New York, US-based hedge fund Libra Advisors will pick up a $7.2% stake in Auckland, New Zealand-based business developer Rubicon to support that latter's future forestry biotech project.

Cambridge, Massachusetts-based firm MC10 made a bio-stamp that can take a person's vital signs and a head impact indicator backed by Reebok monitor for possible head trauma.

Oregon, US-based startup bRight Switch launched a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo to raise $115,500 for a prototype of a wall-fixed smart tablet that will replace the ordinary home light switch.

Hanoi, Vietnam-based game developer Don Nguyen of dotGears took down the top-ranking mobile game Flappy Bird from both iOS and Google Play app stores today, reportedly due to the various criticisms he had been receiving in connection with the game.

The Central Bank of Russia echoed its statement that the Ruble is the country's official currency, and being a money substitute, Bitcoin is now banned because it is reportedly used in illegal activities.

British helicopter airline Bristow Helicopters picked up a 60% stake in UK-based airline Eastern Airways International Ltd, with the two firms to continue operating as entities independent from each other, as part of the strategic investment deal.

Pittsburgh, US-based firm NoWait released a consumer app that lets customers remotely add themselves to the wait lists of restaurants using their phone and cut waiting time significantly.

India-based travel booking website MakeMyTrip bought Amsterdam, Netherlands-based hotel booking portal EasyToBook in a deal valued at around $5 million to increase its revenue through online hotel bookings.

New York City, US-based smart flight finding mobile app Hit List exited the beta phase and is currently raising around $500,000 in its seed funding round.

The value of digital currency Bitcoin plunged 21% to $619 from $783 after Tokyo, Japan-based exchange paused its trading because of an increase in withdrawal requests.

Security researcher Jamie Sanches has discovered and exposed a weakness within California-US-based photo messaging app Snapchat that could allow hackers to freeze and crash a user's phone.

Noida, India-based optimization software startup IntelloCut secured $200,000 (INR1.3 crore) in funding from a group of investors led by Blume Ventures and Google India's Ranjan Anandan.

France-based cloud storage service HubiC now has an updated product offering that consists of a 25GB free storage, 100GB for $1.35 (€1) every month, and 10TB for a $13.50 (€10) monthly fee.

New Bitcoin startup investor Ben Horowitz of US-based venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and Bitcoin skeptic Felix Salmon made a bet against each other on the status of the digital currency as a payment mechanism by 2109.

London, UK-based startup Togethera closed $250,000 in a seed funding round led by European and American angel investors to roll out its private family photo sharing app on Android.

San Francisco, US-based online real-time restaurant reservation service OpenTable launched a private beta of its dining payments service for 11 restaurants in San Francisco, with new restaurants to be added soon.

Moscow, Russia-based investment fund Flint Capital and government-backed early-stage fund FRII poured an undisclosed amount into St Petersburg-based photo manipulation detecting startup SMTDO Tech LTD.

Facebook is scrambling to fix a mobile security glitch discovered this week by MyPermissions chief Olivier Amar which involves the inability to remove apps that were previously downloaded.

Barcelona, Spain-based startup Voz.io raised $150,000 in a seed funding round from Kima Ventures for the development of its browser-based call center business and user acquisition strategies.

India-based music streaming service Gaana.com added independent music portal Musicfellas.com for an undisclosed amount, with the latter's site to be shut down and its catalogue to be moved to Gaana.

Kolkata, India-based public sector enterprise Balmer Lawrie & Co Ltd bought Mumbai-based travel venture Vacations Exotica including its employees and customers from Vacations Exotica Destinations Pvt Ltd for an undisclosed sum.

Stockholm, Sweden-based mobile phone community Truecaller grabbed $18.8 million in a Series B financing round led by Sequoia Capital to help identify unknown phone callers and block spam calls.

London, UK-based startup ASAP54 picked up $3 million in a recent venture round to support the development and international expansion of its mobile fashion search and discovery app.

Dublin, Ireland-based media holding firm Communicorp snapped up eight stations from London, UK-based media and publishing holding group Global Radio in a deal valued at £35 million as the latter was forced by the Competition Commission to do so.

San Francisco, California-based startup Snippit pocketed $500,000 in an internal family seed round to launch an app that lets users add a music clip to photos.

San Francisco, US-based scientific research crowdfunding platform Experiment.com (formerly Microryza) opened its site to include independent scientists in the scientific communities that the firm supports.

San Francisco, California-based mobile video advertising startup Vungle snagged $17 million in a Series B funding round led by Thomvest Ventures to build monetization tools for developers of mobile apps.

Yobie Bejamin, the former Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Citigroup, raised $1 million on via crowdfunding platform Kickstarter for hardware startup Avegant's new kind of headset called Glyph.

Tokyo, Japan-based Bitcoin exchange Mt Gox announced on its site that it temporarily halted Bitcoin withdrawals to resolve a technical problem that arose from the increased withdrawal traffic.

Tech giant Apple has cleared the App Store of all Bitcoin mobile wallet apps by pulling Blockchain from the store on Wednesday without a clear explanation for the move, but retained other non-wallet Bitcoin apps in the said store.