Daily News Channel
The aroma of freshly baking flatbread wafts through the air as a unit of British soldiers position themselves for a quick patrol around the village of Sindh Kalay. Market vendors hawk grapes and melons, as a group of village elders sit smoking water pipes and suspicious-looking men lurk beside battered motorcycles
As Internet-based economies edge closer to their real-world counterparts, one country is apparently trying to build a wall between the two. China has announced new rules that prevent “virtual currencies” like Linden Dollars and QQ coins from being traded for real cash.
Had the government not delayed its controversial order that all computers be equipped with Green Dam by July 1, the result would have been the same — Chinese computer retailers were far from ready. PC sales representatives at Bainaohui, one of Beijing’s largest electronics retailers, say their merchandise is not pre-installed with Green Dam, a Web filtering software the government said was necessary to prevent children from viewing pornography and other harmful content. Some retailers were unclear as to when the software would even be available on new units.
China’s last-minute decision to postpone a controversial content-filtering application on computers sold there is the latest example of the trouble that Western technology companies face doing business in the world’s fastest growing economy.
The Israeli navy took control of a boat reported to be carrying humanitarian aid, a former U.S. congresswoman and a Nobel laureate Tuesday after the boat violated an Israeli blockade and crossed into Gazan waters, the Israel Defense Forces said. The boat’s crew included former U.S
Tuesday marks the long-anticipated deadline for American troops to pull out of Iraqi towns and cities, but on Monday, there will be no long lines of tanks rolling out of Baghdad or thousands of troops marching out of other cities.
Walk past the southern face of the Musée du Quai Branly, Paris, and you will be greeted by a massive wall of brilliant green foliage — an 8,600 square feet plant installation by the designer Patrick Blanc, featuring more than 170 different species. The mass of leaves and flowers seems to be swallowing the building — and provides a proud symbol of resurgent nature in this busy, downtown district.
It was bad enough that Natalia Goukassian, then 21, had to spend her honeymoon in June 2006 in West Palm Beach, Fla., helping her husband Tigran find alternative treatments for connective tissue sarcoma, an aggressive cancer, or that six months later, the Air Force–enlisted man, 21, succumbed to the disease. But as it turned out, her painful ordeal had only just begun.
It was bad enough that Natalia Goukassian, then 21, had to spend her honeymoon in June of 2006 in West Palm Beach, Fla., helping her husband Tigran find alternative treatments for connective tissue sarcoma, an aggressive cancer, or that six months later the Air Force enlisted man, 21, succumbed to the disease.
Beijing’s Internet censors are on the rampage again. But this time the victims are not the country’s nearly 200 million surfers but one of the most-recognized names on the Web: Google. The search giant’s China operation, already struggling to compete with its domestic rivals, is the subject of a blistering and unprecedented wave of criticism by China’s official media, who have singled it out as having far more links to pornographic websites than its competitors.