Americans lured more than ever to look at hot-selling digital cameras: A novelty item just four or five years ago, the digital camera is shaping up as the most popular electronics gift in 2004, according to the Consumer Electronics Association.

NEW YORK, 11:19 a.m. Dec. 21 (AP)
Judge rejects guilty plea in AOL spam case: A federal judge refused to accept a guilty plea Tuesday from a former America Online software engineer accused of stealing 92 million e-mail addresses and selling them to spammers.

LIVERMORE, Calif.,, 5:00 a.m. Dec. 20 (REUTERS)
Scientists seek to forge diamond computer chip: Only a few are singing about them yet, but it could turn out that diamonds are a computer's best friend.

NEW DELHI, 2:09 p.m. Dec. 20 (AP)
eBay executives 'outraged' at arrest of Indian executive in sex video scandal: Executives at eBay Inc. and senior Indian technology officials are expressing alarm over the arrest and jailing of a CEO whose company listed a sex video in an online auction.

DAVENPORT, Iowa, 12:23 p.m. Dec. 18 (AP)
Judge awards Internet service provider $1 billion in anti-spamming lawsuit: A federal judge has awarded an Internet service provider more than $1 billion in what is believed to be the largest judgment ever against spammers.

MUNICH/AMSTERDAM, 8:33 a.m. Dec. 20 (REUTERS)
Mobile phone radiation harms DNA, new study finds: Radio waves from mobile phones harm body cells and damage DNA in laboratory conditions, according to a new study majority-funded by the European Union, researchers said on Monday.

SEATTLE, 9:46 a.m. Dec. 17 (REUTERS)
Is Microsoft's Office becoming more like Windows?: Office, Microsoft Corp.'s collection of programs for business documents and tasks, is fast becoming a software platform unto itself.

NEW YORK, 4:14 a.m. Dec. 17 (REUTERS)
EBay to pay $415 million for Rent.com: Ebay Inc. said on Friday it would buy Rent.com, an Internet housing rental listing service, for $415 million in a deal that gives it access to a new segment of the online real estate market.

CHANDLER, Arizona, 9:42 p.m. Dec. 16 (REUTERS)
Intel eyes Asia, and China, for factory expansion: Intel Corp. plans to expand its manufacturing operations in China, and will strongly consider China and its Asian neighbors for the site of its next multi-billion-dollar factory, an executive said on Thursday.

SAN FRANCISCO, 6:57 p.m. Dec. 16 (REUTERS)
Yahoo unveils animated shorts, sees new ad space: Yahoo Inc. said Thursday that JibJab Media will create two animated short films as the Internet company looks for ways to expand advertising by adding new content.

Dec. 16 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Web access in sky set to take off: The dream of bidding on an eBay auction, sending an e-mail or even making a cell phone call while 30,000 feet in the air came one step closer to reality yesterday.

WASHINGTON, 2:58 p.m. Dec. 16 (AP)
Microsoft may charge extra for new security software: Microsoft Corp. disclosed plans Thursday to offer frustrated users of its Windows software new tools within 30 days to remove spyware programs secretly running on computers. But it might cost extra in coming months.