Wikipedia wants a spot on World Heritage List

In its 10 years of existence, Wikipedia, the global online encyclopedia, has amassed an archive of 18 million entries in 279 languages. It is one of the 10 most popular Web sites on the Internet.

But is the volunteer-driven data depository an endangered world cultural treasure worthy of protection, like French cuisine, the Argentine tango or the Grand Canyon?

That is the long-shot bet being made by Wikipedia, which plans to begin a global petition drive Tuesday to earn a spot on one of the world heritage lists of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

Growth eyed in Indian mobile banking sector

Hundreds of millions of poor Indians who have no access to financial services could benefit from mobile banking, experts say, as cell phone use grows at breakneck pace.

Banking by phone could transform the workings of the rural economy, but the industry first needs to allay fears about transaction security and overcome low literacy levels and banks' limited reach in remote areas.

Leading figures from the telecoms and banking sectors meeting in Mumbai last week said that mobile banking -- including money transfers, bill payments and remittances -- was largely untapped.

Death toll at Foxconn China factory rises to three

The death toll from a blast at a Foxconn factory in China, reportedly in a building where Apple's iPad 2 was being made, rose to three Sunday after a seriously injured worker died, state media said.

Two workers were initially killed and 16 injured in the explosion on Friday evening at the plant of a Foxconn subsidiary in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan province, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

An initial investigation indicated that the explosion could have been caused by combustible dust in the polishing workshop, it said, adding that investigators had ruled out the possibility of sabotage.

Internet bosses woo world leaders at 'e-G8'

The world's most powerful Internet and media barons gather in Paris on Tuesday in a show of strength to leaders at the G8 summit, amid international rows over online access, copyright and regulation.

Top executives from online giants like Google, Facebook and Microsoft will tout the economic potential of the Internet, which their host, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, has put on the agenda of the G8 summit two days later.

After Tuesday and Wednesday's "e-G8" bash, some of the biggest names will then meet with G8 leaders at the summit in Deauville, northwestern France, on May 26 and 27, a French presidential official said.

Apple nears music deal with labels: Report

Apple Inc. is close to securing deals with all four major recording companies on a music service that will allow users to stream songs stored on remote computer servers, presumably to an array of portable Apple-made devices, a person familiar with the matter said Friday.

Such a service would give users a wide array of music on-the-go, without having to worry about limited storage space and the need to physically connect different devices to transfer songs.

Universal Music Group, a division of Vivendi SA, is about to sign a deal that will give Apple the right to stream songs to its customers, although how exactly the service will function is unclear, the person said.

Google stops digitizing old newspapers

Google on Friday had stopped digitizing old newspapers as publishers sought to make money off story archives instead of having them hosted free online.

People will still be able to find newspapers already converted to digital format in the Google News Archives at news.google.com/archivesearch but the collection won't grow.

"We work closely with newspaper partners on a number of initiatives, and as part of the Google News Archives digitization program we collaborated to make older newspapers accessible and searchable online," the Internet firm said.

Sony faces another hack attack

Another unit of Sony Corp. has come under attack from hackers -- this time a mobile Internet service provider in Japan called So-net Entertainment Corp.

So-net says that someone gained improper access to user accounts and successfully used so-called "So-net points" to obtain goods worth about $1,225.

It said it discovered the activity late Wednesday after customer complaints and cut off the Internet Protocol address behind about 10,000 attempts to break into the system.

The intruder used points from 128 accounts and illicitly checked the e-mails of 90 users.

The attack occurred just after Sony began restoring service to users of its PlayStation Network in the United States and Europe. The system was down for nearly a month after a massive security breach compromised about 100 million accounts.