3-year ban for Miley stalker

A judge has granted singer Miley Cyrus a three-year civil restraining order against a man who was convicted of trespassing at her Los Angeles home.

The order was granted yesterday against Jason Luis Rivera (40), who was was convicted in October of trespassing and sentenced to 18 months in jail.

He is scheduled to be released in May. Authorities said at the time of his arrest in September that he was carrying scissors and ran into the wall of Cyrus's home as if trying to break in.

Google faces tracking fine

A US federal judge has said she is leaning toward approving a government settlement that will require Google to pay a $22.5m (¤17.5m) fine to resolve allegations that it duped web surfers using the Safari browser in order to track their online activities.

The Federal Trade Commission reached the agreement with Google in August, but court approval is still needed.

Jordan feels Arab Spring

Thousands of demonstrators chanted the Arab Spring slogan "the people want the downfall of the regime" in Jordan yesterday, although a day billed as the culmination of three days of occasionally violent protests passed off largely in peace.

The staunch US ally has so far largely avoided the street unrest that has swept across the Middle East over the past two years, but a decision this week to raise fuel prices led to demonstrations.

Yesterday's protests near the main Husseini Mosque in central Amman was peaceful, with unarmed police separating the demonstrators denouncing King Abdullah from a smaller crowd chanting in support of the monarch.

Hope rises for gorilla survival

The population of Uganda's mountain gorillas has grown to 400, up from 302 in 2006, bringing the total number of mountain gorillas in Africa to 880 and giving hope to conservationists trying to save the species.

Uganda is now home to nearly half of the world's mountain gorillas remaining in the wild. The rest of the surviving mountain gorillas are in Congo and Rwanda.