Payments network Visa has today launched what it claims is the world's first commercial Visa mobile payments service for point-of-sale transactions using Near Field Communications (NFC) technology.

Orange-owner France Telecom has taken control of Senegal's largest mobile operator, Sonatel, by buying a further 9.87 percent stake in the operator from the Senegalese government. The purchase lifts France Telecom's shareholding in the firm from 42.3 percent to a majority 52.2 percent.

Check Point Software Technologies has closed its acquisition of Nokia's security appliance business, initially announced at the end of last year.

Reuters notes that the chief executives of Microsoft and Yahoo met last week to discuss potential partnerships between the companies' Internet search and advertising operations, the technology blog All Things Digital reported on Friday.

The Guardian reports that a deal struck between two technology companies could see hundreds of thousands of mobile games made available as the gambling market continues to boom.

A CNET News report, citing other sources, claims that Motorola is building a TV set top box, based on the Android open-source operating system, for Japanese telephone and broadband service provider KDDI.

Unstrung reports that Verizon Wireless may complete its nationwide deployment of LTE technology by 2014.