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Amazon.com Inc ratcheted up the pressure on Hachette Book Group by proposing the publisher's authors get all the revenue from ebooks sold by the ecommerce company, as both sides try to resolve their bitter months-long contract dispute. Hachette rejected the offer on Tuesday. The fourth-largest U.S. book publisher, owned by France's Lagardere, instead asked Amazon to immediately withdraw "sanctions" on its books. Amazon's reply to Hachette's response: "We call baloney." At the center of the highly charged dispute is the price Amazon can charge for e-books. Earlier this year, Amazon delayed delivery of some Hachette titles, including sought-after print versions and, at one point, it removed a pre-order option for "The Silkworm," by Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling writing as Robert Galbraith. Amazon, in a letter to authors and agents seen by Reuters on Tuesday, portrayed its proposal as a windfall for writers. Amazon also said it tried

Mexico's lower house of Congress gave general approval on Tuesday to legislation that aims to rein in telecoms tycoon Carlos Slim and broadcaster Televisa to encourage more competition in the phone and TV markets. The approval was a victory for President Enrique Pena Nieto, who has faced political opposition and a sluggish economy this year after he pushed a series of reforms through Congress in 2013 that were designed to spur faster growth in Mexico. _0"> Slim was reacting to the bill even as it passed. Just as lawmakers voted to pass the bill's general framework, his telecoms conglomerate America Movil said it would be willing to sell assets to reduce its market share below 50 percent if it could escape tougher regulations. Opposition lawmakers made dozens of reservations on parts of the legislation that will be debated on the floor of the lower house. Final approval is likely to stretch into the night as lawmakers work through the reserved articles of the law. T

A German court has ordered Motorola Deutschland and Motorola Mobility USA to stop selling mobile phones in Germany, which infringe a patent owned by LPKF Laser & Electronics AG, the company said on Wednesday. _0"> The German company said in a statement that the regional court in Mannheim has ruled that the companies infringe LPKF's patent for Laser Direct Structuring, which is used in antennas for mobile phones. (Reporting by Harro ten Wolde; Editing by Kirsti Knolle)

Big retailers are taking a calculated hit to margins to invest in online grocery operations, in the hope they can persuade consumers to add more profitable items like clothes and computers to their orders of fruit and vegetables. Food has been one of the last things to move online because complex logistics for fresh, chilled and frozen products make it an expensive business. Retailers are also reluctant to lose the potential for the lucrative impulse buys that occur in-store. However, retailers in Europe and North America are now ramping up their online food offer to compete with Amazon.com, which is expected to expand its sale of fresh produce beyond a few trial areas with the aim of complementing its non-food sales - and eating other retailers' lunch. "They are trying to hook customers up to brands for their grocery shop and hope they will spend on non-food which is lower headache and higher margin, which will drive profitability," said Sophie Albizua of retail con

A Beijing court has ruled against Apple Inc by upholding the validity of a patent held by a Chinese company, clearing the way for the Chinese company to continue its own case against Apple for infringing intellectual property rights. _0"> Apple had taken Shanghai-based Zhizhen Internet Technology and China's State Intellectual Property Office to court to seek a ruling that Zhizhen's patent rights to a speech recognition technology were invalid. But the Beijing First Intermediate Court on Tuesday decided in Zhizhen's favor, the People's Daily state newspaper reported on Wednesday. After the verdict, Apple said it intended to take the case to the Beijing Higher People's Court, according to the People's Daily. "Unfortunately, we were not aware of Zhizhen's patent before we introduced Siri (speech recognition technology) and we do not believe we are using this patent," said a Beijing-based Apple spokeswoman in an emailed statement to Reut

The man accused of creating Silk Road, which U.S. authorities said was an online drug marketplace, lost his bid on Wednesday to dismiss a federal indictment accusing him of conspiring to deal illegal narcotics and launder money. Ross Ulbricht, who prosecutors said was known online as "Dread Pirate Roberts," had claimed he did not conspire with Silk Road users who might have broken the law by completing transactions on the now-defunct website, using the digital currency bitcoin. He also claimed he was not involved in money laundering because bitcoins are not money. In a 51-page decision, U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest in Manhattan said, "the design and operation" of Silk Road and Ulbricht's role as an "intermediary" between website users justified letting prosecutors pursue their case. "The allegations amount to Ulbricht acting as a sort of 'godfather' - determining the territory, the actions which may be undertaken, and the com

Dish Network Corp said it plans to take part in the U.S. Federal Communications Commission's large sale of low-frequency airwaves planned for mid-2015, according to a filing disclosed on Wednesday. _0"> Dish's Chairman Charlie Ergen and other executives met with the FCC's Chairman Tom Wheeler, four commissioners and numerous wireless officials on Monday, giving the most explicit pledge so far by the satellite TV provider to "meaningfully participate" in the so-called "incentive" auction. "The incentive auction offers opportunities for competitive providers and new entrants to bid on and win much-needed lowband spectrum, which will facilitate the deployment of mobile broadband services," Dish Senior Vice President Jeffrey Blum wrote in the filing. Ergen, Blum and other Dish representatives also reiterated their plan to bid in the smaller AWS-3 spectrum auction scheduled to begin Nov. 13, where Dish is expected to be one of the mai