Google and..China...[ 776 ]

Google stops censoring search results in China

Google has stopped censoring search results in China in defiance of authorities there.

REUTERS, By Nick Allen in Los Angeles
Published: 8:09PM GMT 22 Mar 2010

Google has stopped censoring results through its Chinese search engine Photo: REUTERS

It is the latest step in a deepening row between the internet giant and Beijing over censorship and hacking.

Speculation had been mounting that Google was preparing to announce a decision to pull out of China, which is the world’s largest internet market by users, or at least shut down its Chinese search engine.

But instead it has decided to redirect users of its China search engine Google.cn to the Hong Kong-based Google.com.hk.

China has repeatedly warned Google that it will face consequences if it does not comply with censorship rules.

Google’s chief legal officer David Drummond said: “We want as many people in the world as possible to have access to our services, including users in mainland China, yet the Chinese government has been crystal clear throughout our discussions that self-censorship is a non-negotiable legal requirement.

“We believe this new approach of providing uncensored search in simplified Chinese from Google.com.hk is a sensible solution to the challenges we’ve faced. It’s entirely legal and will meaningfully increase access to information for people in China.

“We very much hope that the Chinese government respects our decision, though we are well aware that it could at any time block access to our services.” He said Google would be carefully monitoring access issues.

Google said it intends to continue research and development work in China and maintain a sales presence there, though the size of the sales force will be partly dependent on the ability of mainland Chinese users to access Google.com.hk.

The decision comes amid heightened tensions between China and the United States over a range of issues from internet freedom to the yuan exchange rate, from economic sanctions on Iran to US weapons sales to Taiwan.

Google had flagged its intention to withdraw from China, the world’s largest Internet market by users, in January when it said it had detected a sophisticated cyber attack on its computers that it traced to China.

A senior US official said the State Department had been given a “heads up” about Google’s latest move.

Pipelay vessel heads for Baltic[ 775 ]

First Nord Stream pipelay vessel heads for Baltic

More on this topic

Klaus von Mandelsloh/Nord Stream/Handou

MOSCOW (RIA Novosti)15:34,,22/03/2010

The first pipelay vessel started its journey to the Baltic Sea to begin construction on the Nord Stream pipeline, which will pump Russian natural gas to Europe, the project operator said on Monday.

The 150 meter-long (492 feet) Castoro 6, refurbished in the Netherlands, will start laying the pipes in Swedish waters, about 60 km (37 miles) off the coast of the Swedish island of Gotland, Nord Stream A.G. said.

The 1,220 km-long (758-mile) Nord Stream pipeline will eventually pump 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year to western Europe, bypassing traditional transit countries such as Ukraine and Belarus.

Nord Stream will build two pipelines, each with a capacity of 27.5 billion cubic meters a year, on the Baltic Sea floor stretching from Russia's Vyborg near the Finnish border to Greifswald on the coast of Germany.

Nord Stream A.G. announced on March 16 that it had secured 3.9 billion euros ($5.3 billion) in financing for the project, covering 70% of the first phase. Gas transportation on the new line should begin in 2011.

The remaining 30% of the costs are expected to be financed by the Nord Stream shareholders. Russian energy giant Gazprom holds a 51% stake, German chemical group BASF/Winterhshall and utility E.ON Ruhrgas each hold 20% stakes and Dutch energy group Gasunie holds 9%.

And the ...Sherlock Holmes ...[ 774 ]

Sherlock Holmes to police modern London in new series

The detective Sherlock Holmes is to police the mean streets of modern London in a new BBC series.

By Urmee Khan, Digital and Media Correspondent
Published: 12:51PM GMT 22 Mar 2010

Robert Downey Junior and Jude Law in Sherlock Holmes

The new show, Sherlock, will star Benedict Cumberbatch as Holmes and his sidekick Dr Watson will be played by Martin Freeman.

The series, which began filming this month, has been written by Steven Moffat, the writer of Doctor Who and the actor and novelist Mark Gatiss, star of The League of Gentlemen.

Moffat insists that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous characters will essentially remain the same – and the men will still be based at the famed 221B Baker Street address, however they will be fighting crime in 21st century London.

“Everything that matters about Holmes and Watson is the same," he said.

“Conan Doyle's stories were never about frock-coats and gas light; they're about brilliant detection, dreadful villains and blood-curdling crimes and frankly, to hell with the crinoline."

