San Francisco  - Yahoo on Wednesday rolled out a new online advertising system aimed at boosting revenues as its board authorized fresh negotiations with Time Warner for the purchase of its AOL unit.

The board meeting Tuesday was the first since activist investor Carl Icahn was granted three seats on the board after agitating for a boardroom revolt over Yahoo's rejection of a 47.5-billion-dollar takeover by Microsoft.

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that the board decision sanctioned secret negotiations that have been taking place between Yahoo and Time Warner. Yahoo has valued AOL at between 5 billion dollars and 8 billion dollars, while Time Warner is asking for 10 billion dollars.

San Francisco  - The board of Yahoo has met for the first time since activist investor Carl Icahn was granted a seat at the table, authorizing fresh negotiations with Time Warner for the purchase of its AOL unit.

Icahn won board seats for himself and two allies after agitating for a boardroom revolt over Yahoo's rejection of a 47.5-billion- dollar takeover by Microsoft.

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that the board decision sanctioned secret negotiations that have been taking place between Yahoo and Time Warner. Yahoo has valued AOL at between 5 billion dollars and 8 billion dollars, while Time Warner is asking for 10 billion dollars.

San Francisco  - After an 80-day battle with legislators, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday signed a 143- billion-dollar state budget that ended a spending impasse in the richest and most populous state in the US.

The budget makes up California's 15.2-billion-dollar deficit with a combination of cuts and increased revenues and includes special provisions for a rainy-day fund intended to smooth out fluctuations in state tax revenue.

San Francisco  - When Google co-founder Larry Page talked Tuesday about his company's first venture into the world of mobile phones, he joked about how his inner geek loved tinkering with the open source operating system that powers the new cellphone.

"This is as good a computer as you had a few years ago," said Page as he playfully tossed the device - known as G1 - up in the air.

San Francisco  - Science museums are often a collection of stodgy exhibits and isolated experiments stuffed into grand, overbearing buildings.

But a new one opening Saturday in San Francisco's fabled Golden Gate Park aims to change that, stressing the all-encompassing role of science in the life of the planet and its inhabitants.

As might be expected from a 480-million-dollar structure in the country's eco-capital, the California Academy of Sciences hopes to be known as one of the greenest buildings on earth - a title that is literal as well as metaphoric.

The building's signature statement is a living roof topped with a rolling meadow filled with wildflowers. The entire structure is encased in glass and supported by slender columns.

San Francisco - Hopin