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Samsung Acquires U.S. Medical Imaging Company

South Korea's Samsung Electronics said Tuesday it had bought U.S. medical imaging firm NeuroLogica, as it seeks to explore new growth sources by expanding into the health sector.

Samsung did not disclose the value of the deal but said it had bought a full stake in the Massachusetts-based firm, which makes medical devices including CT scanners.

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Google Unveils Detailed N. Korea Map... with Gulags

Weeks after its chairman Eric Schmidt's secretive visit to North Korea, Google has rolled out a detailed map of the isolated state that even labels some of its remote and infamous gulags.

Until now North Korea was pretty much a blank canvas to users of Google's "Map Maker", which creates maps from data that is provided by the public and fact-checked in a similar process to that used by Wikipedia.

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Providence Theater Experiments with 'Tweet Seats'

Sarah Bertness slipped into her seat at a recent staging of the musical "Million Dollar Quartet" and, when the lights dimmed, started doing something that's long been taboo inside theaters: typing away at her iPhone.

The 26-year-old freelance writer from Providence wasn't being rude. She had a spot in the "tweet seat" section at the Providence Performing Arts Center.

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Push for Futuristic Guns Builds on Embattled Past

It sounds, at first, like a bold, next-generation solution: personalizing guns with technology that keeps them from firing if they ever get into the wrong hands.

But when the White House called for pushing ahead with such new technology as part of President Obama's plan to cut gun violence, the administration did not mention the concept's embattled past. As with so much else in the nation's long-running divisions over gun rights and regulation, what sounds like a futuristic vision is, in fact, an idea that has been kicked around for years, sidelined by intense suspicion, doubts about feasibility and pressure tactics.

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Survey: Japan Manufacturers Make Big Emissions Cuts

Japan's big manufacturers reduced greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 15 percent annually on average over the past five years compared to 1990, according to a survey in the Nikkei daily Sunday.

The projected annual average reduction of 14.9 percent in the five years to March this year compares to the level in the 1990 fiscal year, the business daily said.

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Report: Pentagon Eyes Fivefold Boost of Cybersecurity Force

The U.S. Department of Defense has approved a fivefold expansion of its cybersecurity force over the coming years in a bid to increase its ability to defend critical computer networks, The Washington Post reported late Sunday.

Citing unnamed U.S. officials, the newspaper said the Defense Department's Cyber Command, which currently has a staff of about 900, will expand to about 4,900 troops and civilians.

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U.S. Braces for 'Six Strikes' Anti-Piracy Program

A new voluntary system aimed at rooting out online copyright piracy using a controversial "six strikes" system is set to be implemented by U.S. Internet providers soon, with the impact unclear.

The program was created with the music and film industry and the largest Internet firms, with some prodding by U.S. government.

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Goggles Fool Face-Recognition Cameras

A "privacy visor" that uses infra-red light to interfere with facial recognition technology has been developed in Japan for people worried about being spotted by computers.

The goggles are useful for anyone who wants to avoid their identity being detected by hidden cameras, the inventors say.

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Web Inventor Says Governments Stifling Net Freedom

The inventor of the World Wide Web warned Friday that government control is limiting the possibilities of the Internet, as dozens of countries and businesses signed a cybersecurity deal at the Davos forum.

The comments by Tim Berners-Lee at the World Economic Forum plugged into a wider debate among the delegates on the future of the Internet, particularly how to balance openness with privacy and security.

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Twitter Suspends Account of Somali Islamist Insurgents

Twitter suspended the account of Somalia's Al-Qaeda linked Shebab insurgents Friday, days after they posted photographs of a French commando they killed and threatened to execute Kenyan hostages.

A message from Twitter on the English-language @HSMPress account read that it had "been suspended", without elaborating. The extremist's Arabic account confirmed the suspension, denouncing it as censorship.

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