Although the events of the books are being transferred to the present day, existing elements are being incorporated into the new characters.

When Holmes first meets Watson, recorded in A Study in Scarlet, he asks: "How are you? You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive," and the doctor has to admit he has been serving there. This time, however, he has been tending troops battling the Taliban, according to the writers.

They also hint that Holmes will discover that Moriarty, his nemesis, will also appear in 21st-century London.

Gatiss, a lifelong devotee of Conan Doyle's original stories, said they provided him with an escape from his childhood in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham.

"I used to wish I had been brought up in Oxford or somewhere pretty," he said. "I retreated into Sherlock Holmes. I wanted to live like an 1895 detective, not in a grim post-industrial town."

"It's a great comfort to me; a world in which German spies have bombs under their cloaks and submarine plans are stolen in the fog is a nice place to be when you fear that a dirty bomb might go off at Liverpool Street any day, " he told The Observer

The show has already been sold to networks in the US and Australia following a one-off pilot made last year. Originally commissioned as a one-off, a further three episodes were ordered in 2009 and the series is due for broadcast in 2010.

There has been renewed interest in the Victorian detective recently. Sherlock Holmes directed by Guy Richie was released at Christmas and cast Robert Downey Jr as the super-sleuth with Jude Law as Dr Watson.

A rival film – a comedy tipped to star Sacha Baron Cohen and Will Ferrell – has also been announced, which will be produced by Judd Apatow, famed for Anchorman and Knocked Up.

China's new attack on Google...[ 773 ]

Chinese media launches new attack on Google

Ben Blanchard and Melanie Lee

BEIJING/SHANGHAI

A man cycles past a Google logo in front of its China headquarters building in Beijing March 21, 2010.

Credit: Reuters/Christina Hu

BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters)Mon Mar 22, 2010 9:10am EDT -

China's state-run Xinhua news agency launched a new broadside against Google Inc on Monday, saying in an angry commentary that the company had reneged on promises to abide by Chinese law.

Speculation is swirling that Google will soon announce a decision to pull out of China, or at least shut down its Chinese search engine.

The Financial Times, citing a person familiar with the situation, said the company could say on Monday that it will close its Chinese search engine.

Google has not formally unveiled any such plans.

Two months since Google said it would no longer agree to abide by Beijing's censorship rules even if that meant shutting its Google.cn site, some Chinese Internet users and state media are baying for the company to pull out.

Xinhua, in a signed commentary, said Google had promised when it entered the Chinese market to filter its search engine for "harmful content," in accordance with the law.

"Now Google suddenly wants to break its promise, and if it's not satisfied it will criticize China for a worsening of the investment environment," Xinhua said.

"This is entirely unreasonable. What has changed is not China's investment environment. It is Google itself."

The burst of angry Chinese comments suggested that, in spite of the widespread popularity of Google amongst educated Chinese, the government is steering state-run media and websites to lump the company together with other recent disputes with Washington that have stirred nationalist rancor in China.

"Get the hell out," wrote one user on the website of the nationalist tabloid the Global Times (www.huanqiu.com), in remarks echoed by other readers.

"Ha ha, I'm going to buy firecrackers to celebrate!" wrote another, in anticipation of the company confirming its departure from the online search market.

CULTURAL IMPERIALISM

Joseph Cheng, a City University of Hong Kong politics professor, said China's ruling Communist Party was deploying nationalism to stifle debate about censorship.

"The criticism of cultural exports, or cultural imperialism, is a kind of defense to justify the Chinese authorities' censorship controls," said Cheng.

"In dealing with the American government, the Chinese authorities will try to emphasize that this is only a commercial dispute and has nothing to do with Sino-American relations."

A Global Times editorial cited online surveys as showing 80 percent of respondents said they could not care less if Google withdrew from China, the world's largest Internet market with an estimated 384 million users.

Though Google has remained mum on the progress of talks, the firm's chief executive said earlier this month that an outcome is expected "soon."

The Google case has spread beyond censorship and hacking and has become a diplomatic knot in Sino-U.S. relations, already being challenged by spats over Taiwan, Tibet and the value of the Chinese currency.

The United States is studying whether it can legally challenge Chinese Internet restrictions, a top U.S. trade official said recently.

BLOW TO INNOVATION?

Analysts said if Google withdrew from China, the biggest losers would be its millions of Internet users.

With two research and development centres in China, hundreds of sales staff and engineers working on the Google Android platform and other initiatives, analysts said all may come to a halt if Google decides on a pull out.

