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Google will need to add to the number of partners to develop the next phase of its self-driving project, but the president of that project did not name any of those partners-to-be. John Krafcik, president of the Google self-driving project, in a speech on Tuesday at an auto industry conference in Detroit, did not mention the name of any automaker or say whether it would partner with any automakers to build a fully autonomous car. Krafick said Google wants to form some partnerships in 2016.

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(Reuters) – President Barack Obama's administration has backed away from seeking legislation that would give U.S. law enforcement agencies access to individuals' encrypted messages, the White House said on Saturday. “We are actively engaged with private companies to ensure they understand the public safety and national security risks that result from malicious actors’ use of their encrypted products and services,” said White House spokesman Mark Stroh. “However, the administration is not seeking legislation at this time.” Stroh reiterated comments by Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey, who in testifying before a Senate committee on Thursday said the administration would not seek a bill allowing it to crack into encrypted information.

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By Matt Spetalnick and Michael Martina WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama announced on Friday that he had reached a “common understanding” with Chinese President Xi Jinping on curbing economic cyber espionage, but threatened to impose U.S. sanctions on Chinese hackers who persist with cyber crimes. The two leaders also unveiled a deal to build on a landmark emissions agreement struck last year, outlining new steps they will take to deliver on pledges they made then to slash their greenhouse gas emissions. Speaking after White House talks during Xi's first U.S. state visit, Obama quickly homed in on the thorniest dispute between the world's two biggest economies – growing U.S. complaints about Chinese hacking of government and corporate databases, and the suspicion in Washington that Beijing is sometimes behind it.

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By Michael Martina and Eric M. Johnson SEATTLE (Reuters) – Chinese President Xi Jinping sought to reassure U.S. officials on Tuesday that Beijing remains committed to financial reforms and an open economy. “China will not go backward in this process,” Xi said at a forum for U.S. and Chinese governors in Seattle during the first day of his week-long visit to the United States. Xi's visit will include meetings with tech and other top business leaders, a black-tie state dinner at the White House hosted by President Barack Obama and an address at the United Nations.

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The White House is considering applying sanctions against companies and individuals in China it believes have benefited from Chinese hacking of U.S. trade secrets, the Washington Post reported on Sunday. The newspaper, citing several unidentified Obama administration officials, said a final determination on whether to issue the sanctions was expected soon, possibly as early as the next two weeks. Suspicions that Chinese hackers were behind a series of data breaches in the United States have been an irritant in relations between the world's two largest economies as President Xi Jinping prepares to make his first visit to the United States next month.

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By Yasmeen Abutaleb SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff capped off her U.S. tour on Wednesday with a visit to Silicon Valley, where she met with top technology executives and took a ride in Google Inc's self-driving car. Rousseff used her visit to strengthen ties with U.S. technology companies after visiting Washington, D.C. and New York City earlier in the week. During her visit, Google announced it would inaugurate a new engineering space in Belo Horizonte in November that will more than double the number of engineers working in Brazil on some of the company's core products.

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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 Joseph Menn and Roberta Rampton SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama is set to sign an executive order on Friday aimed at encouraging companies to share more information about cybersecurity threats with the government and each other, a response to attacks like that on Sony Entertainment. The order sets the stage for new private-sector led “information sharing and analysis organizations” (ISAOs) – hubs where companies share cyber threat data with each other and with the Department of Homeland Security. It is one step in a long effort to make companies as well as privacy and consumer advocates more comfortable with proposed legislation that would offer participating companies liability protection, the White House said. “We believe that by clearly defining what makes for a good ISAO, that will make tying liability protection to sectoral organizations easier and more accessible to the public and to privacy and civil liberties advocates,” said Michael Daniel, Obama's cyber coordinator, in a conference call with reporters.

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Britain and the United States will increase cooperation on cyber security, Prime Minister David Cameron said, setting up “cyber cells” to share intelligence and conduct simulated attacks to test the defences of organisations such as banks. Cameron is on a two-day visit to Washington focused on the economy and security, and is due to have a second meeting with President Barack Obama on Friday at the White House. The cooperation between Britain's GCHQ eavesdropping agency and the U.S. National Security Agency will include joint war games, with the first exercise later this year to involve the Bank of England and commercial banks in both the City of London and Wall Street, the BBC reported.