Chinese authorities say they have blocked messaging apps KakaoTalk and Line as part of efforts to fight terrorism,South Korea said on Thursday, the first official explanation of service disruptions in China that began a month ago.

China's recent probes into Microsoft Corp and car companies including Audi and Chrysler have rekindled concerns that Beijing may be using an anti-monopoly law to support domestic firms at the expense of foreign companies.

Samsung and Apple have been battling it out in the smartphone arena for at least three years. The big question is: Who will conquer the world and get dominion in the consumer electronic business?

Chinese news reports that Beijing based-Memblaze has completed Series C funding with $20 million. Investors include Bertelsmann Asia Investments, Israel's Infinity Group, ZTE Corporation's Ding Xing Fund, and Genertec Investment Managers Ltd.

Retention Science managed to raise $7 million in Series A funding, backed by Upfront Ventures, and earlier investors including Baroda Ventures, Forerunner Ventures, Mohr Davidow Ventures as well as so-called angel investors. With the recent funding, the company reportedly plans to hire sales and marketing staff, as well as more data scientists who can demonstrate "retention marketing" beyond retail.

The US National Institutes of Health has awarded Oraya Therapeutics with a $215,000 Small Business Technology Transfer Grant to investigate gold nanoparticles development.

Backed by Norwest Venture Partners, New Enterprise Associates (NEA), SingTel Innov8 of the SingTel Group, and an undisclosed global bank, Bitglass reportedly received additional $25 million in Series B funding. Norwest and NEA were also among its investors in the earlier round, where it got $10 million. The company plans to use the new investment to expand sales, marketing and technology development.

Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Transatomic Power Corporation has just received $2 million from FF Science, part of Founders Fund's $1 billion investment pool targeted at science and engineering-based companies.

Seattle-based Juno Therapeutics announced it has closed Series B round of funding with $134 million. The new funding came from previous investors including ARCH Venture Partners, Alaska Permanent Fund, Bezos Expedition, the personal investment company of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and Venrock. Also participating in Series B are 10 other mutual funds and healthcare-related funds that wish to remain anonymous.

Vectra Networks managed to raise additional $25 million in its Series C funding from existing investor Accel Partners and other investors, including AME Cloud Ventures, IA Ventures and Khosla Ventures participating in the round, Intel Capital and Juniper Networks, through its Junos Innovation Fund. The new investment will be used to boost sales, marketing efforts as well as engineering.