Next-generation iPhone to enter mass production this month: media

Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd, the world's largest contract manufacturer of electronic goods, will begin mass production of Apple Inc's next-generation iPhone this month, local media reported Friday.

Mass production of a 4.7-inch successor to the wildly popular iPhone 5 series of smartphones will begin during the third week of July, Taiwan's Economic Daily News said, without citing sources. Production of a 5.5-inch version will begin during the second week of August, it said.

A separate report issued Thursday by a China state-run news service said Hon Hai is planning to hire 100,000 workers at its mainland facilities to meet future demand for the gadget, citing comments made by the chief of the Henan Provincial Commerce Department.

Google's executive shuffle highlights its growing ambitions

Google Inc's reshuffle of its senior ranks underscores the Internet company’s evolving business ambitions, analysts say.

Three years after co-founder Larry Page took the reins back as chief executive officer, his team of lieutenants is clearly undergoing a refresh.

On Thursday, Google announced the surprise departure of its veteran business chief Nikesh Arora, who will become Vice Chairman of SoftBank Corp.  

Arora represents the latest in a string of personnel changes within Google’s top ranks over the past 16 months, affecting major divisions from Youtube to its popular Android mobile software.

Elaine Stritch, salty star of Broadway, dies at 89

 Elaine Stritch, a husky-voiced actress whose performances over six decades lit up New York's Broadway and London's West End and brought a touch of the profane to the stage with her brassy personality, died on Thursday at age 89.

Stritch, who also had Emmy-winning roles on the television shows "30 Rock" and "Law & Order," died at home in Birmingham, Michigan, a suburb of her native Detroit, from natural causes, her spokesman said. She had suffered from diabetes for several years and had been in declining health.

Stritch worked with some of the stage's greatest composers - from Noel Coward, who called her Stritchie, to Stephen Sondheim, who wrote what became her signature song, the show-stopping "The Ladies Who Lunch," from the 1970 musical "Company."

World leaders demand answers after airliner downed over Ukraine with 298 dead

World leaders demanded an international investigation into the shooting down of a Malaysian airliner with 298 people on board over eastern Ukraine in a tragedy that could mark a pivotal moment in the worst crisis between Russia and the West since the Cold War.

One U.S. official said Washington strongly suspected the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 was downed by a sophisticated surface-to-air missile fired by Ukrainian separatists backed by Moscow.

There were no survivors from Thursday's crash, which left wreckage and bodies scattered across miles of rebel-held territory near Ukraine's border with Russia.

The scale of the disaster could prove a turning point for international pressure to resolve the crisis in Ukraine, which has killed hundreds since protests toppled the Moscow-backed president in Kiev in February and Russia annexed the Crimea a month later.

Malaysian airliner downed in Ukraine war zone, 295 reported dead

An armed pro-Russian separatist takes pictures at the site of a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 plane crash near the settlement of Grabovo in the Donetsk region, July 17, 2014.

A Malaysian airliner was brought down over eastern Ukraine on Thursday, killing all 295 people aboard and sharply raising the stakes in a conflict between Kiev and pro-Moscow rebels in which Russia and the West back opposing sides.

Ukraine accused "terrorists" - militants fighting to unite eastern Ukraine with Russia - of shooting down the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 with a heavy, Soviet-era SA-11 ground-to-air missile as it flew from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

Leaders of the rebel Donetsk People's Republic denied any involvement, although around the same time their military commander said his forces had downed a much smaller Ukrainian transport plane. It would be their third such kill this week.