Facebook is proposing to end its practice of letting users vote on changes to its privacy policies, though it will continue to let users comment on proposed updates.

The world's biggest social media company said in a blog post Wednesday that its voting mechanism, which is triggered only if enough people comment on proposed changes, has become a system that emphasizes quantity of responses over quality of discussion. Users tend to leave one or two-word comments objecting to changes instead of more in-depth responses.

Pakistan has ordered mobile phone companies to ban cheap, late-night calling rates because they allegedly promote vulgarity among young men and women, officials said Wednesday.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) said it asked companies to suspend attractive night-time rates in keeping with government policy.

A U.S. government agency has decided to buy iPhones for its employees, dumping its BlackBerry smartphones, citing their unreliability.

The National Transportation Safety Board said in a public notice last week it would be contracting with Verizon Wireless for the iPhone 5, saying it is the "only device" that meets the agency's needs.

Anyone with a smartphone can now be a savvy cybershopper for the holiday season.

With mobile Internet and apps, it is easy for someone in a store to compare prices on specific items, and then make a quick decision to buy or leave or to instantly make a purchase elsewhere.

Google has jumped into the debate over a U.N. telecom gathering set to review regulations affecting the Internet, claiming it is "the wrong place" to make decisions about the future of the Web.

In a posting on its "take action" blog this week, Google said the December gathering of the U.N.'s International Telecommunications Union comes amid "a growing backlash on Internet freedom."

A South Korean man has received a suspended 10-month prison term for retweeting North Korean propaganda posts.

The Suwon District Court cited the National Security Law in its ruling Wednesday against Park Jeong-geun. The law prohibits praising and glorifying North Korea. Park could have received seven years in prison.

A federal jury on Tuesday convicted a man of illegally gaining access to AT&T's servers and stealing more than 120,000 email addresses of iPad users including New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and film mogul Harvey Weinstein.

Andrew Auernheimer, of New York, was convicted of identity theft and conspiracy to gain unauthorized access to computers. Each count carries a maximum prison sentence of five years.

Japanese nuclear reactor maker Toshiba on Wednesday unveiled a remote-controlled robot resembling a headless dog that they hope will be used at the battered Fukushima power plant.

The tetrapod, which weighs 65 kilograms (143 pounds) and is about one meter (3 foot, four inches) tall, is designed to be able to cover difficult terrain -- such as going up steep steps -- that regular robots struggle with.

The soaring popularity of smartphones is crushing demand for point-and-shoot cameras, threatening the once-vibrant sector as firms scramble to hit back with web-friendly features and boost quality, analysts say.

A sharp drop in sales of digital compact cameras marks them as the latest casualty of smartphones as videogame consoles and portable music players also struggle against the all-in-one features offered by the likes of Apple's iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy.

As India's financial capital shut down for the weekend funeral of a powerful politician linked to waves of mob violence, a woman posted on Facebook that the closures in Mumbai were "due to fear, not due to respect." A friend of hers hit the "like" button.

For that, both women were arrested.