E-commerce website Etsy shares soar after Google mention

Speaking to analysts after its second-quarter report late on Thursday, Google Chief Business Officer Omid Kordestani pointed to Brooklyn-based Etsy as a good example of web companies winning more business due to Google's recent move to index information and pages within third-party apps. “Developers like Etsy are already seeing a boost in traffic as a result of deep linking,” Kordestani said. The jump in Etsy's shares pressured short sellers who recently increased bets against the company, which has grown from selling just wooden goods to include other crafts, vintage goods and recently, mass manufactured products

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Rocket Internet to close grocery delivery service in Germany

German start-up investor Rocket Internet is closing down its grocery delivery service Shopwings in Germany due to a lack of cooperation from retailers and regulatory hurdles. A Rocket Internet spokesman said the business that only launched last year in Berlin and Munich would focus instead on expanding in Australia as well as in Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines. Europe's largest Internet company prides itself on needing only 100 days to go from concept to launch of a new firm, establishing dozens of start-ups from online fashion to home furnishings and food delivery since it was founded in 2007.

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Uber settles wrongful death lawsuit in San Francisco

By Dan Levine SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Ride service Uber has reached a tentative settlement in a lawsuit brought by the family of a 6-year-old girl who died in a San Francisco car accident, according to court filings. The girl, Sofia Liu, died after she, her younger brother and their mother were hit by a car in a San Francisco cross-walk on New Year's Eve in 2013

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Snapchat management holds talks with Saudi’s Prince Alwaleed

Senior management of Snapchat held talks with Saudi Arabia's Prince Alwaleed bin Talal on potential cooperation, the prince's investment company said in a statement on Sunday. The meeting, which included the mobile messaging company's Chief Executive Evan Spiegel and Chief Strategy Officer Imran Khan, comes as Snapchat embarks on a new funding round that values the business at up to $19 billion

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Amazon opens store on Alibaba’s online marketplace Tmall

(Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc has opened an online store on Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's fast-growing online marketplace, Tmall.com as it seeks to expand in China, an Alibaba spokesman said. Alibaba's Tmall offers virtual storefronts and payment portals to merchants

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India asks YouTube to remove Delhi rape film

India has asked YouTube to remove all links to a controversial documentary about the gang rape and murder of a woman in Delhi after banning its broadcast, a government official told Reuters on Thursday. Leslee Udwin's “India's Daughter” features an interview with Mukesh Singh, one of four men sentenced to death for the rape and torture of a 23-year-old woman on a moving bus in December 2012. “We just forwarded the court order and asked them (YouTube) to comply,” an official at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology told Reuters

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Britain should turn to middle-aged mums to be spies of the future: report

Britain's security agencies should look to recruit more middle-aged women and mothers to be new spies and should target websites popular with parents to find them, an influential committee of lawmakers said on Thursday. The Intelligence and Security Committee, which oversees the work of Britain's three spy agencies, said it was crucial there was more diversity if the security services were to be able to address the threats facing the country.

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Alien abduction? Stolen by Russia? MH370 theories keep coming

By Jane Wardell SYDNEY (Reuters) – A year on from the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, an extraordinary amount of key data remains unknown – fuelling conspiracy theories and heated online debate about one of aviation's biggest mysteries.

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China investigates state television producer amid corruption probe

Chinese anti-graft authorities are investigating a television producer related to a disgraced former presidential aide probed for graft last month, the media reported on Monday, as the leadership widens a crackdown on corruption. Luo Fanghua, an executive of the business channel at state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV), is the latest of several of the network’s senior producers, executives and journalists to face investigation for corruption

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