Overall U.S. music album sales dropped slightly in the first six months of the year, but digital album sales are up more than 13 percent over a year ago.

Tracking firm Nielsen SoundScan said Thursday that 57 million digital albums have been sold so far in 2012, compared to 50 million during the same period last year. Digital album sales comprise 38 percent of all album purchases for the first half of the year.

The European Parliament overwhelmingly defeated an international anti-piracy trade agreement Wednesday after concern that it would limit Internet freedom sparked street protests in cities across Europe.

The vote — 39 in favor, 478 against, with 165 abstentions — appeared to deal the death blow to the European Union's participation in a treaty it helped negotiate, though other countries may still participate without the EU.

The warnings about the Internet problem have been splashed across Facebook and Google. Internet service providers have sent notices, and the FBI set up a special website.

But tens of thousands of Americans may still lose their Internet service Monday unless they do a quick check of their computers for malware that could have taken over their machines more than a year ago.

A U.N. commission has set a recommended limit on the amount of melamine allowed in liquid infant formula after a 2008 scandal in China in which six babies died from drinking formula and milk products containing the industrial chemical.

Two years ago, the U.N. food security body known as the Codex Alimentarius Commission set the maximum limit of melamine in powdered infant formula at 1 milligram per kilogram of formula. On Wednesday, the commission said it had adopted a limit for liquid formula at 0.15 milligrams/kilogram.

Elie Saab used Ottoman motifs to give his fall-winter 2012-2013 show an imaginative lift.

The move expanded his strict repertoire of va-va voom column dresses and created a strong offering for this year's couture season.

Roger Federer earned a record 32nd Grand Slam semifinal berth and moved closer to a record-tying seventh Wimbledon title when he beat Mikhail Youzhny 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 Wednesday.

Federer's opponent Friday will be defending champion Novak Djokovic, who beat Florian Mayer 6-4, 6-1, 6-4.

A Spanish judge subpoenaed former IMF managing director Rodrigo Rato on Wednesday over his stewardship of a big Spanish bank that has been nationalized and is due to take a multibillion euro (dollar) bailout.

Rato is one of 33 former members of the board of Bankia SA named in a criminal probe that will be undertaken by Judge Fernando Andreu of the National Court. Anti-corruption prosecutors filed a complaint against Rato accusing him and others of falsifying the bank's accounts when it went public a year ago, among other alleged offenses.

Flash flooding caused by torrential rains has killed eight people, including at least four children in northern Turkey, authorities said Wednesday.

The downpours caused a river to burst its banks late Tuesday, inundating homes and shops and stranding cars in the Black Sea port city of Samsun, the state-run Anadolu agency reported Wednesday.

Olympic shooting gold medalist Russell Mark says the Australian Olympic Committee's decision to ban athletes from using strong sleeping pills in the lead up to the London Games will cost medals.

AOC president John Coates said Tuesday that Australian athletes will be banned from using insomnia treatments in London, after champion swimmer Grant Hackett revealed he became dependent on sleeping pills during his career.

Startled drivers weren't seeing things — it really was a kangaroo hopping down the highway in the U.S. state of Washington.

The meandering marsupial nearly caused a couple of accidents in the weekend and police responded, keeping the kangaroo off the road while its owner tracked it down and caught it with help from friends.