A thousand inventions have gone on display at the world's biggest fair for new gadgets, where even the ribbon-cutting was done by a humanoid robot.

Offerings at the fair that opened Wednesday in Geneva included a ball to protect against household electromagnetic waves and a high-tech screen to play simulated golf.

Yahoo! is dumping products along with workers in a quest to return the faded Internet star to glory.

Yahoo! boss Scott Thompson announced the move on Tuesday while mapping out the company's turnaround on the heels of an unusually upbeat quarter in which profit climbed 28 percent.

The operator of Tokyo Sky Tree on Tuesday explained how the world's second-highest building will survive the strong earthquakes that regularly shake Japan when it opens to the public next month.

"The Tokyo Sky Tree was constructed with state-of-the-art Japanese technology. It will not fall," said Yoshihito Imamura, deputy manager of Tokyo Sky Tree Town.

U.S. government telecom regulators have ended an investigation into Google's "Street View" online mapping service gathering data from private wireless hotspots.

The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) enforcement bureau on Friday called for Google to pay a $25,000 penalty for stalling the probe but said that it could not accuse the Internet giant of breaking U.S. law.

The Internet Age is becoming as known for patent litigation as it is for online innovation.

From the makers of computer chips to creators of smartphones and designers of videogames, rivalries have spread from marketplaces to courtrooms with combatants warring over rights to use technology.

Fascinated by the virtual nature of modern finance and currency swings, the California-based artist decided to meditate on monetary instability by exploring different physical characteristics of competing coins.

The result is the "Electrochemical Currency Exchange Co," an exhibition that opened Thursday and runs through the end of next week under New York's famous Rockefeller Plaza, named for American tycoon John D. Rockefeller.

Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson is expected to elaborate on his turnaround plans when the beleaguered Internet Company releases its first-quarter results.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR: The report, scheduled to be released after the stock market closes Tuesday, is expected to show Yahoo Inc. remains in a malaise that has been hobbling its stock for years.

The European Space Agency said Thursday it had lost contact with Envisat, the biggest Earth-monitoring satellite in history.

Designed to operate for only five years, Envisat was launched in March 2002, carrying 10 instruments to monitor the planet's oceans, ice, land and atmosphere.

The world's largest solar energy facility, built with Austrian technology, has opened in Saudi Arabia and will provide Riyad's Princess Noura Bint Abdulrahman University with warm water.

The facility, built by Austrian firms GREENoneTEC and AEE Intec, consists of 36,000 square meters (387,500 square feet) of solar panels and cost 3.6 million euros ($4.7 million).

Apple on Thursday denied a charge that it schemed with publishers to hike prices for e-books, portraying itself as a hero for prying Amazon's "monopolistic grip" from the market.

"The DOJ's accusation of collusion against Apple is simple not true," Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr said in an emailed statement a day after a Department of Justice antitrust suit was filed.