SAN FRANCISCO - FACEBOOK confirmed on Tuesday that chief financial officer Gideon Yu is leaving, adding another name to a list of executives exiting the popular online social-networking company.

Facebook said it is searching for someone 'with public company experience' to replace Mr Yu, who left a similar job at YouTube to become Facebook CFO in 2007.

WASHINGTON - INFORMATION technology (IT) spending is expected to fall nearly four per cent this year, the biggest slowdown since the dotcom bust of 2001, market research firm Gartner Inc said on Tuesday.

Gartner forecast that worldwide IT spending would decline 3.8 per cent in 2009 to US$3.2 trillion (S$4.9 trillion) from last year's US$3.4 trillion.

MOSCOW - Six European men embarked on a 105-day simulated trip to Mars at a Russian space institute on Tuesday to test how humans would cope with the long isolation.

The volunteer crew of four Russians, one German and a Frenchman smiled and waved to cameras before sealing themselves in the maze of cramped compartments in an imitation spaceship.