WUZHEN, China (Reuters) - China's ambitions to tighten up regulation of the Internet have found a second wind in old fears - terrorism and fake news.

(Reuters) - Facebook Inc, facing withering criticism for failing to stem a flood of phony news articles in the run-up to the U.S. presidential election, is taking a series of steps to weed out hoaxes and other types of false information, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post Friday...

(Reuters) - Cybersecurity company Optiv Security Inc, majority owned by Blackstone Group LP , filed with U.S. regulators for an initial public offering of its common stock on Friday.

(Reuters) - Social media giant Facebook Inc on Friday set a $6 billion buyback program for its Class A shares, beginning in the first quarter of 2017.

GUANGZHOU, China (Reuters) - After paying out billions of dollars in subsidies to promote greener cars - and creating a gold-rush among unknown start-ups - China is tightening its grip on the world's biggest electric vehicle (EV) market to weed out weaker domestic firms.

ZURICH (Reuters) - Novartis has abandoned a 2016 goal to start testing its autofocus contact lens on people, though it said the groundbreaking product it is making with internet giant Google is "progressing steadily."

MILAN (Reuters) - Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) said it has teamed up with U.S. internet giant Amazon to start selling cars online at prices up to a third cheaper than available elsewhere.

LONDON (Reuters) - Tucked into the attic of a Georgian building in London's West End, seven people run a $200 million hedge fund following artificial intelligence formulas. But the supercomputers that process their complex algorithms are nowhere to be seen.

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - An Uber driver in Denmark was convicted on appeal of violating taxi laws on Wednesday and fined 6,000 Danish crowns ($855.10), the latest blow to the ride-hailing app that has stirred protest and legal action worldwide.

GUANGZHOU/WUZHEN, China (Reuters) - German automaker BMW and Chinese internet giant Baidu will end their joint research on self-driving cars, executives for the two firms said on Friday, with Baidu now searching for new global research partners.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese telecoms equipment group ZTE Corp said on Friday it has won a further reprieve to Feb. 27 on export restrictions that were imposed on the company by the U.S. government.

London (Reuters) - French startup Sigfox has raised a further 150 million euros ($159.11 million) from heavyweight investors to help it build new networks globally to connect everything from washing machines to smart meters to the Internet, a source familiar with the matter said on Friday.

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Uber Technologies Inc urged Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen to let the island's people decide whether they want Uber services in Taiwan, the latest salvo in the wrangle between the authorities there and the global ride-hailing service company.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's decision to block public access to networking site LinkedIn creates a precedent that could be used to justify blocking access to other sites operating in Russia, RIA news agency quoted the U.S. embassy in Moscow as saying.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Snap Inc, the red-hot messaging company, is seen by many tech investors as the next Facebook or Google, but its youthful founders are pushing far more aggressively than its predecessors in moving from scrappy startup to public company.

The Google logo is seen on a door at the company's office in Tel Aviv January 26, 2011. REUTERS/Baz Ratner/File Photo

A Salesforce sign is seen during the company's annual Dreamforce event, in San Francisco, California November 18, 2013. REUTERS/Robert Galbraith

(Reuters) - Three, one of Britain's biggest mobile phone companies, said on Thursday hackers had accessed its customer upgrade database after using employee logins.

A Google search page is seen through a magnifying glass in this photo illustration taken in Berlin, August 11, 2015. REUTERS/Pawel Kopczynski/File Photo -

Jack Dorsey, CEO of Square and CEO of Twitter, speaks during an interview November 19, 2015. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/Files

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Europe launched four more Galileo satellites on Thursday, moving a step closer to having its own navigation system and marking the first time it has sent up so many satellites at once.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's Justice Minister says he believes Facebook Inc. should be treated like a media company rather than a technology platform, suggesting he favors moves to make social media groups criminally liable for failing to remove hate speech.

NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES(Reuters) - McDonald's Corp will debut mobile ordering in the United States and 10 major markets in 2017, as part of the fast-food chain's effort to win back customers by becoming a "modern, progressive burger company," executives said on Thursday.

BARCELONA (Reuters) - Liberty Global's chief executive said the cable group's joint venture with mobile operator Vodafone in the Netherlands did not signal more deals between the two companies in Europe.

(Reuters) - Verizon Communications Inc's AOL digital media unit will lay off 5 percent of its workforce, or about 500 people, to consolidate operations after recent acquisitions, a person familiar with the situation said on Thursday.

BARCELONA (Reuters) - FreedomPop, a U.S.-based free mobile phone service provider, plans to begin selling refurbished, used smartphones in several American and European markets for a fraction of the cost of new handsets.

WUZHEN, China (Reuters) - China's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Tencent Holdings Ltd rallied behind Beijing's recently-imposed cyber security law on Thursday, following criticism of it from overseas technology rivals.

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - China's Huawei, the world's third-largest smartphone maker, will launch its new cheaper Nova smartphone in South Africa and Kenya early next year, looking to maintain double-digit sales growth in the continent led by its flagship P9 series.

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's Tata Consultancy Services said on Thursday that the company would hold an extraordinary general meeting on Dec. 13 to decide on the removal of former chairman Cyrus Mistry as director from the company's board.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Older Germans will have to get used to taking instructions from tech-savvy youngsters if Germany is to succeed in transitioning to the digital age, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday.