Technology Top Stories from Associated Press (AP)

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) , New Zealand's highest court ruled Thursday that it will hear an appeal by Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom and three colleagues as they seek to avoid extradition to the United States. The appeal to the New Zealand Supreme Court involves a ruling on evidence and represents one strand of the complex legal case against executives from the file-sharing site.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) , For Google CEO Larry Page, happiness is a warm computer. "Technology should do the hard work so people can get on doing the things that make them happiest in life," Page told a crowd of 6,000 software developers and entrepreneurs who flocked to San Francisco Wednesday for the opening day of Google's annual showcase for its latest breakthroughs.

PARIS (AP) , The French government is considering creating a new tax on smartphones and tablets in a bid to raise millions to support the creation of digital cultural content inside France. The proposal, handed to President Francois Hollande Monday, outlines a 1 percent tax on the sale of Internet-compatible devices, targeting companies such as Google, Apple and Amazon.

LOS ANGELES (AP) , Every time Los Angeles exhales, odd-looking gadgets anchored in the mountains above the city trace the invisible puffs of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases that waft skyward. Halfway around the globe, similar contraptions atop the Eiffel Tower and elsewhere around Paris keep a pulse on emissions from smokestacks and automobile tailpipes.

LOS ANGELES (AP) , Financial data and news company Bloomberg LP says it has corrected a "mistake" in its newsgathering policies and cut off its journalists' special access to client log-in activity on the company's ubiquitous trading information terminals after Goldman Sachs complained about the matter last month.

LONDON (AP) , International law enforcement agencies say the recent $45 million dollar ATM heist is just one of many scams they're fighting in an unprecedented wave of sophisticated cyberattacks. Old-school robberies by masked criminals are being eclipsed by stealth multimillion dollar cybercrime operations which are catching companies and investigators by surprise.

NEW YORK (AP) , A bloodless bank heist that netted more than $45 million has left even cybercrime experts impressed by the technical sophistication, if not the virtue, of the con artists who pulled off a remarkable internationally organized attack. "It was pretty ingenious," Pace University computer science professor Darren Hayes said Friday.

NEW YORK (AP) , The sophistication of a global network of thieves who drained cash machines around the globe of an astonishing $45 million in mere hours sent ripples through the security world, not merely for the size of the operation and ease with which it was carried out, but also for the threat that more such thefts may be in store.

TOKYO (AP) , Japanese consumer electronics giant Panasonic Corp. on Friday reported a near-record net loss of 754 billion yen ($7.5 billion) for the fiscal year through March due to restructuring costs and slumping sales, but predicted a return to the black this year as it prunes unprofitable businesses.

Josh Knoller, a young professional in New York City, spent years refusing his mother's "Friend Request" on Facebook before, eventually, "caving in." Today they have an agreement: she'll try not to make embarrassing comments, and he can delete them if she does.

NEW YORK (AP) , A worldwide gang of criminals stole $45 million in a matter of hours by hacking their way into a database of prepaid debit cards and then draining cash machines around the globe, federal prosecutors said Thursday , and outmoded U.S. card technology may be partly to blame.

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) , The Washington state Administrative Office of the Courts was hacked sometime between last fall and February, and up to 160,000 Social Security numbers and 1 million driver's license numbers may have been accessed during the data breach of its public website, officials said Thursday.

ALPHARETTA, Ga. (AP) , AT and T is launching a prepaid cellphone service , Aio Wireless. The new subsidiary will offer nationwide wireless service to value-conscious customers interested in unlimited talk, text and data plans without an annual contract.

LOS ANGELES (AP) , Roger Corman's campy B movies, children's shows like "Sesame Street" and "Inspector Gadget," and inspirational monologues by celebrities , these are among the offerings on 30 channels that will soon require a paid monthly subscription on YouTube.

WASHINGTON (AP) , The Senate sided with traditional retailers and financially strapped state and local governments Monday by passing a bill that would widely subject online shopping , for many a largely tax-free frontier , to state sales taxes.