(Reuters) - Virtual assistants are set to pummel virtual reality headsets in the fight for consumer dollars this holiday season, while smartwatches drive wearable sales. Drones may fly under the radar, though.

BERLIN (Reuters) - German judges and state prosecutors need to crack down straight away on fake news disseminated through social media platforms such as Facebook, Germany's Justice Minister Heiko Maas said in an interview published on Sunday.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Nissan Motor Co , Renault SA and Mitsubishi Motors Corp will combine their electric vehicle platforms in an effort to slash prices down to levels comparable to conventional gasoline cars, the Nikkei newspaper said.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Airbnb Inc is looking to raise an additional $153 million as an extension of a recent funding round, boosting its coffers as the company pushes forward with global expansion.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Uber Technologies Inc on Friday again defied a demand by California regulators that the ride-services firm apply for a permit to test self-driving cars, setting up a possible legal battle.

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] said it was disappointed Taiwan's legislature had passed a regulation that will raise fines sharply on unlicensed ride-sharing services to the highest level for such fines globally.

PARIS (Reuters) - The French government waded into a row over Uber's cut-price taxi service on Friday, urging local representatives of the U.S. app-based business to give its drivers a proper hearing after two days of noisy protests over their working conditions.

(Reuters) - Facebook Inc said it had underreported the number of views on iPhone of content published by some publishers using its Instant Articles platform between Sept. 20 and Nov. 30.

MUMBAI (Reuters) - China's OnePlus plans to make its 3T model in India from early next year to meet growing demand in the world's second-biggest smartphone market by users.

(Reuters) - Sumner Redstone will step down from the Viacom board of directors after the company's annual meeting in February, according to a company filing Friday.

BOSTON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc's board relaxed some rules for director nominations by outside investors but stopped short of broader changes sought by an activist shareholder.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Computer and mobile phone giant Apple hired Alexander Hitzinger, former head of Porsche's racecars program, Manager Magazin said, poaching a skilled project manager who helped engineer the German sportscar company's Le Mans victories.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Wanxiang Group, a major Chinese auto parts supplier which almost three years ago bought the assets of defunct California-based plug-in hybrid carmaker Fisker Automotive, has received approval from local regulators to produce electric vehicles in China.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Hackers targeted Turkish lender Akbank in a cyber attack on the SWIFT global payment system, the bank said, adding it faced a liability of up to $4 million from the incident but no customer information was compromised.

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Apple Inc has committed to invest around $44 million in a research and development center in Indonesia over the next three years, a senior government official said, enabling it to start selling its latest iPhone 7 in the Southeast Asian nation.

JAKARTA (Reuters) - An offer by Google to settle a tax dispute with the Indonesian government was too small and a deal will not be reached this year, the head of the tax office's special cases branch said.

(Reuters) - Trivago GmbH , the hotel search platform that is majority owned by U.S. online travel firm Expedia Inc , raised $287 million in an initial public offering (IPO) on Thursday, far below expectations, according to a person familiar with the matter.

TOKYO (Reuters) - A wave of start-ups is emerging in famously risk-averse Japan as cash-rich corporations increasingly delegate the task of keeping pace with technologies such as artificial intelligence and robotics to smaller, nimbler businesses.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Long guarded about what was beneath the hood of its pioneering Prius cars, Toyota Motor Corp plans to open up its powertrain technology to rivals, hoping this will boost sales and speed up the industry's shift to lower-emission vehicles.

DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Co Chief Executive Mary Barra said on Thursday the automaker will expand testing of self-driving vehicles to Michigan, and will build its next generation of self-driving cars in the Michigan plant that builds the Chevrolet Bolt electric car.

DUESSELDORF/ZURICH (Reuters) - ThyssenKrupp's new $43 million elevator test tower soars 246 meters (808 ft) above the German town of Rottweil, but the company's lifts chief is not only thinking vertically.

(Reuters) - Facebook Inc said on Thursday it will roll out a number of new tools to prevent fake news stories from spreading on the social media network.

A Blackberry sign is seen in front of their offices on the day of their annual general meeting for shareholders in Waterloo, Canada June 23, 2015. REUTERS/Mark Blinch

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior Democratic senator on Thursday said he intended to investigate Yahoo's cyber security practices after the company announced it had uncovered another massive data breach dating to August 2013 that affected more than 1 billion user accounts.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German carmakers Daimler and BMW aim to combine their car-sharing services Car2Go and DriveNow to better compete with U.S.-based ride-hailing service Uber [UBER.UL], German monthly Manager Magazin reported, citing sources.

(Reuters) - Instagram's user base rose to more than 600 million, the Facebook Inc owned company said on Thursday, as new features helped it gain popularity.

(Reuters) - Eight small satellites, designed to improve hurricane forecasts by detecting the wind speeds within storms, blasted off on Thursday aboard an air-launched Pegasus rocket, a NASA TV broadcast showed.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German industrial robot maker Kuka has sold its Systems US-Aerospace-Business to Advanced Integration Technology to satisfy demands from U.S. regulators in connection with a takeover by a Chinese buyer, it said on Thursday.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Uber Technologies CEO Travis Kalanick said on Thursday the ride-hailing company sees a path to profitability in India, even though they were currently lagging behind rivals in the country.

(Reuters) - Amit Yoran is stepping down as president of Dell Technologies Inc's cyber security unit to run Tenable Network Security Inc, a well-financed private cyber security company that is looking to boost revenue growth.