spokeswoman

The Transportation Department said Tuesday it is prohibiting truck and bus drivers from sending text messages on hand-held devices while operating commercial vehicles.

The prohibition, which applies to drivers of interstate buses and trucks over 10,000 pounds, is effective immediately, the department said in a statement. Truck and bus drivers who text while driving commercial vehicles may be subject to civil or criminal penalties of up to $2,750, the department said.

Debbie Hodges was scanning the Internet when an ad that offered help seeking federal grants caught her eye. She applied for information, hoping to seek aid for the school where she works and the fire department where her husband volunteers.

"I figured it couldn't hurt to try and see what was out there," said Hodges, 47, of Northfield, Conn.

But after providing her credit card information, she said, she lost more than $70 without getting any leads to government grants.

The struggling Internet company AOL was laying off up to 1,200 workers this week because it didn't get enough volunteers to accept buyouts.

AOL spokeswoman Tricia Primrose said Monday that only 1,100 had volunteered to leave. That means AOL would need to shed up to 1,200 positions to reach its previously announced reduction target of up to 2,300, or about a third of its work force.

A "year 2010 problem" which surprised software experts has crippled microchips in millions of German payment cards, causing automatic teller machines to swallow what appear to be expired cards.

The DSGV German banking association said Tuesday the problem still affected most credit cards when they were used to withdraw money.

One day earlier, the ZKA national credit-industry committee said it expected direct-debit cards issued by the banks to soon be safe to use again with banks fixing the software problem by late Monday.

Convicted ex-Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee will be granted a special pardon to allow the influential business magnate to rejoin efforts to bring the Winter Olympics to South Korea, the government said Tuesday.

Lee, 67, stepped down in April 2008 after 20 years at the helm of the Samsung Group after being indicted in connection with losses at a Samsung affiliate and for tax evasion. He later was fined and sentenced to a suspended three-year prison term.

Alexandr

The federal government improperly posted an internal guide to its airport passenger screening procedures on the Internet in a way that could offer insight into how to sidestep security.

The document outlines who is exempt from certain additional screening measures, including members of the U.S. armed forces, governors and lieutenant governors, the mayor of Washington, D.C., and their immediate families.

Cell phone handset maker Sony Ericsson will move its North American headquarters from North Carolina to Atlanta and close a half-dozen sites worldwide as it retrenches against what it expects will be a tighter market and cuts about 1,600 jobs globally.

The joint venture between Sweden's LM Ericsson and Japan's Sony Corp. will consolidate product development operations by closing sites in Research Triangle Park; Seattle; Miami; San Diego; Kista, Sweden; and Chennai, India, spokeswoman Stacy Doster said.

Google Inc. faces a new controversy in China after a Web site run by the Communist Party's main newspaper accused the U.S. search giant of trying to keep Internet users away following its reports on a copyright dispute.

The online People's Daily book section said the three-day disruption began last Wednesday after it reported on a Chinese group's complaint that Google's plan for an online library of digitized books might violate Chinese authors' copyrights.

A Swedish mobile phone operator acknowledged Tuesday it was behind an elaborate meteorite hoax in Latvia and pledged to reimburse the Baltic nation for all costs spent by police, rescue and military workers in the incident.

Vita Sirica, a spokeswoman for the Latvian branch of Tele2, said the stunt was coordinated with a PR firm "to draw attention away from Latvia's economic crisis and toward something else more interesting."

In response, Latvia said Tuesday it would cut its contracts with the company.