As investors agonize over Facebook's future, the online social network used by a seventh of the world's population isn't forgetting the importance of play.

Nearly a quarter of Facebook members play online and developers of game applications are keenly tuned into the trend of using smartphones or tablets to connect to the social network.

Singapore's state-linked labour movement on Monday sacked a senior executive after she posted expletive-laden and racially charged comments on Facebook that caused outrage in the city-state.

Amy Cheong, an ethnic Chinese assistant director of membership at the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), was sacked one day after posting remarks on the social networking site about the country's Malay minority.

For people fed up with politics on their social Web feeds as the U.S. election race hots up -- online and elsewhere -- in its final few weeks, help is on the way.

A browser extension called "no politics please" at http://www.noppl.com/ is designed to work to filter out unwanted content on Facebook, says creator Kevin Faul.

Google and major book publishers have settled a lengthy legal battle over digital copyrights, but a bigger dispute still looms with thousands of authors who allege that Google is illegally profiting from their works.

The truce announced Thursday ends a federal lawsuit filed in 2005 by several members of the Association of American Publishers after Google Inc. began stockpiling its Internet search index with digital duplicates of books scanned from libraries.

Samsung Electronics Co. forecast another record quarterly operating profit, likely driven by strong sales of high-end smartphones that offset weak semiconductor orders.

The guidance for Samsung's third quarter earnings showed it was on track to report a record-high profit for a fourth straight quarter, despite legal tussles with Apple Inc. that resulted in a $1 billion compensation judgment in August.

A vest developed in Massachusetts Institute of Technology lets Facebook users hug one another no matter how far apart they are.

A Like-A-Hug vest on display Friday at the website of designer Melissa Kit Chow was touted as "wearable social media" that inflates to embrace wearers whenever Facebook friends "Like" items they post at the social network.

Lending support to two companies struggling to make a comeback in smartphones,AT&T Inc. said Thursday it will be selling Nokia smartphones that run Windows Phone 8, Microsoft's upcoming software release.

The phones are a critical part of Nokia Corp.'s attempt to stem its rapid decline from the position as the world's largest maker of phones. The Finnish company's presence in the U.S. market has been very small in recent years, but AT&T and T-Mobile have been selling Nokia's earlier Windows Phones.

Facebook on Thursday celebrated eclipsing the billion-member mark, touting its mission to make the world more social while investors wondered how the service would cash in on its popularity.

Co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg announced that more than a seventh of the planet's population resided virtually at Facebook, saying the accomplishment was "humbling."

Philippine President Benigno Aquino defended a new cybercrime law Friday amid a storm of protests from critics who say it will severely curb Internet freedoms and intimidate netizens into self-censorship.

Aquino specifically backed one of the most controversial elements of the law, which mandates that people who post defamatory comments online be given much longer jail sentences than those who commit libel in traditional media.

From YouTube to Xbox videogame consoles, people tuned into the U.S. presidential debate online and weighed in so intensely that it became Twitter's hottest U.S. political event.

While those attending the debate between President Barack Obama and challenger Mitt Romney agreed to be silent while the men sparred verbally on stage, the Internet raged with comments and critiques.