London - Canada's Thomson Corp. has agreed to acquire global news agency Reuters for about $17.2 billion, creating a company that will replace Bloomberg as the world's largest provider of financial news and information. [more..]

Washington - U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has proposed a new bill that would make "attempted" copyright infringement of intellectual property a crime, CNET News.com reported. [more..]

Dulles, Va. - Looking to bolster its presence in the mobile advertising space, AOL said on Tuesday that it has acquired Boston-based Third Screen Media, the operator of a mobile advertising network and provider of a mobile ad-serving and management platform. [more..]

New York - Satellite TV provider DirecTV is considering testing technology that could deliver broadband Internet access to consumers' homes over existing power lines, CEO Chase Carey said at a media conference on Monday, Reuters reported. [more..]

New York - The Harry Fox Agency (HFA), which represents licensing needs for 35,000 music publishers, announced on Tuesday that it has partnered with Audible Magic, a provider of digital fingerprinting and copyright tracking services, on a service that will identify music within user-generated content. [more..]

Milan - European online and mobile entertainment distributor Buongiorno announced on Tuesday that it has agreed to acquire London-based Flytxt, a provider of mobile marketing and advertising services, for about $5.4 million. [more..]

Mountain View, Calif. - Coupons Inc., a provider of printable coupon marketing and technology services, said on Tuesday that it has acquired San Diego-based Consumer Networks, the operator of Boodle, a service that provides newspapers with printable coupons from national brands and local retailers to feature on their websites. [more..]

Reston, Va. - Avail Media, a provider of advanced media services to broadband operators, said on Tuesday that it has raised $17 million in its second round of venture capital funding, co-led by Novak Biddle Venture Partners and Columbia Capital. [more..]

San Francisco - Kyte.tv, a service that lets users create interactive TV channels accessible through online and mobile platforms, announced on Tuesday that it has raised an undisclosed sum from new investors Swisscom and Holtzbrinck Ventures. [more..]

London - Major record label EMI Music announced that it has acquired former Beatle Paul McCartney's entire solo career catalog, which it plans to make available for the first time through digital services free of digital rights management (DRM) protections. The deal includes McCartney's releases with the band Wings, and his newest, "Memory Almost Full," which is set for release on June 4. [more..]

Alviso, Calif. - TiVo on Tuesday launched Swivel Search, a new feature for broadband-connected TiVo owners that allows them to search for programs by starting with a program they like, and using elements of that program to generate suggestions based on program name, actors and viewers' feedback. The system also uses topic-related tags to help describe programs. TiVo said the service is currently being deployed to broadband-connected Series2 and Series3 subscribers today. [more..]

Los Angeles - News Corp.'s MySpace on Tuesday announced the launch of new branded video channels from various news and lifestyle brands. MySpace Video will now feature specific channels from providers including National Geographic, The New York Times, IGN Entertainment, The Daily Reel and VBS.tv. [more..]

Burbank, Calif. - The Disney-ABC Television group announced on Tuesday an agreement with Sprint, to provide news and entertainment programming from ABC and Disney to mobile subscribers. The deal includes both full-length programs like "Grey's Anatomy," "Nightline" and "Hannah Montana," and three linear channels that stream continuous scheduled programming throughout the day. [more..]

New York - The Orchard, a digital distributor of independent music, announced that it has launched a tool on its website that allows music supervisors to quickly browse and purchase rights to music from the company's catalog for commercial use. The Trackdown service will allow for search of independent artists' songs in The Orchard's catalog using technology from MusicIP, which has a database of over 29 million songs analyzed for acoustic and social relationships. The companies said they are also collaborating on a consumer version of the service with Web and music device access. [more..]

Miami - A pair of virtual entrepreneurs have teamed to launch the Virtual Worlds Academy, which will promote the creative community in such worlds and host the first Virtual World Awards, to "recognize excellence and originality in virtual reality." Jon Jacobs (aka "NeverDie" in the Entropia Universe) and Ailin Graef (aka "Anshe Chung" in Second Life) both operate successful virtual businesses within their respective virtual worlds. "As the online community develops we think it's essential to document its history and its forefathers," said NeverDie. Submissions for the first Virtual World Awards will be accepted online through Nov. 15, with nominations to be announced in February 2008. [more..]

London - Danish telecommunications provider TDC on Tuesday announced the launch of its service, powered by 24-7 MusicShop, that allows customers to purchase digital music videos for download to both mobile phones and PCs. The service provides 10-second previews on mobile phones (MPEG 4) and 30-second previews on PCs (WMV). [more..]

Beijing - Chinese video game publisher Digital Bamboo on Tuesday announced plans to create video games and interactive entertainment geared towards improving health and promoting overall well-being. The company said it is working with prominent neuroscientists and educational psychologists, as well as licensing patented health technologies such as heart rate measurement and stress response management. For instance, gamers would need to steady their nerves in order to be able to sink a putt in a golf game. Digital Bamboo said Chinese national sports teams have trained using its games to improve concentration and eliminate the negative effects of stress. [more..]