"This is not a good thing for Chinese netizens because Google has been the leader in innovation in the search engine field," said Cao Junbo, chief analyst with iResearch, a Beijing-based research firm specializing in technology matters.

Currently, Google offers Google Maps, Gmail and free music downloads to Chinese users, all of which could be in jeopardy if the company leaves.

Even Google's mobile platform Android is not safe, as Google products such as search which are embedded into the platform will stop working if Google withdraws, making the platform less desirable to consumers, analysts said.

Google's withdrawal will open up China's $1 billion search market to more local firms, Cao said.

The biggest beneficiary will be domestic search leader Baidu Inc, which already has a sophisticated search advertising display system and a robust sales and customer support team.

Others such as Tencent Holdings, China's most valuable Internet company, may also benefit as the firm runs the country's largest instant messaging platform that it could tap into to expand its search network.

(Additional reporting by Stefanie McIntyre in Hong Kong)

Kaliningrad,up to 5,000 people gathered [ 772 ]

Russians hold ‘day of wrath’ against Putin

"THE OBSERVER ", KALININGRAD, RUSSIA
Monday, Mar 22, 2010,

Police scuffle with protesters during a rally in Moscow, Russia, on Saturday. Media reports said thousands of people acrioss Russia protested against Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s government and the fall of living standards since the economic crisis. About 50 rallies were organized during the “Day of Wrath.” PHOTO: EPA

Thousands of people across Russia took to the streets on Saturday demanding the resignation of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, in the largest show of discontent since he came to power more than a decade ago.

Opposition movements called the nationwide “Day of Wrath” to express growing discontent at falling living standards following years of oil-fueled growth. The protests followed weeks of sustained demonstrations across Russia that have riled a leadership that does not forgive displays of unrest.

Cries of “Freedom” and “Putin resign” filled the main square in Kaliningrad, where up to 5,000 people gathered in pouring rain. The Baltic territory, which is nestled between Poland and Lithuania and separated from the Russian mainland, has been the site of some of the largest protests to date.

“We want the government to start treating us like people, not like slaves,” said Kirill, a 22-year-old student.

Protesters called for free elections and complained about widespread corruption, high unemployment and rising prices.

Russia’s first major anti-Putin demonstration was held in Kaliningrad on Jan. 30, drawing 12,000 people and shocking local leaders and the Kremlin.

“It really surprised us,” said Konstantin Polyakov, deputy head of the regional parliament and member of the ruling United Russia party. “We didn’t think so many people would turn out, to be honest.”

The Kremlin was obviously shaken, dispatching a high-level delegation to the Baltic exclave and firing its Kaliningrad adviser, Oleg Matveichev.

Saturday’s protest had been banned and opposition leaders withdrew calls for an organized demonstration, fearing violence. Several thousand showed up anyway, organizing through the Internet and word of mouth.

“The general public in the regions is beginning to recognize that it is Putin who is actually to blame for various troubles they have — increased cost of living, communal tariffs, taxes and no growth in real wages,” said Vladimir Milov, a co-leader of Solidarity, an umbrella opposition movement.

Regional and local elections held on March 14 appear to ­support that theory. United Russia, the party created with the sole purpose of supporting Putin’s rule garnered unprecedentedly low results, losing its majority in four of eight regions and giving up the mayorship of Irkutsk, Siberia’s largest city, to a Communist candidate who took 62 percent of the vote.

In Kaliningrad, protesters wore badges criticizing United Russia and held aloft mandarins, the fruit that has come to symbolize the region’s unpopular governor, Georgy Boos, a Muscovite appointed by Putin.

Few, even those in opposition, believe the Putin government will fall.

“It will take time,” Milov said. “But just two years ago it would have been impossible to imagine mass demonstrations making political demands like the resignation of Putin’s government.”

A poll this month by Russia’s Public Opinion Foundation found that 29 percent of Russians were ready to take part in protests, up from 21 percent last month.

More than 1,000 people turned out on Saturday in the port of Vladivostok, where discontent has steadily grown since the government imposed a tax on imported cars. About 500 people rallied in Irkutsk and St Petersburg.

Riot police broke up an unsanctioned rally in Moscow violently and arrested 50 activists. Authorities also shut down a Web site set up for the “Day of Wrath” and in the northern city of Arkhangelsk an opposition leader was arrested and charged with theft.
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