Apple CEO Tim Cook said Apple's new mobile payment system had over 1 million activations in the first three days after it became available, and is now more widely used than any competing payment system.

"We're already No. 1. We're more than the total of the other guys," Cook boasted Monday during a tech industry conference, "and we've only been at it a week." He said Visa and MasterCard officials have told Apple that the Apple Pay system is already seeing more use than similar "contactless" methods of paying for purchases.

Japanese telecommunications company Softbank Corp. is investing nearly $840 million in two technology companies in India, eyeing what it sees as a lucrative market for growth.

Softbank said Tuesday it is investing $627 million and becoming the biggest shareholder in Snapdeal, the largest digital marketplace in India with 25 million users and 50,000 businesses. It brings together products from thousands of big and small brands.

The middle-aged salesman sat glumly among an array of shorts, khaki leisure suits bedecked with gold belts and dresses with plunging necklines in the ancient Damascus bazaar — luxuries few can afford in today's Syria.

He, like many traders, lost most of his customers when Syria's uprising erupted in 2011 against the rule of President Bashar Assad, and his new clientele is far poorer: Syrians fleeing the fighting with barely any possessions.

The Marussia team's move into bankruptcy protection on Monday, four days after Formula One rival Caterham did the same, leaves only 18 cars on the grid for Sunday's United States Grand Prix, the smallest in nearly a decade.

FRP Advisory, a London-based firm specializing in corporate restructuring, recovery and insolvency, has taken on the role of administrator and said Russian billionaire shareholder Andrei Cheglakov has been unable to provide the required funding to keep Marussia going.

Taylor Swift will be shakin' it up in New York City's Times Square on New Year's Eve.

ABC announced Monday that Swift is the headliner for "New Year's Rockin' Eve," the annual countdown show hosted by Ryan Seacrest.

Want a body like Beyonce's? Now you can buy clothes she's designed for exercising.

The 33-year-old singer announced Monday that she is merging with British retailer Topshop to launch the company, Parkwood TopShop Athletic Ltd. It is a 50/50 joint venture.

Missy Elliott, Lil Kim and Da Brat will reunite at next month's Soul Train Awards.

BET and Centric announced Monday that the female rappers will take the stage November 7 when the show tapes at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.

Toyota kept its lead over rivals Volkswagen and General Motors as the world's top-selling automaker in the first nine months of the year, Monday reporting record sales of 7.615 million vehicles, up nearly 3 percent from the previous year.

Volkswagen said earlier this month it sold 7.40 million vehicles for January-September, barely edging out General Motors Co. in the closely watched auto sales race. GM reported sales of 7.372 million cars and trucks worldwide earlier this month.

You may be tempted upon leaving Sting's Broadway musical "The Last Ship" to head straight to a pub to drain a pint and sing some sea shanties. Or maybe go weld something. Or do both.

Such are the foot-stomping, testosterone-filled feelings that emerge from the Neil Simon Theatre, where a blast of British working class camaraderie among steel workers has docked during these times when we only construct things from Ikea.

One of the teenagers wounded in a Washington state high school shooting died Sunday night, raising the number of fatalities from when a student opened fire in a cafeteria to three.

Officials at Providence Regional Medical Center Everett confirmed the death of 14-year-old Gia Soriano. Another girl was killed during the shooting Friday by a popular first-year student at Marysville-Pilchuck High School north of Seattle. The shooter, Jaylen Fryberg, died of a self-inflicted wound.