Technology Top Stories from Associated Press (AP)

LONDON (AP) , Pearson, the U.K. publisher and education company, is to take a 5 percent stake in Barnes and Noble's NOOK e-reader as technology companies seek new inroads into the potentially lucrative business of digital textbooks for schools.

NEW YORK (AP) , Autonomy, the British business software company now owned by Hewlett-Packard Co., is facing a Justice Department investigation over improper accounting under previous management, according to HP. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission late Thursday, HP said Justice officials had informed the company on Nov.

NEW YORK (AP) , Hewlett-Packard Co. says that the Department of Justice is investigating HP's business software unit Autonomy, which the computer maker has accused of fudging its accounting. HP said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission late Thursday that it was informed by representatives of the Justice Department on Nov.

BEIJING (AP) , China's government tightened Internet controls Friday with approval of a law that requires users to register their names after a flood of online complaints about official abuses rattled Communist Party leaders.

BEIJING (AP) , A Chinese court has ordered Apple Inc. to pay 1.03 million yuan ($165,000) to eight Chinese writers and two companies who say unlicensed copies of their work were distributed through Apple's online store. The Beijing No.

ROKKASHO, Japan (AP) , How is an atomic-powered island nation riddled with fault lines supposed to handle its nuclear waste? Part of the answer was supposed to come from this windswept village along Japan's northern coast.

NEW YORK (AP) , Apple CEO Tim Cook got $4.2 million in pay for the latest fiscal year, a modest sum compared to last year, when the company's board set him up with stock now worth $510 million for taking the reins in 2011.

NEW YORK (AP) , The tastes of the reading public are turning digital. A Pew Internet Research Center survey released Thursday found that the percentage of Americans aged 16 and older who read an e-book grew from 16 percent in 2011 to 23 percent this year. Readers of traditional books dropped from 72 percent to 67 percent.

BEIJING (AP) , China's new communist leaders are increasing already tight controls on Internet use and electronic publishing following a spate of embarrassing online reports about official abuses. The...

WASHINGTON (AP) , Scott Harrison knows his charity has funded nearly 7,000 clean water projects in some of the poorest areas of the world in the past six years. How many of those wells are still flowing with drinking water months or years later, though? That's a tough question to answer.

SEATTLE (AP) , Even Mark Zuckerberg's family can get tripped up by Facebook's privacy settings. A picture that Zuckerberg's sister posted on her personal Facebook profile was seen by a marketing director, who then posted the picture to Twitter and her more than 40,000 followers Wednesday.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) , In the private hell of a mother's grief, the sounds come back to Judy Neiman. The SUV door slamming. The slight bump as she backed up in the bank parking lot. The emergency room doctor's sobs as he said her 9-year-old daughter Sydnee, who previously had survived four open heart surgeries, would not make it this time.

WASHINGTON (AP) , For many passengers, air travel is only about finding the cheapest fare. But as airlines offer a proliferating list of add-on services, from early boarding to premium seating and baggage fees, the ability to comparison-shop for the lowest total fare is eroding.

ANALYSIS/OPINION: Three weeks ago, your columnist noted some of the "good" that came along in the tech world in 2012. With very little to lose , you don't think I'm wagering actual cash money here, do you? , here are some more-or-less fearless predictions for 2013: Google ascendant

LOS ANGELES (AP) , The big deal for Hollywood is not the record $10.8 billion that studios took in domestically in 2012. It's the fact that the number of tickets sold went up for the first time in three years. Thanks to inflation, revenue generally rises in Hollywood as admission prices climb each year.