Hackers staged a surprise attack on the online role-playing game World of Warcraft and "killed" some virtual characters, the company operating the game said Monday.

"Earlier today, certain realms were affected by an in-game exploit, resulting in the deaths of player characters and non-player characters in some of the major cities," said a blog post by site manager "Nethaera" on Warcraft, which is owned by Blizzard Entertainment.

American companies should avoid doing business with China's two leading technology firms because they pose a national security threat to the United States, the House Intelligence Committee is warning in a report to be issued Monday.

The panel says U.S. regulators should block mergers and acquisitions in this country by Huawei Technologies Ltd. and ZTE Corp, among the world's leading suppliers of telecommunications gear and mobile phones.

YouTube is taking its original programming venture to Europe, announcing a slew of new partnerships aimed at internationalizing its array of tailor-made videos with content from Britain's BBC, London-based FreemantleMedia, Netherland's Endemol, and dozens of others.

The Google Inc.-owned video site said Monday it is launching more than 60 new video channels with content from Britain, Germany, France, and the United States. The new programming will be in addition to the 100 channels of content launched in the United States last year.

As investors agonize over Facebook's future, the online social network used by a seventh of the world's population isn't forgetting the importance of play.

Nearly a quarter of Facebook members play online and developers of game applications are keenly tuned into the trend of using smartphones or tablets to connect to the social network.

Singapore's state-linked labour movement on Monday sacked a senior executive after she posted expletive-laden and racially charged comments on Facebook that caused outrage in the city-state.

Amy Cheong, an ethnic Chinese assistant director of membership at the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), was sacked one day after posting remarks on the social networking site about the country's Malay minority.

For people fed up with politics on their social Web feeds as the U.S. election race hots up -- online and elsewhere -- in its final few weeks, help is on the way.

A browser extension called "no politics please" at http://www.noppl.com/ is designed to work to filter out unwanted content on Facebook, says creator Kevin Faul.

Google and major book publishers have settled a lengthy legal battle over digital copyrights, but a bigger dispute still looms with thousands of authors who allege that Google is illegally profiting from their works.

The truce announced Thursday ends a federal lawsuit filed in 2005 by several members of the Association of American Publishers after Google Inc. began stockpiling its Internet search index with digital duplicates of books scanned from libraries.

Samsung Electronics Co. forecast another record quarterly operating profit, likely driven by strong sales of high-end smartphones that offset weak semiconductor orders.

The guidance for Samsung's third quarter earnings showed it was on track to report a record-high profit for a fourth straight quarter, despite legal tussles with Apple Inc. that resulted in a $1 billion compensation judgment in August.

A vest developed in Massachusetts Institute of Technology lets Facebook users hug one another no matter how far apart they are.

A Like-A-Hug vest on display Friday at the website of designer Melissa Kit Chow was touted as "wearable social media" that inflates to embrace wearers whenever Facebook friends "Like" items they post at the social network.

Lending support to two companies struggling to make a comeback in smartphones,AT&T Inc. said Thursday it will be selling Nokia smartphones that run Windows Phone 8, Microsoft's upcoming software release.

The phones are a critical part of Nokia Corp.'s attempt to stem its rapid decline from the position as the world's largest maker of phones. The Finnish company's presence in the U.S. market has been very small in recent years, but AT&T and T-Mobile have been selling Nokia's earlier Windows Phones.