BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd launched on Wednesday a cut-price voice assistant speaker, similar to Amazon.com Inc's "Echo", its first foray into artificially intelligent home devices.

VIENNA (Reuters) - Zipcar, the car-sharing service of auto group Avis, will exit Austria by Aug. 6 after five years, a spokeswoman said on Wednesday, adding customers would be offered refunds for fees already paid beyond that date.

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - The chairman of struggling Swedish mobile equipment firm Ericsson said on Wednesday he would not stand for re-election at the company's next AGM in 2018.

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's No. 3 e-commerce player Snapdeal has rejected an initial takeover offer from its larger rival Flipkart this week, but the talks between the two camps that have been attempting to forge a deal for months continue, said two sources close to the matter.

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian cyber police have blocked the second cyber attack against Ukraine, Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said on Wednesday.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - TomTom NV, the Dutch maker of navigation software for cars, on Wednesday said it had struck a deal with Chinese internet company Baidu to collaborate on digital maps used for computer-assisted driving.

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Telecoms network equipment maker Nokia and Chinese handset maker Xiaomi Technology have signed a patent licensing agreement, the companies said on Wednesday.

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Geely-owned Volvo Car Group said on Wednesday all new models launched from 2019 will be fully electric or hybrids, spelling the eventual end to nearly a century of Volvos powered solely by the internal combustion engine.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Shares of Tencent Holdings, China's biggest gaming and social media firm by revenue, fell more than 3 percent on Wednesday, extending losses after it said it will limit play time for some young users of "Honour of Kings".

LONDON (Reuters) - Move over blow-up dolls, the sex robots are here.

SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd is expected to report its best-ever quarterly profit in the second quarter, with soaring memory chip sales pushing it past Intel Corp as the biggest semiconductor maker by revenue for the first time.

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil's government has sharply increased spending in local infrastructure projects proposed by lawmakers, according to budget data reviewed by Reuters on Tuesday, as a graft scandal threatens to topple President Michel Temer.

HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Two Afghan girls refused visas to the United States for a robot-building competition said on Tuesday they were mystified by the decision, as the contest's organizers said teams from Iran and Sudan as well as a de facto Syrian team had gained visas.

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Gun violence is on the rise in Rio de Janeiro, with the sound of firefights echoing daily across Brazil's seaside city as drug gangs battle each other and police officers patrolling slums.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government has sought to intervene in Apple's appeal against an EU order to pay back up to 13 billion euros ($14.8 billion) in taxes to Ireland, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian police on Tuesday seized the servers of an accounting software firm suspected of spreading a malware virus which crippled computer systems at major companies around the world last week, a senior police official said.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German auto parts and tyre maker Continental said on Tuesday it would take a minority stake in French autonomous driving company EasyMile and cooperate with it on environmental sensors, braking systems and driving safety technologies.  

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Tencent Holdings Ltd has invested around $100 million to $150 million in Indonesian ride-hailing startup Go-Jek, sources said, in another sign the Chinese tech giant was looking to tap into growth in Southeast Asia's mobile-based services.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese communist party mouthpiece People's Daily stepped up its criticism of a mobile game developed by Tencent Holdings, a day after the country's top gaming and social media firm said it is limiting play time for users of the "Honour of Kings" game.

MOUNT ETNA, Italy (Reuters) - A robot wheels across a rocky, windswept landscape that looks like the surface of some distant planet from a science fiction film. But it is not in outer space, it's on the slopes of Europe's most active volcano.