(Reuters) - Dave Lee Travis, a leading BBC radio DJ in the 1970s and 1980s whose shows once delighted Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi, escaped jail on Friday despite being convicted of a "nasty" indecent assault on a television researcher.

Travis was the latest ageing British celebrity to be convicted of sex crimes in the wake of revelations that the late Jimmy Savile, one of the BBC's top TV presenters, had sexually abused hundreds of victims over decades.

The 69-year-old Travis, who had been found guilty on Tuesday, was told by the judge that the offense warranted three months in prison, but that the sentence would be suspended in consideration of Travis's poor health and the impact of the conviction on his job prospects, among other factors

"It was a nasty thing to do but it was more than that. It was an intentional and unpleasant sexual assault," said Judge Anthony Leonard.

"You took advantage of a young woman in a vulnerable position whose job it was to look after you that day."

During two trials, Travis, appearing under his real name of David Griffin, was cleared of a string of sexual offences against women over three decades. However, he was convicted of one charge of assaulting the 22-year-old victim in 1995.

"You pinned her up against the wall and started to touch her rib cage and then slid your hands up over her breasts and her clothes, and started squeezing them," Leonard said.

Travis had denied all the accusations, describing himself as a "big, hairy, cuddly bear" who was tactile but not a sexual predator. He accused the women of making up the claims to make money.

"Whilst I'm relieved that I've been able to prove that I'm not a sexual predator, I'm mortified and I am really disappointed that I was convicted of one count," he told reporters on leaving court.

"It's of little comfort to me that I was acquitted of so many others."

Among his fans was Myanmar opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi, who singled out his weekly show on the BBC World Service for making her world "much more complete" during her 15 years under house arrest between 1989 and 2010.

(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc will boost staffing at its secretive Silicon Valley-based hardware unit by at least 27 percent over the next five years as it tests Internet-connected "smart" home gadgets such as a one-button device to order supplies.

The plans, detailed in a little-known government document and by people familiar with the matter, signal Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos's intentions to double down on the No. 1 U.S. online retailer's hardware strategy. This is despite the lukewarm reception of Amazon's new Fire smart phone and some investors' criticism of its heavy spending on highly experimental projects.

The Lab126 division, which developed Amazon's Kindle and other consumer electronics devices, plans to boost its full-time payroll to at least 3,757 people by 2019, according to the agreement reached with California in June that would give Amazon $1.2 million in tax breaks.

Amazon will invest $55 million in Lab126's operations in Sunnyvale and Cupertino, the agreement posted on the California governor's website shows.

This expansion comes as Lab126 tests connected-home devices that could open up a new front in its war against Google Inc and Apple Inc, two people familiar with Lab126's activities said recently.

The sources requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media.

Technology companies see Internet-connected dishwashers, thermostats and other household devices that can "talk" to one another as ways to fuel demand for products and services. But skeptics say many of these devices cost too much for most consumers and could take years to go mainstream.

Amazon is testing a simple wi-fi device that could be placed in the kitchen or a closet, allowing customers to order products like detergent by pressing a button, one of the people said. Lab126 is also interested in wearable devices, the other person said. Both sources stressed that such devices may never come to market.

These details shed rare light on the division at Amazon, which is notoriously tight-lipped about any unit's operations and staffing.

In a statement, Amazon said Lab126 was moving "incredibly quickly" and cited the company's 2014 devices, including the Fire phone, Fire set-top box and several new tablets and e-readers.

"We will continue to invent and create new features, services and products, and to support this innovation. Lab 126 is also growing very quickly," Amazon spokeswoman Kinley Pearsall said.

AIM TO BE INDISPENSABLE

Whether or not Amazon ultimately sells connected home and wearable devices, the experiments hint at Bezos' broader ambitions. Lab126 has become increasingly important to Amazon's broader aim to use devices to make it indispensable to its more than 240 million active users.

Bezos is deeply involved in developing Lab126's projects, from the 2007 debut of the first Kindle e-reader to the Fire phone.

The Fire phone, which Lab126 worked on for four years, debuted this summer to lackluster sales and reviews. Earlier this month, Amazon cut the price of its phone to 99 cents with a two-year contract with AT&T.

Amazon shares are down nearly 20 percent this year.

Other tech leaders are also seeking a central place in the home. In January, Google bought Nest Labs, a smart thermostat maker for $3.2 billion. In June, Apple announced plans for HomeKit, its own framework for connecting household gadgets.

Embedding households with such devices would be much more lucrative than merely selling gadgets like wireless LED light bulbs or wi-fi garage-door openers.

With Lab126's experiments, Amazon envisions homes decked out with Internet-connected sensors that would allow it to tell customers ahead of time when they need to replace air conditioner filters or service their washing machines, one of the sources said.

"If I walk into my laundry room and there's a big pool of water and the floor needs to be replaced, I'd love to know about it two weeks before it happens," said Ryo Koyama, CEO of Weaved, a startup working on connected-home technology.

Lab126 had almost 3,000 full-time employees in its 2013 taxable year.

LinkedIn Corp. (LNKD) said China needs to create a more tolerant regulatory environment and give access to overseas companies in order to better develop its Internet industry.

“We hope an open-door policy can be maintained so that it’s favorable for foreign companies to come to China,” Derek Shen, LinkedIn’s China president, told the World Economic Forum conference in Tianjin, speaking in Mandarin.

LinkedIn started a Chinese-language professional networking site in February and is the biggest U.S. social-media company active in the nation. Internet regulators there block access to other U.S.-based social sites, including those of Facebook Inc. (FB), Google Inc. (GOOG)’s YouTube and Twitter Inc. (TWTR)

LinkedIn is “doing well” in China and had 5 million users there as of May, Shen said in an interview after his speech. He declined to say how the censorship policies mandated by China affect service users elsewhere.

When a LinkedIn user in China shares a post deemed to be in conflict with the government’s rules, the company blocks the content globally. The company said this month it is considering changing that policy. Shen declined to elaborate.

“We will focus on making sure users have the best experience,” Shen told Bloomberg News. “I can’t comment on censorship policies.”