China launched service Wednesday on the world's longest high-speed rail route, the latest milestone in the country's rapid and -- sometimes troubled -- super fast rail network.

The opening of the new 2,298-kilometer (1,425-mile) line between Beijing and Guangzhou means passengers will be whisked from the capital to the southern commercial hub in just eight hours, compared with the 22 hours previously required.

Iran has repelled a fresh cyber attack on its industrial units in a southern province, a local civil defense official said on Tuesday, accusing "enemies" of nonstop attacks against its infrastructure.

"A virus had penetrated some manufacturing industries in Hormuzgan province, but its progress was halted with ... the cooperation of skilled hackers," Ali Akbar Akhavan said, quoted by the ISNA news agency.

Queen Elizabeth II gave thanks on Tuesday for Britain's year of Olympic and diamond jubilee festivities, in her first Christmas message to the Commonwealth broadcast in 3D.

The 86-year-old monarch said it had been "humbling" to see the vast crowds joining celebrations marking her 60th year on the throne and paid tribute to the volunteers, as well as the athletes, who took part in the London Olympics.

Microsoft announced on Monday that company veteran Craig Mundie has stepped down from his post as chief of research and will retire in the year 2014.

Mundie, who was one of two executives who assumed responsibilities left behind by Bill Gates when the Microsoft co-founder retired in 2008, will now serve as an advisor to chief executive Steve Ballmer.

A lawsuit is seeking to stop Instagram from changing its terms of service, saying the Facebook-owned smartphone photo-sharing service is breaching its contract with users.

The class action lawsuit filed Friday by the Southern California-based Finkelstein and Krinsk law firm called on the federal court to bar Instagram from changing its rules.

The kids in this volcano-rim village wear filthy, ragged clothes. They sleep beside cows and sheep in huts made of sticks and mud. They don't go to school. Yet they all can chant the English alphabet, and some can spell words.

The key to their success: 20 tablet computers dropped off in their Ethiopian village in February by a group called One Laptop Per Child.

Engineer Dallas Goecker attends meetings, jokes with colleagues and roams the office building just like other employees at his company in Silicon Valley.

But Goecker isn't in California. He's more than 2,300 miles away, working at home in Seymour, Indiana.

A South Korean watchdog said Monday it fined three mobile service providers almost $11 million in total for trying to lure each other's subscribers with banned subsidies in the fiercely competitive market.

The Korea Communications Commission said it fined top mobile carrier SK Telecom 6.89 billion won, while KT and LG Uplus were fined 2.86 and and 2.15 billion won respectively.

Tajikistan has ordered local Internet providers to block Twitter, one of more than 100 sites including popular Russian-language social networks starting next week, an industry representative told Agence France Presse Saturday.

"The (government) communications service has sent Internet companies a huge list of 131 sites that must be blocked in the country from Monday," said Asomiddin Atoyev, the head of the Tajik association of Internet providers.

Dutch MPs have voted not to ban illegal Internet downloads of copyrighted films, music and software, preferring to levy a tax on smartphones and computers.

"The motion calling on the government to renounce banning illegal downloads was passed," on Thursday evening, lower house spokesman Leon van Schie told Agence France Presse on Friday.