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But it also lowers the price per share for the maker of the 'Grand Theft Auto' video game series.

Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., publisher of the popular "Grand Theft Auto" video game series, said it wanted more time to consider a $2-billion buyout by larger rival Electronic Arts Inc. and it wanted more money. On Friday, half its wish came true.

Their team repeats an earlier experiment and finds consistent results, but critics say its claims are still questionable.

An Italian team on Wednesday renewed its claim to have discovered evidence for the existence of dark matter, the invisible material that makes up the bulk of the universe.

Cambridge University Library posts about 20,000 items and 90,000 images relating to the naturalist that had been accessible only to scholars.

The first draft of Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" is among a wealth of papers belonging to the intensely private man who changed science that have been published on the Internet for the first time.

The software that advertisers use to track people's behavior online is difficult to block. Advocates are calling for a 'do not track' registry.

For consumers trying to protect their privacy on the Internet, it's a Catch-22.0.

Reassured that the Internet search giant can weather the economic downturn, investors send its shares up 17%.

Google Inc.'s shares today soared by nearly 20%, a day after the company passed the first major test of how its Web search advertising business would perform in an economic downturn.

The sophisticated technology may prove to be a more effective way to check passengers for dangerous materials, officials say. But critics say it's extraordinarily invasive and amounts to a virtual strip search.

Some travelers at Los Angeles International Airport will be searched for weapons and explosives using a new scanner that peers through their clothes and creates an image of the person's body, federal officials announced Thursday.

The FTC is seeking further information on the proposed hostile deal involving the video game publishers.

Federal regulators have escalated their antitrust inquiry into Electronic Arts Inc.'s hostile bid to acquire Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., the video game publishers said Thursday.

Everywhere you turn this year, Apple's machines are on the march. Apple's iPhone is continuing to gobble up the smart phone market. Apple's PCs and notebook computers--long relegated to a niche status--are tearing off big gobs of the PC market. Even Apple's least successful effort--AppleTV--has rivals such as Blockbuster scrambling to blunt Apple's attack.

In the more than a century since 'perfect' platinum-iridium cylinders were first used as the world's kilogram standards, their weights have mysteriously fluctuated. Scientists are rethinking what the measure means.

Forty feet underground, secured in a temperature- and humidity-controlled vault here, lies Kilogram No. 20.

About half of the public facilities now reach out to youths with video game nights. Some return on nongaming nights to read books.

Once a month, the San Fernando Library's librarians trade their reading glasses for video-game controllers and invite children to come crank up the volume.

But some carriers are leery of offering the service on European flights.

For a decade, the French author and comic Phil Marso has been fighting a losing battle against the ubiquity of jangling mobile phones. He even tried to promote a cellphone-free day in February titled "A Day without blah blah."

Bustling overseas business and the weak dollar help boost the bottom line.

Benefiting from a weak dollar, online auction company EBay Inc. beat Wall Street's expectations Wednesday, reporting a 22% hike in first-quarter profit and raising its outlook for the rest of the year.

LATELY, the world is springing a lot of leaks.

The social-networking site uses members' e-mail address books to try to boost its roster.

The name of the game for social-networking websites such as MySpace and Facebook is to draw as many users as possible into the fold. Typically that's done by creating a community and features so irresistible that people feel they just have to join.

The government gets $19.6 billion, but not the nationwide wireless emergency network it had sought.

Despite raising a record $19.6 billion, the government's recent auction of prime airwaves was branded a failure by several lawmakers Tuesday for failing to accomplish its major goal: producing a national wireless network that would allow police and firefighters to share information during disasters and terrorist attacks.

Proponents say the measure would lead to lower monthly bills. Critics say it would impede the Public Utilities Commission in protecting the public interest.

A drive to eliminate much of the last vestiges of conventional home telephone regulation by the state won a key endorsement Tuesday from a Senate committee.

The defense contractor reports that wiring problems on its ship Makin Island, built for the Navy, could slash its quarterly earnings in half.

Shares of Northrop Grumman Corp. plunged 6.9% on Tuesday after the world's largest military shipbuilder said first-quarter profit could be cut in half because of wiring problems with a ship it built for the U.S. Navy.

The social network hopes to attract fans with free music videos.

A Santa Monica company whose investors include actor Will Smith is launching a website Wednesday that offers 10,000 high-quality music videos and concerts for free.

SAN FRANCISCO -- The hard feelings between Facebook Inc. founder Mark Zuckerberg and a former college classmate have boiled over into another legal dispute, this time over the popular online hangout's trademark.

Barriers to widespread adoption fall as more high-tech handsets enter the market.

It might not be long before the Verizon Wireless pitchman asks: "Can you see me now?"