Washington - As the Obama administration pledges to increase its anti-trust enforcement, the European Commission on Tuesday fined chipmaker Intel a record $1.45 billion for engaging in what it called illegal practices designed to exclude competitors -- most notably rival AMD -- from the market for computer chips. [more..]

Chicago - Online classifieds site Craigslist has agreed to remove its "Erotic Services" section, after complaints from a raft of state attorneys general that it was a haven for soliciting prostitution. [more..]

Paris - Days after France's National Assembly voted to approve a "three-strikes" bill that would compel Internet service providers to disconnect repeat file-swappers, the country's Senate voted 189-14 to approve the law as well, the Associated Press reported. [more..]

Duluth, Minn. - The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) was unable to reach a settlement with Jammie Thomas, the first person convicted of criminal copyright infringement for file-sharing, who was granted a retrial after the judge admitted to erring in juror instructions, Wired.com reported. [more..]

New York - IAC, the stable of Internet businesses owned by Barry Diller, said on Tuesday that the CEO of search engine Ask.com, Jim Safka, is stepping down for personal reasons. [more..]

Stockholm, Sweden - Swedish authorities are moving to collect the $3.8 million in damages the country's High Court has ordered the operators of file-sharing hub The Pirate Bay to pay as part of their copyright infringement conviction, which is currently under appeal, CNET News.com reported. [more..]

New York - BlogHer, an ad network and community of over 2,500 blogs focused on women, has raised $7 million in its third round of funding, All Things D reported. [more..]

El Segundo, Calif. - FUHU, a provider of virtual avatars, identity cards and other social widgets, has raised $6.25 million in its second round of venture capital financing from computer maker The Acer Group. [more..]

Paris - Streamezzo, the provider of an open mobile applications development platform, announced on Wednesday that it has raised $5.4 million a new investment round led by Innovacom. [more..]

San Francisco - Sling Media, a unit of EchoStar that provides media place-shifting technology, on Wednesday introduced a $30 iPhone application that allows users to stream their home TV channels to the device over a Wi-Fi connection. [more..]

Los Angeles - Struggling video game publisher Atari has announced that it will not participate in this year's E3 video game conference, slated for June 2-4 in Los Angeles, GameDaily reported. [more..]

Los Angeles - Katalyst Media, the digital production firm started by actor Ashton Kutcher, has signed a deal to distribute its animated Web series "Blah Girls" on television with CBS Television Distribution, TechCrunch reports. [more..]

London - Nokia has partnered with U.K. mobile operator Orange to launch its Comes With Music service on the Nokia 5800 handset. [more..]

Seattle - Social music discovery service iLike on Wednesday introduced integration of its service with Twitter, YouTube, MySpace and Ticketmaster, as well as a service to help bands create their own iPhone applications. [more..]

San Diego - Sony on Wednesday unveiled its latest Walkman portable multimedia device, the X-series Walkman Video MP3 player, which sports an OLED touch-screen and Wi-Fi support. [more..]

New York - The Orchard, a provider of digital music distribution and marketing services, said on Wednesday that jazz legend Wynton Marsalis has signed a long-term, multi-faceted deal with the company. [more..]