The European Commission has officially approved the Oracle-Sun merger, paving the way for Oracle to take over Sun Microsystems in a deal valued at more than $7 billion.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is preparing to deliver a major speech on Thursday elevating the importance of Internet freedom and placing the influence of the United States' diplomacy behind efforts to protect it, according to multiple people who have been briefed on the speech's contents.

The recent cyberattacks on Google and other U.S. companies became public because they prompted Google's dramatic showdown with China, but attempts to steal corporate secrets using the Internet happen under the radar on a daily basis. "Espionage has been going on for decades. The Internet has made it a lot easier to conduct espionage," said John Bumgarner, chief technology officer at the government-funded think tank U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit. "The targets are mostly defense contractors and high-tech companies that have some type of competitive advantage that someone wants to steal."

The China-based cyber attacks on Google and other companies were "a watershed moment in cybersecurity," according to an executive at computer security company McAfee.

It's doubtful that they would admit it, but U.S. studio chiefs and music moguls must dream that their country will one day elect a president like Nicolas Sarkozy.

Sure, every blogger worth his salt has weighed in on the long-rumored Apple tablet that may or may not be--its possible size, shape, specs, debut date, and on and on. Now offering up a perspective on the matter is a high-profile tech industry executive, Kai-fu Lee, who until recently was the head of Google's China operations.