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By Richard Cowan WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Top U.S. tech companies are warning the Obama administration against imposing new policies that the companies say would weaken increasingly sophisticated encryption systems designed to protect consumers' privacy. In a strongly worded letter to President Barack Obama on Monday, two industry associations representing major software and hardware companies said, “We are opposed to any policy actions or measures that would undermine encryption as an available and effective tool.” The Information Technology Industry Council and the Software and Information Industry Association, representing tech giants, including Apple Inc, Google Inc, Facebook Inc, IBM and Microsoft Corp, fired the latest salvo in what could be a long fight over government access into smart phones and other digital devices.

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By Andrea Shalal WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A massive breach of U.S. federal computer networks disclosed this week is the latest in a flood of attacks by suspected Chinese hackers aimed at grabbing personal data, industrial secrets and weapons plans from government and private computers. The Obama administration on Thursday disclosed the breach of computer systems at the Office of Personnel Management and said the records of up to 4 million current and former federal employees may have been compromised. U.S. officials have said on condition of anonymity they believe the hackers are based in China, but Washington has not publicly blamed Beijing at a time when tensions are high over Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea.

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By Andrea Shalal and Matt Spetalnick WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Data stolen from U.S. government computers by suspected Chinese hackers included security clearance information and background checks dating back three decades, U.S. officials said on Friday, underlining the scope of one of the largest known cyber attacks on federal networks. Accusations by U.S. government sources of a Chinese role in the cyber attack, including possible state sponsorship, could further strain ties between Washington and Beijing.

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By Warren Strobel and Mark Hosenball WASHINGTON (Reuters) – At 3:59 p.m. EDT on Sunday, the National Security Agency and telecommunications companies will begin mothballing a once-secret system that collected Americans' bulk telephone records, shutting down computers and sealing off warehouses of digital data. If the U.S. Congress fails to act, key provisions of the USA Patriot Act will lapse in a watershed moment in the post-Sept. 11, 2001, era. Intrusive government powers, created and wielded in the name of preventing another mass-casualty terrorist attack, would be at least partly scaled back, proponents and critics of the surveillance say.

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The negotiations with Suddenlink are more advanced and a transaction could be announced later this week, the people said. Time Warner Cable has a market capitalization of $44.5 billion. Since Time Warner Cable's merger with Comcast fell apart last month, Time Warner Cable is also being circled by small rival Charter Communications.

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A U.S. appeals court on Monday reversed part of the $930 million verdict that Apple Inc won in 2012 against Samsung Electronics Co Ltd , saying the iPhone maker's trade dress could not be protected. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld the patent infringement violations found by the jury. Trade dress is a legal term for a trademark on the way a product is packaged or presented.

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By Julia Fioretti BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Commission will take into account increased competition from cable operators and alternative services such as WhatsApp when it overhauls Europe's telecoms rules next year, a move that will be cheered by the telecoms industry. A draft seen by Reuters of the Commission's strategy for creating a digital single market says telecom operators compete with “over-the-top” services “without being subject to the same regulatory regime”. The bloc's telecom firms such as Orange and Deutsche Telekom have long called for lighter-touch regulation, after years of declining revenues and competition from new entrants, to enable them to invest in network upgrades. Telecom companies point to increased competition from services such as Skype (owned by Microsoft ) and online messaging as a reason for easing the regulatory burden.

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By Natalie Thomas BEIJING (Reuters) – In China's online hostessing world, men find virtual company and the women can find riches. Student Xiao Yue, 21, spends four hours most days chatting online with fans who shower her with virtual roses and other presents. She is one of more than 10,000 hostesses on the internet site bobo.com, a live broadcasting web platform where anyone can record themselves singing, playing piano, dancing or just chatting. Xiao Yue’s specialty is to sajiao – a very Chinese type of flirting characterized by the woman acting in a cutesy childlike manner and speaking in a whiny voice.

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By Noel Randewich and Astrid Wendlandt SAN FRANCISCO/PARIS (Reuters) – Customers preordering Apple Inc's smartwatch on Friday will have to wait at least a month for delivery, a sign of strong early demand for company chief Tim Cook's first new major product. People flocked to Apple's stores around the world to get a close-up look at the Apple Watch, the tech company's foray into the personal luxury goods market, with Apple predicting demand would exceed supply at product launch. “We view this as an indication of solid demand paired with very limited supply,” Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster wrote in a note to clients. “We continue to expect modest sales in the June quarter as demand ramps over time.” A key factor in the watch's success will be demand once an initial wave of interest from Apple enthusiasts subsides.

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By Dan Levine SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A U.S. appeals court appeared skeptical on Wednesday toward Google Inc's bid to charge Microsoft Corp a high royalty rate to use some of the Internet search provider's Motorola Mobility patents. Microsoft sued Motorola in 2010, alleging Motorola breached its commitment to license some of its industry standard patents on fair terms. After a 2012 trial, a Seattle federal judge found that the appropriate rate for Motorola to license certain wireless and video technology used in the Xbox game console was only a fraction of what Motorola had asked for. Google sold the Motorola handset business to Lenovo last year, but kept its patents.