Texas teen fatally shoots himself while taking selfie

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – A 19-year-old Texas man who was posing with a gun for a social media selfie photo accidentally shot himself and died from the wounds, Houston police said on Wednesday. “A witness told police he was taking a selfie with a gun and the gun accidentally discharged,” Houston police spokeswoman Jodi Silva said. The identity of the man killed in the Tuesday incident in Houston has been withheld pending an investigation by the coroner.

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Twitter announces global expansion of self-service ads platform

(Reuters) – Microblogging website operator Twitter Inc said it had expanded its self-service ads platform to more than 200 countries and territories from 33 countries. Small and medium-sized businesses can now reach their target audiences on Twitter in 15 languages, Twitter said in a blog post on Wednesday

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Questions rage on social media over death of black woman in Texas jail

The death of Sandra Bland on July 13 in a Waller County jail northwest of Houston comes amid a national outcry over police violence toward minorities, sparked by high-profile killings of unarmed black men over the past year. The Houston Chronicle newspaper reported that several dozen people gathered at the jail in protest on Friday, while others questioned her death on social media and left instructions to friends, family and the media should they die after an arrest. Some also took issue with Sheriff Glenn Smith, who the Chronicle reported was fired as police chief of Hempstead, Texas, in 2008 after allegations arose of police misconduct toward African-Americans there.

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Set of all-girl quintuplets born at Texas hospital

(Reuters) – A Houston woman gave birth to five girls in four minutes by cesarean section last week and all are doing well, a Texas hospital said. All were within the appropriate weight for that gestational age and currently require only a modest support for their breathing, The Woman’s Hospital of Texas said on Tuesday in a statement.

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EU says Google hurt consumers and competitors in Internet search case

The European Union accused Google Inc on Wednesday of cheating consumers and competitors by distorting Web search results to favor its own shopping service, after a five-year investigation that could change the rules for business online. Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said Google, which dominates Internet search engine markets worldwide, had been sent a Statement of Objections – effectively a charge sheet – to which it has 10 weeks to respond.

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EU charges seen unlikely to hurt Google valuation

The European Union’s charges against Google Inc for distorting Web search results to favor its own shopping service are unlikely to hurt the company’s valuation, analysts said. The charges, which come after a five-year investigation, could lead to a fine of up to 10 percent of Google’s annual sales, or about 6.2 billion euros ($6.6 billion).

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Factbox: EU charges Google in Internet search antitrust case – what next?

By Julia Fioretti BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Commission charged Google Inc on Wednesday with cheating competitors by distorting Internet search results to favor its own shopping service, and opened a separate investigation into its Android mobile operating system. When the investigation was opened in November 2010, then Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia set out four concerns. The first, to which Wednesday’s statement of objections relates, concerns the way in which Google allegedly positions its Google Shopping service above rivals’ services, irrespective of its merits

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