Los Angeles - Members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) will meet on Saturday to decide on whether to accept a prospective deal hammered out in closed door discussions with studio executives and TV producers, which could potentially end the strike that began on Nov. 5 and put writers back to work on Monday, according to various reports. [more..]

Washington - The U.S. House on Thursday approved an education bill that includes provisions stating that universities which receive federal funding need to come up with technological deterrents to campus file-sharing, and look towards offering legal alternatives, CNET News.com reported. [more..]

New York - Viacom's MTV Networks on Friday announced that MTV president Christina Norman is stepping down at the end of the month, to pursue new opportunities. [more..]

Tokyo - Struggling video game and pachinko machine company Sega Sammy Holdings announced this week that it will lay off 400 employees at its game software division, or about 5% of its workforce, after stating that it expects to report a $242 million loss for its fiscal year. [more..]

Los Angeles - Billionaire investor George Soros has paid $100 million for a 3% stake in Reliance Entertainment, a multi-platform entertainment provider in India, which was valued at $3.3 billion for the deal. [more..]

Reston, Va. - U.S. Internet users watched more than 10 billion videos online during the month of December 2007, representing the heaviest traffic to sites like YouTube since market research firm comScore began tracking Web video, the firm said this week. [more..]

Hong Kong - HeySpace, a Hong Kong-based social networking site, has raised $10.75 of a $20 million first round of venture capital financing, PEHub.com reported, citing a regulatory filing. [more..]

Redwood City, Calif. - Renkoo, a provider of online event planning services, has added $6 million to its second round of financing, led by Maveron Equity Partners, VentureBeat reported. [more..]

Los Angeles -WooMe, an online speed dating service, has raised a $3 million bridge round of financing led by Mangrove Capital. [more..]

San Francisco - Dizzywood announced on Friday that it has raised a $1 million first round of funding, which it will use to help launch its 3D virtual world and online game platform for kids ages 8-12. [more..]

n/a

Mountain View, Calif. - Google this week added a new local news feature to its Google News service, allowing users to see the day's top stories based on an address, city or zip code. [more..]

Sunnyvale, Calif. - Yahoo this week launched a new experimental feature, Yahoo Live, which allows users to set up video channels and broadcast their own live video feeds, which can then be embedded on other sites. [more..]

Palo Alto, Calif. - The Facebook online social network on Friday announced the launch of a Spanish-language version of its site, which was created with the input of nearly 1,500 Spanish-speaking Facebook users who helped translate the site in less than a month. [more..]

Los Angeles - Verizon on Friday announced that hip-hop producer Timbaland has been named its first Mobile Producer in Residence, who will use the company's V CAST service to launch an entire mobile album during the course of 2008. [more..]

Venice, Calif. - NovaTunes this week announced the launch of its Internet record label, which counts a roster of 50 artists who will be paid 70% of music revenue at the moment of purchase. [more..]

Las Vegas - The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) last night announced winners of the 11th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, with "Call of Duty 4," "BioShock" and "The Orange Box" each picking up four awards. [more..]