Modi trip gives Facebook, Google chance to press on Indian expansion

By Yasmeen Abutaleb SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's trip this weekend to Silicon Valley gives Facebook and Google the chance to press him on issues that have bedeviled them in that country, a market they see as vital to their aggressive global expansion. For Facebook and Google, India is a crucial market. With 1.3 billion people, it is the world's second most-populous country – and they are blocked from China, the most populous, making success in India even more critical for their global growth.

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Pandora says has paid $500 million in artist royalties in past year

(Reuters) – Internet radio service Pandora Media Inc said it paid nearly $500 million in artist royalties over the past 12 months, bringing the total to more than $1.5 billion in about 10 years. “It took us nearly nine years to generate the first billion dollars in royalties, and just over a year to increase that total by 50 percent,” Chief Executive Brian McAndrews said in a statement on Wednesday. Pandora gets revenue from advertising and paid subscriptions

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Half a century on, carnage in Charleston resonates in the South

A half century ago in this deeply southern city, a racially motivated attack on a black church left four young girls dead and helped galvanize a civil rights movement that changed voting laws across the United States. For those with ties to that deadly event, Wednesday’s shootings in a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, another deeply southern city 400 miles (644 km) distant, echoed the tragedy and compounded the frustration that more progress has not been made. “It definitely brought back memories,” said Lisa McNair, 50, the niece of one of the girls who died in the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church, which happened before McNair was even born.

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Canada government websites taken down in cyber attack

Several Canadian government websites and servers were taken down in a cyber attack on Wednesday, the government said, with the hacking group Anonymous taking responsibility in what it said was retaliation for a new anti-terrorism law passed by Canada's lawmakers. The general website for government services, canada.ca, as well as the site of Canada's spy agency, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), were among those affected.

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Amazon insists federal rules apply to U.S. deliveries by drone

By David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Amazon.com, seeking to bolster its efforts to deliver products via drone, said on Tuesday that states and local communities should not be allowed to regulate unmanned aerial systems (UAS) authorized by federal aviation regulators. “Uniform federal rules must apply,” Paul Misener, the e-commerce retailer's vice president for global public policy, said in written testimony released by a U.S. House of Representatives oversight committee ahead of a Wednesday hearing

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