Russia on Thursday threatened to block Facebook for allegedly publishing ads for illegal designer drugs on its website.

The state media watchdog said it had added Facebook to a blacklist and that the social network would be blocked within three days if the violations were not resolved.

Outgoing Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said Thursday his biggest regret is missing the boat on smartphones -- but he said the software giant should not admit defeat just yet.

"I regret that there was a period in the early 2000s when we were so focused on what we had to do around Windows that we weren't able to redeploy talent to the new device called the phone," Ballmer said in a conference with analysts.

Hiroshi Yamauchi, credited with transforming Nintendo from a family-owned Japanese business into a global byword for video games, died Thursday from pneumonia. He was 85.

Yamauchi was just 22 when he took over the family business from his ailing grandfather and he went on to head the firm for over half a century.

The music and movie industries are sounding the alarm again on online piracy, saying illegal downloads are on the rise and search engines like Google aren't doing enough to stop them.

Entertainment executives say they have no intention of trying to revive failed U.S. legislation that would have imposed unprecedented regulations on Internet companies. That proposal last year prompted a fierce backlash from tech companies and activists who said it would damage the Internet as a free and open enterprise.

Gamers gathered Thursday for the start of the Tokyo Game Show, an annual extravaganza that this year will give punters their first real taste of the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One.

Developers from more than 350 companies in 33 countries were vying to showcase their latest offerings, with special areas in the vast Makuhari Messe convention center set aside for romance simulation games, cloud gaming and the booming smartphone and tablet game sector.

Several hundred employees of the online retail giant Amazon went on strike in Germany on Thursday in a planned three-day walkout over pay, unions said.

Between 300 and 400 employees on the morning shift halted work at two logistics centers in Bad Hersfeld in the west of Germany, said Mechthild Middeke, a representative of the giant service-sector union Verdi at Amazon.

Struggling smartphone maker BlackBerry has unveiled its new Z30, touting it as the company's biggest, fastest and most advanced smartphone.

The all-touch smartphone comes with a 5-inch display and BlackBerry's largest battery so far. BlackBerry says it's designed for people looking for a smartphone geared toward communications, messaging and productivity.

With consumers eagerly awaiting the release of two new iPhones this week, the more dramatic change may be in the software, not the hardware.

The new mobile operating system called iOS 7 became available Wednesday, providing users of iPhones and iPads a bolder look, which may be a shock for some, but which Apple hopes will keep its fans happy and draw new customers.

LinkedIn has asked a secret court to allow it to disclose the number of U.S. national security orders the company has received under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

On Wednesday, LinkedIn joined four other companies that have similar cases pending before the FISA Court. The other four are Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Facebook.

Yahoo Japan Corp. has developed a voice-activated Internet search that links to a 3D printer, letting users look online for blueprints to deliver solid objects in a few minutes, the company said.

The search engine scours the Internet for information that it can use to print palm-sized renderings of items as diverse as hippopotamuses or fighter jets.