AP - Customers in China of Apple Inc.'s iTunes online music store were unable to download songs this week, and an activist group said Beijing was trying to block access to a new Tibet-themed album.

Reuters - Mobile service provider Verizon Communications Inc. is nearing an agreement with Google Inc. on a wide-ranging partnership, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the situation.

AP - Three months ago, Guy Distaffen switched Internet providers, lured from his cable company to his phone company by a year of free service on a two-year contract. But soon the company quietly updated its policies to say it would limit his Internet activity each month.

AP - The road to advanced video, Internet and phone services is bumpy — and the bumps can be almost as big as refrigerators.

Reuters - Al Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri appeared in a new videotape posted on the Internet on Friday, the second such appearance since he was reported to have been killed or wounded in Pakistan last month.

AFP - Flocks of eBay sellers were squawking as the pioneering online auction website continued "bold changes" aimed at wrenching market share from Internet retail giant Amazon.

NewsFactor - The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday released the official order it adopted on Aug. 1 against cable-TV and Internet service provider Comcast, confirming that the FCC has authority over Comcast's network management.

AFP - Yahoo is building an Internet-age news service, leveraging its global audience of a half-billion people to win exclusive interviews with world leaders.

NewsFactor - Following a Federal Communications Commission ruling that Comcast blocked Internet traffic and ordering the company to submit a compliance plan about how it intends to stop "discriminatory management practices," Comcast is planning a new traffic-managing system.