San Francisco  - The California Supreme Court said Wednesday that it would hear legal challenges to the recent voter initiative that banned same-sex marriage.

A hearing was scheduled for March, and the court refused to permit gay weddings to resume pending a ruling.

The decision was greeted by supporters and opponents of the ban, who want a ruling to clarify the situation once and for all.

San Francisco  - Has Google invented the killer app for the iPhone?

The software giant has long seen internet-savvy mobile phones as its next frontier, and now it seems to have invented the perfect way to get phone users to rely on Google's search system as easily as they do over more traditional internet connections.

San Francisco  - Jerry Yang, who helped kick start the internet revolution in 1995 as co-founder of web portal Yahoo, is stepping down as the company's chief executive.

The announcement by the ailing internet giant came after months of falling revenue, fierce proxy battles and a series of botched negotiations that scuttled what now seems to have been an exceedingly generous buyout offer from Microsoft.

Yang's alternative plan - an ad alliance with Google - was scuttled last week after strenuous objections from antitrust regulators.

San Francisco - Silicon Valley company Spansion sued Samsung on Monday alleging that the South Korean company had violated numerous patents in its flash memory products and asking the courts to ban the sale of devices like the Apple iPod that use Samsung memory modules.

San Francisco  - Google unveiled video and voice capabilities to its popular Gmail chat program Tuesday, making it a more worthy competitor to rival applications from Microsoft and Yahoo, which have boasted such features for years.

The new service requires users to download and install a plug-in and have their computer connected to a webcam. Google has teamed with camera maker Logitech to offer users healthy discounts on webcams, the companies said in a statement.