New York - Mexican telecommunications billionaire Carlos Slim Helu has paid about $127 million for a 6.4% stake in The New York Times Company, The Times reported, citing a regulatory filing. [more..]

Dulles, Va. - As discussions continue about the possible sale of all or part of AOL, owner Time Warner revealed that advertising at the unit has slowed significantly in recent weeks, Bloomberg reported. [more..]

Washington - The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday approved the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights Act of 2008, which would give the Justice Dept. authority to prosecute civil copyright cases, expand seizure powers in civil copyright cases, and create a Cabinet-level "piracy czar" to coordinate all of the government's various anti-piracy initiatives. [more..]

Los Angeles - Venue owner and concert promoter Live Nation announced on Thursday that it has signed a multi-year deal with SMG, to be the exclusive ticketing agent for the company's 216 venues. [more..]

London - Following a year-long investigation into the workings of OiNK, a BitTorrent tracker site shut down by U.K. and Dutch authorities, four of the people arrested for sharing music on the service have been charged with copyright infringement, allegedly for uploading a single CD, TorrentFreak reported. [more..]

Cupertino, Calif. - Apple is refuting claims made by NBC that it made any special considerations on pricing or bundling of content at its iTunes Store that prompted the broadcaster to return its programming to the store, CNET News.com reports. [more..]

San Francisco - Nearly half of U.S. "tweens" (ages 8-12), or about 20 million young consumers, are using cell phones, according to a report from Nielsen Mobile. [more..]

Los Angeles - Viacom's MTV is reportedly developing a reality show produced by Mark Burnett based on its forthcoming karaoke video game "Rock Band 2," if casting calls posted to Craigslist in Los Angeles are to be believed, Variety reports. [more..]

Waterloo, Ontario - BlackBerry smartphone maker Research In Motion (RIM) on Thursday announced new partnerships with TiVo, MySpace, Microsoft and Ticketmaster that will bring new content and services to its devices. [more..]

London - U.K. rock band Marillion has partnered with Web marketing firm Music Glue to make its fifteenth studio album available as a free download from peer-to-peer file-sharing networks, Billboard reports. [more..]

New York - Viacom's MTV is set to launch a new Web-based interactive TV social game, "Backchannel," that lets viewers comment on shows like "The Hills" in real-time, and garner points when their comments are liked by others, as well as when they predict which comments from others will become popular. [more..]

San Francisco - Greystripe, a distributor of ad-supported mobile games, said on Thursday that it has partnered with NBC Universal to provide its entire catalog on NBCU's mobile properties. [more..]

New York - Digital music and video distributor The Orchard said on Thursday that it has signed a deal with Wu Music Group for the rights to distribute legendary hip-hop troupe Wu-Tang Clan's catalog to digital retailers. [more..]

Burlington, Mass. - Burst Media, a provider of online advertising services, on Thursday announced the launch of the Burst Entertainment Network. [more..]

London - Sony Computer Entertainment Europe announced it has partnered with Universal Music Group to release a version of its "SingStar" karaoke game for PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 that features Swedish pop band ABBA. [more..]

Redwood City, Calif. - Electronic Arts on Thursday named former UCLA standout Kevin Love as the cover athlete for its NCAA Basketball 09 title. [more..]