Los Angeles - Confirming reports from last week, News Corp.'s MySpace announced on Tuesday that it will cut 30% of its U.S. staff, or about 420 employees, "as part of a plan to restructure itself into a more innovative, efficient, and entrepreneurial business," the company said. [more..]

London - The global entertainment and media market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 2.7% over the next five years, to reach $1.6 trillion in 2013, according to the annual report from PricewaterhouseCoopers. [more..]

San Francisco - Twitter postponed plans to take the site down last night for scheduled maintenance after hearing from both users and the U.S. State Department that the service is being used by protestors communicating information about the election and aftermath in Iran. [more..]

London - The U.K. government aims to reduce by 70-80% the incidence of unlawful file-sharing, and will instruct its Ofcom communications regulator to work with the industry on commercial solutions, which "remain by far the preferred approach," according to the Digital Britain report released on Tuesday. [more..]

Tokyo - Japan's parliament has amended its Copyright Law to make it illegal for users to download copyrighted materials that have not been uploaded with right holders' permission, Billboard reports. [more..]

Duluth, Minn. - The retrial of accused file-swapper Jammie Thomas-Rasset began on Tuesday with jury selection, opening arguments and testimony from Sony Entertainment and MediaSentry, according to published reports. [more..]

Los Angeles - Digital production studio and ad sales firm Ripe Digital Entertainment has shut down, Deadline Hollywood Daily reported. [more..]

Boston - Virtual worlds are expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 23% from 2009 through 20015, according to a report from market research firm Strategy Analytics. [more..]

San Francisco - Boku, a provider of mobile micropayment services, announced on Tuesday that it has closed a $13 million round of venture capital funding, led by Benchmark Capital. [more..]

San Francisco - Zoosk, an online social dating community, announced on Tuesday that it has raised $6 million in third round financing, led by previous backer Canaan Partners. [more..]

Palo Alto, Calif. - MySpace's former chief marketing officer Shawn Gold is currently at work on a new venture, Cocodot, and has raised just under $1 million in seed funding from investors including Anthem Venture Partners and William Morris' Mail Room Fund, TechCrunch reports. [more..]

San Bruno, Calif. - Google's YouTube on Tuesday launched a small test of user-selected advertising, wherein users will be able to choose whether to watch one Promoted Video at the outset, or a few in-stream ads during their selected video. [more..]

Sunnyvale, Calif. - Yahoo on Tuesday announced five new members of its Newspaper Consortium, which aims to boost ad revenue by integrating paid search technology and HotJobs listings on newspaper web sites, as well as offering the company's ad inventory to their local clients. [more..]

McLean, Va. - Gannett, the publisher of USA Today and 83 other daily U.S. newspapers, said that Craig Dubow, its chairman, president and CEO, will take a temporarily medical leave of absence following back surgery. [more..]

London - The U.K. government has selected the Pan-European Game Information (PEGI) system to provide video game ratings for titles sold in the U.K., over the current ratings scheme provided by the BBFC, GamePolitics reported. [more..]

San Diego - H2O Audio, a manufacturer of waterproof headphones and accessories for MP3 players and other consumer electronics, announced on Tuesday that it has signed a multi-year sponsorship deal with 16-time Olympic medalist swimmer Michael Phelps. [more..]