China has closed 42 websites and deleted more than 210,000 posts since mid-March in a crackdown on online "rumors", state media said Thursday, as a major political scandal rocked the country.

The announcement on the official Xinhua news agency came as Chinese authorities ramped up efforts to control online speculation about the purge of a top leader whose wife is suspected in the murder of a British businessman.

Japanese high-tech firm Hitachi Wednesday unveiled an electric motor that does not use "rare earths", aiming to cut costs and reduce dependence on imports of the scarce minerals from China.

The prototype 11 kilowatt motor does not use magnets containing rare earths and is expected to go into commercial production in 2014, the company said.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. previewed its "Disc to Digital" service for converting DVDs into an online library on Wednesday. Based on my experience, I'd give it a six out of 10.

That's the number of discs I was able to convert from a completely unscientific sampling of my personal DVD library.

Poor Instagram users.

First, their beloved photo-sharing application moves from iPhone-only exclusivity to the Android phone masses. A week later, Facebook swallows up the tiny startup behind the app for $1 billion. The purchase sparked worries that Facebook might shutter Instagram or change it for the worse by harvesting their personal information or shoving ads into their carefully curated photo streams.

A week after announcing a painful round of job cuts, Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson unveiled a plan Tuesday that will reorganize the company into three main divisions focused on users, advertisers and technology.

Thompson unveiled the plan at an "all hands" meeting for employees at the company's headquarters in Sunnyvale, California. It will take effect on May 1.

Microsoft is counting down the days until it is through with the Windows XP operating system for personal computers.

The U.S. software titan used a blog post to remind the world that in two years it will no longer support the generations-old operating system that people have clung to despite the releases of successors Vista and Windows 7.

Apple on Tuesday said it is crafting a weapon to vanquish a Flashback virus from Macintosh computers and working to disrupt the command network being used by hackers behind the infections.

In its first public admission that the malicious software is vexing machines powered by the California company's Macintosh software, Apple said it had patched the weakness exploited by the virus and was now out to kill it.

Cellphone companies and the government are trying to make it as difficult to use a stolen cellphone as it is to sell a stolen car.

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer said in a statement late Monday that major cellphone carriers and the Federal Communications Commission have agreed to set up a database of identification numbers that are unique to each phone.

Britain's Home Office confirmed Sunday that its website was attacked after hackers claimed responsibility for shutting it down.

The hackers also claim they attacked the Justice Ministry website and warned of further attacks every Saturday on U.K. government websites.

As a frequent flier and devout Muslim, businessman Abdalhamid Evans always comes up against the same challenge in the air: when to say his prayers.

Muslims are required to pray five times a day at certain hours, but this schedule becomes complicated when crossing various time zones at thousands of meters above sea level.