Microsoft (MSFT) may have barred HTC (2498) from participating in the first wave of Windows RT tablets, but that apparently hasn’t stopped the company from gearing up for the next wave. Unnamed sources have told Bloomberg that HTC “is working on a 12-inch device and a 7-inch version” of a Windows RT tablet “that can also make phone calls.” The planned seven-inch tablet, which will be unveiled alongside the 12-inch tablet some time in 2013, will be the first small Windows RT tablet to hit the market and go head-to-head with other popular small tablets such as the Google (GOOG) Nexus 7 and the iPad mini.

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S.-traded shares Research In Motion rallied in after-hours trading on Thursday after the BlackBerry maker posted a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss excluding one-time items. The company's Nasdaq-listed shares were last up 8 percent at $15.25, extending a 3.6-percent gain in regular trading hours. They are also on track to close with a fourth straight month of gains. The stock has more than doubled since the start of September, including a more than 46 percent gain in November, but was still negative for the year at the close on Thursday. ...

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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc's Instagram lost almost a quarter of its daily users a week after it rolled out and then withdrew policy changes that incensed users who feared the photo-sharing service would use their pictures without compensation. Instagram, which Facebook bought for $715 million this year, saw the number of daily active users who accessed the service via Facebook bottom out at 12.4 million as of Friday, versus a peak of 16.4 million last week, according to data compiled by online tracker AppData. ...

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The reaction to the Connecticut school shooting can be seen in gun stores and self-defense retailers across the nation.

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Talk about a sticky mess. The Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers believe several million cans of stolen maple syrup may be sitting on U.S. grocery shelves. Quebec police arrested four men in connection with the robbery of 6 million pounds of maple syrup stolen...

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Four State Department officials resigned under pressure Wednesday, less than a day after a damning report blamed management failures for a lack of security at the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya.

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SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — A 16-year-old boy fatally shot his friend with a shotgun after the pair argued over a paintball game and playfully wrestled at the boy's home in South Dakota, according to an arrest affidavit released Wednesday.

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Police investigating an expressway-tunnel ceiling collapse that killed nine people searched the offices of the tunnel operator Tuesday to see if there is any evidence that the company neglected safety.

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A 38-year-old Beaverton driver dangled from a bridge several feet above Highway 217 for nearly an hour after his pickup truck crashed through a guard rail.

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Zynga shares tumbled nearly 13 percent in after-hours trading Thursday after the online game company and Facebook disclosed that they changed their relationship status to become less attached to each other.

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(Reuters) - Shares of gaming company Zynga Inc fell as much as 10 percent, a day after the "Farmville" creator reached an agreement with Facebook Inc that reduces its dependence on the social networking giant. The companies reported in regulatory filings on Thursday that they have reached an agreement to amend a 2010 deal that was widely seen as giving Zynga privileged status on the world's No.1 social network. ...

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During a year with a monster storm and scorching heat waves, Americans have experienced the kind of freakish weather that many scientists say will occur more often on a warming planet.

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The head of the FDA asked Congress for more authority to police pharmacies like the one that triggered a deadly meningitis outbreak, even as lawmakers questioned why the agency didn't do more with its existing powers.

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Research In Motion Ltd. will release its much-delayed BlackBerry 10 smartphones "not too long" after a launch event on Jan. 30, a senior executive said Tuesday.

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CROSSTABS - The Fiscal Cliff Reset

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WATERLOO, Ontario (Reuters) - Research In Motion is confident its new BlackBerry 10 devices will be 100 percent ready for the January 30 launch and available in stores "not too long after" that, Chief Operating Officer Kristian Tear said on Tuesday. "We're working hard right now to make sure all the bits and pieces and all the details are in place for the date, when the devices will be available for consumers and enterprises," Tear told Reuters in an interview. ...

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BOSTON (Reuters) - Apple Inc is removing old versions of Oracle Corp's Java software from Internet browsers on the computers of its customers when they install the latest update to its Mac operating system. Apple, which has previously included Java with installations of Mac OS X, announced the move on its support site. It said that customers need to obtain Java directly from Oracle if they want to access web content written the widely used programming language. (http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1572) Apple did not provide a reason for the change and both companies declined to comment. ...

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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Zynga Inc raised the lower end of its 2012 earnings outlook after quarterly revenue beat Wall Street's rock-bottom expectations, driving its shares 13 percent higher. As pressure fell on the embattled "FarmVille" creator to show Wednesday that it has stabilized its spiraling business, the company assuaged investors with a series of minor announcements, from a new deal with British firm bwin.party to offer online real-money gambling in the United Kingdom to a $200 million share buyback plan that would lift its dismal share price. ...

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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Zynga Inc raised the lower end of its 2012 earnings outlook after quarterly revenue beat Wall Street's rock-bottom expectations, driving its shares 13 percent higher. As pressure fell on the embattled "FarmVille" creator to show Wednesday that it has stabilized its spiraling business, the company assuaged investors with a series of minor announcements, from a new deal with British firm bwin.party to offer online real-money gambling in the United Kingdom to a $200 million share buyback plan that would lift its dismal share price. ...

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It was a very unhappy meal for a British man named Ronald McDonald who admitted to violating a restraining order when he followed his wife into a McDonald's restaurant. "Mr. McDonald followed his ex-wife along a number of streets. She parked in McDonald's in Westwood Cross and he followed her in," said prosecutor Julie Farbrace. [...]

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